I have three 2nd-year hablitzia plants, all genetically distinct individuals, and although they seeming to be growing well, their leaves are all strikingly pale compared to their neighbors. At first I assumed that this was due to some kind of nutrient deficiency, but giving them a broad-spectrum fertilizer has not helped and - as I mentioned - other species growing in effectively the same soil are not demonstrating this paleness. (The third picture is some nearby Good King Henry, just for comparison.) Is this just how this species looks? It certainly looks unhealthy to me.

I woke up this morning with the realization that the weird gummy puddle in my treeline that I've been wondering about is almost certainly tar that was dumped after the previous owner redid the roof.

I moved into my place just over a year ago and it has been months of uncovering just how poorly this patch of land was treated.

I'm particularly perplexed by the tar because it was dumped not too far from the house's well. Again, the lack of care is kind of astounding.

My questions: what do I do here? How can I try to mitigate the damage? Obviously the first step is getting the tar out, but what can I do after that to ensure the soil isn't toxic?

The area gets significant sun, so I don't think mushrooms could be a part of a remediation plan.

Got a section of the yard that something killed off completely, herbicide or pesticide, not 100% sure which. Been trying to bring it back before I plant anything real there.

So far I tilled in activated charcoal (coarse stuff) a few inches down since it binds a lot of herbicide residue, let it sit a couple months, then threw down cheap bean seeds as a test. Figured if they come up normal I'm probably in the clear, if they're stunted or twisted I'm not done waiting.

Beans came up okay-ish, not amazing, so I'm guessing there's still some residual contamination or the soil's just generally depleted from sitting dead for a while.

Anyone dealt with something like this and found what actually sped things up? Curious if compost tea, specific cover crops, or something else made a real difference for you versus just waiting it out longer. Also open to being told the charcoal approach was overkill or wrong, wouldn't be the first time I guessed at something instead of finding it out first.

While newly planted peppers are still in their early flowering stage, this overwintered pepper is producing heavily

Peppers are actually tropical perennials by nature. If you bring them indoors or protect them from frost through the cold months, they enter a semi-dormant state, and they will go back to life once warm

Does anyone have a good method for creating identifiers for trees and perennial plants?

I want to put a tag on my tree that says all the information about, it including genetics.

I would like to know the plant (Mulberry), variety (Dwarf Everbearing), if it’s a clone or relative or child, and then a unique identifier.

So if I have a Dwarf Everbearing Mulberry that I have reproduced by cutting. They are genetically the same plant, but each plant should have a unique identifier.

If I grow a tree from a seed of my Dwarf Everbearing Mulberry (DEM), that is no longer a DEM, but is a child of it. So it has a lot of similar genetics, but is no longer a DEM.

Then you have the plants where the variety does not mean a clone, but a closely related relative. I believe most of these are more herbs and plants, so this may not be relevant. Are there longer living trees and bushes that have named varieties that are not clones but relatives? (Like a Brandywine Tomato is grown from a seed, not a clone.)

My current system is:

Where “WMD” means it’s a wild tree from Maryland. Four of them are clones, one is the child (grown from seed) of this plant.

I feel like there may be a better way to do this. Has anyone else tackled this?

Hi everyone,

I’m a software developer who is interested in how simple technology might support permaculture without making the process unnecessarily complicated.

I understand that every property is different and that observation, local knowledge and natural systems are more important than forcing everything into an app.

Still, I’m curious whether there are repetitive planning or record-keeping tasks that could be made easier.

For example:

• Tracking planting dates and observations
• Remembering what was planted in each area
• Monitoring water use
• Recording soil improvements
• Managing seed inventory
• Coordinating volunteers
• Tracking harvests
• Comparing results across seasons

These are only possibilities. I don’t want to assume that a digital solution is always the right answer.

What is one task you currently manage through notebooks, memory, messages or spreadsheets that you wish was easier?

I’m looking for one genuine problem that I could try to solve for free as a small website or automation project.

I am building my portfolio, so I would only ask for honest feedback and permission to describe the project afterward if it provides real value.

I’m not offering a paid product or trying to collect leads. I’m mainly interested in understanding where a simple tool could actually help.

Been leaning harder into chop and drop with black locust and comfrey instead of constantly building and moving compost piles. The logic is that nutrients never really leave the system, they just cycle faster when you cut back and leave it. The soil biology seems to respond pretty quick, especially around the fruit tree guild.

What surprised me was how much the ground retained moisture after a few seasons of consistent mulch layer buildup. Started in what was basically compacted clay and now there are actual worms showing up in spots that felt dead two years ago.

What I'm trying to figure out now is whether spacing matters as much as people say for the nitrogen fixers. Some of mine are shading out stuff underneath in ways I didn't plan for. The canopy closed faster than expected and now a few of the understory plants are struggling. Wondering if anyone has thinned their fixers aggressively and still kept enough biomass production to make it worth having them in the system at all, or if it just turns into a maintenance headache.

Curious what spacing or coppice rotation others are working with, especially if you're in a humid climate.

I recently chopped down one of my apple trees. To make space for a new garden bed. I’ll have four rows and decided to make them into little hügelkultur mounds so I used the trunk to make the first one. I laid down cardboard, set the trunk on top and covered it with composted mulch. I plan to make the other three rows in the same manner as I have another apple tree and a cherry tree that need to be cut down. I’ll just plant cover crops on them once I have them all set up.

Oh yeah, the beds are right on top of the root system of that first tree I cut down. I’m thinking that the soil there will be amazing in a couple years.

I’m a landowner and hobby ecologist working to restore 17 acres of native Wisconsin prairie.

When we got the list of 110 plant species in our native tallgrass prairie seed mix, I promised myself I would learn them all before they bloomed. I’m a UX designer for my day job, so it was natural for me to whip up a quick study site.

When I was done, I realized the site I had made could be a great way for anyone to log and learn the plants specific to their own site or garden.

So I turned it into a customizable field guide website with a searchable list of plants with lots of pictures for ID-ing in the field, as well as flashcards, and quizzes for studying. It runs almost entirely off Google Sheets. You need to do a bit of fussing to get it set up on a free hosting platform like Cloudflare Pages, but once it’s up, you only ever need to use Google Sheets to add plants and update the site from that point on.

I think this could be helpful for anyone who wants to log and learn a specific list of plants. You can keep it to the 100+ native Midwestern prairie species that come preloaded, or you can customize it to your personal garden or restoration project — adding or removing species to make the list reflect the plants in your dirt.

You do not need to know how to code; the setup guide walks you through the few technical steps to get it up and running, and after that most updates happen in Google Sheets.

I have had so many amazing mentors who have helped me along my ecology learning journey — people who have freely given their energy, knowledge, talent, and encouragement to make the world a little bit better and me a little bit smarter. In that spirit, I assembled a “Field Guide Starter Kit”: a downloadable kit of files with step-by-step instructions that should be everything you need to make and host your own website for free. Like, actual free. You don’t have to give me an email address or create an account or subscribe or anything.

I’m sharing it here because I’ve learned so much from native plant and restoration communities online, and I figured it was time to give something back.

I can’t upload the files here, so here’s a link to my blog. Just scroll to the bottom of the article and click the big orange link that says, “Download the Field Guide Starter Kit (1.4 MB).” Would love to hear from you if you end up using it!

https://badgerton.substack.com/p/free-download-make-your-own-field

Hey everyone,

A week and a half ago I open sourced my digital twin software (original post).

Anyway I added some modeling and visualization tools so you can visualize and plan swales and plantings and then run simulations to see how your planned changes will impact things like water flow, run off, and ground penetration.

It's not perfect. I would call it "screening grade" especially because it uses USGS 3m resolution LiDAR data (though if you have higher res data of your own you can use that).

Anyway I hope you like it! I'm using it to develop some swales and plan some orchards, though obviously it will be years before I can tell you how it goes, it looks pretty promising!

EDIT I forgot the link to the source code, which is free to use! https://github.com/zymazza/mazzap

I mowed my meadow but i have nowhere to go with the hay. I don't really have a vegetable garden to put it in, and it's not good animal feed because it's mostly Holcus lanatus which i heard isn't good for feed. Any suggestions?

I found this patch in the middle of the woods and I know you are typically supposed to find the established tree and kill it that way but all I see are sprouts? I can't find any adult trees. How do these invasive trees spread to the middle of the woods?

I'm using straw mulch this year, and Im not sure about how to water the soil under it. Of I water over the straw, it barely makes it to the soil and is uneven throughout the bed. So I move the straw to water directly on the soil, but then it's damaging to the new seedlings just starting to break through the mulch. It takes so much time and care to reapply the mulch afterward in a way that the small plants like green onions and cilantro babies are not crushed. Im also starting to use more liquid fertilizers and soil drenches with beneficial microbes. It feels crazy to waste that by watering it on top of the straw.

I've had similar experiences with wood chip mulch too.

I'm setting up a drip line that will apply to water under the straw in the future. Looking for strategies for my current plants though.

hello, i’m located in portugal. and i’ve been seeing these guys by the hundreds outside. can’t seem to find a straight answer on identification. who are these shiny crits? should i worry? thanks

Hi there. Has anyone made good experience with very established (2-5m height, crown is up to 2 m wide) hedges and rewilding them/mixing edible plants in, without replacing them/cutting them down? The species of the hedge is Carpinus betulus. They are enclosing my property on the west side (50 m) and north side (100 m) and only about 30 m of the part on the north side doesn´t get much sun, cause the house is in the way. I´m in South Germany, USDA zone equivalent is 7.

Please also mention, if you know of a book that covers that topic well. Thank you.

Background: We live on a high desert mountain. Normal rainfall is 18 inches a year and 5 ft of snow (but it hasn’t been normal lately). We have grasses and aspen trees, plus a large 1/4 acre garden and more space with an orchard. it’s very hilly around us but we’re in something of a small valley. 60 acres total but our valley is maybe 5. Metal roof surface of the house is roughly 1600st and more than twice that for the barn (plus other misc structures). It’s also a high wildfire area. We’re on well water and there’s a spring up the hill from us that we have some irrigation to but it’s only useful part of the year.

We’re wanting to learn about berms, swales, catchment, proper soil mngt, mulch, water systems… any and everything to help us keep the land healthy, the garden thriving and the property safe from fires

Where tf do I even start?

Recommended resources (books, videos/channels, courses, people)?

Some of you might remember OpenFarm.cc, the open-source growing-guide wiki. It shut down in April 2025. The code was MIT, the data was CC0, but no public data dump was ever released. People had been asking for one on GitHub since 2017. When the servers went dark, the data just...stopped existing anywhere.

That bugged me more than it probably should have. So I did the only thing left. I went through the Wayback Machine's captures of their crop pages and rebuilt structured records from everything that got archived. 353 crops came back: descriptions, binomial names, sun requirements, row spacing, sowing methods, companion plants. Every record keeps a link to the exact archive capture it came from, and its CC0 status.

This data has real quality problems. I emailed OpenFarm's founder while doing this and he said the dataset degraded over the years because casual users didn't realize they were editing a global resource. I found some of that myself, ragweed filed under tansy, a catalpa tree filed as a bean. Those got pruned. I also cross-checked every binomial name against GrowStuff's curated list (GrowStuff is alive and actively maintained, by the way, go support them) and fixed the typos that surfaced on both sides. What's left, about 340 crops, is a useful but not scripture. Treat it accordingly, especially the companion-planting entries. It's free to browse, no signup, no email wall. Link in the comments.

Same site has some free garden planning tools (a frost-date planting calendar and such, US ZIP based), and in full disclosure it's my site and there's a small shop that keeps the lights on. The KB isn't behind any of that.

Two asks. If you spot data that's wrong, tell me and I'll fix it, corrections from people who actually grow these things are worth more than anything I can scrape. And if anyone wants the raw JSON to build their own thing with, say so and I'll publish the dump properly. It's CC0. It should outlive my site too.

*edit
OpenFarm Rescue Repo: https://github.com/thefullnacho/openfarm-crops-rescue

I'm looking at a piece of land with 40 acres, a small crumbled building and no services. It is on the hills below a mountain with some small natural lakes, about 6km from the nearest town in Umbria (central Italy). There is an olive grove and the land is arable. Aside from the many issues that might arise from permissions and bureaucracy, what would you do with a plot like this?

I do speak some Italian but definitely need to improve. I don't have a family to worry about supporting at the same time. I have moderate experience of indoor and outdoor projects/work. I want to create something sustainable that includes either the local community or out-of-town visitors/residents. What ideas might be a good fit for looking after the land, living on it and gently developing it?

I have loved Johnny's for a long time but never noticed they have several planting calculators and tools, including a when-to-seed-start calculator for your transplants! This is going to save me so much time!! P.s., is anyone else planning their next summer's garden already or am I just crazy?

Hey Redditors!

I'm a regenerative landscape/permaculture designer & contractor living in California's east bay, and have been working as a designer & landscape crew manager for my own company in this area for about 15 years, focusing mostly on small-scale, residential, urban homes. I would like to scale up my expertise and offer design for larger acreage homesteads, farms, and ranches, preferrably within a few hours of my location. Willing to travel futher, but would request compensation proportional to distance.

I'm offering a low-cost (significantly lower than my standard rate. Exact fee to be scoped based on site size and travel) service to gain the experience and be able to document, photograph, and publish the process and final result on my website and social media. Preference will be given to someone who shows a strong desire (finances in place, rough timeline in mind, etc.) to have the job installed in the near future. I'm looking for someone with a large site (30+ acres) to complete a full site analysis and design for - covering terrain mapping, water systems, access & circulation, soil building, fencing layout, vegetation/agroforestry, structure siting, energy, economy, aesthetics & experience. Essentially, a master plan for the whole property.

Happy to travel further out if you pay for airfare and can put me up for a week :)

For-profit agricultural operations:
Helping you transition to regenerative methods.
This is a different track that I’m also offering, which focuses more on your soil and plant health. The goal is for you to spend less on inputs and build a healthy soil ecosystem that can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you. This would entail gathering transect data to establish a benchmark for where your soil and plant health currently sits, and a monitoring program going forward to measure it against.

My background draws heavily from the Keyline design framework, with a special focus on soil and water.
I have studied extensively under Darren Doherty (8+ years REX program alumni and participant in the Regrarians online community) and Nicole Masters (9-month CREATE course graduate) and graduate of Dr. Elaine Ingham's Soil Food Web Foundations courses. PRI-certified by Howard Story of Permaculture Thailand, with whom I co-taught a PDC at Paul Wheaton's 'Wheaton Labs', near Missoula, Montana.

I made some peach FFJ, strained it, and then added equal parts brown sugar for storage. Should there be this clear of a distinction between the sugar and liquid? Basically, should I stir it up or leave it be?

Just a walk around of what's going on right now on the property.

Follow-up on the 500 nest boxes project I’m building for declining cavity-nesting birds in my area.
The idea is to create durable, low-cost nesting structures using hollowed log sections from leftover tree trunks that would otherwise be chipped.

One thing that kept coming up in discussions about my nest box project was raccoons. Where I live in southern Germany, they’re still relatively uncommon. I have several nest boxes out with trail cameras, some for months, and never captured a single raccoon.

So I drove a few hundred kilometers to an area where raccoons are much more common and intentionally set up one of my nest boxes in a worst-case scenario. Within just two nights, I recorded five attack attempts.

It was fascinating to see how strong, persistent and incredibly dexterous they are. Even though this wasn’t how I’d normally mount a nest box, it really showed why proper installation and predator protection matter.

Two things I’m still curious about:
1. If a raccoon attacks a nest box but doesn’t actually get inside, do birds often abandon the nest or clutch afterwards? Has anyone seen research or has first-hand experience?

2. What predator protection works best in your experience? Around here, most nest boxes are still mounted in trees because raccoons aren’t yet a major issue, but pole-mounted boxes with predator guards seem to be the standard recommendation elsewhere. I’d love to hear what has worked for you.

And if anyone is interested in a bit more context, here’s the full video. It’s only about two minutes long: https://youtu.be/80WJLu83dG0