Byron Bacon

That's it! Thank you so much. It looks lush and beneficial. The reason I call it invasive is because of it's insane growth rate. It's also very hard to pull up. Knowing that there's medicinal qualities will help a lot. Now I can harvest it, instead of putting it straight in the compost bin.

Permies always pull through for me, and I'm very appreciative.

This weed is highly invasive, and I haven't been able to identify it online. Hopefully, ya'll can help.  Its growing in my orchard with mostly peat soil, and it's very nutritious soil. It has broad leaves, hairy stem, red stolons, and a deep thick taproot. The only way I can pull it is to drive a shovel through the root. It easily bent my garden trowel.

I'm hoping that its beneficial, like a dynamic accumulator. I live in San Diego, and this property hasn't had any chemicals out on it in a very long time.

Thanks for the help.

That's exactly what a friend had suggested. I think I'll start doing that this afternoon. Hopefully, before too long they'll start showing up. Hopefully, the ducks don't get it all before the fish do.

Great response. I appreciate the insight. I suppose I should yield to patience and observation. Through the cold seasons the pond was completely covered by duck weed. We got some heavy rains this year in San Diego, and it washed away. Whatever was left fed the ducks.

I have a 1/2 acre natural pond, fed by a creek. I just purchased this property in December '18, and the seller said that his brother-in-law gave him some koi which he threw in the pond. He also said that their was catfish, bass and bluegill. I have about 30 ducks and coots on any given day and egrets frequently stop by to fish. There's a ton of frogs so they could be interested in that as well. I've also seen some turtle families here. I've tried fishing the pond and I've pulled up nothing. Also, the water is constantly merky with almost no visibility. My friend suggested that the koi have reverted to carpe, and that they've eaten the other fish and are rooting around the pond heavily.

If carpe have taken over my natural pond, what can I do about it? With permaculture principles in mind I'd rather not have someone come in and shock the pond and pull out a bunch of dead fish. Not to mention that would be highly inconsiderate to my neighbors who are fed from the same stream.

Is there a trick out there to find out if carp have indeed taken over?

Thanks all!
Byron

Redhawk, you described the area very well. It does flood a bit in the winter, and soil is slightly acidic.

We got a lot of weeds lately and the area boomed with stinging nettle. I'm pulling it once I'm ready to throw seeds in that area. It's mostly shady with some sunlit areas so I'm using American Wintergreen and creeping thyme, respectfully. Hopefully that'll help with the flooding, erosion, and weed suppression. I'm setting the guilds up now.

I have the same thing going on in my front yard, and I thought about posting an ad on Craigslist- free stuff for someone to come pull up the sod and they can have it. Landscapers do this, and it is generally gone same day.

I never thought about flipping the sod over, removing the plastic netting and letting it compost in place. I imagine that newspaper would have to go over it to keep grass from growing through, and to keep the C:N levels right.

Local arborists will generally deliver a load of wood chips for free if you call them. Also, mushroom farms are a great place to get quality compost-like soil for free if you're in a shortage of your own compost.

Great suggestions again, y'all. From this forum I think I can certainly rule out sheet mulching for the time being. The summers are definitely hot and dry, but the lake nearby keeps the ground well hydrated. Or at least as much as can be expected without adequate ground cover.

When it rains that area catches a lot of the overflow from the lake, so waterlogging is certainly a possibility. I'm not sure a awake would be beneficial in this spot for that reason.

The soil is likely acidic, given that the soil is peat here, and that generally occurs. I've assembled a list of crops that do well in acidic soil, but I do fear that the area is just not getting enough sun. That's why I pruned as heavily as I could without being too much.

Any recommendations on how to lay ground cover without it overtaking the crops? Would I just mulch in between the ground cover and the crops? The wintergreen cover I mentioned earlier is not very competitive from what I've read, but I am concerned that it could overtake very young plants.

Again, thank you all so much for your suggestions. I think heavily on my property and it's well being, but it doesn't do nearly as much good as several minds coming together.

Thanks for the suggestions. I pruned the trees back quite a bit, but no more than 1/3. It was pretty unkempt. I ordered seeds for Wintergreen (Gaultheria Procumbens), which grows well in the shade, is edible, provides berries through the winter for the birds, and isn't as invasive as some other ground cover species. I have clovers for some of the bare sunny areas. Most of the property has beautiful grass on it, so my zone 1 is the only concern as far as that goes.

I've def read tgat I shouldn't make big changes and just observe. I'm going to do just that with the other zones, but we want some crops this spring and fall so I'm going to research well, bring ideas up on this forum, journal, and so on to achieve that.

I just purchased a property in Fallbrook, CA (zone 11a, 11b). My zone 1 already has some aging crabapple, apple and asian pear trees planted in it (infact, some of them have been grafted), about 8-10 feet apart from eachother in every direction. At first I wondered why the ground felt spongy underfoot, and researched showed that what I have is peat soil. Lucky break for me. There's a nearby natural creek and pond that keeps the ground watered well enough that the fruit trees produce with no irrigation. The only issue that I see is that there's no ground cover, not even many weeds. Only the leaves that fell, and I've let lay. I'd like to start growing a variety of vegetables, shrubs, herbs and flowers. I've got a pretty good rough idea of the seeds that I'll put down in March thanks to Gaia's Garden (Hemenway) and a lot of research. The question I have is whether or not I should sheet mulch the whole area???

My concern is that I may throw off the C:N ratios and do more harm than good, or cause an anaerobic surge. Should I just lay down some wood chips as ground cover? Or go all out and put down cardboard, manure, mushroom compost, duckweed, straw, and wood chips? I have an abundance of all of those materials for free in my area, and I'm not scared of the work. I'm just concerned with the old adage "If it aint broke don't fix it".

Thanks for your input,
Byron