Pics from Greg's Forest Garden

Thank you.  I think this German fig is as you describe.  I live in the Northeast United States in the state of Maine.  We have typically had winter low temperatures of about -20F (-29C), though our lows keep getting warmer and warmer, with this past winter being only about 0F (-18C).  We typically get snow before Christmas that lasts until early spring, though this year we started with 28" of snow which melted away completely and so our plants went into winter without snow.

If you can grow figs then I suspect that you can grow pawpaws and encourage you to do it.  They can handle cold well, but if your growing season is at all short then seek out varieties that ripen quickly.  Mine just barely ripen before the first frosts come.

Here's a different in ground fig I'm growing.  I pin it to the ground each year under bags of mulch and release it as soon as the snow melts off the bags.  It's sprung back up to 8' tall and wide and is covered in figs...will they ripen in time...starting to worry as it's late September!

Last year I found a chestnut husk, but that was all.  This year the chinese chestnut seedlings that I planted as seeds a decade ago are starting to really bear.  Can't wait to see what's inside these husks!

I seeded 1000s of wild lupin seeds into a shady strip along my driveway.  A few survived these conditions and one of them flowers pink!
(took this picture during the slim window when sun shoots down the driveway alley through the forest)

Glad you can appreciate lupins... In Scandinavia they are one of the very worst invasives, right up there with Japanese knotweed, and probably the most widely spread, so I can not really enjoy them, even if the flowers really are very beautiful.

By the way, do you happen to know if there is a way to get mayapple seeds in Europe? Been looking, but the only seed company that seems to have them charged outrageous prices and seemed all round dodgy, so still looking.

Eino Kenttä wrote:Glad you can appreciate lupins... In Scandinavia they are one of the very worst invasives, right up there with Japanese knotweed, and probably the most widely spread, so I can not really enjoy them, even if the flowers really are very beautiful.

I've spread wild lupin seeds into that shady bed as well as into my forest garden and I've been watching them closely due to how heavily they can spread.  So far they have not been invasive for me at all.  I think the level of competition has kept them in check so far.  In my forest garden I'm afraid that they will just disappear and I have to help them in small ways.  But your point is very well taken....I'm watching them closely!

Eino Kenttä wrote:By the way, do you happen to know if there is a way to get mayapple seeds in Europe? Been looking, but the only seed company that seems to have them charged outrageous prices and seemed all round dodgy, so still looking.

Sorry Eino, I don't.  I'd suggest putting in a request in the seeds and breeding forum to see if you can connect with someone out there that has them.  Fingers crossed for you!  For some reason this year my mayapples didn't set any fruit.

Eino Kenttä wrote:By the way, do you happen to know if there is a way to get mayapple seeds in Europe? Been looking, but the only seed company that seems to have them charged outrageous prices and seemed all round dodgy, so still looking.

If you are a member of the Hardy Plant Society, they have a seed distribution each year. I've had some interesting edibles from them: Hardy Plant List You have to be a member, and there is a small charge for the seeds as well. You would need to check your countries import restrictions as well.

Thanks! About the lupins, I mainly meant I'm glad you can grow them without invasive-related risk (They're native in America, right?) I hope it didn't seem like I was criticizing you in any way for growing them, that was not my intention at all. Think I said it before, but your garden is beautiful!

About the mayapples: Yeah, might make a topic in seeds and breeding at some point. At the moment I have rather too many seeds that I need to grow out as it is. I mainly asked because you mentioned them, Greg.
Thanks, Nancy, I wasn't aware of the Hardy Plant Society. Might try that out. Wonder how it works after Brexit, though. Seed firms in the UK are no longer able to send seed to the EU, apparently, but maybe HPS can bypass those rules somehow (by not being a commercial entity as such, or something).

Eino Kenttä wrote:Thanks! About the lupins, I mainly meant I'm glad you can grow them without invasive-related risk (They're native in America, right?) I hope it didn't seem like I was criticizing you in any way for growing them, that was not my intention at all. Think I said it before, but your garden is beautiful!

Thank you Eino.  No worries.  I assume the best intent!  
Yes, the wild lupin native range runs right to where I live.  That may mean that there are more checks and balances on its spread from other creatures, though I have seen very large swaths of them growing along the highway, though that clearly is a human disturbed area which maybe has helped them???

Greg - "It's like very slow motion fun!"    I just had to tell you how perfect and brilliant that simple description is of gardening! I have often thought how people who require instant gratification would have a hard time with some of the best parts of gardening...  I am still waiting for my paw paws and English walnut and persimmon to fruit... going on 7 years now... so you give me hope.  And inspiration to try a few other things in my shady garden... Thanks!

As much as I try to give back to nature, nature always gives so, so much more.  I'll keep trying to catch up, but know I have the sweetest end of the deal.  Thank you nature!

An example from this year's forest garden edge.  The previous owner of my land notched two hemlocks and bolted in a horizontal pressure treated beam for a swing set.  I removed the beam hoping that the trees could heal over the large gash, but one didn't make it and was returned to earth as mulch and biochar.  The other is hanging in there, though is struggling a bit.  A pair of pileated woodpeckers pounded open gaps above the saw damage and that side of the tree has bare branches that hawks and owls use as perches to hunt from that overlook my forest garden.  For these uses I've been happy to leave this tree standing, though I'm keeping an eye on its long term health.  This year it gave me a surprise wonder....wild wonderberries!  One of my visiting feathered pals deposited some seeds in the tiny bit of compost that has formed in the saw wound.  They are hanging down to about 8' above ground and so I can just reach them.  What a tactic for a tiny plant to get full sun!  It's been a nice nibble and just wanted to share this gift with you in the form of some pictures along with a Wild Food Girl link on this plant and how she enjoys it.  Cheers!!!

Philip's post on candying flowering quince fruits inspired me to add some more of these beautiful shrubs to my landscape so I could trial their fruits.  One benefit to buying them in the fall was that I could see their fruit at the nursery before buying them (some modern cultivars are sterile...WTH!).  The other benefit was hitting their 50% off end of season sale.  I picked up 3 that are new to my landscape.  2 with large fruit and one with small.  I'm so glad I picked up that small fruited cultivar, 'Orange Delight', as it is the first flowering quince fruit I've ever found that has a licorice flavor.  I could smell it on the uncut fruit after they sat in a bowl on my table a few days, and happily that flavor came through nicely in the candied fruit as well as in the syrup made.  All of that variety's seeds will be lined out to see how the offspring taste.  Anyhow, here are pics of these 3 plants I added:

Some fall throwback pictures I wanted to post and which had to wait until I had a little downtime.  
Some cornelian cherry pictures:

Now looking forward....

Those cornelian cherries and smilax are amazing! I admit to being a touch envious of your garden. As usual...

Hey Greg, do you have a layout sketch of your garden? top-down or perspective?

I'm in the long thought process of re-designing the tree portion of my garden and would love more inspiration. I just made some blank sketches of my garden space and printed a bunch of copies to sketch different ideas... but they are slow in coming.

Wait, Greg - monkey puzzle? How does that grow, in Maine? I thought it was a Mediterranean tree - then again, come to think about it, I've no idea what zone temps that means, lol. I wonder if they'd grow here, in 6b, with rocky/clay...

Thank you, Robin!  The plants do most of the work.
Here's some info on the Smilax from Plants for a Future:  https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Smilax+herbacea

L. Johnson wrote:Hey Greg, do you have a layout sketch of your garden? top-down or perspective?

I don't have anything decent, unfortunately.  I have been just instinctively planting over a long period of time as I've gotten to know my site.  I've semi mapped out my plantings just to keep a record, but I haven't done a good job of keeping up with it and I'm not really certain where I put those maps.  Someday I'll try to get back to doing that.  If I do, I'll post it here.

Carla Burke wrote:Wait, Greg - monkey puzzle? How does that grow, in Maine? I thought it was a Mediterranean tree - then again, come to think about it, I've no idea what zone temps that means, lol. I wonder if they'd grow here, in 6b, with rocky/clay...

Maybe they'd make it for you Carla....you'd have a better chance than me
I'm planning on protecting them for a long while and then I'll just see how things work out.  I'm a wicked zone pusher as you might notice by some other pics in this thread (citrus and figs for example) and will keep trying things out.  I watched a video from Hortus Arboretum in NY where they mentioned babying one along and I've read that there are some trees along the NY/NJ line and figured "let's roll some dice" and I bought some seeds from EFN.  I know it's a long shot, but such lovely trees.  

Here's a picture of one growing in Central Park:

source

Love your forest garden Greg.  I would try to grow one as good as yours if I had the acreage.

Mine is a mini version of yours in a PNW suburb.  I would grow lupine here if I had acreage like yours because it's native.  The purple flowered raspberries you have look like our native thimbleberries.  I love your idea of slow motion fun.  That's a good word for how my dog and I appreciate ours.

Cheers,
John S
PDX OR

I took a picture of one of my young rhubarb plants so that I can track its growth pattern.  Not at all sure.  Too early to say, but is this variety running more than most?  I took a picture of a different variety that is older and seems to be much more of a clumper, which I think is more like what every other rhubarb I have does.

I know that at least one rhuem species likes to run, Rhuem kialense, aka dwarf rhubarb.  So I can't help wondering if that trait is kicking around in some garden rhubarb hybrids.  I've thought about trying to do crosses with R. kialense to create some fun running rhubarb ground covers, but maybe breeding isn't needed?

Here's someone elses image of R. kialense that I found online:

We got hit by an arctic outflow this winter that took us down to -20F, then things warmed up and spring was coming and we got hit by a late frost.  I was walking through my forest garden to see which plants lost their flowers and which were unphased and set fruit.  As I was checking I noticed that the new running timber type bamboo that I planted 2 years ago as an experiment had three culms that were about 10' tall!  This species, Phyllostachys parvifolia, is supposed to reach about 40' tall with a maximum measured height of 65'.  I can't wait to see how it does moving forward.  Color me impressed!  This species is said to be mainly grown for edible shoots, which was my main motivator, but I'm also wondering how strong the 3.5" diameter culms are.

My mayapples not only didn't mind the late frost, but they all seemed to decide to flower and fruit this year.  One patch was getting overgrown by wild hog peanuts.  I don't want to dig for their beans in a mayapple patch, so I will do a little intervention to favor the mayapples.  In that patch I found a mayapple that set three fruits rather than one.  I'll mark it and keep an eye on this one to see if it's just a one off event.  Anyone else ever see that happen?  It's new for me.

Hostas and garlic are both shooting up flower scapes at the same time....hooray!  They were steamed then sauteed and chopped, then cheese and eggs jumped in and I got a nice scramble for breakfast.  I love weekends

The wild forest surrounding my home and my forest garden produces some amazing foods.  I took this picture after I ate half of the buffalo chicken of the woods pizza I made from the flush of chicken of the woods I found in the forest.  So full.  So happy!

Carla Burke wrote:Wait, Greg - monkey puzzle? How does that grow, in Maine? I thought it was a Mediterranean tree - then again, come to think about it, I've no idea what zone temps that means, lol. I wonder if they'd grow here, in 6b, with rocky/clay...

Monkey Puzzle grows well throughout the UK...

We have a lot of monkey puzzles here in Portland. We had the World's Fair in 1905 and the Chilean embassy gave away tiny seedlings of them.  Now many are more than 100 years old, and you see them in many places around town.

John S
PDX OR

Monkey puzzle grows well on the Norwegian coast (supposedly USDA zone 6). We have some tiny ones growing at roughly 64 degrees north, where they've survived two winters without protection. A bit further south along the coast, at about 62 degrees north, I saw a big, mature female tree with cones. Alas, I didn't get around to asking the people living there if I could gather seeds (if there were any in the cones). This was before we bought our land, so at the time we didn't have anywhere to put plants anyhow. Maybe I'll go back there some time...