PERMACULTURE FOOD FOREST DESIGN - BIODIVERSE Orchard & Raingarden Surround & PROTECT VEGGIE Garden

This video is Part 13 in our ongoing series about Planning & Creating a Permaculture Food Forest Paradise. In the the last video, we showed you what we are growing in our forested area in the back part of the land - food for us, and food for the animals. In today's video, we will show you what we have growing on the land surrounding our main garden, mainly our orchard and our raingarden, with a few of the species we have on the outside perimetre of the garden.
I often get asked questions about how we control different specific bugs, pests, diseases and foragers. We do all of this with the very real help of nature! Over the past 4 and a half years, we have grown a very biodiverse food forest surrounding our main garden, which has attracted the kinds of natural predators (insect, bird, mammal, reptile and amphibian) which help us to control bugs and slugs in our garden. Many of the plant species we have grown do double and triple duty. They feed us, they feed the animals, and many of them help to keep the animals out of the garden in two ways, either by providing a barrier, or by providing them food outside the garden, or both. Inside and outside the garden, we prevent bug and diseaus problems as well simply by maintaining a biodiverse ecosystem, in which pests become a minor player when mixed with the abundant other orgnanisms in place. Pest, bugs and disease are a major challenge in monocultures. Nature, of course, is not a monoculture, and overcomes all of these challenges every time. We strive to imitate nature as best we can.

[@delmadehoyos1946]

Love y'all's garden...it's almost magical...the layout, and all of the various plants and trees...beautiful!!! Thanks ❤🤠❤

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you so much! ❤

[@banjoele4562]

I love your channel and what you are co-creating with each other and nature. A couple of things I particularly appreciate is your similar climate (we are a bit colder in NB) and that you are seasoned gardeners on a reboot. My partner and I are middle aged and still establishing our piece of paradise leaning more into permaculture as the annual veggie garden became more labour intensive. It's still there, but it also shares space with lots of volunteers, weeds and perrenial plantings. Thanks for the inspiration and keep it up!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you! Many of those weeds and volunteers are useful! All you need to do is identify them and learn about them. 😊

[@theBigLookmagnifier]

Thank You So Much!!! I learned so much from this Video I love when you talk about nature planting for you❤ Ive discovered Passion Flowers growing wild on my land. I’m so Happy!!!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

I’m glad you liked the video! Thank you for sharing.

[@usethatherb4913]

Loved seeing all the different trees in your food forest! Thanks for showing us your methods of using natures way to the fullest. Blessings!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you! Blessings to you too!

[@GrandmomZoo]

Oh my......Beautiful elderberry. I have an abundance of elderberry this year am I am so excited to make syrup and tinctures with it. I really want witch hazel and hawthorn in my food forrest. I enjoy your videos so much! Thank you both for sharing your knowledge.❤❤

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

What growing zone are you in. Both witch hazel and hawthorn should do well in zones 5 or above. I don't know what the upper number limit would be.

[@GrandmomZoo]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture 8 B I am on the edge of north and south carolina. I have plans to find these on perhaps Etsy and add them. Soon. Very soon. My wish lists are bigger than my pockets and stronger than my old body so it is an act of patience....lol Thank you!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@GrandmomZooa beautiful area of the world. I visited the North Carolina a couple of times as a kid, and passed through to Florida about 6 years ago.

[@markduric7812]

I use dill and squash to shade my PAW PAW. However, this year I had a 1 year grafted Shenandoah leaf out very slowly in full sun. It thrived in full sun with the darkest green leaves yet. My seedlings I also baked out in the sun and yes they went yellow and slowly the first year but now are ripping in their second year. I guess you can be lazy with it? LOL I love PAW PAW i've only tasted wild seedy ones still good. Marko, Grimsby ON 6B

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

That’s good to know. I have some in full sun that are doing well too! In Grimsby, you’re closer to wild pawpaw country, it’s probably easier to get fresh fruit from sellers. 😊

[@markduric7812]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Ha! That would be easier but I like the long hard way, plus I want to preserve more PAWPAW trees in southern ON and collect genetics. They aren't easy trees to dial in but once they get happy it gets really FUN :). Thank you for your response, love your channel.

[@AlsanPine]

very nice. have many of the same plants myself. not sure what was going on with the sound on this one but it was not too bad. it is amazing how much better this land looks and feels than what you started with. very attractive 🙂

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

What was going on with the sound? Background noise? Varying levels of sound? There was some noise going on while recording at some points, and so I had to try and tweak it, but I’m no expert at editing.

[@AlsanPine]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture as camera fell back sound got harder to hear. i just turned up the volume a bit but then the loud parts got a bit too loud. you might check out a clip on wireless mic when the channel starts to generate income. it will solve both the noise and volume inconsistency. you can also edit sound in computer but i don't know how much tech you have. even a free software like audacity has tools to adjust and balance volume. it will take time though. the mic solution is so much easier. not a huge deal. i am a classically trained musician and have done audio engineering so i am probably more sensitive than most 🙂

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@AlsanPine Thank you! I likely will get a wireless mic eventually. What is your principal instrument you play?

[@AlsanPine]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture lol, that is difficult to say. i cannot play any of them as well as i did when i was young. then, i suppose my main western instrument was piano and voice. at different points in my life, the focus moved around over a dozen instruments though. i like variety which explains me being a polyglot and polymath as well 🙂

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@AlsanPineI’m the same way. Love to learn new things and love to learn languages.

[@bethdykema7307]

Please tell us some of the kitchen ideas you do with all these things. Some fruits and vegetables that you’re talking about, I’ve never heard of and would love to see how you harvest, store, infuse, or use medicinally. thanks for sharing your videos.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you for your comment. As we begin to do large harvests later in the season, we will show this and talk about it as much as we can.

[@laurakamal8842]

Wonderful video

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you!

[@RustyBobbins]

This right here is goals ❤ love all the info on the wild grapes and all the other plants too. I learn so much when I watch.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you very much! ❤

[@FuckALLauthorities]

Much respect, saved to my extensive The Solutions playlist 🤝🍁💪

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

That’s wonderful! Thank you!

[@barbsoddznendz1896]

Thanks for the info on the Redbud. I didn't know it was edible. Our property has many large redbud trees and in fact I have to pull the starts which show up all over where I wouldn't want a tree to grow. Same with the oaks. Nothing like having to weed tree saplings!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Yes. I’m often weeding Manitoba maple saplings from the vegetable garden. I often transplant them outback. Great soil stabilizers. We have many small oak saplings, which I carefully identify for visibility so I can progressively clear around them as they grow.

[@doinacampean9132]

OK, if it's confession and appreciation time, I have to say that I watch your videos multiple times, not only because you present a wealth of information that is of high interest to me (and my zone), but you do that in a manner that is so calming and comforting, that one simply has to do so :). Like a linden flower tea. Or motherwort tea.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you so much. 😊 It’s the first time I’ve been compared to a tea. I’ll have to try those. I have linden trees. I’m not sure if I have motherwort. Being in the garden is like being in paradise, so describing it simply is just really nice.

[@cidabertoncello2161]

Boa noite a familia Brasil 👏

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Obrigado. Boa noite para você também!

[@charliemahoney2912]

Excellent Thanks for the tour 😊

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

You’re welcome!

[@laurakamal8842]

Great info always! I appreciate you so much!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you!

[@Greenmahn333]

👍

[@harriettejensen479]

I love watching your videos! I ive in the city, so I am ? somewhat constrained as to what I can grow on my 40 x 100 foot lot, but I have about half of the plants you mentioned. I do have several fruit and nut trees in addition to my veg and herb garden. Quite the jungle! One of the largest trees is an elderberry. I bought it as a 2 ft. bush, not knowing anything about growing them. It turned out to be about 15 ft tall and a dozen feet wide. The birds love it and so do I. It keeps me healthy all winter long and makes a really interesting liquor.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Sounds like you have a wonderful garden! How do you make the elderberry liquor?

[@dawnk2091]

This was very interesting. Nice to see what and how you planted. It’s surprising at times what parts are edible. Curious if you have any American hazelnuts, or just European?

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

I know at least a couple are native and then I also have, I think they’re called hazelberts. And at least another variety or two.

[@RayMirshahi]

Thanks so much for sharing. You have a great garden. Wishing you good health, happiness, and an abundant harvest!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you so much! You too!

[@ayelean9397]

As always, very helpful info!

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Thank you!

[@Dirt-Fermer]

Chicory flowers in the morning sunshine are beautiful

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

I was just noticing that as I took my coffee outside close to a chicory flower with multiple blue blooms, glistening in the sun with rain drops from the night’s light rain.

[@CatherineandRob]

Terrific video. Is the rice in grape leaf dish you referred to called dolmades?

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Yes! That’s the word I was looking for! Thank you!

[@GimmeADream]

Echinacea tea is made with the leaves and it too supports the immune system but I think the roots as a tincture is more potent. I don't have enough purple coneflower to support the number of plants I would have to remove to do even a small tincture. But I add new plants that I grow from seed of mature plants that I do have every year. Thanks for sharing your garden with us. Are you in zone 5? I thought you said way back when I first started watching. I checked your info but it isn't there.

[@GimmeADream]

Honestly, you can cut your comfrey down to the ground and it will come back. I dug two first plants up as deep as the shovel would dig last year to make a comfrey root tincture. I took everything and then filled in the hole with red clay. The plants are up and growing strong this year. I also added 62 root cuttings to make a grass barrier to my black currant and boysenberry patches.

[@GimmeADream]

Wow, I had no idea highbush cranberry grew that tall. I planted two bushes last year. They are growing well enough but nowhere near as well as yours.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@GimmeADreamthat barrier idea is great to know! Does it stop the travelling roots?

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@GimmeADreamapparently there are European and North American varieties that are difficult to tell apart.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

5b. For now. 😊

[@grenwood6551]

how easily will grapes take to transplanting? i have a neighbour who said i could dig up some of the younger vines they have going wild on thier property

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

They should take easily enough. Try and get some roots. You could also bury part of the vine, and it will grow roots at the different leaf nodes.

[@grenwood6551]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture thank you

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@grenwood6551you’re welcome!

[@jackzzz2885]

Cannabis cures alot like cancer and seizures and so many people are suffering. Do you have any ideas?

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Cannabis is actually easy to grow and in Canada, a person may legally grow up to 4 plants, and a plant can get quite large, especially if you prune the top tips and provoke it to get bushier. The seeds are full of protein and the stalks make excellent fibres (hemp). That’s about all I know for now. I grew 4 plants last year and collected many about 2 litres of seeds from the two female plants, but I haven’t done anything with the seeds yet.

[@marisaphoenix1893]

Can you let us know what the species name is of the native potato vine you reference near the end of the video? Thanks 😊

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

It’s called Apios Americana. Groundnut is the common name, but some regions use that word for peanut. So you’re safer checking with the Latin name.

[@marisaphoenix1893]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture thank you 🙏🏼

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@marisaphoenix1893 You're welcome!

[@lucschoonen]

how do you get so much mulch?

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

If you are referring to the woodchips, I get them for free from arborists. 😊

[@emkn1479]

The wild grapes in our woods seem to just take over the property and my husband says he’s never seen fruit…are they possibly something different?

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

If they’re shaded, they won’t give much fruit. Also, if they’re young. Ours didn’t give any in the first two years. Last year they started to fruit. And this year, they have a ton!

[@emkn1479]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture yeah I was wondering if it is the shade. They’re old and gnarled vines in some cases. He is not a fan as they really clog the woods with their vines. I wish they did produce! He would happily use the grapes.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

@@emkn1479those old knarled ones are unlikely to give fruit and likely have vines high up in the canopy, bothering your other trees. One of the first things I did here was cut those very thick vines, and bit by bit pull the remnants down. You can use the thick vines for trellising g or decoration and the young ones as rope or ties. It’s the younger plants started from the ground with lots of sun that will give you fruit, and you can prune and trellis them the way professional grape growers do. ,

[@emkn1479]

@@WillowsGreenPermaculture yes he’s working on removing them. Good to know, thanks! They must be fruiting somewhere since I find seedlings everywhere, so animals must be spreading the seed.

[@WillowsGreenPermaculture]

Most likely! 😊