Polyculture Trials 2016 - Home Garden Records

For the previous three years we have been testing the practice of growing vegetables and herbs in polycultures (or what is known as guilds within permaculture circles). We have been using our home garden for these tests and recording the inputs and outputs from the growing seasons. Our aim is to discover whether or not growing in polycultures offers benefits over conventional methods of growing, and to see to what degree we can obtain good yields of nutrient dense food whilst providing habitat for garden wildlife.

Garden produce and wildlife 

What follows is a description of the garden layout and planting scheme, an overview of our cultivation practices, the results from year three of the study, our record keeping methods, and some notes and observations from this year.

But first just to let you know we've revamped our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture Plants, Seeds, Cuttings, Bulbs, Rhizomes and Polyculture Multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy and finally we've added a Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree order form for Farms, Orchards, Nurseries, and Large Regenerative Landscape Projects. If there is anything in the store you would like to see but is not there, please let us know. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. Thank you. Enter Our Store Here

Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes.

If you would like to see a summary of  results from previous years click here.

Last year we started a scaled up version of this study looking at polyculture growing for a market garden. The results from year 2  will be coming soon. You can read more about that study here

The Polyculture Market Garden

Garden Overview   

Climate: Continental Temperate
Latitude: 42°
Elevation: 580 m

Average Annual Rainfall: 588.5 mm
Co-ordinates:42°42′N 25°23′E

The Polyculture beds on a mid spring morning

Garden Layout 

Garden area: 66.5m2
Cultivated beds area: 36m2
Paths: 30.5m2

 Path and Bed Layout 

The Polyculture Planting Scheme 

Below is a typical representation of the polyculture planting scheme within a bed.

Vegetable Guild/Polyculture

In 2016 the following plants were grown in the 6 beds (36m2)

11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Black Krim'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Tigerealla'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Mixed Saved Seed'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Rozova Magia'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Anna Russian'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Ukranian Purple'
66 x Basil - Ocimum basilcium 'Sweet Genovese'
27 x French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris 'Cobra'
27 x French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris 'Local'
2 x Courgette - Cucurbita pepo 'Black Beauty'
4 x Yellow Bush Scallops - Cucurbita pepo
6 x Butternut Squash - Cucurbita pepo 'Waltham Butternut'
4 x Swiss Chard - Beta vulgaris subsp. cicla ' Rainbow Chard '
4 x Sunflower - Helianthus annuus
12 x African Marigold - Tagetes erecta
12 x French Marigold - Tagetes patula
6 x Pot Marigold - Calendula officinalis

Polyculture Produce

The table below shows the floral species composition of each bed including the different cultivars and the dates that the plants were sown or planted. Beans, courgettes and winter squash were sown directly into the beds, tomatoes, basil, chard and marigolds were grown from seed indoors reared to approx 15 cm tall and  planted outside around mid spring. Sunflowers and pot marigolds are self seeded.

Other plants such as volunteer nasturtiums were also growing within the beds. The yield of these plants are not considered in these records. Also not included are the native wild plants that are encouraged to grow around the perimeter of each bed. Many of these plants provide excellent fodder for our chickens and rabbits as well as mulch material when chopped and dropped on the beds.

Polyculture Cultivation Practices 

In the early spring when the temperatures are warm enough for the chickens to be outside during the night, we place a 1 m x 3 m bottomless chicken coop with 8 - 10 hens inside onto one half of a bed. The chickens will live there for 3 or 4 days and each day we throw them in kitchen scraps, grain and weeds. The chickens relentlessly scratch among the soil and mulch picking off the eggs of slugs and larvae as well as pupae of various arthropods. They also forage for seeds in the soil and thereby reduce the emergence of undesirable plants in the bed. The chicken's scratching mixes up the organic matter we throw in daily and the birds contribute a valuable supply of droppings as they go.

The chicken run 1.3 x 3 m light frame bottomless coop 

After 3 or 4 days we move the chickens onto the next half of the bed and the process repeats. The area the chickens have just moved from is forked over, soaked well (or we wait for a rain) and usually 20 L of compost per 1.5 m length are applied i.e 80 L per bed). A 20 cm layer of Straw mulch (approx 3/4 of a bale) is then laid to cover the surface. The mulch provides good habitat for toads and lizards (in the spring, summer and autumn) which are well positioned to pick off any slugs that venture in for the young seedlings.

Common Toad clearing out the slugs before the plants go in

Once mulched the stakes for tomatoes and beans are put into position. Large reliable germinating seeds such as beans and squash are sown directly into the beds by pulling back the mulch, making a small nest adding 3 handfuls for potting mix (50% compost 50% river sand) and sowing the seeds directly into the mix. All other plants are reared in pots and planted into the beds when approx 15 cm tall and when the weather is suitable. Any weed plants that grow around the edge of the beds are cut back before they set seed and used as additional mulch throughout the year. Weeds growing within the bed are treated the same way. Note that weeds are not uprooted only cut to ground level. The roots are allowed to decay in the ground or left to regrow until they are again ready to "chop and drop".

Around July the vegetable and herb plants are all well established with little room for weeds to establish. The attention the beds require after July is mainly irrigating and harvesting until October.

The polyculture in the summer 

When the last of the harvest is out of the beds, the stakes are removed and if warm enough the chickens are brought in for another 3 or 4 days to pick through the vegetation. None of the plant material is removed from the beds.  What the chickens leave behind is cut into small pieces and applied to the surface as an overwinter mulch. In November garlic is planted in some of the beds. November sown garlic will normally mature in June, however we use the small bulbs that are not worth planting as main crop garlic and harvest them in March like spring onions before the chickens go on, providing a deliciously fresh treat in early spring.

Inferior Garlic bulbs planted 10 cm apart 5 rows per bed for a spring harvest 

Soil Analysis

 

Each spring and autumn we obtain a soil sample and send it to NAAS of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food. We can see from the samples rising levels of essential plant nutrients and check our pH levels are within the optimal range for vegetable production.

Mineral Analysis from 01.04.2016  

Mineral Analysis from 01.11.2016 

Year 3 Results in Summary

This year we harvested 168 kg of vegetables including tomatoes, basil, beans, garlic, winter & summer squash, chard and sunflower heads, a 51 kg decrease on last year's total.

The time spent on this garden, including propagating all the plants from seed, preparing the beds, tending the plants, irrigating and harvesting amounted to 57 hrs and 20 mins from March - October. We used 480 L less compost this season than last season.

Results: Inputs and Outputs  

You can find the full spreadsheet here.

  

Table summarizing input and outputs from October 31st 2015 - October 31st 2016

Garden Produce

All produce was weighed directly after harvest and unless otherwise stated, all of the produce recorded was in excellent condition and fit for market. Produce not fit for market was composted or fed to our animals and is not included in these records.

Record Keeping Methods 

The tasks were predominantly carried out by one person, either myself, my partner Sophie or one of our boys Dylan and Archie.  A timer is started just before the task starts and stopped when the task is complete. On a few occasions two people were working on tasks at the same time, namely erecting the stakes and planting the garlic. These occasions are recorded in the management sheet of the record keeping spreadsheet 2015 (in the "Notes" row).

In 2015 we established base times for garden tasks that are carried out each year and we extrapolate from this results for future records. Some tasks differ in quantity each year such as irrigation, mowing and harvesting and we account for these separately.

Irrigation 

Our irrigation system is unique to our garden in that we flood irrigate using a mountain stream, however I estimate the irrigation needs of the polyculture to be 20 L per m² i,e 120 L per bed or 720 L for the entire garden applied once a week in the absence of rain (normally July- September). The time taken to apply 120 L per bed is estimated at 10 minutes so that's 60 mins per irrigation session. This year we experienced a very dry summer with a period of 13 weeks without significant rain. During this period, irrigation was practiced once per week.

Mowing

The time for mowing is estimated to be 10 minutes. During dry seasons less mowing is required whereas during wet seasons more mowing is required. This year we mowed the pathways seven times.

Harvesting  

Harvesting times are recorded along with other garden tasks such as tying tomatoes and weeding. so we don't have a base for this task. For this year's results we used last year's figures, but it would actually be less as the total produced harvested is 51 kg less this year. A harvest base time is required for future records.

Notes and Observations from 2016 

• Farm Ducks were free ranging in the garden from July - mid October and often foraging in the straw. This breed of duck (some type of mallard breed) caused little notable damage in the garden but probably made it less likely for toads and lizards to hunt in the straw. 

Ducks in the beds

• The decrease in production this year may be attributed to the below: 

1. We did not add the usual 480 L of compost this year as the soil results showed ample nutrients for vegetable production. 
2. A cold and wet April and May meant that many squash and beans did not germinate. This resulted in less production from beans and squash than would be expected. Next year we will be growing these plants in starter trays and planting out when the weather conditions are favorable.  

• The market value of the produce is estimated based on average market prices from the food coop Trustika.  It is not what we actually sold the food for, as much of the food from this garden was consumed by us or preserved. 
• Our low expenses are attributable to the fact we grow our own plants from seed, make composts and sowing mediums, grow summer and autumn mulch and save seeds from plants that do not readily crossbreed such as tomatoes, basil, marigolds and beans. We also provide our own support materials (tomato stakes and bean poles). Time taken to make composts and harvest support stakes are not included in the records. 

Improvements for Future Studies 

Biodiversity Study 

It's our goal to build productive ecosystems that provide for a large diversity of organisms as well as us. We believe our gardens achieve this but currently have no way of quantifying/qualifying this. We'd like to develop a method of biodiversity measurement that can be used and believe that invertebrate diversity would be a great place to start. The Plants for Bugs experiment carried out by a team of entomologists at RHS Wisley would work well. During this study invertebrate samples were taken on five occasions throughout the year and recorded.  The samples are gathered using pitfall and baited refuge traps for ground fauna, and direct observation of flying insect visitors and those settled on the plants.

Our goal is to create garden ecosystems that are productive for man and for nature.
Photographs taken from the garden.by Paul Alfrey and Peter Alfrey.

We are currently seeking collaboration with entomologists that could assist us with this part of the study. If you or someone you know is interested in this please do get in touch.

Sharing, Feedback and Collaboration 

We have our record keeping spreadsheets on Google Drive. These spreadsheets include all of the data entries and task descriptions. You can find the spreadsheet here. (note there are multiple sheets that can be accessed from the blue tabs running along the top of the sheet). 

You are welcome to a copy of the spreadsheet format that you can use for your own purposes. Just drop us an email or leave a comment below with your contact details and we will send it over to you. 

See here for the results of our polyculture studies from 2014 - 2016

Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course 

Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes?  Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023. 

We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.

Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course

You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount. 

We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!

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We offer a diversity of plants and seeds for permaculture, forest gardens and regenerative landscapes including a range of fruit and nut cultivars. We Deliver all over Europe from Nov - March. - Give a happy plant a happy home :)

Our Bio-Nursery - Permaculture/Polyculture/ Regenerative Landscape Plants 

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Support Our Project 

If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.

• Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store 

• Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses

• Comment, like, and share our content on social media.

• Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay

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Design and Create Webinars - Forest Gardens, Urban Gardens, Permaculture, Regenerative Farming   

We're hosting a range of online learning sessions including how to create habitat to enhance biodiversity, how to design and build a forest garden, polyculture design software tutorials, regenerative farm, and landscape design, urban gardening and much more. If you would like to be notified when our next sessions are coming up please add your email below and hit subscribe and we'll be in touch.

You can also register for our online training, services, and products directly here.

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How Productive can Polycultures be? - Polyculture Trials 2015 - Home Garden Records

Here are the results from the second year of our home garden polyculture study where we're looking at the inputs and outputs of annual herb and vegetable polycultures and how we can grow nutrient dense food whilst enhancing biodiversity.

See here for all the results of our polyculture studies from 2014 - 2016

Results in Summary 

From a  9.5 m x 7 m piece of land we harvested 218 kg of vegetables including tomatoes, basil, beans, garlic and winter & summer squash, a 57 kg increase on last year.

The time spent in this garden, including propagating all the plants from seed, preparing the beds, tending the plants, irrigating and harvesting amounted to 52 hrs and 51 mins or approx 14.5 minutes a day from April - October. I'm pretty sure it takes me longer than that to write it all up :)

218 kg works out at just over 6 kg of food produced per m² with an estimated local market value of just over 700 BGN, that's 10.63 BGN per m2 with an hourly rate of pay at 13.59 BGN (€6.95).  Not exactly going to pay for lunch at the Restaurant Le Meurice, Paris, but when you consider the food is as good as you would get there, that the soil and general garden ecosystem is in better condition than it was this time last year, and that the garden provides habitat to all of the below organisms (to highlight but a few) it all starts to look pretty encouraging!

Our goal is to create garden ecosystems that are productive for man and for nature.
Photographs taken from the garden.by Paul Alfrey and Peter Alfrey.

You can find the full spreadsheet that includes all of the data entries here

For an overview of the cultivation methods we use see here and for last year's results see here

But first just to let you know we've revamped our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture Plants, Seeds, Cuttings, Bulbs, Rhizomes and Polyculture Multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy and finally we've added a Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree order form for Farms, Orchards, Nurseries, and Large Regenerative Landscape Projects. If there is anything in the store you would like to see but is not there, please let us know. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. Thank you. Enter Our Store Here

Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes.

Here's some details on where and how we do it.

Garden Overview   

Climate: Continental Temperate
Latitude: 42°
Elevation: 580 m

Average Annual Rainfall: 588.5 mm
Co-ordinates:42°42′N 25°23′E

The Polyculture beds on a mid spring morning

Garden Layout 

Garden area: 66.5m2
Cultivated beds area: 36m2
Paths: 30.5m2

 Path and Bed Layout 

Crop and Cultivar List

11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Black Krim'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Tigerealla'

11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Mixed Saved Seed'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Rozova Magia'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Paulina F1'
11 x Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum 'Citrina'
66 x Basil - Ocimum basilcium 'Sweet Genovese'
24 x Runner Beans - Phaseolus coccineus
24 x French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris 'Cobra'
24 x French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris 'Blue Bean'
2 x Courgette - Cucurbita pepo 'Black Beauty'
4 x Bush Scallops - Cucurbita pepo
6 x Butternut Squash - Cucurbita pepo 'Waltham Butternut'
12 x African Marigold - Tagetes erecta
12 x French Marigold - Tagetes patula
12 x Pot Marigold - Calendula officinalis 

Our Tomato cultivars 

The table below shows the floral species composition of each bed including the different cultivars and the dates that the plants were sown or planted.  Beans, courgettes and winter squash were sown, tomatoes, basil, marigolds and pot marigolds were planted.

Other crops such as volunteer sunflowers and nasturtiums were also allowed to grow within the beds. The yield of these plants are not considered in these records. Also not included are the native wild plants that are encouraged to grow around the perimeter of each bed. Many of these plants provide a harvest of salad greens and tea ingredients as well as mulch material when chop and dropped on the beds.

Planting Scheme 

Below is a typical representation of the planting scheme within a bed.

Vegetable Guild/Polyculture

Soil Analysis 

Mineral Analysis - Soil samples were taken in early spring before fertility inputs and sent to the NAAS of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food.

Soil Microbiology Analysis - 

We had a lovely response after publishing last year's results from Vitalia Baranyai and Birgit Albertsmeier who volunteered to study the microbiology of the soil samples from the gardens. Below are Vitalia's results from samples taken in the spring and high summer. We thank them both for their input and support.

Spring Sample 

Number of Bacteria per ml	Micrograms bact./ ml	Length in cm of fungal strands / ml	Micrograms of fungi per ml	F:B Biomass ratio
3573656000.00	7147.31	445.19	270.84	0.04

Summer Sample 

Number of Bacteria per ml	Micrograms bact./ ml	Length in cm of fungal strands / ml	Micrograms of fungi per ml	F:B Biomass ratio
4675584000	9351	274	177	0.019

Results: Inputs 

Input:Time Spent in Garden 

Tasks	Minutes	Hours
Set up/Pack up	470	7 hrs 50 mins
Propagation	104	1 hr 44 mins
Fertility	235	3 hrs 55 mins
Planting out	611	10 hrs 11 mins
Mowing Paths	60	1 hr
Irrigation	540	9 hrs
Garden Care and Harvesting	1091	18 hrs 11 mins
Total minutes	3111

Input: Fertility Inputs Over One Season 

Fertility Inputs			Fertility Inputs
Fresh Comfrey Material	96 kg		Wood Ash	20 L - 5.6 kg
Chicken manure	5.76 kg		Autumn Compost for Garlic	120 L
			Spring Compost	480 L
Kitchen scraps	18 kg		Compost for planting out toms	22 L
Straw bales	9 (standard bales)		Seedling Mix for Squash	9 L
Lawn Mower Box of Clippings	128 kg		Seedling mix for Beans	18 L

Results: Outputs

Output: The Harvest 

The total produce from each of the main crops in the polyculture were as follows;

Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum : 89.84 kg

Tomato - Solanum lycopersicum : (Blemished with cracks or blotches but suitable for processing) 40.58 kg
Basil - Ocimum basilcium : 1.62 kg
Fresh Runner Beans - Phaseolus coccineus and French Beans - Phaseolus vulgaris : 24.33 kg
Courgette - Cucurbita pepo : 33.25 kg
Winter Squash - Cucurbita pepo :21.7 kg 
Fresh Garlic - Allium sativum :6.74 kg
Chicken Eggs - 54

Garden Produce

All produce was weighed directly after harvest and unless otherwise stated, all of the produce recorded was in excellent condition and fit for market. Produce not fit for market was composted or fed to our animals and is not included in these records.


  

Table summarising input and outputs from October 31st 2014 - October 31st 2015

You can find the full spreadsheet that includes all of the data entries here

2015 Study Modifications

• This year our records included the time it took to propagate all the plants from seed, the time spent gathering materials such as compost, tools, plants and the time taken to harvest the produce from the garden.

• We added garlic as an interval crop that can be grown during the periods the main crops are not present i.e. from November through to March. November sown garlic will normally mature in June, however we use the small bulbs that are not worth planting as main crop garlic and harvest them in March like spring onions. They are delicious.       

Inferior Garlic bulbs planted 10 cm apart for a spring harvest 

• Having left the chickens out of the garden study last year to simplify the record keeping, there were noticeably more slugs in the beds so this year we included the chicken rotations in the records. The chickens do a great job of removing the slugs and their eggs from within the beds.  After the last harvest the vegetation is chopped and dropped , the stakes are removed and a 3 x 1 m bottomless chicken house is moved onto the beds moving every 2-3 days.  The time taken for each move and daily feeding of the birds are included in the records as are the outputs in terms of Chicken manure and eggs  

The chicken run 1.3 x 3 m light frame bottomless coop 

Considerations

• This whole record keeping game is totally new to me and I'm still developing the design of this study. I'm close to being satisfied with the method, but believe there is room for improvement and welcome feedback, criticism and suggestions.

• I made changes to the task categories with "Garden Care" including a range of very different tasks such as weeding, tying tomatoes, pinching out, harvesting and observation. The reason for this is that you end up doing these jobs together in a polyculture.   

• This year we experienced a more typical summer with a period of 8 weeks without a drop of rain and high temperatures. During this period, irrigation was practiced once per week. Our irrigation system is unique to our garden in that we flood irrigate using a mountain stream, however I estimate the irrigation needs of the polyculture to be 20 L per m² i,e 120 L per bed or 720 L for the entire garden applied once a week in the absence of rain. The time taken to apply 120 L per bed is estimated at 10 mins so that's 60 mins per irrigation session   

• A word on our low expenses. They are so low due to the fact we grow our own plants from seed, make composts and sowing mediums, grow summer and autumn mulch and save seeds from plants that do not readily crossbreed such as tomatoes, basil, marigolds and beans. We also provide our own support materials (tomato stakes and bean poles). Time taken to make composts and harvest support stakes are not included in the records. 

• The market value of the produce was estimated based on the prices we were receiving for the same vegetables grown in a different garden from the local buyers and Trustika buyers club in Sofia. It is not what we actually sold the food for as much of the food from this garden was consumed by us or preserved. 

• The tasks were predominantly carried out by one person, either myself, my partner Sophie or one of our boys Dylan and Archie. On very few occasions two people were working on tasks at the same time. These occasions are recorded in the management sheet of the record keeping spreadsheet (in the "Notes" row ).    

Improvements for Future Studies 

Biodiversity Study 
It's our goal to build productive ecosystems that provide for a large diversity of organisms as well as us. We believe our gardens achieve this but currently have no way of quantifying/qualifying this. I'd like to develop a method of biodiversity measurement that can be used and believe that invertebrate diversity would be a great place to start. I'm thinking something like the Plants for Bugs experiment carried out by a team of entomologists at RHS Wisley would work well. During this study invertebrate samples were taken on five occasions throughout the year and recorded.  The samples are gathered using pitfall and baited refuge traps for ground fauna, and direct observation of flying insect visitors and those settled on the plants.

We are currently seeking collaboration with entomologists that could assist us with this part of the study. If you or someone you know is interested in this please do get in touch.

Control Experiment 
The data we will gather during the study is useful to compare with other practices, however a control garden growing the same crops in monocultures at the same time in the same area will be a great addition to the study and is something we're hoping to start next year in the Polyculture Market Garden Study (results from this coming soon).

Measuring Nutrient Density 
We are looking into using a spectrometer for nutrient density analysis of our produce for the Polyculture study next year.  I was considering using a refractometer to take brix readings of our produce but seeing as brix only reliably measures sugar density I'm not sure it is that relevant. It will be fascinating to see how our biologically grown produce compares to supermarket food, local food, and between our two gardens (the 10 yr old garden and the new market garden site).

Sharing, Feedback and Collaboration 

We have our record keeping spreadsheets on Google Drive. These spreadsheets include all of the data entries and task descriptions. You can find the full spreadsheet here. (note there are multiple sheets that can be accessed from the blue tabs running along the top of the sheet). If you would like to run your own study we'd be happy to give you a copy of the spreadsheet, just drop us an email or leave a comment below with your contact details and we will send it over to you. 

If you have any suggestions and feedback on how you think we could improve the study or you have heard about similar studies from other guild/polycultures we'd love to hear from you.

Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course 

Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes?  Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023. 

We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.

Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course

You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount. 

We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We offer a diversity of plants and seeds for permaculture, forest gardens and regenerative landscapes including a range of fruit and nut cultivars. We Deliver all over Europe from Nov - March. - Give a happy plant a happy home :)

Our Bio-Nursery - Permaculture/Polyculture/ Regenerative Landscape Plants 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Support Our Project 

If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.

• Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store 

• Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses

• Comment, like, and share our content on social media.

• Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Design and Create Webinars - Forest Gardens, Urban Gardens, Permaculture, Regenerative Farming   

We're hosting a range of online learning sessions including how to create habitat to enhance biodiversity, how to design and build a forest garden, polyculture design software tutorials, regenerative farm, and landscape design, urban gardening and much more. If you would like to be notified when our next sessions are coming up please add your email below and hit subscribe and we'll be in touch.

You can also register for our online training, services, and products directly here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------