Treasure Lake Permaculture Elements

With so many different moving parts at this education center, edible landscaping HQ, and forest and farm, I use this page to show the diversity of operations in this growing site. Treasure Lake Permaculture Elements extend across the 60 acres with its diverse topography, vegetation stages of succession, and soil types.

Essentially, eco-forestry, or as I call it Active Forest Enhancement, has been my main mission since I started working the land here even before I got into permaculture (2001 started my degree in Fish and Wildlife Management). However overtime more and more has been added in as the place finishes its legacy businesses and moves more into permaculture development.

Goat Grazing on the Homestead of Treasure Lake, KY

Hard to hug this one, Shumard Oak, Treasure Lake, KY

Existing Permaculture Elements include the following:

Extensive Native Food forest actively managed for biodiversity, especially paw paw, spicebush, and sugar maple:

• This is the ecoforestry operation that has been running since 2001.  Because of my global travels over the years, I have done stints here and there on the land hacking away at invasives, encouraging natives, and thinning what needs it.  In 2012 we did a light logging allowing us to keep the property which also augmented the forest canopy quite a bit.  But yes indeed paw paw and spicebush were my main aims but general biodiversity is always key along with forest health.  Now we have moved onto sugar maple stands being improved. Fish and Wildlife management will always be the primary goal since that is where i started as an ecologist.

maple syrup made at Treasure lake by Annie Woods, winter 2018

the forest in the fall showing lots of color from maples

foraged chicken of the woods

paw paw harvest on the bar

paw paw in the field, big wild ones we have

spicebush in full fruiting

Michael Beck placing the final hat on the maple tapping buckets

the paw paw harvest one morning, 25lbs

Perennial Hedgerows of Mixed Species:

• In fall of 2017 I began one hedgerow and moved onto another in 2018 called the triangle garden.  The original one, facing south, sits behind the market garden road that separates it from Dark Wood Farm.  It is a mix of fruit trees and berry plant guild circles forming nuclei which are complemented by plants like comfrey, bee balm, and Egyptian Walking Onion. The triangle garden is much the same mix except the herb layer is more focused on perennial vegetables like asparagus, horseradish, and jerusalem artichoke.

Edge garden freshly planting with annual vegetables, perennial vegetables, fruit trees, berry bushes and climbers, and inoculated wood chip mulch for wine cap mushrooms, 2018 summer

Me and Nate happy planters, fall 2017

Tom harvesting Zucchini with me in back hedgerow

Luke getting ready to plant the triangle garden after we did the layout

Adding a honeyberry to the back hedgerow, spring 2018

Romain watering the newly planted trees and shrubs and mushroom mycelium under the wood chips, summer 2018

Treasure Lake Design

Treasure Lake Design

King stropharia wine cap growing

Ongoing Development of a Permaculture Campground:

• For our educational events and festivals, the South facing ridges that compose our campgrounds are managed uniquely.  It leverages the extensive native food forest management but also adds in tree crops, both natives like paw paw and elderberry but also cultivated tree crops like Jujube and Stone fruits. Read this blog for more: Tree Planting Recap 2019.

Mushroom production:

• In 2018 we added logs and grow beds of mushrooms.  The logs were inoculated with oyster mushrooms on maple logs.  We also did quite a few beds of king stropharia wine cap mushrooms in grow beds. The yields have been impressive.
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  permablitz implementation of mushroom beds in hedgerow. it was almost all people from my town of Petersburg, Ky, 2018

  

  our spawn in fridge, 2018

  

  oyster mushroom logs, maple hands on of log inoculation that fits at that time of the year, 2018

  

  mushroom spawn in chunks of wine cap being placed in between layers of cardboard and wood chips, 2018

  

  King stropharia wine cap harvest

  

  King stropharia wine cap growing

Composting: Hot and Vermi:

• Both hot and cold composting are taking place on the property to feed into the farm and new agricultural projects.  Food wastes are cycled from personal households, from the farm, and from wastes garnered in the city like fermentation or coffee wastes.  The compost is put out solid or put into liquid form through compost extract.

beet kvass waste being added to hot compost

harvesting beet kvass waste from fab ferments in Cincinnati

fab ferments tap room, where i go to pick up their waste for composting

mary and luke helping with composting

beet kvass wastes staged with varying aged piles in background

Trystin adding to worm bins

monitoring temperature with compost thermometer

Sifting worm compost

Beekeeping

• In 2018, a friend of the farm, Gil, donated one of his beehives to us.  It is located at the back of the farm in a sheltered area.  We slowly have been doing management with it but the more hands off approach is our style here for beekeeping.  Harvest have been light but delectable.

One of our bees landed one on a cool fall day

Gil, such a generous person, getting ready to transport a beehive from his land to the lake to support both the garden and ecology here

Treasure Lake Honey

Treasure Lake Honey

Aquaculture

• For years i have been slowly adding plants for a diversity of edge plantings to compliment the fishing lake.  I began in 2013 with Duck potato. There are now extensive patches.  I also add in 2018 Thalia, sweet flag, and yellow flag iris to give some contrast to the existing patches of cattails and phragmites. I am also adding beneficial microbes to the lake to help with nutrient cycling.

Medicinal herb biodiversity plantings:

• Plantings of highly medicinal herbs began in 2018. Ginseng, goldenseal, bloodroot, wild ginger, and blue and black cohosh were all planted on the north facing slopes of our forest. Patches of cohosh and bloodroot are already there but most importantly the seed stock is there for them to spread.

Ginseng in summer that we planted in spring, 2018

Wild ginger in flower

Cohosh popping out

black cohosh Treasure Lake

Animal Husbandry year round and seasonal:

• In 2018 three sets of ducks were given two us, most being peking but also a mallard and mallard cross in there as well.  They help with controlling the duckweed, waking campers up early and the eggs are delicious.  Also goats were leant to me and they helped do some brush foraging in the summer of 2018. While the ducks left us, in 2020 we got our own flock of chickens and herd of goats!

moveable goat pins, morning feeding

goat babies

Fish and Wildlife Management techniques for accelerating succession:

• From augmenting the canopy for more fruit producing to doing extensive stream repair, this kind of stuff is my true passion.  I get to be in the forest and enjoying all that is. The work will take probably more than one generation to complete, but what forest is ever done?  I do see it as my life work and relish in the pulsations of work to improve habitat.

large woody debris dams holding back sediment in stream at Treasure Lake, KY

rock dams producing pools in stream at Treasure Lake, KY

rock dams producing pools in stream at Treasure Lake, KY

Tom and his crafty skills and silly look helping me build artificial fish habitat

Felling trees into the lake for fish habitat

brush piles for fish habitat at Treasure Lake, Kentucky, USA, 2011

Permaculture Nursery in conjunction with Cincinnati Permaculture Institute (CPI):

• In 2018, we began utilizing Treasure Lake as an alternative spot for the CPI Growing Value nursery. In 2019 it became a full fledge nursery with my own production of different plants as well including homegrown paw paw.

Nursery plants at Cincinnati Permaculture Insitute Growing Value Nursery in Northside with new signage, 2018

Educational Center for PDC and other Short Courses

• Starting in March of 2018 we hosted our first portion of the PDC at the lake.  Over the years, mainly from 2014 on, we have had numerous ways to reach people through different events like Pollination and Treasure Fests and other plant based educational events. Its really great to show off this work of forest stewardship and we definitely want more of this.

Sculpted Earthen Oven/ Cob social Space:

• In 2012, we added a cob oven to start this space and continued over the next few years adding elements under the carport at the house on the land.  It is a work in progress still but has hosted many a cookouts and we have cooked pizzas for festivals and events.  

The almost finished product in the fading sun- to be completed!

“Turkey” cob oven painting, Treasure Lake, Kentucky, USA, 2012

pizza from the cob oven at Treasure Lake

Patrick Sherwin, local Permie and renewables expert, integrating bottles into the bench

The plans are to do so much more and it takes a team.  I need help, want to join?