Hey all

   Congratulations to all the grads of the Geoff Lawton 3 month online design course.

   I emailed in my design on May 15 and got notice that I was certified.

   With the arrival of spring, I was working on my 2 acres of wet boggy land in southern Minnesota, applying PC ideas.  Of course I used this land for my design and since submitting my design I have improved my layout of a 1/3 acre food forest in zone 3.

   Still a long way from declaring my project a success, however today with a lot of help we planted 15 apple, cherry, pear and plum trees along with 26 speckled alder bushes between the production trees in a triangle matrix as per Bill Mollisons design manual where in he states "to all want to be permaculture designers, you can do no worse than the designs that you see around you"  We went over the planting site with a walk behind BCS tractor with a tiller attachment first.  Then dug holes and planted, and finished off by a thick broadcasting of white clover seed over all the ground as close behind the tiller as we could make it.   As a bonus, we finished before a forecasted 100% chance of rain for a number of hours tomorrow.   Yippee!!!!!  Earlier we got set up an over 2000 gallon water catchment system that will collect water off a 32ft x 36 ft pole shed.  I expect all tanks to be full by tomorrow night. 

   We only have half of the 1/3 acre done with choke cherry trees, hazel nut bushes and various berry bushes yet to go in.  Also very excited about watching all the varities of production trees and bushes come to fruition (always liked that word).  :-)    Rodney       recent grad from the Geoff Lawton 3 mo. online course.