K White

It is great for mind mapping. People often refer to it as a second brain.. you can also view a map of everything and how it is interconnected, giving you that picture of how things relate. There are also many community plugins such as excalidraw (drawing, of course. But simplified with precoded shapes. Also can label parts of the drawing to link to where that item is found in your notes)

There is also a dataview plugin, the options are endless that's my problem. I hope you enjoy it!

Rachel Lindsay wrote:I have just downloaded this interesting software, and begun organizing some writing ideas with it. How interesting!

I am an inveterate MindMapper, and that's probably what I would still go for were I trying to organize all the gardening stuff you've mentioned. This program looks like it is highly interconnectable, but I would want to see as much stuff on one page as possible, which I haven't yet figured out how to do with Obsidian.

Did you ever give it a shot? Never heard if this. Very interesting

The past couple years I have been using obsidian and creating file systems for things like cooking recipes, computer investigations, and daily to do's. For those familiar, it is an extremely powerful application for tracking, creating, and linking thoughts. Any thoughts. Highlight on the linking capa ilities. I am wanting to expand this process to my gardening to aid in keeping track and replicating things that work season after season. I'd also like to use this to keep track of cultivars, what is planted where/garden maps.

The problem is, I suffer greatly from decision paralysis and since it is such an in-depth system, I'm struggling where to start. Does anyone use obsidian for their gardening adventures? Would like to be able to create a template that can be used for each planted species to track important events such as planting, germination rates, harvest, as well as things listed above. Any guidance or experience appreciated!

Eric Hanson wrote:I was getting nostalgic while writing my last post so I went looking for old pictures of the old house and landscaping.  I found a picture of the flower bed with the phlox in full bloom.  Just to reiterate, I built the retaining wall (I think I did a pretty good job for having never done a project like this before).  I think the plants in the background are tulips.  The phlox is about a year old if memory serves.

Eric

That's awesome! Great to look back on photos of our first house as well. We recently moved into a 5 acre lot, al field. Great because it's a blank slate, bad because everything I add looks completely random for now until I can fill it in more. Just a huge field then.... oh there's a house. Oh there's 2 cherry trees.

Difficult in my mind how to start something totally new. But it is very fertile, it used to be sheep pasture.

I ended up finding a guy who had arborist chips, exactly what I was looking for. I was told the playground chips are super finely ground to absorb shock, which is something I don't really want. I was just intrigued at multiple sources saying the playground chips didn't break down because it didn't make sense to Me. My theory is they get really compacted being so fine

Working o creating some new garden beds. Local landscaping shop said that they have playground mulch but no wood chips. I did some research on playground mulch and it appears this is not recommended for a garden because multiple sources said it does no leach organic material into soil. Is this true? If so I need an explanation I'm not understanding

George Booth wrote:Considering the tracking of the Sun throughout the day I'd personally suggest E-W over N-S orientation. I'd just like to throw it out there that I planted multiple trees last year and variations of the old Ellen White method actually are growing the biggest and fastest. I've since then learned that tree roots secondary feeder roots actually tap into rocks to harvest trace minerals so it's making more sense to me now. I didn't follow her exact method I just put 3 medium size rocks at the bottom of a 3 ft deep 3' diameter hole covered in a layer of leaf litter followed by layers of native soil and homemade compost mixed in with some citrus tone fertilizer, one more rock directly beneath the root ball and that's it. The tree's that got this style of planting are far healthier than the others and are currently growing tons of new branches. I don't know why I see professionals these days suggesting to never dig deeper than the root ball/current pot size, I tried that too and it grows trees but they are dealing with more pest issues and don't grow as vigorous.  

I have not heard of this! Will be looking into it! Love this forum already.

Timothy Norton wrote:Welcome to Permies.

I am kind of in the same thought as you with getting the trees in the ground! I have looked towards good placements instead of perfect placement because of it but I'm sure to make it work.

When you mention putting it along a driveway, how close are you imagining? I wouldn't want to be RIGHT on the driveway because of impaction/outward growth. I don't imagine if it is just sunset or a few hours at the end of the day that it will be much of an effect. Once again, not ideal but not a bad thing really.

I think before I get too far into thoughts, what kind of fruit trees are you thinking of having? What is your climate like?

Yeah it wouldn't be too close, about 15 feet or so. I like the idea of neughboors having access, but its also at the entrance of neighbooehood meaning passers by my grab
a snack.  The more I look at the trees the more i doubt it will work. So far we're planting 3 apple and 3 peach but would like a little more variety. We're in 7B, Eastern panhandle of wv just outside Washington DC

Going against the advice of seasoned permaculture artists and planting right away... The reason for this is the amount of time to get fruit from trees. A couple questions on tree placement.

My ideal area would be right along the driveway so neighbors can enjoy, as were in agreement to be building a sort of community here. Problem is, there is a clump of trees about 100 yards to the west that would block sunset. Is this an issue? Trees would recieve full sun the rest of the day.

That ideal location also appears to be on the prevailing winds side of the property. Issue?

Secondary position isn't ideal, but would allow full sun the entire day.

Also, I have seen conflicting info. Should the rows go N-S or E-W? I could see both ways being effective in my mind. Do rows even exist in permaculture? If not, do you have a preffered planting method?