The Rise and Fall of Permaculture (for me) - Part 4

Reality is messy

If you missed the earlier parts of this series, here they are: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Five years ago, I took what I had learned in my largely failed attempt at a permaculture orchard, and applied it to a new planting of my favourite berry, the black raspberry (called “blackcaps” in the south). The first concept I jettisoned was to plant on a southern-facing hillside and dig swales. Working on a hillside is just inherently more difficult, and with some swales thrown in there too, it was downright dangerous to drive a tractor on and try to mow the grass between the rows. If a tractor wheel had strayed into a downhill swale, my whole tractor could have flipped (I had a roll-over protection bar, but still – not something I wanted to test). This time I planted on nice, flat ground.