Jennifer Lowery

randal cranor wrote:Howdy,

That's sweet! love it. :)

randal cranor wrote:

Dan Fish wrote:Well oak is perfect for hugeling, right? So there's that.

Here's what you do, to turn a negative into a positive. Cut the stump down to the right height and when it starts sending out new shoots clip all but a few on each side. Then wrap them around the birdbath and encapulate it, it will be awesome. I actually cut down a 10 inch oak last weekend too, in my new "food forest". I left a high stump for some reason. Now I know why, to try exactly this!

Howdy,
If you remove the bark, probably kill the tree. Like the above says you can prune and train to grow like you want. I have some "wild" apple trees where I have twisted branchs together, like braiding, and made natural ladders to climb the tree.

Wow neat, can ya share some photos would love to see!

Looking gorgeous with new oak limbs/leaves growing under bird bath

(Do I really need to strip the bark?)

I heard here in Oklahoma we were almost out of natural gas at one point.  I don't know what'd I'd do if I lost electricity or gas for extended period of time.  It was -7F here.  I have no fireplace in my home.  I'm wondering what I can do with respect to survival , for the future.  I'd like to be able to stay warm with firewood if I needed to.  Any ideas for an affordable solution?  I can stock up on firewood for an emergency.

Dan Boone wrote:What I did last year was spade a trench, about two shovels wide and about eight feet long, setting aside the sod and loosening the not-very-good native soil.  Then I did a narrow sheet mulch (a foot or two wide) down each side of the trench, using small broken-down Amazon boxes and some thick cardboard "boards" that came as packaging in an appliance crate. On top of the boards I put some half-decomposed local/organic horse manure from my neighbor's horse.  Then I seeded the trench thickly with okra seed, and covered the seed with about two inches of decomposed wood chips.  I topped up the sheet mulches with the removed sod (upside down) and about six inches of fresher wood chip mulch.  When the okra seedlings came up, I thinned them to about two inches apart, saving the most vigorous.  Once the best ones were about six to ten inches high, I thinned them again, shooting for about eight inches between plants but fudging that a little bit if two really vigorous plants were closer than that.  About that time I also mulched the row and around the seedlings with another couple inches of wood chips.   They grew spectacularly (this is good okra country) and I got a thick hedge of productive okra plants.

Wow I am no where near that level.  I would of never thought to use half decomposed manure and wood chips as growing medium.  Always was told to use well composted manure and never to put wood chips in the soil.  I don't have access to wood chips or manure.  I just have Black Kow, a little compost in my bin, clay soil in my yard and sod.  I do have some cardboard boxes.   I have 10 4'x4' raised beds (wood construction).. I was thinking about this winter doing some no dig raised beds Charles Dowding style, in front of the ones made of wood.  

Should I just dig a 1 foot diameter hole in the grassy lawn?  Mix some Black Kow and Peat Moss with the Clay and grow at ground level?  I can keep the lawn edge trimmed with a trowel.  I can throw the sod in the bottom of the next hugelkultur bed we are making in about a week.

This will be the first year I grow Okra.  I love the test of freshly picked young okra!  So delicious!  

I am dedicating an entire 4' x 4' raised bed for okra.  Should I put 1 plant per square foot in the raised bed , so 16 plants?  Or should I try a 5 x 5 spacing for 25 plants in 4' x 4' bed?   Which would produce more pods for me?

Thanks

Is the first edition of "Seed to Seed" as good as the 2nd edition? The reason why I ask is the first edition is like half the price of the 2nd.  https://www.amazon.com/Seed-Suzanne-Ashworth/dp/0961397772

Here's the bird bath so far.  A 24" plastic pot tray with a bunch of flat rocks in it on slopes so the birds can walk down to the current water level -- I like to dump the bath and fill it with fresh water each day.

It pleased me today to see lots of birds using it.  I saw three in it this evening, a couple of them flapping their wings happily in the water causing the water to splash everywhere.   I never had a bird bath before, but I can see how this can be great therapy.   My property is surrounded by 6 neighors all with trees in their backyard, so I still feel like I am in a forest, despite not having a single tree in my back yard now.  I hear all the bird activity in the trees now I wasn't hearing before.  Seems like the bird bath is becoming popular.    Yeah great therapy.. made me really happy.  I saw a beautiful blue and white bird fly in alone after the 3 black birds left.. was like 30 seconds later.  Then after the blue and white one left, another black one flew in alone and drank some water.

I suppose I should look into feeders and bird houses etc.  Would love for my property to become a bird haven lol.   Or is this a bad idea? Can too many birds be a bad idea for the garden?  I have ten 4' x 4' raised beds and grow like everything.   I don't grow grains though since I eat a ketogenic diet.    I think it'd be great if the birds ate the pests from the plants and all the mosquito larvae in stagant water on the ground.

I had to take down a young oak tree in my backyard.  It was about 10 years old but wow this guy was aggressive.. growing quickly each year.  Rather than wait too long we took it down while we still could ourselves.. as I hear it costs hundreds upon hundreds to take down a huge tree.   It was shading an entire half our backyard, in an area which could host a large number of raised beds.  So now the little guy is a bird bath stand.   Sitting on top of the stump is a 24" diameter plastic plant tray filled with sloped flat rocks for birds to enjoy.  Just set this up the other day.. had 3 birds in it at once one time I noticed yesterday evening  Made me happy to see the birds use it.  I think I'll put a round raised bed around the stump and fill it with various flowers.    I would like to get a round stone , concrete or faux stone table top or whatever to sit on top of the stump so I can have decorations around the bird bath, concealing the plastic.