sarah jane

+ Follow
since Apr 09, 2017
Merit badge: bb list bbv list
For More
Apples and Likes
Apples
Total received
In last 30 days
0
Forums and Threads

Recent posts by sarah jane

Oh wow, there's a lot of smarties and thinkers on here! Not me! I figured trees take too many years to grow so I took my little knowledge about the nitrogen fixers (and accidentally the vitamin accumulator mulberries) and plopped trees everywhere my wife would let me. 2 years later I have 2 year old trees! And in the Philippines that's 10 ft (and a couple 30 footers)! I don't see the harm in putting as many bean trees in as possible? These can be chilling, fixing your nitrogen, and were always meant to be heavily pruned or removed for hugel or whatnot, isn't it? I was surprised how many trees I knew ended up being bean trees. Here is hummingbird trees and moringa, but I wonder if it's true that there are bean trees you haven't noticed there too. I mean, you have sense. If you're near the marsh you'll be thinking wet trees. For me, learning is trying!
3 years ago
Mangoes
Moringa (animal food, human food, medicine, helpful to nearby plants? Fast growing, but very soft wood, plant easily from cuttings, will regrow from stump so great chop and drop)
Mongo beans (nitrogen fixer, easy fast grower, great fast cooking flavorful bean for split pea soup)
Cashews (nitrogen fixer, food, fruit)
Indian plums (abundant fruit, canopy)
Chocolate, coffee (because, yum!)
Bananas (easily obtainable, abundant when they get settled in)
Sugar cane (looks like it was for animal food because it's not enough to bother trying to extract use, the kids here like to chew on it)
Napier grass (extremely abundant animal feed, 8ft tall, grows fast, doesn't seem invasive yet.)
Star apples (nothing like apples) because they are delicious. I imagine a valuable cash crop as well.
Mangosteen (delicious, medicinal, expensive, though I doubt we'll have enough to sell)
Kalabash (miracle fruit) bad choice. Tastes like crap. Must be cooked to extract edible juice. Valuable fruit. I'll gladly sell to anyone willing to take them off my hands.
Goji berry, like a cranberry. Idk if we'll find a use. Slow/medium growth shrub.
MULBERRIES!!! Love love love!!! Berries are vitamin accumulators for your other plants, super foods, and I had no idea these ain't shrubs but BIG fast growing BIG trees that bear in a year or two after planting a cutting. And bear abundantly.
Tamarind
Chico, canopy, sweet brown round fruit. Goats love it so protect. Try to grow this before it becomes more rare.
Coconuts (maybe a couple dozen already)
Ipil-ipil, crap tree but useful for fairly strong skinny branches (if you're building trellises, perhaps?) Rumors goats like it. No luck so far.
Avocado
Santol (cotton fruit) tree. Looks abundant and big. The leaves sometimes randomly turn a beautiful red corvette red.
Calamansi bush/small tree (replacement of lemons, definitely marketable here)
The other kind of miracle fruit. Grew 2" last year and a half. Poor placement?
Pineapple
Some tree that reminds us of elderberry. We don't know what it is.

Sweet potatoes, I regret growing them too near baby trees, but they grew great and we're beautiful.
Taro!!! Grow tons of this. It's our potatoes and the leaves can be prepared correctly to make them edible in a delicious spicy dish.
Tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage, garlic, ginger, turmeric, onions, carrots, bok choy (pachay) however no luck with lettuce, comfrey, or strawberries yet.
3 years ago
❤️ simple seems like such a great idea. How's yours going?
3 years ago
I love the idea of planting what you can't get, as someone mentioned. For me, I plant what I can get. I know for sure, here in a poverty stricken area, people eat these items and will buy. I also know we will use them. And for sure they'll grow here, especially if native, or "invasive" (ie abundant!)

Your question, to me, feels like my question. You have trees. What is your next layer? I have the same question, but perhaps we can stoke ideas together.

Here's what I know:

7 layers and several uses:

7 layers (shape and size)
Canopy ☑️
Trees ☑️
Bushes/shrubs
Herbaceous (I feel like this is simply normal knee to waist high plants, not necessarily spices. Am I wrong?)
Groundcover
Vines (trees aren't tall enough yet, so we're good here)
Roots
(You can add mushrooms. I would LOVE to add mushrooms. ❤️❤️❤️)

Uses: (these can be any shape plant)
Food
Accumulators (COMFREY!!! Elderberry, mulberry ❤️❤️❤️, mint, etc) these (aside from their multiuse as (super) foods are mother plants and feed those around them alive and from trimmings. Comfrey is KING but we can't find/grow it here yet, but I found and feel in love with mulberry.
Nitrogen fixers: nut trees, beans. Similar to above but they accumulate nitrogen. Very important.
Flowers: attract good bugs, confuse bad ones. Even sellers are partial to marigolds here. (I hope that's right. Pretty sure it starts with an M. They look a little like a cross between a daisy and a rose and are often orange.)
Chili peppers: (this isn't on lists I've seen, just a personal preference.) Also helps with bugs and you can make insect spray with it. The spray also feeds the plants and heals your chickens.

Have I missed anything?

So here we are. You have trees and clean land. I have trees and weeds.

(Groundcover) For me, I have started overtaking weeds with sweet potatoes. I was doing cancun but realized it's not something anyone buys, and we seldom use it. (Wifey! 😡) But so far I love the spread of these sweet potatoes. I'm not being creative, so it might be one of my main crops. I consider potatoes as well, but haven't had as much luck YET. I thought squashes might be good groundcover for a lazy farmer like me, but I should have done more weeding. They did thrive though. It's just they're in a pile of weeds

We have neighbor chickens that forage at our place. Such a blessing! Free poop. What will you do for poop? (I've heard some talk about urine. Hey y'all! I heard female pee is bad for plants. True or false?)

I've read onions and garlic are great blah blah blah. Don't fall for it. They are consumed by weeds in days. Unless you want to weed... Maybe they'd work in a compost pile???)

I love my taro (Gabi, elephant ear, Filipino potato) for herbaceous layer. It survives shade better than others. I shove those under trees, along with ginger and turmeric. These I'll leave alone and let them become mothers. Don't find this layer inspiring though, and could use A LOT of ideas. I think my wife's okra seems permie and will put more of that out right now.

Um, don't be afraid to plant things because they won't fit in the future. That's not how forests work. Things will get overshaded now and then. Death is life and excess wood is gonna send you down the hugelculture route later. If you feel you might have room for vines but worry perhaps try something lightweight? Kiwis, grapes, passionfruit❤️❤️❤️ (yummy and abundant) are some ideas.

I love your business responses. I'm an ex engineer, and I know you can plan and create, but the universe gets the final decision every time. Follow your path and your simple life abundance will find you.
4 years ago
Love it! Are you doing anything permanent? Trees are awesome! Bananas are weeds, so you'll be providing food for a lot of people with those.
4 years ago
Hi, hey, ya'll inspired me and turned my life upside down! I moved to the Philippines (tropical, rainy) and aquired two and a half acres (1hectare 🤷🏻‍♀️) and started!

I'll start with the question and then describe. I feel like I have big love for trees and a lot of appreciation for groundcover and very little creativity for the other 5 layers. I think if I just push through and don't take a step back we're going to have a hectare of sweet potatoes under a beautiful canopy of giant and medium trees. (I can think of worse horror stories, I know 😁) I need some inspiration for the shorter plants.

Exceptions to my mono-cropped food forest nightmare:
- taro (aka Gabi, elephant ears, and Philippine potatoes) I have about 10 areas with a little. ❤️
- ginger (1 small patch)
- turmeric (I can only think of 1 plant thriving atm)
- a very nice bunch of cane sugar
- a large leaves oregano, a super food for colds and skin (two tiny plants atm)
- technically bananas, though they feel like trees to me

Now, people seriously say onions and garlic... These are known by the mono-crop community around here to be whiny babies. I need tough 💪 fighters.

I'm not sure what I need. I just only like trees. And I have SOOOO many gorgeous lovely trees! All taller than me now. Some more than 20 ft. Can anyone help me cultivate a bit of excitement over the sun and shade loving shorties that make food forestry truly abundant?




4 years ago
Comfrey. Personally that's what I'd do. Perhaps a couple others in the corner?
4 years ago
Hmm what do we think about making plastic bags into ... shoe rack herb garden.. you know those cloth shoe racks that are filled with earth to make the garden go up the wall?
7 years ago