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 **Permaculture Principle: Value the marginal**

American ginseng patch slowly maturing 
https://i.nostr.build/C813owmjh4IcEBMn.jpg
Every time I find myself at the ginseng patch, I'm reminded of the permaculture principle "use edges and value the marginal".

The area in which the ginseng is planted I think of as zone 4, a place on the homestead I visit only a few times a year. Ironically, it's only a few dozen feet away from my door on the north side of the house. Being so seldomly visited and shaded, I never considered the area useful for growing anything, basically a marginal area between zone 4 and zone 5 (zone 5 is an area left to be totally natural and only observed). 

When a friend offered up some ginseng seed suddenly, I was struggling to think of a place to plant it. Initially, my plan was to try several patches with slight variations in the conditions to see what worked best. However, the demands of the homestead left me with small window of time before it was too late to plant. I ended up planting all the seeds in this one bed. 

To my surprise, the ginseng has continued to grow and now this marginal area in zone 4 at the homestead is producing some potential value with the ginseng.

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#permaculture #permies #homesteading #meshtadel #ginseng #learnpermaculture #perennial  
 When is someone going to orange pill Mother Earth News? You ought to invite them to your place for a feature. I bet they'd dig it.  
 Is there a book that you recommend to learn more about permaculture?  
 If you're interested in learning more about permaculture, I recommend starting with The Essence of Permaculture by permaculture co-founder David Holmgren. While I don't necessarily agree with all of Holmgren views on the future trajectory of society and it's energy usage, this PDF is a great place to get introduced to the ethics and principles of permaculture.
https://holmgren.com.au/essence-of-permaculture-free/
#permaculture #permies #grownostr
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 Great pdf! 
 Thanks. This is something I want to learn more about. Have you considered making a video course? 
 Yes, I would like to offer videos and other online content but nothing beats boots on the ground in person learning when it comes to this stuff.  
 The Resilient Farm & Homestead by Ben Falk is one of my favorites I would recommend!