Welcome to the home of Permaculture Adventures of Michigan. We practice permaculture on our own farm of seven acres in Adrian, Michigan, about an hour outside of Detroit, MI and Toledo, OH. We also provide property design, consulting and installation services covering Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana, with affiliated designers covering Texas and Alberta, Canada; and we will travel further if needed. We also provide remote design and consulting services on a global basis as we’ve successfully conducted consultations in sixteen countries and over ninety property designs covering four countries, most US states and many Canadian provinces.
Join us on our journey as we continue to develop our own property here in Michigan and create abundance for our family and local community. Contact us if you would like a consultation, design or edible landscape installation services for your property. We also offer educational courses related to permaculture and farm tours of our property.
Below you will see part of the transition of our property from a former grain and dairy farm to a permaculture paradise starting in 2014, showing just one area of the property. To see more of the journey and other parts of the property see Our Farm.
This is how our farm looked in May of 2014 just before we moved from Texas to our new home. Lots of grass, some barren spaces, a small walnut tree and a small patch of rhubarb in the open field. The big red dairy barn is simply spectacular. We did very little work to build any gardens that year due to starting a new job, working on the house itself and due to getting started late in the growing season.
We started with 2.33 acres including the house and many barns, but much of the land sits under buildings, concrete or roads, leaving about 1 acre of land for gardening.
In Spring of 2015 we had made substantial progress to create new garden beds and plant a wide range of annual vegetables. We started to improve the soil using composted leaves. We added a chicken coop and chickens!
In 2016 we made modifications to the garden layout to expand the garden area, started fencing to keep the critters out and started adding perennials to the garden. We started with eight apple trees. In 2015 we had discovered previously planted asparagus and in 2016 we cultivated and transplanted it to improve its production. We’ve enjoyed it every year since as one of the first crops in spring. We also allowed the small walnut and mulberry trees to continue growing where they had been “planted” by squirrels and birds.
2017 brought its new challenges for us as we continued expanding the west side gardens. We added over 2000 square feet of new garden area and planted several new fruit trees and berry canes. The tall fence in the background seemed to be an essential need for keeping deer out, but the mesh we used was worthless and we ended up losing multiple trees and berries to deer damage, including this cherry tree.
In late 2017, a change in employment meant a two-year stint in California. In early 2018 the family (dad, mom and the four youngest children) trekked across country leaving the two oldest of our kids (both now with their own jobs) to look after the very basic care of the property while we were away. No progress was made on the gardens during these two years.
In May of 2020 we drove back home from California and as spring was well underway we encountered an overgrown garden area. In every cloud there is a silver lining and for us we found that many of our trees and berry canes had grown very well – we just needed to uncover them from the grass and weeds. The two seedling peach trees that were 12″ tall when planted in 2016 had grown to be well over 10′ tall, the mulberry “bush” was now approaching 20′ in height and our small apricot was now well on its way past 10′. The raspberries had multiplied to become a dense thicket. Time to get to work!
Capitalizing on the growth while we were gone in California, 2021 was by far our best garden at the time. The peaches, apples and mulberries all started producing and we restarted the planting and harvest of annual vegetables. We added some horseradish as a new perennial vegetable. And rainwater collection!
If 2021 was a great garden, 2022 was better. Our first truly good harvest of peaches was over 200 pounds and resulted in us storing many different peach products in our freezers. Peach pie, peach crumble, peach cobbler…..
And 2023 was by far the best in so many ways. We had a massive harvest of apples (perhaps 400-500 pounds) and we also harvested onions, potatoes, garlic, lettuce, leeks, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, tomatoes, strawberries, Jerusalem artichokes, chives, mulberries, blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, gooseberries, walnuts, squash….
But by far the biggest event was the acquisition of an adjoining 4.6 acres giving us a total of 7 acres. It didn’t take long for us to start planting this new land with peaches, blackberries, strawberries, garlic, lavender…
What will the future hold for us in 2024 and beyond? Follow along at “Our Farm” and at our social media sites. At our Instagram page you’ll also see the work that we do in our customers’ gardens and we’ll add select photos and videos of that work in the “Portfolio” page. Use the “Contact Us” page to discuss your needs for our services or if you’d like to come and see our farm in person.
Cheers!
From Graham, Melisa and Family
Permaculture Adventures of Michigan