Officially 'here'

Been following a lot of great conversations/questions on this site for a few months and happy to make myself official finally!  
We relocated to a remote Appalachian property in September to give our kids space to grow up outside and explore the natural adventures we'd been scuttling for too long.
I hope to better connect with your knowledge and wisdom as I develop plans for a natural children's playground, public gardens and a farmers market.  There is so much to consider and I am most often one who won't read directions before undertaking IKEA furniture builds - only to slightly regret it later.     I have had to reign in that urge to just start digging terraces and throwing seeds in the ground.   Blessed be the winter which has forced me to slow down.  
Any direction you all have on flowering perennials for 6a/heavy clay,  landscape design planning/tools, resources for managing a broad soggy runoff section of pasture.  Rejuvenating an older blueberry patch, making sense of the overgrown blackberry patch...

Our property has an outdoor furnace that heats the house and greenhouse.... we've learned a lot about how these work, but hope to install solar for the house and use more passive solar options for the greenhouse...

lots of work and exciting things to learn and build/grow.

Sharon

Hi Sharon. Welcome to Permies! It sounds like you're taking the first steps in a grand adventure.

Have fun exploring and searching this site. It's a great resource!

Welcome to Permies, Sharon! Congratulations on your new property. Sounds like you've had enough time to do some observing and taking stock of what you need to do. Permies will be a good resosurce for you.

Congrats !

Welcome! Cozy up with your hot beverage of choice and join us as we soak in the wealth of wisdom found here.

Sharon Nanfelt wrote:

I hope to better connect with your knowledge and wisdom as I develop plans for a natural children's playground...

My own soapbox about natural children's playgrounds is that nature IS a child's playground. I've seen people tout all-wood jungle gyms, but it seems to me that they cut down a tree so children could climb it. Wouldn't allowing the children to climb a living tree accomplish the same thing? (I know...safety issues...I understand that. I just see an irony in it.)

Rejuvenating an older blueberry patch, making sense of the overgrown blackberry patch

My own experience with these is that right now (dormant winter) is the best time to give them all a good hack down to nearly ground level and let them leaf out on new branches in the coming Spring.

Blueberries bear fruit on 2nd year growth, so you'll miss this next year's harvest. But wow, they should produce gangbusters the following year, after a good haircut!

I copied this quote from the LSU Ag Center website regarding blackberries: "Primocane blackberries produce berries on the current-season growing cane. This differs from standard blackberries that produce on 2-year-old canes. Floricane blackberries bear fruit on 2-year-old canes. The new growth that is produced in the spring and summer will not bear fruit that year but will produce berries the following year." So depending on which varieties of blackberries you have, you might or might not get some fruit the same year. Either way, tidying up the brambles would be a healthy thing.

Looking forward to hearing about all the fun projects you've got planned for your new property!