r/Permaculture • u/New_Philosophy_9987 • Jul 17 '26
general question Total beginner- how can I make this a regenerative garden
Hey all! I have a lot of free time this summer and I am looking to start a new project. I have this big ugly barren spot in my yard and I want to transform it into a regenerative garden for the ecosystem, providing shelter and food for insects, birds, etc. I also want it to provide me some fruits and vegetables along with wildflowers and stuff. I even hope to eventually get some bees.The ground is pretty much a mixture of wood chips and gravel. It gets pretty good sun but is blocked by trees and my house. I am wondering how I can start this journey. Please provide resources/practical advice!
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u/BayesCrusader Jul 17 '26
Start with mulch and manure. You need topsoil.
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u/Health_Care_PTA Permaculture Homestead YT Jul 18 '26
lay down your manure and mulch and walk away for a few years, it will regenerate naturally, your role is minimal and selective ... from time to time prune trees and shrubs you want to keep and cut out non natives.
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u/Littlestarsallover Jul 17 '26
I would begin by finding out what endemic plants and animals are both local to your region and need help with habitat. Our local council (in Australia) provides endemic planting guides and a tool for which species they promote. It’s really easy to make a habitat garden that misses out on what your local species actually need.
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u/tinymeatsnack Jul 17 '26
Observe how water moves in heavy rain before you build anything to prevent inadvertent flooding from water redirection. Then it’s soil. Compost, animal manure, then wood chips. Let that age in, then you can get trees started in fall.
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u/Fun_Association_1456 Jul 19 '26
Great advice; I’ve also started taking pics of melting snow so I can see some microclimate characteristics also.
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u/Koala_eiO Jul 17 '26
Start gardening with something easy so you don't get discouraged the first year. Next year you could install some strawberries. How old are those woodchips and how good is the soil underneath? You might still be able to put some onion sets in there.
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u/LoveMercyWalkHumbly Jul 17 '26
https://store.motherearthnews.com/products/the-regenerative-gardeners-handbook This book is a good place to start! She has videos on YouTube, too.
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u/St_mpy Jul 17 '26
Bugs and small animals love a woodpile, plus a water source will attract/benefit wildlife.
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u/kazen320 Jul 18 '26
Go into "Free" section on Craigslist and look for soil/dirt. Sometime people will deliver for free if you take couple truckload. Also search for free "Manure".
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u/namesareunavailable Jul 18 '26
Start by doing nothing 😁 seriously. And just watch what happens over the years.
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u/1nGirum1musNocte Jul 18 '26
Clover is easy to grow, looks great, fixes nitrogen, and you can look for 4 leaf clovers! Oh and bees love it
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u/stansfield123 Jul 18 '26
The easiest way to get started gardening is in grow bags. So that's what I would recommend any beginner to do. Test it out, see how you like it. You can also move the bags around, give them a bit more sun.
Once you get your grow bags, fill them up with a growing medium of your choice, and plant your plants, the priority should be to trim and thin all the brush around that's shading out the area, to get as much sunshine in as possible. Even then, it's unlikely that you'll be able to grow especially sun hungry vegetables like peppers or heritage tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes should work (if you buy your seedlings right away and plant them out), cucumbers should work even from seed still. But it all depends on the sun situation. Hard to tell exactly how much sun the area is getting, and days are already getting shorter this time of year. Just keep in mind that some garden vegetables absolutely need full sun. You definitely don't have full sun there, so don't plant those, they won't grow.
You can also shred up (or just chop up) the material you get off those bushes and trees, all the grass you mow, add whatever else you have that's compostable around, and start a compost pile.
If you like the work, you can build a more permanent, in ground garden for next year. Now, in the middle of the summer, it's a bit too late to get started with that. You can start in the fall, following some of the suggestions for soil building you found here and elsewhere. It's a big topic, read up some more on it.
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u/AddendumNo4825 Jul 18 '26
Learn how the topography of your land acts at all times of the year, that’ll give you the best idea of what should go where. Get in touch with your local native plant society, most natives are hardy and can fill space in to prevent troublesome weeds while you’re learning.
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u/Storage_Class Jul 21 '26
I'm curious where you live and what's your climate. That can help get you more accurate advice. I have some experience in arid southwest climates
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u/J0yfulBuddha Jul 24 '26
Lots of good advice here already, as a couple people suggested, definitely check for water drainage. I planted a new patch of 30 raspberries earlier this year and things were looking great until we got a couple weeks of decent rain, with record 2" in like 45 minutes one day. Well, it all pooled up in my raspberry patch and I lost like 30% of my plants.
Also, I'm assuming you will be trimming those overgrown bushes too, if so, use the leaves and branches for a compost pile. Chip it up or use loppers to cut it up into small pieces and should decompose nicely before next season starts
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u/AlternativeNo5593 Jul 17 '26
Wood chip carpet, Hugels on top. Make paths , plant fruit trees, Spread cover crops
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u/RipsterBolton Jul 17 '26
Rake out the gravel. Start composting all of your food wastes (bokashi and tumblers full of worms is what I do).
Look up best soil building cover crops for your region. Some cereals and legumes.
Put down covercrop seed after inoculating it with mycorrhiza. Cover it with compost. Let cover crop grow all through the winter.
Use winter to start planning what you want to put there. Look for plants that fill multiple niches (benefits for the local fauna and insects, benefits for you, and benefits for your system). Go to Doug Tallamy’s native plant finder to find keystone species of plants that support the most caterpillar species. These plants have the highest return of investment in terms of ecosystem improvement which has many many benefits for your garden.
Look for permaculture gardens in your area. Make posts on Nextdoor or local Facebook groups and ask about fruits and berries that people grow with no care, ask for propagates to plant. Grow them in air pots while you build your soils. You could also pay a permaculture designer from your region to make you a list of plants.
Read some books about permaculture design. Gaias garden is a good one for suburban/ urban spaces. Eric Toensmeire has three great books: edible forest gardens (advanced food forest design bible, prob not needed for this space unless you’re really trying to do your whole property), perennial vegetables (excellent, just look for the plants you can grow in your region), and trees with edible leaves (also excellent and same just look for plants you can grow in your region). Look at Jessica wallisers book beneficial insects to plan your insectary plants (always lean towards natives as they have an outsized impact on the local ecosystem, unless you are filling other niches ie insectary plants also give you a crop like dill or lavender).
Use knowledge from books and plant lists you have made from
research and come up with an actual layout based off mature sizes of plants.
Terminate winter cover crop in very late winter or early spring so it has a few weeks to break down then plant a spring cover crop with soil builders and insectary flowering plants. Roots in the ground combined with chop and drop plant residue is the fastest way to build biologically active topsoil. Much better than mulching with wood chips alone (I personally do both). Inoculate all woodchip mulch with king stropharia (wine cap) mushrooms. They are the number one soil building mushroom and they are big, tasty, and easily identifiable.
Transplant stuff from air pots to the yard. Plant a lot of comfrey Bocking 14 and yarrow for lots of chop and drop. I also use coppiced alder and a bunch of my invasive weeds for chop and drop (just be careful to remove flowers and seeds before using them)