Chris Ferguson

Is there a good article or your good advice to analyze the placement of my hugelkulture beds.  I have a square parcel with winter sun and cold winds both coming in from the upper right corner.  This is south facing and coastal valley environment.  Parallel curving raised beds with gaps between perpendicular to that corner?  I would want to flow the wind with the curves so it doesn't build a frost pocket?

Thank you !
Chris

Aimee: I would like your recipe for the sauce.  I don't know about the seed coating in sore throat remedies as I am saving my quince seeds to plant another bush.  I dried them without the coating.

Hello!  I'm an amateur permaculturist. Questions for hugelkultur folks: I have a stump about 10 inches in diameter.  Today a big batch of termites flew out next to my house.  Do I remove the stump?  My husband says no due to it being a nice habitat for salamanders.  Any advice?  I guess I can keep watch on my house to see if they next into the door frames.

Chris Ferguson
San Francisco Bay Area

Do you remember the Bill Mollison Permaculture video where the homesteader grew a palm tree next to a rock outcropping in Northern Washington?  It was two large boulders that were south facing.  The palm tree right up against it.  Well, I thought that you might experiment with Globe Artichoke.  I have a plant in my garden and I can't get rid of the thing !   Not that I want to.  I love artichokes.  The point was that it was hardier than anything else in my permaculture garden.

San Francisco South Bay Area, Zone 11: Here is a picture of the PANACHE FIG and then BLACKJACK FIG.  My friends have a fig tree in Phoenix, Arizona that is 35 feet high and 30 feet wide.  They love the heat!  I'm afraid to plant mine into the ground since, sadly, I have a suburban lot.  One of these days I will have my acreage, then I'll grow a beautiful fig tree naturally.  Meanwhile, here's a pic of my 3-year-old "Backyard Orchard Culture" - fruit tree hedge - dwarves - cherries, pears, asian pear, nectarines, peach, apricot, plum, almond and Granny Smith apple.  I used white clover as the nitrogen-fixer.  I was afraid to plant chop-'n-drop acacia trees due to small space.

Chris
Permaculture Enthusiast

I live in a warmer climate.  I have an area dedicated to our dwarf Lionshead pet rabbit, mostly herbs.  He keeps all the plants chewed down to their stems and when they re-leaf he mows them again.  It's interesting how he has learned not to kill them outright.  It looks like a stick garden and reminds me of The Addams Family movie where Morticia lops off the roses and keeps the thorny stems for the vase.  I digress.  Anyway, I noticed that there are tiny red mites (?) running around the moist soil.  They make my skin crawl and I'm trying to decide if it's a pest or a Permaculture symbiotic relationship.  Guys, Gals, DO I NEED TO AERATE THE SOIL BETTER FOR A DRYER AREA ?  OR MAKE PEACE WITH THEM?  I don't want to expose Button to an overload of them.  (And for those of you who are not vegetarian:  NO.  The solution isn't to have rabbit stew for dinner.   LOL!  )

Thanks,
Chris Ferguson
Fellow Permaculture Enthusiast

Just a P.S.:
Los Angeles is proposing a wildlife overpass to the Highway 101 so that the pumas (mountain lions/cougars) can go from one forest preserve to the other without getting hit.  It's up for debate because some say it's a bottleneck choke point which the wild cats would not likely go through.   I like the idea since the highway does cut the Los Angeles National forest in half.  Why didn't they allow bridge overpasses.underpasses along the highway when originally built.  $$$ of course.  The other debate is about increasing their population.  Last weekend, a 2-year-old toddler was grabbed by the neck and dragged away while the family was hiking.  The Dad threw his backpack at him and successfully chased him off.  They euthanized that animal.  Geez.  Is our overpopulation causing problems for them.  Ya think?

I wonder, how does your large electrified fencing work on the big permaculture homesteads?  I enjoy Geoff Lawton's videos about moving their grazing animals around the acreage.  And the chicken tractor seems to be successful with an electrified wire on the field fence, then well-closed trailer coop for moving later on.

No easy answers,
Chris
Your Fellow Permaculture Enthusiast

Sorry to hear about your loss.  It's always sad when preyed upon.  I vote for raccoon.  One morning the nailed-down nest box on my coop was completely ripped off and no sign of all chicks.  I saw a raccoon the next night come out of the storm drain.  They are persistent and can manipulate most anything.  I don't know how big your coop is but for mine, I was able to put a second round of fencing using chain link, with digging down a barrier underneath.  They are probably already looking for the weak link to work on.

Regarding a relocation of a predator, is that successful?  I saw a beautiful coyote running across the expressway on several nights to go between two open fields.  I called Wildlife Game control.  They said it was probably a healthy male that has grown up and now looking for a mate and to establish his own territory.   That they will not trap and relocate because the coyote at the new territory will fight him to the death.  Consequently, they would  euthanize him.

Yikes!  I worry about my livestock but I could never send a beautiful wild predator to a kill facility.  I'm all about fencing or strong quarters to keep them out.  Get their food elsewhere.

Chris
Fellow Permaculture Enthusiast

Great thread, James.  Thank you for posting it.  So I have my judgmental clothing stories, too.   Like the time I was sent home from work on their announced "Casual Dress Friday" because my blouse didn't quite match my slacks.  But what I wanted to relay is my experience in San Francisco one May.  My 7-year-old daughter and I were standing at the street light when a group of about 100 men and some women marched by all naked.  A man asked me, "Aren't you going to cover your daughter's eyes?"  I said, "No, we run around nude inside our house, too."  I asked what was up?  He said that they have a march every year to maintain the right to be nude.  San Francisco allows it but there is pressure to change the ordinance.   I'm all for being free.