I'm here in Gaffney, SC, a permie newbie. I've been devouring everything I can learn about permaculture and just signed up for an introductory course. I live on 17 acres of woods, field and creek. We have chickens and I'm in the process of planting a forest garden in their space. also planning worm bins worked into an aquaponics system to raise catfish in barrels, using solar charged oxygenators, collecting water uphill from a tractor shed roof with a rain barrel array to replace fish waste water after flushing it through the worm bins/biofilters/grow beds to use as fertilizer for trees. Worms will be grown for chickens and catfish and recyclers of newspaper, cardboard and kitchen waste.

My zone 1 area is oak trees- mostly white oaks, and I've been collecting acorns every year to convert to flour. That's an untapped resource. With a newborn I was able to harvest and process enough for a half gallon. Not much, but made some really tasty additions to pancake recipes. Hopefully more this fall. Our leach field is in this area, which provides waste water for the oaks to feed on.

My vegetable garden is quite a ways from the house in zone 2 where it can get enough sun. Been composting chicken waste, leaves and kitchen waste. Lettuce and collard greens grow well in the spring. Sweet potatoes, Native corn, pole beans and pumpkins grow well in summer without much input. Also have permanent stands of strawberries, wild blackberry, oregano, parsley, cilantro, onion and garlic. Rosemary up by the house. A couple peach trees do ok, got a few good ones last year, the asparagus is pretty lame and weed ridden, but the spears that make it are super tasty. Am planting new fruit trees and grape vines soon. Honeysuckle grows wild on the fence. It smells lovely, the kids like to suck the nectar from the flowers, and the pollinators probably do too. I've made a basket from the thinnings and plan to make more. It is very invasive. Also planning a small pondscape in the drainage ditch to grow some edible water plants and maybe some bait minnows.

Drainage from the driveway is a problem above the garden, so am planning to get hubby to make a berm so the water does not wash and puddle into that side of the garden, making it hardpan with all that red clay. Will plant the berm with amaranth, sweet potatoes, asparagus beans and lettuce, mulching with straw to start out with. Most of those will reseed.

Have a 3 sisters garden going in a former chicken pen, left for a few months. I pulled out the weeds and planted with winter rye. This spring planted presprouted corn (the fire ants leave the sprouted stuff alone, but devour the starchier, unsprouted seeds) pole beans and pumpkin, removing enough rye to let in sun and laying it as mulch as I pull it up (some goes to the chickens). Last night we had a very late frost, but I mulched all the tender shoots with straw and they made it. Might have to replant some pumpkins.

We are preserving a small meadow with wildflowers and songbirds. Hope to eventually have a dairy cow. Meadow already has good variety of wild grasses and legumes, as well as daisies. Also hoping to cultivate some wild muscadines and persimmons, collect rainwater from the house for the garden, grow mushrooms on logs in the forest garden. Lots more research, experimentation and potential.

I live in lower Richland county. I'm trying to do some urban permaculture in my yard and would absolutely love to see what you've been able to accomplish. I sure could use the inspiration lol. My name is Billy. You can contact me here brentiers@yahoo.com. Thank you.

I am a certified permaculturist living in rosewood (downtown Columbia, SC) and am always excited to learn about others in the state who are enthusiastic about permaculture. we live on a tiny urban lot but have managed to squeeze in quite a few fruit trees, berry bushes a pond, some khaki campbells and some crazy chickens!