B Beeson

Nancy Reading wrote:

B Beeson wrote:It is easily coppiced or pollarded.

I believe if you do that you get ginormous leaves! Ideal if you're wanting to use it as fodder... I wonder if it would grow on Skye?

Temperature tolerance down to -10F, so probably OK on Skye?

Does not like strong winds, those big leaves and tall spindly shoots would blow over very easily, so only in a very sheltered location.

Likes warm summer heat, definitely not very Skye.

Might be considered invasive, check your local ag regs. It spreads easily by wind-born seeds here in Southeast USA, but it doesn't make a nuisance of itself, in my opinion.

Not sure it would even flower on Skye with the cool climate, but if it does, the bees love it. Beautiful abundant light purple flowers appear pretty early, so useful for early bee food.


Edit: Almost forgot... Paulownia must have good drainage, sandy to silty, definitely not heavy clay soils. The combination of deep sandy soil and sheltered from wind might be tough on Skye.

I have some decades old experiences to pass along, with lots of learning-by-failing.

1. Round bales are very hard to work with. Pay extra for the square bale machine. Even then, it is a very irregular final product, and very large. This means you will need heavy equipment to do absolutely anything. The compressed square bales  are so large and heavy they are a danger to fragile human bodies up close.

2. Use stainless wire, thickest possible gauge. Rusting is a long term time bomb, wire failure during construction is basically an explosive event. Extreme danger to humans again. When the wires snap, the tension released whips them about at supersonic speed. Any contact with body parts results in instant amputation/decapitation/evisceration. Did I mention dangerous?

3. Icky. Forever. The smell will never go away. 100% effective encapsulation is necessary, if humans are going to be breathing the air of an enclosed building. Can you achieve a barrier that's 100% effective? For the lifetime of the building?

4. In most jurisdictions, you will face absolutely implacable denial, resistance and stonewalling from zoning and building permitting authorities. Get every approval upfront before even investing in the equipment. You will need engineer approved plans, etc. - very expensive. Or build in the Wild West areas of no zoning or building permits.

5. Consider the sidewall removal machines. They are much smaller, cheaper and simpler. The 3 pieces created are useful in completely different ways than bales, and much easier to work with. Human scale, much less dangerous.

May Lotito wrote:... After a year of slowly adding minerals back, I tried again and it works! Seedlings are strong and healthy and they start setting fruits a few days ago. It is still a couple months away from harvest but I am just so excited and want to share now.

Great news May!

What minerals did you add? When, how, etc...

Do you think the plant is perennial?

A simple but effective remedy would be to reverse the direction of the fan. Positive pressure inside the house will blow air into the RMH and out the chimney.

The main drawback is that the small amount of waste heat generated by the fan is now added to air entering the house instead of being vented.

Reusing/recycling mitigates the climate burden. That cost has already been incurred by the first user. Only purchasing new material adds to the Greenhouse Gas burden.

How thick are these sheet? If its normal 2 inch sheets that is, indeed, a very good price.

R. Scott's advice is sound. Isolate XPS from any exposure to UV light, and especially bugs. Can be hard to achieve 100% protection that lasts a long time underground.

XPS is eXtruded PolyStyrene. It's the same polymer as EPS - Expanded PolyStyrene, but blown up into a foamy consistency with a different process. XPS uses lots of very-bad-for-the-climate gasses as blowing agents, while EPS uses relatively inert gasses. These gasses will leak out over time, so the harm in using XPS is collective harm to the atmosphere, not a local contamination. It's bad for the climate in the same way as releasing old CFC refrigerants were.

Otherwise the polymer itself is essentially a solid form of petroleum, and, like most plastics, very toxic when burned, so it is treated with flame retardants. Now you've added two different toxic gicks to your soil. If you believe the industry propaganda, it will not break down in contact with the soil (stable for hundreds to thousands of years), but UV will degrade pretty quickly (years to decades), so keep it covered. Reading between the lines, I expect that conventional wisdom to slowly change. Firstly, XPS can be abraded by physical action into micro and nano plastic particles which will become very mobile in soil, water and bugs. Secondly, the long-term stability is mostly because nothing eats it. That will change. This will be a highly calorie rich food for the first bacteria that evolves an enzyme to break those never-before-seen-in-nature chemical bonds that currently make it a stable polymer of a natural food source (petroleum is, of course, a completely natural product that bacterial love to eat!)

Natural alternatives include expanded clay products, perlite, vermiculite, foamed glass pebbles, aerated concrete, biochar, and foamed cement to name the ones at top of mind for me.

William Bronson wrote:...
I.planted some old dried up garlic in here, but nothing came up, so I'm hedge my bets
...

As the days get longer and soil gets warmer, garlic is going dormant now. Any bulbs planted now will wait for fall: shorter days, cooler soil, more moisture. If not damaged over summer, they will pop up after a cool rain any time between late August to early October.

Waterlogged garlic can rot over the summer, damage from digging can cut the bulbs, allowing fungus to penetrate the protective skin, then rot.

Quick question:

Do they make good fishing bait?

If yes, then "...do not chop their bodies. This does not kill them and each piece becomes a new worm"  sounds like a way to make unlimited bait.

Welcome to Permies, Stacy!

Great start, keep it up. Learning what works and doesn't work is the core skill, but it takes time to make all the mistakes you need to learn from.

Have you considered making biochar from the dry deadwood, and brush? That would help with the clay soil, moderate soil acidity and improve drainage in your future garden beds. With just hand tools, a burn trench is a good choice. Have water on hand in case of escaping embers, choose a wet day during or after a rain, and especially not a windy day.

With all the trees around, you have a bounty of easily gathered leaves, and leaf mold on the forest floor. Use the leaf mold to mix into your garden soil and hugel surface. Use the leaves to keep soil covered and plants mulched. Bare exposed soil is dying soil, especially clay.

Have you had any deer showing interest in your growies?