Kayla Wildflower

Troy Rhodes wrote:Also note that many fruit trees require a certain minimum of chill hours, which you might not get in florida.

Methley plum is still on your list though. It has a low requirement for chill hours.


troy

Troy, I'm looking for a tree for my niece and nephew in DuPage County, IL, zone 5a.

Thanks for all your great input! The DuPage County Cooperative Extension suggested apples, peaches and plums and sent links, but they seemed like a lot of trouble. For instance, they said without pesticides, etc, up to 98% of the apple crop will go to pests and animals! Someone else mentioned needing to net peaches. I am leaning toward mulberries right now, because they seem so easy and relatively pest-free. Birds love them, but reportedly there's enough for birds and humans to share. Someone else mentioned serviceberry. I will have to look into that and Methley plum.

Regarding mulberries, I've been hearing great things about Black Beauty - best tasting berries and smallish tree. Can anyone confirm, deny, or recommend an alternate mulberry? Will it do ok in a somewhat shady yard? Also, my initial search shows a lot of places have stopped shipping mulberries because presumably they have to be shipped dormant and it's too late. Does anyone know any workarounds or if there's any place still shipping? Up until a couple of weeks ago, my brother said the ground was still too cold to plant, so it didn't occur to me to hurry!

Thanks, y'all!

I just planted a food forest in Gainesville, Florida, and would like to share the joy of fruit growing with my 9-year-old niece and 11-year-old nephew in DuPage County, IL, near Chicago.

I want to send them a fruit tree to plant. What will grow easily organically, with no need for cross pollination, and that will bear soon enough for these children to appreciate homegrown fruit?

Here in North Florida loquats, kumquats, figs and mulberries will grow and produce quickly with little attention. In fact, you could have figs growing in your backyard before you notice you have a fig "tree!"

What is there like that? I'm afraid their parents will not be much help, besides the initial planting. On top of all that, their yard is not large and it's pretty shady! Thanks in advance!

Howdy from the temperate/subtropical line of 8b/9a in North Florida! I am looking for two fig trees, an Alma and a Conadria. Does anyone have any leads on where I could find these around here? Thanks!

My 1/2 acre yard in a Superfund remediation zone has been excavated to 1', and backfilled with roughly 1" of clay, 5" of sand, 5" of topsoil, and 1" of composted cow manure. The contamination was from airborne dust from a factory down the street and was confined to the top 6" of soil as determined by 30 years of testing, so replacing the top foot is adequate to ameliorate the contamination.

I will be planting a permaculture food forest with over 70 fruit and nut trees, guild plants, vegetable and herb beds, etc. Any day now they will install 2" of pine bark mulch over top. I am concerned about the soil because:

1. it's all new and needs to be built up
2. the precious, expensive cow manure compost layer on top will have spent at least a week baking in the hot Florida sun by the time they put the pine bark nuggets on it.

I like the idea of quickly throwing a cover crop over the entire thing, but is there such a thing in the world as a cover crop that would grow under 2" of pine bark nuggets? Which one?
And if it did, how would I kill it now that it's under 2" of pine bark nuggets? We have 2-3 months before installing the fruit trees and everything at the end of September/October.

Thanks very much for your suggestions.

Picture 1 is one side of my yard all backfilled and ready for the next step. The dark area is a thin layer of cow manure compost. The lighter part toward the front is the city right of way and shows the topsoil they put underneath my compost.

Picture 2 is an example of the pine bark nugget mulch.

R Scott wrote: Ugh. If you look at the types of houses and neighborhoods with lead contamination in the soil around the house (from the paint washing/chipping off over the years) and the types of houses and neighborhoods that host SPIN farms--there is a correlation.

Have studies been done indicating produce grown in urban areas or "the types of houses and neighborhoods with lead contamination in the soil around the house (from the paint washing/chipping off over the years)" is less safe than produce grown elsewhere? I tend to doubt it. Some of these comments sound rather judgmental.

Tim Wells wrote:cardboard will stop weeds coming thru, mulch on top
... only use year 1 if you have a lot of weeds to smother asap imo

I'm starting to come to the same conclusion - it's probably not worth doing as a preventive.

Landon Sunrich wrote:

Kayla Wildflower wrote:

(Only first picture is my yard, with compost done in the back, topsoil so far in the front. Others are from other homes in the remediation zone.)

For whatever reason I'm not seeing the pics. Others?

Yeah, I'm not seeing the pics either. I don't know why you can't just upload photos to a post - it has to be a URL link. Last time I just uploaded pics to my Google + profile and used the links from there. Tried that again this time and it didn't work.

Another option is using a link from a Facebook pic, but I didn't know if that would work on a public message board. Anyone have other tips for how to include photos on permies.com boards?

S Bengi wrote:Frankly with less than 12 inches of soil (sand+clay+compost) over a superfund site. I would not eat vaggies or herbs or roots or nuts or mushroom from it. Pretty much all of your plants will send down roots below that 12 inches and start feeding you super polluted food.

now back to your original question. Add cardboard and then add another 18 inches of compost on top of the mulch out of your own pocket. Maybe it will cost your an extra $3000+ put it will so worth it.

Actually, 30 years of testing have shown the contamination is from airborne dust from the factory down the street, and thus is exclusive to the top 6" of soil. They are removing the top foot just to be safe, and replacing it with EPA top grade soil, so I feel better than the average person eating food that I'll grow there.

As far as 18" of compost costing $3,000, I just purchased .82" of compost - yes, less than an inch - and it cost $2,050. That's 82 yards at $25/yard. (7 truckloads of 12 yards each, took two days for delivery.)

To cardboard, or not to cardboard? My 1/2 acre urban yard in a Superfund remediation zone has been excavated to 1', and backfilled with roughly 1" of clay, 4" of sand, 4" of topsoil, and 1" of composted cow manure. They are getting ready to install 2" of pine bark nugget mulch. I will be planting a permaculture food forest with over 70 fruit and nut trees, guild plants, vegetable and herb beds, etc.

The whole thing is pretty pristine at this point but a few weeds (or grass?) have sprung up. Should I put in a layer of cardboard before the pine bark nugget mulch as a preventive weed barrier? Or is it silly to put in the time and effort if there's not a lawn or ton of weeds to kill?

One school of thought says it will block weeds, add carbon to the soil as it breaks down, keep the soil cool and moist, and attract worms.

Others say it can block oxygen and water to the soil, attract snails and slugs, doesn't add much nutrition to the soil, and will only block weeds for a year or two. I'm also worried that the pine bark nugget mulch and cardboard are both dry browns that will only decompose really slowly, although I will have underground drip irrigation. Could this smother and kill the bacteria and organisms beneath? Or am I making that up?

Can anyone offer educated expertise on this matter? There's a lot of guessing, figuring and surmising on the internet. Thank you!

(Only first picture is my yard, with compost done in the back, topsoil so far in the front. Others are from other homes in the remediation zone.)