Norwegian permaculture garden. Help needed!

Hi!


We are two guys from the southeast of Norway (A place called Asker, not far from Oslo) planning to convert our garden lawn into a much more (hopefully) productive permaculture style garden! It's not a particularly large space, around 60 m^2. We are complete beginners and have no practical knowledge whatsoever. We do have a certain amount om theoretical knowledge from reading and watching vids but we need some support from you guys!


So here are a bunch of questions, if you have any tips to give us about a few of them or even all of them, it would be much appreciated!






1.REMOVE LAWN OR SHEET MULCH ON TOP?


How should we deal with the lawn? Is it a good idea to dig up the lawn cover and start a mulch bed or even just start planting straight into the bare soil with mulch on top, OR should we rather just do a sheet mulch on top of the lawn and let the lawn decompose underneath over time? Is there any risk of the lawn coming through the sheet mulch and would it in that case be better to get rid of the lawn alltogether? We might try out both techniques but any input from you guys on this would be great!


2. TOP UP WITH MULCH EACH YEAR/SOIL COMPACTION DUE TO SNOW?


In a sheet mulch layered raised bed system, do we need to "top up" with mulch/manure/compost etc every year or does it just stay as it is once settled and decomposed? What about winter time? Here in Norway there's A LOT of snow during winter, and wouldnt that compact the soil beyond whats good?


3. TILL THE SOIL?


The soil here underneath the lawn is quite compact and with a lot of clay especially as you go deeper. There's also a lot of big rocks. If we plant something straight in the soil, is it advisable to till the soil first to improve soil structure and aeration? Or would such tilling destroy the humus/microbial layer in the topsoil? Or do we do this just once as we start it up and then leave it? Again, what about soil compacting due to heavy snow?


4. COMPOST SOIL VS WILD FOREST SOIL


Whats the difference between composted soil and soil from the forest floor? Do we have to buy ready compost soil, or could we just go out in the forest behind our house and grab some soil from there to use in our garden?


5. COMPOST SYSTEM


We are going to start up a hot composting system, made with recycled pallets. Do they need to have a "roof"? Should we have one warm compost put together all at once and then another ongoing cold compost? Again, what about winter? temperatures get down to -20 celsius quite often, how would this affect the process, it would obviously freeze, but is that ok?


6. THE BIG BROWN IBERIA SNAIL


Norway has a big problem with the Iberia snail, the big brown one. How should we deal with this? Killing them is not really a desirable option, we are looking for ideas on natural, peaceful ways of distracting them/keeping them out of the garden in the first place! Any herbs/flowers that they hate? Can we make a barrier around the garden? What about natural predators, which ones are they and how do we attract them into our polycultural diverse garden?


7. A LITTLE POND


We want to start a little pond as well, should we also grab reeds/plants from a nearby large semi natural pond and plant them in our pond to get instant aquacultural activity, or wait for it to happen naturally? How do we keep the water from getting stagnant?


8. BUY WORMS FOR WORM TOWER?


We wanna have several worm towers in our garden, should we just wait for "normal" worms to come to our tower filled with manure and kitchen scraps, or do we need to buy and supply composting worms? Where do we find these worms to buy? What about the winter, will the worms die and come back or do we need to supply new ones each year?








Thanks for taking the time to help us in our project and therefore helping the earth as a whole! Gardening is definately the sustainable way forward!


Mads & Mikkel - Grindegutane

 

1.REMOVE LAWN OR SHEET MULCH ON TOP?
I think you would want to lift the turf. Stack it up in a corner out of the way with the grass face down and cover it with black plastic. Within a few months the grass will have completely disintegrated and you can reuse the soil.

2. TOP UP WITH MULCH EACH YEAR/SOIL COMPACTION DUE TO SNOW?
If you plan on growing vegetables you are going to need to feed/rejuvenate the soil annually to ensure that there is enough nutrient in it to grow your crops. Breaking up the soil to at least the depth of a spade will help the roots of your plants to establish more easily.

3. TILL THE SOIL?
Yes, if it is compacted you will need to loosen it up, and at the same time introduce compost and manure to enrich the soil. Since you are talking clay you might want to add plenty of sand/grit as well.

4. COMPOST SOIL VS WILD FOREST SOIL
What's the difference? A few hundred years . If you are going to take soil from the forest floor you really only want the top few inches lying under the surface debris which is the bit that is full of aerobic & anaerobic bacteria.

5. COMPOST SYSTEM
You want some sort of cover on the compost heap even if it is just a bit of old carpet or thick plastic. You don't want a wet soggy compost heap that takes an age to break down.

6. THE BIG BROWN IBERIA SNAIL
Can't see how you are going to deal with this one without humanely disposing of them considering the size of the problem in Norway. Are they edible?

As to the worm tower I've never used one but I thought that they come with a particular type of worm. The supplier of the of the equipment should be able to advise you more on that.
Good luck with your project.

 

Hi and welcome.

I'm not really knowledgeable enough to advise on your project, but I wish you well with it and would love it if you kept us informed of how you get on with it.

I did pick up on a couple of your points:

4. It depends on a number of factors. Just as is the case anywhere else, the soil on the forest floor will differ from place to place depending on the conditions. One thing that immediately springs to mind is this: Is the forest mainly coniferous (pines/spruce etc), or deciduous broad leaf (oaks etc)? If it is the former, then it is likely that the soil is slightly acidic, and may not suit some of the plants you might want to grow.

7. Stop the pond going stagnant by keeping it oxygenated. You could do this with a pump that pumps air bubbles in, or a water pump that makes a waterfall into it to force air bubbles in, but as you said you are keen to keep it natural, there are oxygenating pond plants that you can add which will breath oxygen into the water as they grow.

 

Hi Guys,

Don't know about over there, but we are not allowed to uproot plants from the wild here, we just take cuttings or seed for the pond plants

Our (brandling or tiger) worms came up from the soil, we didn't buy them in. They reproduced exponentially in the tower of kitchen waste, there were thousands of them. They survived -20c over winter but when I dug the compost in to the soil they didn't know what to do next, they've been sitting sad under bits of carpet & stuff.

I've been picking them up & putting them in the maturing compost heap, just to give them something to do.:DOH:

 

Thank you very much for the answers! We've learned a lot, and it will be fun to begin! We've gotten cow compost, soil, hay, planks, stones and other stuff! Seeds are ordered as well!

Have a nice day!