7 Hatfield

I need at least 20 plants to start with.

We have a massive area to turn into a permanent green manure / nectary field.

I agree with Tel Jetson. Vol 2 before the appendices runs at 452 pages, with it is 654.

Well worth the time though. The amount of information that David and Eric compiled is astounding. I'm using both books as guides.

Cool! Where is your farm located?

Kyla: Glad to hear that others are looking! I like coming here because the attitudes on display are enthusiastic and everyone seems hungry to know more. I usually head here as a way to unwind and immerse myself in my new-found field of interest.

I'm very new to gardening and permaculture so I am very grateful for everyone's input. The fact that everyone is so different, but so much alike in that we love growing things and caring for our planet as much as we can makes this place special.

Lynx: I know people in the Tampa Bay area doing permaculture, and a few that are quite successful. If you want, I can PM you a contact down there. I'm not sure if you have the time or resources to travel to Tampa, but I'm sure you could work something out through the internet to discuss things.

I agree about your thoughts on the lack of specificity, but also agree with those who say "it depends." Like others, I have found the Edible Forest Gardens by Davide Jacke and Eric Toensmeier to be extremely valuable. In fact, its the only hard source I have right now (Gaia's Garden is on the list though!).

Paul Wheaton's videos inspired me to add to the discussion. His signature "If you like this sort of thing..."  line brought me here. And I see a lot of other new people as well. My only hope is that we all stay and help out as best as we can.

One thing that I'm hoping to accomplish with my postings here and with my "blog" (which will probably turn into a website), is to be as specific as I possibly can. I want to use all the privileges that I have to better this world, so I invested in a very nice camera.  I want people to see, up close and in detail what I'm doing and why. I want folks to become more familiar with the plants and terminology, and I think that adding more media to the equation, and in one place, will be helpful.

I'm working full time at a low-end job, so I can't do as much as I'd like, but I am working on some rough annual guilds and a site-plan. I'll be sharing my experiences, down to measurements for individual plants and guild performance, throughout the coming year.

Horizon is the only place I've seen having any roots for sale. Does anyone know of any other sources?

If I order, I'll have to do an experiment on just how small you can cut bocking 14 before it won't grow.

I'll try this too, with pictures and measurements.

Rose, maybe in time our garden will be able to answer your last question about planting 'plain' trees.

My parents put in native* and non-native trees in our back yard: 3 River birches (Betula nigra*), 1 Willow Oak (Quercus phellos*), 1 Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) and one 1 Red Maple (Acer rubum*). They also planted two willows; 1 Ram's Horn (Salix babylonica crispa) and 1 Weeping (Salix sepulcralis). The neighborhood developers lined our street with ornamental Bradford Pears (Pyrus calleryana) and planted some kind of pines on a hard berm in back in 1995.

Most of the trees we planted are about 6-8 years old. Now that we are designing a food forest, we have to account for the fact that our canopy layer is dominated by non-fruiting trees. Although the Cherry Plum is supposed to make some fruit, it was planted as an ornamental, leaving only the Red Maple for any sort of worthwhile food production. That said, the leaf litter from our trees will be quite useful. And it doesn't hurt that the birches will allow for dappled shade and not a very dense, inhibiting shade. The oak, on the other hand, could very easily turn into a huge problem: 30+ meters in height with deep shade.

We are going to keep our trees, but only time will tell whether or not my parents will have them removed so that we can plant fruit crops. So it will be interesting to compare our results with yours.

(3 photos attached, I hope they are not too big. If they are, let me know and I'll take them down and resize ASAP)

Our attempts at growing blue berries have been met with disaster so far, only one of three plants survived this summer. I'm going to be moving the sole survivor into a mound I built with pine needles, acidic soil, and compost. I've built a second mound for a blueberry that struggled and struggled, but I'm not sure if it will survive this winter.

While digging our ponds and pruning our pine trees, I discovered that I could build a sinuous mound among our pine trees. My plan is to use cover crops while the brush breaks down a bit over this year, then plant creeping blueberries.

This summer in Finland, I had the chance to go blueberry picking with my girlfriend's family near the Russian border. Its rather hazy because smoke from the peat fires this summer had blown in. The terrain was very lumpy and absolutely covered with blueberries. Not too many per bush, but the fact that the forest floor was absolutely carpeted by them made up for that. I figure that the sinuous mound will sort of replicate that texture, even though we are in entirely different zones (NC Piedmont vs Finland).

Here are some photos:



The forest.



Me picking some berries.



The harvest in about an hour with six of us picking. As I said, not too much, but worth it.

How small can the roots of Bocking 14 be? A county extension agent said I could come by sometime and have some, but I'm not sure just how many he will allow me to take.

I'm going to be planting gobs of comfrey this year, especially in one area of our property that we can't invest much into since the state is allowed to tear it up whenever they want (storm drainage). I figure we can turn that area into a living mulch / nectary guild.

So, I've been looking online and only found one website that has a decent price on roots... Where do you all source yours from if you do not have a neighbor that wants to divide?