Nynke Muller

Ac Baker wrote:

...As for tea making....no? ...
Whereas, there are apparently triterpenoid saponins in Camellia japonica L. leaves water extract ...

I think that is a big YES for tea making. Maybe we should call it an "infusion" or "herbal tea" because it will be different than regular tea.
Or am I wrong? Do I misunderstand the scientific information, maybe there is something I have missed, because I am not a native english speaker?

I have such a bush as well, and I have never thought of trying it. If it is really a bad idea, please let me know.

Thank you Jen,
than I have removed them way too early in the past. I will be more patient in the future, if a sweet potato will make leaves again ever...

Hi Jen,

Thank you for sharing this comparison.
I am trying to grow slips and next sweet potatoes, but so far it failed somewhere. Your pictures got me thinking: At what length do you cut off the slips? I might have been doing this way too early.

Kind regards, Nynke

Hi Joshua,

A late reply on your question about the metal tree stakes:
1. My experiments with electroculture were very disapointing. All plants died, the controlgroup thrived.
2. Freshly planted trees should not grow. They should develop roots and anker themselves.

Currently I am reading a book on trees. It explaines that naturally sown trees in a forrest grow very slowly in their first (20 to 80) years, because they are shadowed by their mother. That makes them grow small, but strong cells in their wood. The slower a tree grows in their first years, the older it gets. When the mother tree dies, her children are stong and ready to grow fast in the newly available sunlight and nutrition from their decaying mother tree.

Maybe you don't want a strong tree that becomes very old and you prefer production, that is fine. You have a choice. You choose (semi-) dwarf rootstock, which means you choose a slower and weaker growing, short living plant, which will produce quickly. I am happy for you that your Braeburn has survived and is leaving out. Now be patient, and jus let it do what it is meant to do, and don't mess with it to do something else.

If you want a strong long living tree, you can plant every seed from every delicious apple that you eat and see what happens. That is what I started doing two years ago. There is nothing to lose. Good luck!

(Edited because of spelling error: saying something, meaning something different. I am not a native english speaker)

Good morning Jen,
This does not sound silly at all!
I wish you a better day today and at least one perfect moment every day.

Hi R,

To build the longest lasting raised beds, the corners are the most important in my experience. At this very moment our second set of raised beds is collapsing. Most of the boards are still fine, but again, the poles are rotting faster, probably due to their vertical orientation, which favors wicking water from the ground as well as absorbing rainwater when it lands on the top.

We choose the hardiest quality wood for both the poles and the boards, and it lasted quite some time (10+ years). What we wish we had done, is using steel 90 degrees angled profiles in stead of poles, on the outside corners of the beds. We should have driven them half the length into the ground. We even considered doing that when the wooden poles started to give up two years ago. We could imagine that even when the boards would rot away, we could replace them by sliding (hammering) in new boards from above.

We decided not to do that (because we have so many beds, that it would be very expensive; we have "funny" shaped beds for which no standard profiles are available and our ground is pretty soft, what probably would cause the steel profile to loose its exact vertical position relatively quickly so it can no longer function. We decided to go "all natural" and let all beds collapse into hills, which we are connecting with each other hugelstyle), but we still think that the steel poles are a good idea!

Good luck with your bed, have fun building and growing!

Thank you Tereza!
This site is full of helpful information on the subject. If you search for "edible tree leaves", you will find multiple topics. Of course it was permies.com that inspired me in the first place.

In 2026, besides doing what I always do, to obtain what I have always obtained (mostly fruit), I will, as in other years, try something new: Tree leaves!

Even in a temperate climate like my own, there are multiple trees with edible leaves. Edible tree leaves are in general very nutricious and supposedly some are very tasty. I have tried a young Linden leave and it was tasty indeed. I have made tea of young dried fig leaves and it tasted like coconut! But for some reason, maybe because it is so unusual and there is only a small window of opportunity for foraging them, I forget about it next year. But this year I happen to have some extra time in on my hands, right now in spring time, when tree leaves are best.

Therefore, I solemny swear, here on permies, that in 2026, I will learn more on edible tree leaves, taste more edible tree leaves, make the dietary change to include more edible tree leaves in my meals, plant some more trees with edible leaves in my garden.

I already have: mulberry; grape; fig. So I will start including those in my meals.
I intend to plant: linden and beach in hedges, because I have the right spot for them.
I will experiment with beech, because it grows nearby in a public space.
I am curious what else I can learn... taste.... and experiment with.

Hi Jake,
Have you ever heard of Ernst Götch and syntropic farming? I love the concept and his work is fantastic!
The concept is based on natural succession of plants. It seems to me that nature might have done a lot of good in a 80 years of human neglect.
Honestly I don't have much experience with this method, but I would certainly look into it before destoying in a day what nature has been building underground fo 80 years.
I think it depends on the size of the trees that you are going to plant, and how easy it is to dig a hole for them. I think it would be possible to clear only small spaces for your trees, and manage their sunlight by cutting surrounding growt all year. It is something different, but I would give it a try.

Hi Richard,
You have already gained some confidence pruning most of the overcrowded shoots away. Well done!
I studied the pictures after pruning, and I would remove some more:
1. I would remove everything that grows vertically out of the branches, or redirect it in a more horizontal direction.
2. I would check the spacing of the latheral growt. Your tree looks pretty big to me, so i would want to grow a firm structure that would last for many years to come. I want each branch to look like a feather, with enough space for each side branch to grow out into a feather by itselves. Does that make sense to you?
3. I would cut one third off all long new shoots that I want to keep, to stimulate flowering.
4. At  the main trunk, you might want to grow a third and maybe fourth branch to fill the space, but creating a spot where water collects should be avoided at all cost. That would cause rot in the trunk and will be the beginning of the end of the tree. So imagine what happens when these new shoots at the trunk grow really big in 20 years or so. If it will cause a problem in 20 years, cut it off now and create space for something better to happen. If not, you continue with this main structure of two branches and work with that.
The goal you should prune towards is an open bowl shape, that catches lots of sunlight for flowers to fotm and fruit to ripen.