Permaculture Plant Choices: Species, Breeds & Varieties, Oh My!

Permaculture food growing systems favor perennial plants like bushes and trees. We also want to build diversity for ecosystem health and easier management, leaving behind the monoculture systems that create so many problems with diseases and pests. Thus, rather than stopping at apples and blueberries, we can also choose pawpaws, persimmons, kiwis, currants, hazelberts,... It's an exciting new world of food options that most of us never heard of before, let alone tasted!

Navigating this can be overwhelming, though, and when you are planting for the long-term, you do want to invest wisely. Which variety of honeyberries tastes good? What really does work in our area? What isn't as delicious as hoped?

Let's come together to share knowledge, experience and some samples of some of these new plants and hopefully cut down on that learning curve!

PANEL DISCUSSION: We will have a panel of local growers there to share their successes and failures, and we want you to bring your experiences to share as well. Bring your questions, too. We'll also talk about where to actually find these unusual items.

GROUP ORDERS: After the panel ends at 5pm, you have the option to stay and work on coordinating orders with others in your area to save some money. FYI, the Fedco volume discount deadline is Friday, January 13, 2017.

COST: sliding scale of $5-15, payable at the meetup.

PANELISTS:

Scott Drummey, owner of Granite Ledge Farm: A Permaculture Homestead, has been practicing permaculture for 5 years and has planted over 300 perennials on his property. He is continuously expanding his forest garden every year.

Greg Martin is a lifelong gardener, a hobbyist plant breeder and was trained through the Master Gardener program.

Jessica Ruseski has been experimenting with permaculture techniques to grow soil and edibles for 5 years. She has focused on planting perennials rather than annuals to alleviate a lot of the labor.

Amy Antonucci has been planting in a permacultural way for over 10 years and has made friends with some odd, wonderful plants!