RE: My Sepp Holzer Experience

This garden is in a sort of remote location.
Nothing would make a cat stay there.
Also, I do not want cat urine in my herbs and stuff.
And cats hunt the native birds, which sucks.

Holzer uses the pigs/chickens for plowing, before he plants.
That does make some sense - I was joking.

While pea shoots are tasty, they do not keep as bird feed :P

I have done my share of work as a farm hand and fruit picker in the commercial sector. Unless you have great marketing channels, harvesting random stuff, at random times in random quantities is not profitable. Even in my small garden here, it 'pays off' to have everything tidy. I have tried all methods, really ...

At this point, I could write a book about it :D

Maybe you should write a book ;)

Yeah, I kind of assumed that you lived close to the garden plot, so no, cats wouldn't be an option. Although mine really don't do their business in any of my herb/veg patches, they prefer a private corner somewhere at the edge of the field. I stuck those collars with a bell on them, which saves the birds but not the mice somehow. And there was me thinking mice have good hearing. The cats weren't happy though, looked at me angrily when yet another bird got away...
It saves us from picking up the birdie pieces though, so I'll deal with the angry faces.

OK, yeah I didn't think hogs was a great idea although I didn't catch the joke, and I guess keeping a terrier or something there wouldn't really be great either.

Are you growing commercially? I agree, commercially it pays off to have things tidy. There was one permaculture farm I visited and this woman had huge yields, but she was mainly growing for herself and a little for people who visited.
However, somehow she manages to live off 10 Euro a week (internet) with only 2.5 acres of land. Now, her plot was something special though, she turned the land that had nothing into a little piece of paradise. Her way of growing was kind of tidy, but still several plants and trees growing together.
I advise anyone who comes to Ireland and is interested in permaculture to visit her. We've been there a few times, it makes for an amazing homeschool project.

I've started to grow a few things in aeroponics/fogponics this year, but was planning to do a lot more. I have a huge polytunnel frame set up, but no cover yet. If I end up staying here the thing will definitely be covered by next spring, giving me a lot more options in the Irish weather. With the size of that polytunnel, if growing with hydro/aero or fog, it should be possible to grow enough vegetables to feed half the town (in theory).