[hcarvalhoalves]

It may be now a sign of wealth in a specific geographic and demographic strata. Having an orchard or at least growing herbs is a worldwide practice.

I'm from South America, and my grandma's house had: mango, peach, lime, orange, grapevine, berries, coconut, jaboticaba, pitanga, acerola, atemoia (native fruits), and many types of spices (including a bay laurel tree). All that in a lot that barely parked 3 cars.

[defrost]

Western Australia, house on the edge of a small rural town, same deal - all the water (sensibly) drains through the garden and trees (grey water - surface, septic via leach drains underground feeding trees) and we've got fruit, vegetables, herbs, chooks, etc.

Once setup it's low daily maintainance, pull weeds when seen and throw them in the compost, lots of things self seed or come back when leftovers + compost are turned over in a clean bed.

The layout dates back to the 1930s and was planned to be self sufficient with no "grid" as such.

Now it's much as it was with solar panels, big batteries, and fibre + home lab.

[senectus1]

Have always been told to never throw weeds in the compost...

[defrost]

I've been throwing weeds in the compost for 20+ years - they break down fine .. some regrow but you can just pull them out again.

We have two three sided "bunkers" 2 metre x 2 metre square x 1.5 metre high that we fill with weeds and then cover every spring (on rotation), once covered they cook pretty hot which kills most things within, reduce them to juice and worm food and when respread a year later they grow good veggies.

We've just today finished spreading three double axle trailer loads (each about 1.5 tonne) of donkey poo and straw .. that's got a lot grass seed and digested grassy fecal matter in it .. it'll make great figs and probably grow grassy weeds under the fig tree .. that'll get pulled and thrown in the heaps also.

Pretty much the only things that don't go in the compost piles are metal, rocks, plastic, etc - if it's organic, it's in.