I have been watching Gabe Brown's polyculture farming. Never leaving the earth bare. And Geoff Lawton's urban permaculture. Managing water flows on sloping land.
Our garden is a bit wild. It celebrates my indecision about what to pull and what to keep. Foot tracks flow downhill(not the right thing) and gardens are sort of on contour(sort of the right thing).
I like plants that are perennial or reseed like spinach, kale, parsnip, parsley, potatoes. So we do have those running free. Jerusalem artichoke is hard to get rid of so we have some of those..
We have a good few fruit trees, but they are small. I need to wait to see how they will look and what needs to happen underneath them. What else I can fit in between.
We have a nice big flowered clover that I think is a good ground cover, but trying to plant into it seems like the new plant will have a lot of competition. But perhaps the nitrogen payoff and the cooler soil will balance it out.
I have to find some alt gender maqui and kiwi berry plants to help pollinate the ones I have.
Do other e2 folk experiment with their gardens?