Very good song but not sure I'd call it rock'n more of a folksy song.

Well, it does seem like a huge space. I guess my advice would be to start with trees you know you want, being they take the longest to mature. You could have various "guilds" and then gradually work to connect them and make pathways. Do you have any equipment, such as a tractor? Without help like that, I would be careful about how much you can manage. Also, how much food will you want to harvest and preserve? The lady who used to mow my lawn retired, so I was in the market for a lawn tractor. I went with a Ryobi, which is electric and I love it. I have no guilt about mowing my lawn because of this, and the green softness is relaxing to my eye. I have seating areas around the property, where I really do enjoy the grass. If you just don't want lawn in areas, you could always plant wildflowers which would act as food food for pollinators / insects and wildlife. I have an acre where I live, and decided last winter to create a permaculture garden in my front yard which borders on a highway. There is a sidewalk, which creates a natural boundary, and the length is about 120'. I made the edge that is not the sidewalk side curve, so at its narrowest, in the center, I would say it's 5' and at its deepest, it's probably 30'. That was plenty for me to start with! I rented a sod cutter and moved the grass out back to compost. I didn't have access to wood chips, so I paid to have 8 cubic yards of mulch brought in and that wasn't enough, but it was all that the delivery dump truck could hold. Within that space, I have 2 persimmons, 3 apples, a cherry, 3 paw paws, a Stewartia (I had planted it a few years ago before I knew of permaculture) an Autumn Brilliance Serviceberry, 4 dwarf varieties of mulberry, 20 Regent serviceberries (5x5') that will grow into a hedge next to the sidewalk, 50 asparagus behind those, 2 goumi, aronia, many currants, gooseberries, jostaberries, a rhubarb, 4 honeyberries, a medlar tree and a lingonberry and 50 strawberries that will be used as the groundcover layer. In the corner by the driveway, I've have a triangle space dedicated to herbs. All of that, and some perennial flowers and I still have some room. My point in telling you all of that is that my 120' bed is tiny next to all you want to do, but it consumed all of my time. I don't want you to be overwhelmed and then get discouraged. Elsewhere on the property, I just planted 4 hazelnuts, a quince tree, 3 more paw paws and 2 elderberries and 2 persimmons, but they were added as extensions to existing beds. I had planted previously a peach and cherry tree, two pears, two kiwi on a pergola, concord grapes on a chain link fence around the pool, 50 high bush blueberries and three apple trees original to this 1850's farmhouse. I also have a vegetable garden and many perennial beds. Not everything has to be done in one fell swoop, and be deliberate about why you're planting something where you're planting it. For example, my hedge of serviceberries were put by the sidewalk to act as a barrier to blowing leaves, to add some privacy, to help with traffic noise and dirt from the street, as well as to add snacks for people walking by and to feed the birds. The persimmons in the back are to offer some shade to the pool while adding fall color. (I had to have a 6' diameter red maple cut down which had provided so much lovely shade.) The fruit will drop a month after the pool will be closed...same with the paw paws on the north side of the pool. The persimmons in the front are to help block my neighbor's oak leaves from blowing over here and becoming my problem...I guess I'm saying to plant with intention. I tried to make it so that I would have fresh fruit across months. I will start with honeyberries, asparagus, and rhubarb in May (?) and end with persimmons, quince, medlars and paw paws in November and December. My 50 blueberries actually can cause me stress when they are loaded and I can't get friends to come over and pick because I don't like to see things go to waste, and they are labor-intensive to pick. I've learned from that, and that is why I limited myself on the quantity of each plant. There will still be enough to share with friends, the neighbors and the food shelf, but I won't have to spend every last minute harvesting and preserving. Although I have six paw paws, they won't be ready until October, when most of the garden chores are completed and I will have time. Whew, I hope some of these ideas help some of you.

I just started reading into permaculture, I do garden for years, more or less organic, tend to mulch and compost and stuff. but I get the impression that Permaculture is turning into an IT topic with all the negative side effects, like folks offering quite expensive tutorials and workshops and stuff, with the unspoken promise of saving the world or solving all your problems... and some people use it as a religion-substitute it seems,... What is really so much different from organic gardening? The idea of working in cycles is nice and not new, covering the soil and tending it carefully is always wise. Using alternative sources of "fertilizer" other than bagged stuff was the norm in pre-mineral-fertilzer-era. THe livestock issue is probably a challenge if you live in an more urban setting. My gut feeling is that you would get there yourself if you modify organic gardening techniques. note of caution: there seems to go around a lot of information posted by enthusiast that are so contrary to regular, tested garden knowlegde that I doubt they work in the long run or at all. And I don`t mean mega yield with XXL-crops, but just healthy growth of well placed plants. what I mean is that even if you take into consideration all the permaculture thoughts you should still use plants according to their needs, Meditarrenean herbs would not work as perennial ground cover, they would hate the soil and the shade in the growing season, and so on. and sometimes a Huegelbeet can just be akward if it is dry and the water just runs off from the slopes... and there could be some information on the veggie forum http://www.gardenweb.com/gardenweb/query/mushroom/topic=cornucop you probably would need to check that for climate compatibility-thingy, good luck, Lin

Plan ahead to what it is you want to build. Time how much sun your yard receives throughout the day. If you find that the tree needs to be removed then do what needs to be done. Don't let the tree go to waste. Have it chipped and ask to keep the wood chips.