Kyle Ritchie

Hi everyone. This isn't a very urgent question, just a curious questions.

My relatives have always loved having pine trees in their back yard. They've planted about 50 of these things and have had no trouble. They plant roughly 8-10 more every 5 years or so. Last year they planted 4 new ones. 3 Are doing great but the blue pine (Which they have planted before and have always been successful) has grown about 3 feet and has stopped. I remember reading about an instance where a couple had a cherry tree that wasn't producing well. So, they planted horseradish around the base of the tree and it did wonders. The cherry tree produced more, the horseradish produce abundantly and kept the weeds from growing. I'm wondering if there is a similar thing I can do that may get the blue pine growing more. Blue pine is my Aunts favorite and every time I'm over at her house she tells me how upset she is over it's stunted growth. I was hoping I could figure it out for her and give her a possible solution.

-Thanks all

Don't forget what you are standing on,
Don't forget what gives you life,
Breathe in deep, look up and out again,
Gaze off softly into night.

First of all, let me applaud you for having such a "gung ho" attitude about removing yourself from the deteriorating agriculture system. Secondly, let me strongly urge you not to rush into your first year of transformation. You more or less have two options, in my opinion:

1) Continue on with your soil preparation strategies, developing the small organisms in the soil in hopes that it will be sufficient to grow bountiful produce. It is possible to do that in the small time slot you are working with, however, I must again, strongly urge you to NOT rush the process. Such an exciting transformation only sparks the motivation in you to get started, I understand. But nature needs time.

2) Instead of planning on transforming your land next year, give it an extra year. Take that extra year to do more studying, develop more knowledge, allow the soil to mature, add more contents to the soil, deal with your back-yard situation (removing the leftovers) and by doing this, you're guaranteed to have a humus-enriched soil just begging you to plant things.

I've rushed the process before and wasn't too satisfied with the results. That's one situation out of a million, thought, so don't let it affect your judgement on your own situation. The only message I am trying to get across is that nature needs it's time to develop and mature.

Best of luck in your journey, whichever option you choose. Remember to keep local and grow as much food as your can! The earth is capable or great things if you give it time to prepare.

Look up the "Maximilian Sunflower" as well as it's benefits.

The best way to approach the land is to think about what the land can do for you. Write down its benefits as well as its drawbacks. When you know what you have to work with, and let me emphasis that phrase again: work with, then you can truly begin to consider what the best thing to do with the land is. The land may not be right for producing crops for consumption. Even though you may want to produce an entire array of fresh produce, ready for harvest, the purpose of the land may not match your hopes. It decides what it can do, not the human. The land may be beneficial for many other aspects that do not involve the planting of trees such as: being a habitat for animals, being an educational plot, harvesting rain water, small perennial fruit shrubs that can grow perpendicular to the steep slope, or you can go hog-wild, plant some really amazing trees, and let nature take over. Being a bare plot of land, that grows nettles, brambles and elder may be its purpose in the natural ecosystem. It looks like it is flourishing beautifully. Don't forget how amazing a simple landscape can be. Also, don't fight nature. Listen to it, learn and plan accordingly

-Best