Nick Shepherd

would there be any way to get/buy a couple of cuttings when he prunes it this spring, a green wood cutting early summer, or maybe better get a rooted plant later.

OK.  I ended up with a pile of shredded leaves and grass clippings (dormant) that is roughly 3.5' tall, 9' wide and 36' long.  What is the best way to wet them?  Rain will eventually do so but it will take a long time,  I am thinking I will put a soaker hose on top and move it every couple of hours or maybe a sprinkler.  Even with smaller piles the usual problem is water runs through the pile without throughly soaking everything.  I plan on a static pile to encourage fungal dominance but could turn it once or twice with the front end loader to get them wet. .

Will probably do all the above suggestions.  I have some honey berries that I may give one more year before pulling, I'll try some tall plants to the west of these in addition to the currants.  I will try to root some fig cuttings and plant those also.

I like both the trellis an fig ideas, especially the figs.  A lot of the time figs freeze back to the ground but regrow to 8 ft and produce fruit afterward. By the time it gets hot they should have grown enough th provide shade

I have been trying to grow gooseberries and currants without much success.  My climate is to hot and humid during the summer.  They do good in the spring and even produce a small crop, but then lose all their leaves and go dormant.  In the fall they bud back out, I am sure production could be much better.  I really don't have a good place that gets partial shade but I have been thinking I could plant Sorghum or okra in a north/south row to the west of them mostly to provide shade.  I have never grown sorghum and a few okra plants provide all I need but the seed is cheap.  Is there any reason that this wouldn't work?  Any better ideas?

I mow my field once a year with a bush hog so they’re not a problem.  The only ones I have are around the edges and for the last few years I graft everyone I find.  Since they are young and competing with the oaks and hickory they don’t have a lot of fruit

Leaf mold it is then, thank you.   This is what I have always done in the past.  But this year I decided to use it all as mulch, eliminating moving it again after completed.  I also always regretted that in summer when I had lots of greens I didn't have the browns.  
After I finish mulching everything, I will probably make most of it into leaf mold but I may save some for making compost next spring.

Can't figure out how to upload pic

I spent two weeks raking, mowing/shredding fall leaves then raking up the shredded leaves and mulching around fruit trees/bushes and vegetable garden.  
Two days ago, I was talking to a friend whose son owns a lawn maintenance business, I mentioned what I had been doing and he ask if I needed more leaves, of course I said yes.  Today they delivered two truckloads of shredded leaves, almost exclusively oak, and promised to deliver at least two more.  One truckload is probably >/= to all I gathered and processed.    
With this good fortune and never having been in this position, I was wondering how to use or save the excess.  A small portion, maybe 20%, of the additional leaves will be used for mulch.  I don’t currently have the greens necessary to make large amounts of compost.  
Should I just pile them up dry and compost next summer?  
Cover to keep dry or allow to weather over winter?  
Wet as much as possible and allow to age into leaf mold?
No one said so, but I can probably get them again next year.

18 lbs/acre.  I think I will mostly leave things as they are, if anything I might use the bulb auger/triple phos and potash or just wood ashes around the few plants that don't seem to be doing as well I they should