permaculture

["Andrew Clements" <jara@otenet.gr>]

Hello ,

   I recently acquired a 2 acre mixed orchard of apple , pear , plum ,
cherry , lotus , walnut , fig trees and grape vines with lots of naturally
occuring herbs and flowers. The plot belonged to a chap who farmed it for
profit for many years using lots of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. I
would like to turn the whole thing into a permaculture edible forest garden
. The orchard is surrounded by lots of intensive monoculture orchards,
mainly apple and pear and all my neighbours are very good customers of Bayer
and Monsanto ;-((

   About 4 yrs ago a sensible neighbour decided that she would like to go
organic (NB I said organic monoculture farming NOT permaculture) and stopped
fertilizing and spraying . Within a year her orchard had been reduced to a
writhing , noisy , smelly mess of worm flea bitten looking trees and fruit
flies . She blames the deterioration of her orchard on the cessation of
spraying and has urged me not to make the same mistake . She said it was
heartbreaking to watch an orchard that was the pride of the village for
centuries decimated by her stupidity as she put it .

    Could anyone advise me on how to make the transition from what I have to
a fully integrated permaculture natural ecosystem without befalling the same
fate ?

   Thanking you in advance .

Andrew.