Hugo Morvan

The first picture are the spontaneous ones that popped up in grass, they're bigger than the  second ones are the deliberate ones.

Makes you wonder if we're overthinking the whole soil prep thing sometimes.

That got me thinking. I have put a plastic tarp down and the grass must have pretty much died back there. Now i saw a guy on the youtube with a microscope who said that is a bad habit, because it kills the soil life. Especially when it's dry over summer.
So i'll use these seeds to go and put it full of parsnip. It's a bit late, so i'm soaking them and will overseed like crazy.

 I have heard that you can get problems with inbreeding with parsnip - but I think that is when you select too few roots to make your population. If you've got good mix of genes to start with, and let lots go to flower, then it shouldn't be a problem I think.

I have had them for at least 5 years and have added new varieties at every turn, every seed exchange or private exchange i've added genetics. I mean i didn't start out like some people do buying 10 differing varieties and cross that, but i'm slowly landracing toward something which is very prolific. I've heard that's what i'm selectingfor unknowingly at first , because if you want like the biggest parsnips, you have to dig them all up select the biggest/sweetest or roundest or longest or whatever one desires and replant the selected ones to let them go to seed. But since i just let them be i'm selecting the best seeders/most agressive growers. Not many crops i know withstand grass and shade it out. So i'm excited about the prospect of using it as a soilbuilding cover crop or mulchprovider like comfrey, but comfrey stays for years on end, i've nort seen one die.
I'll send a picture later if i remember.

I do not know if they're trying to tell you something but mine did that last year. I left them to grow, they're big now and might flower. I like it because as mentioned above they are great soilbuilders. When left going to seed , the root dies back and this is great for worms and it leaves a plug to turn into airy soil. They're starting to behave kind of wild my grex. I haven't tried last year, but this year they're all over the place, i want to try and use them as mulch. Just wack em with a hoe or hand scythe. The ones making it ,i take it, have a stronger genetic pattern, i'll let them seed and keep building this wild variety of parsnip.

I do believe prices might double, (bad enough) but i do not understand where the 10 fold is coming from. But if so, rice and beans are going to be popular as well as wild foraging and stealing from people's gardens.
I am doing my bit by planting more potatos. Good plan to move some sunchokes. I have planted some tobacco early, i thought if prices are going to go up, people won't have money for tobacco but be stressed and want to smoke even more. Barter material.
I believe and see most capable people are already giving it their best and cannot do much more than they are doing already. Adding more crisis talk in an overly alarmed society will not change a lot i think.
I checked a bit on youtube and saw AI slob about growing gardens..People generally overestimate what they can achieve, growing a garden full of food with no previous experience... They come across 100% sure they will have super gardens, better than those socalled gardeners, because they're winners. But they'll learn trying. And then in disappointment look for guidance. People's focus will shift to food growing as insecurity strikes and prices rise. And as chemical inputs will become too costly for many, attention will automatically shift to how to do local and biological, maybe even work with nature, not against it. Permaculture movement can and should flourish. I would also like to point out to people here that seed saving has never been more important. Plant some extra, and let the biggest plants provide seeds, share extra seeds of this year with friends willing to really grow.(in doubt do not share, but keep them for later)
But back on topic if the price of food goes up tenfold, anything can happen and none are good.

Hi Nosherwan. Great to hear of your plans. In permaculture nothing is standard, every situation is unique, but the fun thing is that you can tell us about what the problems are and then we'll help you along as best as we can. The people at Permies are a nice bunch.
If i think of Pakistan i think it's going to be dry, but i could totally be mistaken. That's why it starts a bit with you sending some pictures or describing your local situation and then we can together think of solutions that are more or less workable for you.

Swallows and bats eat their weight in mosquito's. Encourage them to come by making a pond which will attract a lot of mosquito's. Sounds counter productive. But before i had a pond i had a net on my bed. Now i have swallows and bats and sleep with the windows open in summer.

Please keep in mind that if your tree doesn't flower it will put it's energy into growing bigger and higher, so future crops will be more bountiful. It's an exponential grow game and nothing out of the ordinary. Fully comprehending your feeling though, I looked at my plum tree that had popped up from imported compost, for five years before it flowered and gave the best tasting plums i ever had. Green gauge it turned out. Breeds true to seeds and suckers! Damn i threatened it to cut it down the year it finally flowered and would have as well. Now i got 30 of it's clones growing and we've grafted 4 differing varieties on one of them a few weeks back. Patience is a virtue.

This is not thyme. Thyme is a small shrub and there is a creeping form which is less woody, but flowers are purple and it's leaves are in both cases small oval hard-ish and a bit fat and clearly smell of thyme. Purple flowers early summer. If i had to guess what you photographed is in the Gallium family, but thats' a big family of 300 species. So i can't help you find out if it's medicinal or useful in any way. Sorry.

A friend of mine plonked a bunch of potted up rose cuttings in my hoop house last winter, 60% made it till now. She put varieties in pots, like 4 of these in this one pot and then 4 in the other. She instructed me to use rooting hormone, which i usually don't because i don't like adding stuff to soil and prefer to grow varieties that are easily propagated naturally, so that in my system i can easily scale up while not relying on externals. But i had instructions so i did put the rooting hormone in and mostly it depended on varieties, if they survived. She says it doesn't work without rooting hormone, and she's stubborn as a mule, so telling her about the grain of rice won't change a thing. Although i like little tips like that.
On topic, i think rooting hormone can be handy, but there are alternatives and using a stronger one is worse and doesn't always lead to the same results as much in my limited experience depends on variety used..

This is a what's your favorite used herb topic. Everybody... Plantain

This aside i would like to show this route because i've noticed not everything works the same on everybody...just see what your ailments are and try different herbs for that and see what sits best, you can also do mixes in some cases. I don't mind digging up roots if i need to, but that's a thing i'd look into if time/physical wise you're capable of doing that.

Personally i went another route, i just tried to grow as many herbs as i can that are known medicinals, cause if it doesn't help me, it will help someone else and if not at least it will add to diversity and some specified insect might just like it...