My Young Subtropical Food Forest

Hi guys :) Here some update from one of my gardens. It is about 1 1/2 years old so not old at all. I got three of them but this one is in focus now. Trying to create a permaculture food forest. Today just wanting to share with you what is happening here at the moment. I hope you like it.

Slow-Smoking Smokehouse Dimensions

For all who asked about the measurements of our smokehouse, please see below. It is just a quick drawing to give you the idea about how we have done it. I hope it helps :) Cheers

The fire place which you can see on the left is bigger than you would usually need for a smokehouse but we use it as a wood fired BBQ as well so it works for us very good both ways.
Here again the link to the video how we built the smokehouse, how we prepare the meat for the slow smoking and a sneak peek of the smoking process.

How to build a smokehouse

How to prepare meat for slaw smoking

Sneak peek of the smoking process

How To Start A Healthy Garden

Most of the food we grow require reach and well drained soil. Therefore the best way to grow it are raised garden beds. The materials we use to build them are either recycled materials or they come from our property.
Never use treated timber to build your veggie patch. It is full of harmful chemicals and this s the last thing you want to have in your veggie patch.

We fill the garden beds or veggie patches with the following layers starting from the bottom:

1. Card boards
2. Different kind of mulch, straw or hay. It can be fresh.
3. Aged mulch mixed with chicken or horse manure and some wood ash
4. Some potting or soil mix on top

The best you can do it now is to water it once a day and wait for a couple of weeks or more depends on how old was the manure and the mulch you used. This is how I do it and from my experience I can tell you that it works and my plants are growing.

You need some fertilizer to grow your veggies. The best and healthiest way is to grow organic. However, you need to follow a few simple rules to make sure the organic gardening will benefit you and your family.

Here some tips I got from my parents who grew up on a farm growing food with their parents in the old fashion way:

• use fresh/raw manure only while building a new garden bed
• use composted manure before sowing, planting or if you want to fertilize your plants; the raw/fresh manure is very concentrated and can burn your plants or seeds
• IMPORTANT! Never use a raw/fresh manure as a surface application on already growing plants or veggies. The fresh manure may still contain active bacteria which can contaminate your veggies and cause some human disease.... Proper composting will kill these bacteria
• If you decide to use fresh manure on already growing plants, the best way to do it is to dilute it in water, leave it for few days and water your garden beds pouring the water strait into the soil and NOT over the plants.
• always wash your hands after you are finished with your gardening

And here few photos of my veggie and plant beds in few different stages of building.

This is just a beginning of a new veggie patch made of old pallets. You can get them for free at some shops or companies. Look around in your area to find them.

Finished veggie patch made of pallets. I also closed the gaps with some old skirtings from our local recycling centre shop.

New start of a new plant bed. Made from old trees from our property.

Raised garden beds made from an old tree.

Veggie patch made from old trees.

Veggie patch made from an old garage door. Paid just few $ for the whole garage door at our local recycling centre shop.