Beki McCoy

Thanks for the resource, Dave!  I like Oikos.

They posted this great groundnut quote:

“Digging one day for fishworms, I discovered the groundnut (Apios tuberosa) on its string, the potato of the aborigines, a sort of fabulous fruit, which had often since seen its crumpled red velvety blossom supported by the stems of
other plants without knowing it to be the same. Cultivation has well nigh exterminated it. It has a sweetish taste, much like that of a frostbitten potato, and I found it better boiled than roasted. The tuber seemed like a faint promise of Nature to rear her own children and feed them simply here at some future period. In these days of fatted cattle and waving grain - fields, this humble root, which was once the totem of an Indian tribe, is quite forgotten...” Walden by Henry David Thoreau

I think I'm going to try that guild in the barrel and see how it does. Will send pictures once it's established...

Beki

Yup.  I'm doing that with potatoes this year, growing them in a barrel of rough compost, as I don't have enough beds for a proper rotation. At the end of the season turn the barrel over, pick out the tubers, and you've got compost for another use!

Yes, me, too!  It's a pretty flower on a short 3-4 ft vine: I'll probably add a support and more flowers to the barrel for the nonce, treat it as an ornamental.

PFAF mentions it's hardy to Zone 3.  I just haven't heard of anyone growing it on the West Coast yet.

I'm in Zone 7 a/b, just below the Oregon border in California, near Mt. Shasta. We do get some hot, dry summer weather here, and it may need some sun protection then...

Has anyone got any experience growing this native american nitrogen-fixing vine with highly edible, sweet-potato-like tubers?

http://www.pfaf.org/database/plants.php?Apios+americana

I've got a couple coming from this fellow:
http://www.maryrowlandson.com/warrensgroundnutstore.html

and am planning to grow them in a half-barrel for a couple of years, to see how they do in my climate.  Warren recommends planting with asparagus, as both take about 3 years before they can be harvested. I would think digging the tubers could disturb the asparagus....

I've found a reference to growing it with sunchokes and mint: the groundnut vine climbs the sunchoke, fixes nitrogen.  Mint is the groundcover. All three are potentially invasive, hmmm...

Beki

I've heard from a friend in a CSA in NY State, where the members each tap their own trees, then boil the syrup down collectively, and everyone gets a quart in their box.  Certainly a more social way of "sugarin"!

I've been told (haven't grown it yet meself) that strawberry (not crimson) clover is perennial but doesn't run the way the white clovers do: it's not as invasive, a bit more well-behaved, if you will. 

What I've learned about comfrey is that it's not necessarily invasive, but you'd better be happy where you put it the first time, because it's really hard to get rid of, once it has got going. It's an accumulator, it's got deeep roots, which are brittle and will break off and resprout if you try to move the plant, and/or harvest the roots for medicine.  All it takes is a chunk o' root to propagate it.  I mostly just use it as a mulch plant, whacking it down a few times a year. I think one or two per fruit tree guild is enough, myself. 

Hi!  This is my first post in these forums, glad I found them!

I have a guild of mature Thompson seedless grapes (that shade the west wall of my house) with asparagus and white clover at the base.  This has been established for three years now, and is doing well. The grapes root so deeply there is no competition with the asparagus.

So far, the asparagus has no problem pushing through the clover, but I think I'd look into strawberry clover instead of white, if I were to do it again.

I was able to harvest some of the asparagus last year, and it was great!  I've just bought a few crowns to fill in some gaps in the row, being greedy.

Last fall I added garlic and oyster mushrooms to the mix, and have some yarrow to transplant nearby, as well.