It's heartening to hear that I'm not alone when it comes to needing to put an end to invasive, obnoxious species. I also loathe glyphosate, but very occasionally there are times when careful use is appropriate. These types of retrospective videos are super helpful as I'm starting out. Very much appreciated. Also really appreciate you spending your lunch break doing this for other people's (and the planet's) benefit. Very grateful.

You make a good point about toxic invasive species competing with the food forest. Thanks for the tip as I begin planning my own food forest.

I also made the mistake of trying to interplant annual vegetables rather than give them their own space. Now, I have my hedgerow space, which requires basically no maintenance (or irrigation) and coddled annual vegetable space. The goal is to produce a meaningful yield, which wasn't happening with the interplanting.

I love that you treat your "girls" with the love and care that any creature deserves. You get what you give. Thank you for this posting! I love your channel. I was raised with chickens on the farm. They are intelligent and fun! ❤

This type of video is super valuable. It's also been a while since I've commented since I don't have a garden at the moment. I was renting and my landlord went from saying dig the whole yard up and do whatever you want, it's less lawn to mow, to him coming on to the property without asking and cutting down fruit trees I planted. It really shows the importance of land and having control over those types of things, although guerilla gardening is a way to bypass that as long as it's somewhere it won't be disturbed. I live on the third floor and only have a small roof area to grow stuff, so I don't do much, but my friend is thinking of buying 100 acres of land in Kentucky or somewhere where land is cheap, preferable with some sort of stream or pond and a combination of forest and field. I'll definitely be thinking a lot about water management as I think that will be the most important thing to consider when buying land like that. I'm saving up money for a truck and a camper that I can tow to live in while we first start up production on the property. Then we could build more permanent structures etc. Having built a garden/food forest with like 1000 sqft, I definitely would have done a lot differently, mostly starting with land me or my friends/family owned. With 100 acres the idea is to build a healthy ecosystem and as much nutrition production as possible for ourselves, and other life. With that much space, it can definitely attract other people with similar visions too, but unfortunately places like Kentucky aren't safe for everyone for a variety of reasons, namely bigotry, but land can be expensive in a lot of places. 100 acres in Kentucky is only like 100k. I'm definitely going to be thinking a lot about starting another project from scratch, especially after I save up money to jump start it and start planting. It's funny how I turned a lawn into a forest and then my landlord came back and desperately tried to turn it back into a lawn, but I think the soil is forever changed and trees will keep popping up like they have been. He also built a huge fence around it too.

Thanks so much for doing this video, it's so cool seeing the food forest grow through your videos, and I love seeing the permaculture principals pull through and develop a lovely and healthy system. Cheers!

I was thinking about you yesterday when I was unloading the woodchips we brought home on Sunday after we went walking and foraging in the forest. We live in a more remote area and haven't found many tree surgeons near us, but recently we did find a yard about 40 min away, so we've been collecting woodchips from there a day each weekend. I wish we could do it every evening, the garden would look much nicer by now and the soil would be richer sooner. We do what we can. It is so beautiful to see how it develops. Thank you for sharing your food forest with us. Take care!

Thank you!

Loved this video. I do feel that you listen and comment on my suggestions. I don't have a bank card at present so it's a bit tricky being a member right now. I hope you realise how much I appreciate your videos. I love walking around your garden hearing lots of common sense and logical order that is sadly lacking in my life. I love seeing all your plants flourish and all the other inhabitants.

I love this video. You are always inspiring me. Next step would be a pond but I'm not there yet. hehe. Your chicken harbour is gorgeous. I remember when it was an empty one. It was already fantastic but with chickens in it, it's even better! You make me think, rethink, redo sometimes, just continue to do that!

Large Poison Ivy plants are nearly impossible to remove permanently. You have to dig out the entire root system. Even a tint bit remaining in the ground will resprout eventually. Sadly, glyphosate, triclopyr or similar is needed for infestations. In my research before tackling it on my 2d property I chose glyphosate since it is not as persistent in the ground as triclopyr.

I had poison ivy years ago where I lived at the time and back then I was managing a co-op store I did use the bad roundup spray and even did way over the concentration from the direction (followed the instructions of a chemical expert) yes it worked for a while but they came back anyway.

Great video! I agree with planting very densely, so there is no bare soil .That has helped keep moisture in and improved the soil.

This is an awesome video. I have learned a lot from you and have incorporated some of your ideas into my lot. It won't be the same of course, but your chickens for example give me the idea of how to allow my chickens/ trukeys/ ducks to run through my perennial garden without damaging the asparagus and small fruit trees and maybe eliminating various insects I really don't want. Maybe even removing the bindweed, lol. I haven't made a pond although I'd love to. But with many horses and a cow, dogs cats and possibly goats or sheep in the future I didn't think I could protect everyone and keep the pond clean. But I do have a super large steel guttered roof (stable) just uphill from the area I'm starting as a food forest/ permaculture paddock. Just have to figure out how to get the rainwater running under the driveway with no ditches.

Wow. That’s a ton of grapes! You must need to bring in some for your coworkers, friends, chickens, freezer…

Really enjoyed this!

This is for anyone in the comments. Behind my house is a wooded bluff. On the other hill over, there is a way to hook up to some State land trail, but there is no trail getting there. I have a dream to create a living and edible trail for the whole neighborhood to use as the start of a rucking trail through these woods to the summit, about 350 feet grade. How in the world would I get this done if I don't own the land? Please advise.

Queen Anne's Lace is a culinary gift from Nature. First-year plants are best. Roots, leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible. I've made delicious fritters with the flowers. (Happy to share the recipe if you wish.) Leaves have a distinct peppery taste. Just be sure to be 100% you've identified the plant properly as there are toxic look-alikes.

The grapes look amazing! 🍇

Love seeing your thoughts on the good and the bad choices made and what you are doing to correct. I am working on woodchips- actually bought a chipper since I have so much wooded area that had damage from hurricane. Planted trees on contour but didn't dig swales, instead I build up above the soil. Next steps are pond and filling out around the trees to create more functional guilds. I have sand under the tops soil so I will need a liner or basin for the pond so might take me a bit to resource that.

I have your stinging nettle problem but with blackberries. Now when I get a load of chips I try to use them pretty quick so that I don't spread them around my yard.

You probably did the right thing not using chemicals even if you could have tarped instead. I made the mistake of trying to control thistle and I still regret it 3 years later. It got into one of my pear trees and the tree is still recovering after these 3 years. Could take up to 7 to be back to normal. I'm having a hard time finding where to purchase some plants. I'm in Montana and finding sea buckthorn, autumn olive, Egyptian walking onion, and even Jerusalem artichokes is proving to be quite difficult. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for another great video! It's well-timed, as you've validated some of the choices I've made here in the first year, and given me a few things to think about before it's "too late" to change. I especially liked the discussion of your hand-dug pond, I want to add one as well but I've been unsure how it would fit in. Is it lined with a plastic pond liner? Now is probably a good time to get started on this, with all the landscape and garden supply sales starting up for the season...

I keep forgetting to say this. After I saw the hugel lasagna video, I tried making a container with the method using composted manure and pine shavings. I CANNOT OVER WATER IT. I know for a fact this pot has holes in the bottom but I haven't seen any water come out of it now. It's not flooding either. It's growing marigolds and they are doing amazing.

Love this video!

I wouldn't call queen Anne's lace ugly. Plus, if carrot "pests" are an issue in the area, they would rather go for queen Anne's lace.

Good job, told you about the chickens few years ago 😂, I followed your method with wood chips and since found out that putting it (or wood shavings) in annual crop actually deprived The plants from nitrogen. My tomato plants and others are not going well this year. Not doing this again lol

I’ve got rabbits, angoras, so you get valuable fleece instead of eggs. They’re around ten pounds so good eating too. The manure is the best, you can use it right away without burning the plants. Chickens are like a garbage disposal/ composting units that give eggs. Goats are good for clearing forest.

Hey at least poison ivy is native lol. Around here, the parks have programs where people go in to pull all the english ivy, and then poison ivy comes in to take over all the bare soil leftover. Some areas are super dense with poison ivy and i've gotten it in my woodchips before from chipdrop. Horrible stuff, learned the oil stays active for 5 years. crazy stuff

You forgot to give the ladies their lunch, grapes right over your head. ☝️ I have stopped trying to use my big compost bin with finished compost because I couldn't get it hot enough over "winter" to kill off seeds. I took some of that lovely compost, spread it as top dressing, and now I have more tomato plants than I have pots for. Way too many. I had to buy in soil just to pot up at least some of the tomatoes, without knowing what the varieties are. Literally "surprise, surprise!" Water is essential, but unfortunately a neighbour leaves standing water, then the mosquitoes show up. 🤦‍♀️ Why haven't you even started a worm composting station? I have one right in the kitchen, doesn't have any bad odours, bugs and it's right where the food scraps go.

Thanks for this video, I always love the retrospectives, they're super informative to those early on in our permaculturing. One thing I'd like to point out and one thing I'd really appreciate a video on is invasive species. In taking your advice and following what you were doing in finding waste streams of organic material, I inadvertently seeded my property with jumping worms, which seem to be a pretty existentially threatening thing to confront for a budding permaculture property, as the twenty yards or so of woodchips I've applied are likely to disappear within the next two years unless I find a way to keep the worms in check. Additionally, I've been reading that some things like manure you want to avoid unless you can be sure that the feed that the animals are fed don't have any herbicidal chemicals, lest they kill the very things you're trying to fertilize. In both instances, considering your reach, I feel it would be a service to take a moment to discuss how our own good intentions might be undermining our own efforts.

What is the distance between your swales? I’m planning to dig mines now, and wanted to space them about 20’ apart. The slop is about 10%. Is it too far away? Yours seem to be much closer.

I get that you hate glyphosate, but if you wanted to use it now, you could paint it on the poison ivy leaves. Really direct application and targeted use, and it will systemically kill the plant. Just a thought!

I'm considering a comfrey rhizome barrier/row in my front yard for bindweed, and in my back yard for poison ivy. Good luck!!

very nice. any public tours this season coming up?

Thank you for all your content. I'm planning to start up the beginning of a garden that will help teach me the beginnings of how to grow. Any tips for planting in zones 7a and 7b in shade and also in full sun? Thanks!

Fairly Local Family has recently moved in your general area, it would be fun to make a video together... They'll be unpacking for a while, though..

I'm on new property now, and I'm spraying some of the poison ivy. (I hate to admit it!). I'm quite allergic, and have had several outbreaks. It's a native plant here, with berries that are good for birds. It's all over the edges of my property and under (and running up) nearly every tree. I decided to work hard to eradicate it in areas where I need to grow, in areas where the grandkids will be playing, and areas where I have to walk through. And leave the rest. There's far to much to actually eradicate it, anyway. My plan is spray, wait for it to re-emerge, spray again, and then smother the area in wood chips. We'll see. It's incredibly persistent.

Great video Keith! Unrelated question: Do you have any thoughts or insights into pursuing Financial Independence as a climate activist? Index funds especially those in Canada are so Oil and Gas dependent but are tried and trusted over the years.

Love the enthusiasm. A touch evangelical in the rhetoric but understandable. I wish I had a homestead but only have a terraced house in a big city with a little garden. Very enjoyable though. Does the wife know you do tend to .... be a little bit critical of her decision-making? #BuriedInHisOwnContouredSwale

Completed unrelated question- I planted a peach tree in the spring and just found out it’s over a town sewer line that is ~4 to 6 ft deep. Do I need to move it? Specifically will the fruit be safe to eat? I doubt it’ll damage the pipes…

No root in the world can store energy indefinitely - you could just keep a gardening glove with you at all times and just remove the solar panels as soon as you see them...

I have a wooded area behind my house, the poison ivy is terrible. 😢

Hi, I will always hear the "design on contour" advise. I live in The Netherlands and it is flat like a pancake. Do you have any useful insights for flat terrain? many thanks!

glyphosate is never the answer. Poison ivy is a low-calcium indicator. Try putting (quenched) high-calcium lime on it. Don't use dolomite, as the magnesium that contains will negate the effects of the calcium. If your soil has a high pH already, you might want to use gypsum instead. Amend it well and wait a season or two. If the poison ivy remains, do it again. Calcium is the nutrient that is the most difficult for ecosystems to collect by themselves, and it's easy to lose it.

As you know, poison ivy often climbs trees. The mulch you are bringing into your yard may have poison ivy roots and seeds hiding in it.

Can you please do a video on fungus and fungicides?

Hey, great vid. I got a little worried that you might have stopped making videos because of the world situation deterioration or something. I have a question regarding allelopathic toxins produced by bracken. I have a lot of it on my food forest plot and I have decided that this prehistoric beast must go. Any thoughts on how to get rid of it and clear the soil from toxins? Also I live in Northern Europe and I'm sure that you have also heard news about AMOC collapsing within this century. How would this affect you and have you made some preparations since this also concerns Canada?

Where in Canada is this?

Is the hand-dug pond made with liner or with clay? Lots of love from Germany!

Hey! My issue is poison oak, not ivy, but I originally learned this from a guy using it for poison ivy. It might be tougher now that your plantings are established, but basically you just use a combination of vinegar, salt, and a bit of dish soap as a surfactant (I think it was 1 cup of salt to 1 gallon of vinegar, but I could be misremembering.) It doesn't seem to be super effective, at least on poison oak, unless the temps are around 90F (32-ish celsius), or at least the mid to upper 80s, but if you spray it on the leaves when it's going to be a hot day it causes the leaves to completely burn and desiccate. It doesn't seem to do anything to blackberries or anything else I've hit with it, but it's great on poison oak. Still experimenting with it. The stuff I sprayed during the hot weather this week is completely defoliated, though. Because it's not a poison, and it's just burning the leaves, I'm assuming it'll take a few applications over the course of the summer as it tries to leaf out again, but presumably if I keep it completely defoliated so it can't photosynthesize the roots will eventually run out of energy. I won't really know until next season if I'm able to kill it off completely with this technique, but I'm hopeful. At least something for people to experiment with before resorting to glyphosate. I can tentatively say that it's effective, I just don't know how tenacious the poison oak is going to be. (Though, I also benefit, in this rare exception, from having not rain for 3+ months from late spring through summer... so once they're defoliated, they don't have a lot of moisture to work with to try to regrow.) My other challenging weed that spreads by rhizome is Canada thistle. It can't come up through grass, though, so where I can I just encourage grass in areas where the thistles grow, wait until the thistles run out of energy, and then sheet mulch and plant whatever I want. But there's also a species of rust that exclusively affects and is very effective at killing Canada thistle, and spreads through the rhizome once that plant is infected and spreads to the whole colony. So I do a combination of mulching with thistles or spraying an extraction from thistles with the hope of spreading the spores over areas where I'm trying to kill or prevent thistles. Some universities/ag departments offer the spores, but generally only to commercial growers within their own states, in my experience.

do you still work in engineering at all?

Your poison probably came in with the mulch and was shredded up with the wood. Birds also eat the berries and plant it when they poo.

Just pull the poison ivy every time u see it ...... if u get poison ivy ,just put stick deodorant on it .. works great

You can't eradicate a native plant by spraying. You will only create a more resistant version of it. And maybe you would be making a video about how you or a loved one has cancer and how you should have stayed true to your convictions.

Thanks for this tour of your successes and areas for improvement. I didn’t realize that there was such a difference between serviceberry and Saskatoon bushes, I thought they were synonymous. I will be careful with my next purchase. Elmafolia rather than canadensis, did I get that right? I grew up in western Canada and our Saskatoon bushes produced massive amounts of beautiful berries. 🫐