The Pancakery

Brian Jeffrey wrote: Like I said before I wanna grow the usual veggies and greens. But I've got this idea to grow Apple Tree Guild flats to sell. I wanted to grow comfrey just anyway, but imagine for a moment. . . a flat of starts with comfrey, yarrow, dill, fennel, beans peas, garlic, etc, and a seed mix of the same and more to throw under the mulch. There are already tons of people around Denver with fruit trees in their yards. This would be a plug and play style of guild build, instant succession at its best.

Hey Brian this sounds like an awesome idea! This type guild flat would make it EASY for anyone to get a polyculture going, I'm curious if you've been able to develop this.
Thanks for all the updates

Josh Huorn wrote:

Brian Jeffrey wrote: Like I said before I wanna grow the usual veggies and greens. But I've got this idea to grow Apple Tree Guild flats to sell. I wanted to grow comfrey just anyway, but imagine for a moment. . . a flat of starts with comfrey, yarrow, dill, fennel, beans peas, garlic, etc, and a seed mix of the same and more to throw under the mulch. There are already tons of people around Denver with fruit trees in their yards. This would be a plug and play style of guild build, instant succession at its best.

Hey Brian this sounds like an awesome idea! This type guild flat would make it EASY for anyone to get a polyculture going, I'm curious if you've been able to develop this.
Thanks for all the updates

I have not, yet, made a guild kit. But I am grateful that you mentioned it, I had not thought about this project in too long!.

I previously flushed out a plant list and wrote explanations of the permie principles to plant and run the tree guild. But money to implement was not around. Here is the plant list and the functions each performs on a pic. Too much to type ATM









The permaculture directions took on a life of their own as well. Ended up with several pages of "good stuff", or raving madness. Either way this has revitalized my interest in this. Thanks again for the reminder.

I've so enjoyed your Pancakery Plot towards World Domination. It's been quite a journey. I do have a few questions about your most resent post. Why did you scratch nasturtium from the list of mulch and not at least add it back under insectary? Are fennel and garlic nutrient accumulaters? I would have not considered them because of their shorter roots.

Karen Layne wrote:I've so enjoyed your Pancakery Plot towards World Domination. It's been quite a journey. I do have a few questions about your most resent post. Why did you scratch nasturtium from the list of mulch and not at least add it back under insectary? Are fennel and garlic nutrient accumulaters? I would have not considered them because of their shorter roots.

Thanks for the kind words I am not sure why I nixed nasturtiums altogether. Looking back through my brainstorm notes I don't see anything written to that end. I would suppose it had more to do with the local Colorado climate I was making the list for, or maybe they did not play well with others in the garden. . . ? . . . I cannot say with certainty.


The fennel and garlic are noted as nutrient accumulators in "Gaia's Garden" by Toby Hemenway, First edition, page 202ish, in the Herbaceous table.



EDIT: In my own plant notes Garlic is noted for accumulating Sulfur and Manganese. Fennel for Nitrogen and Phosphorous.

I love nasturtium and i try to get all the seeds from the ones I've planted. They are beautiful, tasty and i hope they're doing their job of keeping the bugs away.
Since the rain/sleet has sent me inside early today, i think I will read in my copy of "Gaia's Garden". That, to me, is much better than watching the basketball game that's on.

Squirrels or a possum went on a deep mining mission in the 10gal pot. I guess this is a semi-till pot now In an effort to prevent repeat digging, I have crammed a bunch of old dead bramble canes throughout the pot. So far its been two nights and no further incident. Otherwise the cloudy days have kept the seedling flat from growing too much.

Greetings! Spring has been a good mix of sun and rain over here. The 10gal pot is brimming with seedlings, as well as the tray. In the rockwool cubes tomatoes, zucchini, and the herbs are getting nice and big. Saved over $40 in starts by growing my own, you pay to be lazy













And I have also been working over at my parents garden. Built a greenhouse with two cattle fence panels to protect their fig tree and other plants. Recently I put in 4x4 posts to fence around a 35'(ish) square garden. I have a few patches all to my own in there, the straw covered key-line patch and end-caps on the strawberry patch. Planted in a greens/herbs//legumes cover crop mix so far. Lots of seedlings coming in.