Over the North Mountain: Wabanaki / Acadian Forest / Seaweed - Tidal Power - Dykelands & more!

Hello Permies! I’d love to share with you as I go, learning about the amazing plants, systems, land, water, and creature families of my local neighbourhood. Of course with a good dose of veg, seaweed, and horse manure to boot — all located in Mi'kma'ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the L’nu (Mi’kmaq) people. Climate and seasonal weather patterns are changing rapidly, with more heat, decreasing number of fog-days, heavier and more frequent hurricanes, far less Winter snow-cover, erosion, salt marsh decay, an endless mountain of change.

I’ve found many of your own threads, posts, and comments, helpful, curious, and inspiring.

We’re fortunate to live near what I consider a natural wonder of the world, the Bay of Fundy! The highest tides in the world literally cause the crust of the earth to shift and undulate with every cycle! While the bowl-type scale of the ocean floor is just the right proportion to a harmonic frequency that is ‘tuned’ to the tidal cycle of the moon and earth, which amplifies the scale of water movements in this body.

https://novascotia.ca/natr/ELA/pdf/ELA_2015part1_2/920NorthMountainParts1&2.pdf

Lots of really interesting agricultural, tidal research, forest, old-style farming, land shares, homesteading, subsistence, and permaculture practices etc. Much ecological damage and cultural destruction as well…

More about the larger scale forest region:
The Wabanaki / Acadian Forest

The Wabanaki Forest:
https://forestsinternational.org/the-wabanaki-forest/

The Acadian forest: Historical condition and human impacts1:
https://pubs.cif-ifc.org/doi/pdf/10.5558/tfc79462-3

An introduction to forests (NS):
https://ojs.library.dal.ca/NSM/article/download/3766/3449

Resilient Species Report:
https://forestsinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/CFI-CC-Resilient-Species-Report-Final.pdf

Acadian Dykelands:
http://www.landscapeofgrandpre.ca/the-acadians-and-the-creation-of-the-dykeland-1680ndash1755.html

https://novascotia.ca/natr/wildlife/habitats/dykelands/

Hello Ian, welcome to Permies and thanks for introducing me to a new part of the world. The bay of Fundy looks like a fascinating area and I look forwards to hearing your progress there.
Tell me about your forest garden - how old is it and what sort of perennial vegetables are you able to grow in amongst the trees?

welcome Ian. im in the western edge of the micmac, as we call it here, range in n. Maine. im 1/16 micmac. Maine and N.S share similar shore lines and ecology. my stepson lives in Dartmouth so ive had the chance to see some of s. N.S. beautiful province. Peggys cove reminds me of many downeast costal Maine fishing towns.  i turned my 1 acre lawn into a food forest with 60+ types of fruit as well as perennial veggies and herbs. im always finding ways to improve and add more.

Welcome to permies, and thank you for sharing such fascinating information about your region!  I look forward to learning more.

There’s lots to share and I feel like I could explore forever on less than an Acre here It’s been lovely to look back at the last couple years and compose a few highlights as we gear up for Spring-time. Last frost here is generally around May 24. We get very high winds off the bay, and the fog carries the salt to some degree, and so there are quite a few windbreak plantings in the neighbourhood. We’re a good 0.5-1.0 kilometre away from the shore, and are sheltered from the hardest weather which makes growing things easier, although we don’t have the heat, humidity, and protection like the Annapolis Valley.

From what I gather, this land which has been pasture/woodlot for a couple hundred years was cleared to make way for the house on site in the early 80s. The spruce trees you see on the road bank were planted around that time. Next to the Laneway there was also a strong line of poplars that recently all died back and were cut down. (The problem of planting everything at once!) There’s lots of rotty-root goodness under that. We’re sandwiched between our neighbours on one side who have a wonderful horse and garden contributor in the form of fantastic manure, and a fallow field cut occasionally for hay, which is agreed can’t home animals due to a sand-point well adjacent to the closest homes. This small community built some of the largest WW1 ships, along with many surrounding communities here on massive lumber dockyards. Much of the land and forest were cut during these efforts, and since then ship-building and later the fishing sector have dried since the 80s.. So this forest garden and soil is a lot different (more softwood and less understory) compared to the older mixed stands in hard to reach cliff-sides further up the mountain, but I relish any chance I have to bring a bit more of that down here closer to home. About 90% of Nova scotia forests if not more have been cut at least 3 times since colonial endeavours.

From the road, the land slopes gently south and southwest toward the ocean. At the back of the site we have veg patch which borders a wood-lot mostly unused as it’s a strip and brookside between pastures. There are Mountain Ash, Birch, Poplars, Pine, Spruce, Maple, Blackberry, Alder, Willow, Flowering Dogwood, Chokecherry, Ferns, great habitat for hare, and birds that frequent our patch.  — I call that the Back Garden — and the Front Garden houses bees and orchard. When we started here, there were two beautiful mature cherry trees, an apple, and a couple bartlett pears. Since then out front I’ve added the following: I’ll share more about some of the other spaces in another post, and from there we’ll be all settled up to see how everything evolves this Springtime

Orchard
1 Empire apple
1 Mt Royal Plum
1 Beaked hazelnut clump
1 Elderberry
1 Red elderberry
4 comfrey plantings foraged from a nearby alder grove, I think these will spread… lol
Walking Onions under pears, plums, cherries
2 Fly Honeysuckles foraged from nearby forest
1 quince

4 Lilac foraged from old homestead
4 Red Maple on the laneway foraged from nearby forest
6 local roses
Horseradish

Berry Lane
2 Low bush blueberries
3 Highbush blueberries
3 Haskaps
Comfrey

The previously established over-mowed yard has given way to asters, queen anne's lace, goldenrod, strawberries, daisies, fleabane, blue eyed grass, ragweed, mosses, evening primrose, various grasses, white clover, red clover, self-heal, plantain, docks, buttercup, rubekia, etc.

We cut this once a year, and leave different ‘islands’ multiple years at a time to frost-heave up, the voles do their thing, and the wind sends the queen anne’s lace like a spindle through the cold stormy ground during the Autumn, I hadn’t realized succession could look like a drill in the form of a root until I saw their pattern like pot-holes on the soil. Amazing! Now there’s little spruce, cherry, willow saplings in the wet zones. The far corner of the orchard, hosts one of the largest spruce trees on the site, and a more wet section, that is fed by an underground spring. I’ve noticed this keeps the ground warmer, and the soil is much more clay-based at that end.

Last year I foraged seeds for bulkier wild-flowers that could spread out in the meadow. By late Summer we transplanted some healthy looking pots down into the sweet spots.

Tansey
Fireweed
Meadowsweet
Bee Balm
Marsh Marigold
Swamp Milkweed
Mugwort

As we go I’ll share more on the veg-zone against the forest edge, plans about the Springtime!
All for now, we have a newborn, newest garden recruit, keeping us occupied

Veg Zone on the forest edge:

in Spring 2020 we started in earnest to build soil on this patch, making a few new beds.

The forest edge brings a lot of raspberry, blackberry, chokecherry, and alder shoots up into everything, so I mow when I can along the perimeter. The forest edge has a nice swath of jewelweed that caps off the humming bird season, and further towards the horse pasture, there’s a strip of wild roses, goldenrod, ragweed, poplar, spruce, and birch saplings. There’s an apple tree at the back, flowering dogwood, chokecherry, a healthy dose of bermuda grass, nettle that I transplanted, and some leftover goutweed that sits in the shadows waiting We had a hurricane in 2019 that felled a number of birches and poplar that sat right at the edge of this garden.

The soil is very rocky with a decent amount of organic matter and a lot of clay so I’ve been working multiple times per season to bring up seaweed, horse manure, and other inputs straight on top of everything. I’ve also spotted more mountain ash, chokecherry, and a few maple saplings come up surrounding the patch that I intend to make way for keeping the southern plane of light as long as the recently wind-felled corridor remains in the woods. another 20 years perhaps?

As a baseline we get substantial rains here that acidify the soil in addition to a lot of the spruce needles and softwood plantings, I haven’t done soil tests but I assume many areas would veer on the acid side. As I mentioned previously, historically this is a very foggy terrain that is not so good for tomatoes, celery, at heat lovers. But the last two years break the mold for heat in our region, and this has also reduced the number southwestern winds which bring fog onshore from the bay. So we had mountains of cherry toms from one bed and I even grew a row of celery that turned out splendid!

In the cottage garden beds and raised sections I’m building a base of herbs and flowers to seed save and propagate.

I like to try new veg each season, save seeds, but one crop I know for certain I’d like to build up a larger seed supply for is hardneck garlic. Right now there’s about 120 bundled away under the soil. Up from 40 on our first year. I’ve got a few remaining cloves in the kitchen.

Not pictured is some big old Rhubarb.

Next post bees and then i’ll make things more bitesize project by project

Two hives (Wiley on the right & Coyote on the left) rehomed from the bait hive at the top of the drive in 2021. Both likely swarmed from my folks across the street.

2021
One strong hive swarmed earlier on, late June or July?
The second hive swarmed in August, but we had unusually wet Summer so the late season pollen and honey flow was hopefully enough to give them a solid start.

We treat for mites once in Spring and once in Autumn.

Summer 2022 they were not super loaded frames so we left most honey on for the Winter.
This season I Fed out fondant in the attics October, and then again on a warm day in early February.

We've had a very warm December/January so lots of cleansing flights, but it's also been wet.
They both appear happy and active so here's hoping we get through March and April the toughest time for the hives without much loss.

Just two weeks ago we had snow on the ground, ice rain, and bitter evening winds. Now April 15 with a warm spell and highs of 15-16 celsius,  Alder Catkins are dry and powdery -- bulbs, garlic, alliums, tulips, daffodils are all coming on strong. Comfrey established and recently divided under the cherry, pear, and plum, all coming up.  Planting lots of veg, herb, and flower, starts for indoor, and then lean-to greenhouse for space and hardening, including a flat of Joe-Pye Weed, sitting in the fridge for approximately 40 days.

Just came back from foraging a couple pots of Northern Purple pitcher plant, and got that transplanted into the wet zone amidst the fruit orchard close to some 2 year elderberry. When I foraged it from the acid sphagnum bog, mixed with alder and spruce, there was still some icy layers embedded about a foot down, the forest isn't clear of ice but this plant does like to grow in sunny spots, so It's pretty cool to think about how the mosses and forest soils hold temperature and moisture in such a unique way, all while the pitcher plant seems to be putting on some new growth for the season.  So that's 1 down for the native additions for the season The pitcher plant came with a few forest rhodo tag-alongs as well!

Also spotted under the cherry tree, a fresh owl casting!  Perhaps from the Barred owl we saw at dusk back late January, who knows? Who cooks for you?

Next up on the forage list some Sambucus Racemosa to add in amidst the chokecherries, flowering dogwood, and blackberries that shoulder the vegpatch and forest edge.
And hopefully a few fern varieties.

Tree order hasn't been made yet but we're looking at 1 Redhaven peach to add to the orchard and 1 Basswood (Linden) for sunny pasture/forest edge.

There's been just 40.4 mm of precipitation this month of April so far; normal is 99.4 mm. On top of virtually zero snow-pack and ice over Winter.
Ground is feeling dry now but It looks like we're finally due for the dry high pressure system that's been locking us up to break beginning of next week for a good dose of Spring wet. Hoping to score a few of the trees to go in for the next rainy period

Sambucus racemosa? I found an older specimen in the clearing down the wood-lot road, but due to age not many shoots coming up for transplant, I'll go back for cuttings. In the meantime I did find this spot in a shady clearing with new growth, but it looks a little funky compared, different variety of elderberry altogether? Or just early shady growth, what do you think?

New circular bed for Joe-Pye Weed started last Autumn, while the seeds germinate indoors.

Happy to see patches of bee balm that I started from seed last season, coming up strong in the Front Garden meadow.

Not pictured: Spring marigolds and Fly Honeysuckle returning to life after their first year under the cherry trees.

Got some transplants in before the rain storm coming in!

Mountain ash saplings maybe 3-4 years old after hurricane windfall behind the veg patch.
Picked a medium sized one to replace a not-so friendly poplar sucker on the edge of the orchard.
Local ravens love the mountain ash, maybe these saplings were planted by the crew

American basswood linden planted at the end of the laneway, we're not quite in the native range, that's further west over the bay in New Brunswick, but may well be in a new climate change range over the next hundred years. My partner is a perfumer, and we're big into herbs, so thrilled to make a new home for the linden.

Also snagged a couple bunches of meadowsweet from the ditch, anybody point me in the direction of fun non-alcoholic recipes to use these in?

We did end up going back to the Sambucus Racemose and stuck 15 cuttings or so in the ground, but they have a lot of bud development, being one of the early blooming varieties in the neighbourhood, so we'll see about that, maybe a better Winter project for next season.

Spotted the first open blooms on haskaps in the garden today.  I was concerned about one of two bee hives here, but I think they're just a little slow to brood. Everything is waking up hurrah!

May 08 and the wild strawberry flowers are popping up all over the orchard. First pear blossoms peaking out, and the haskaps are putting on the juice for bumbles. Overnight lows are coming up from 2c to 6-7c this week so I’ll get some veg and herb starts going into the greenhouse. Also planted a row of kale and radish from last year’s seed.

transplanted three small cinnamon fern (I suspect) masses into a mossy patch between spruce and lilacs. Apparently the birds use the fuzz as sought after nesting material. Sweet!

On my morning stroll to the well and creek, to take a look at the fern colonies I noticed a fresh looking crab shell dropped recently discarded by only what I can assume would be a winged lunch in the treetops. Forest crabs would also be very cool lol!

Picked out some horsetail for a little silica tea action. Going to try it out on the apple trees next time we have warm wet weather. See if it helps to stave off some of the either apple scab or cedar rust that has been plaguing one of the older trees. Earlier in the season I already mowed a lot of the grassy/wildflower duff and cast wood ash around to sweeten the soil and potentially make the area a bit less ripe for whatever is ailing the tree. Hopefully this will help to stack the deck.

Hoping to get out to witness the wildflower trifecta back in the woods around Mother’s Day. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to bring back a little inspiration for the season on how to approach the forest garden.

Spotted maybe some form of marsh marigold about to bloom at a close by forested roadside stream bank. Wondering about foraging a few seeds. Can anybody ID?

Ian Fairweather wrote:,
Spotted maybe some form of marsh marigold about to bloom at a close by forested roadside stream bank. Wondering about foraging a few seeds. Can anybody ID?

Hi Ian, thanks for the update!
It looks like Caltha palustris to me - lots of flowers on that plant. I think they are good for pollinators - wkipedia says that hoverflies like them. I'm not aware of any particular uses, although they are allegedly edible (ref) when cooked. They are cheerful spring flowers - just coming into bloom here too! They need a damp spot, if you are thinking of propagating - even here they only grow along streams and in marshes.

Photo didn't load. If it is Caltha palustrus (spelling might be bad, marsh marigold), a group I once worked with nicknamed it "spaghetti root". BUT, you need to boil it, just like spaghetti, or it won't be nice to eat. Dig the roots, boil them, and you should be good to go.

T. Smith wrote:Photo didn't load. If it is Caltha palustrus (spelling might be bad, marsh marigold), a group I once worked with nicknamed it "spaghetti root". BUT, you need to boil it, just like spaghetti, or it won't be nice to eat. Dig the roots, boil them, and you should be good to go.

I think it is Caltha palustris.
Well you learn something new every day! If you have experience foraging for this plant it would be great if you could share your knowledge here on Permies, maybe on the wild harvesting forum? It grows here reasonably profusely, but I'd never thought of eating it before.

Nancy Reading:
I think it is Caltha palustris.
Well you learn something new every day! If you have experience foraging for this plant it would be great if you could share your knowledge here on Permies, maybe on the wild harvesting forum? It grows here reasonably profusely, but I'd never thought of eating it before.

Good eye! Agreed! Here's a clump I've been growing for the second year between the cherry trees where it's particularly wet and buttercuppy, I find the voles disturbing the wet soil a lot, it looks like they're propagating the comfrey well, they bring cherry tree seeds all over, here's hoping they'll bring marsh marigold to all the little wet channels. We also have Star-nosed moles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star-nosed_mole which are very cool. Once we've got a patch i'll report on the harvest!

T. Smith
Photo didn't load. If it is Caltha palustrus (spelling might be bad, marsh marigold), a group I once worked with nicknamed it "spaghetti root". BUT, you need to boil it, just like spaghetti, or it won't be nice to eat. Dig the roots, boil them, and you should be good to go.

Aye aye captain!

Some late May highlights for the forest garden here over the North Mountain.

Coming out of a cool patch into some proper summertime temps blowing in from New England over the weekend Saturday 21 c Sunday 28c
Still on the very dry side, lots more ant activity. Slugs want for more. I've been watering some of the blueberry bushes as it's their first full year after planting.

Today we spotted 5 male and 1 female American Redstart warblers, don't normally see them around here at least I don't in this garden very often. They love the forest garden, bouncing around hunting from plant debris, to bush and tree.

Meadow-rue I spotted a giant swath of meadow-rue in the ditch off the side of the road under an alder grove, either Tall Meadow-rue or early -- not sure yet...  The area will probably be smashed by Dept of Transportation so I brought some home to the garden. One that's been on my New Year list may go back for one more clump, it seems to be thriving a week after transplant.

Fruit blossoms are late this season, the russet pear that cropped heavily last year has mostly veg growth, and vice versa, the smaller sicker tree is fully loaded with blossoms. The polar vortex that brought temps down to an unusually low -26-28 over the course of a few nights back in late January, blew in after a warm December and January, with little snow cover to boot. Hearing reports now that virtually all the stone-fruit crops in the valley are lost for the season, and the wineries were hit hard as well.. That being said we did plant one Red Haven Peach a little experiment for this neck of the woods. Last year I had pear blossoms out in full swing around May 18.

I've also included a photo of the ground under one of the older apple trees on this site. I mowed it once or twice since 2019. You can see it's just filled with Asters and clumping Golden Rod now, lots of wild strawberry mixed in there too. I gave it a ring of mulch in 2020, a pile of seaweed, and then this winter a good dusting of wood-stove ash. Later I'll report on one of the pears that i'm planting a lot more intensively into.  We will see how this dry Spring stacks against the funky leaf sickness it's been under.

We have lovely neighbours, and they're happy to help me set the stage this Autumn to plant an elderberry hedge pretty well north/south near the property line, you can see the window it'd live in, just in front of the smoke-shack structure. Excited about this, the warblers will be happy

Now that we're approaching last frost for the season eyes are wide on the veg patch!

June 03 Finally rain! And lots of it, should help to kick back the wildfires across the province making international headlines.

Scored some wonderful native transplants to add into the forest garden:

Blue Vervain
Cardinal Flower
Ironweed
Boneset
Large Leafed Aster
Foamflowers
Red Columbine Aquilegia canadensis

Anybody have experience good or bad with snakeroot? I know it's not exactly the homesteaders best friend...

Planted an American hazelnut and wild raisin into the same approximate area as the mountain ash. A little forage guild planted around an old poplar stump, there are some old school tiny roses in there too, may leave underplanting that patch to the next year or two.

June 06 over the North Mountain:

Rain continues into the following week, we've received well over 120mm over the last four days. I was digging in the garden, and still dry below a couple inches... bring it on!
This cooler wet patch feels like a great time to transplant a few last trees and shrubs until the Autumn. Welcome respite for everything added up to now, great for veg patch to boot.

I've been eyeing up the alternate-leaved dogwood Cornus alternifolia at the edge of the backgarden. The chipmunks load up on the berries first before the birds get them and I think must help to plant many into rocky zones. I've also noticed an absolutely beautiful dogwood further back, looks about 25 feet tall, now that the windfall from hurricanes over the last few years settles onto the forest floor. A few seedlings have popped up around the garden so I'm giving it a go transplanting one for now maybe three or four into the front forest garden.

This first one added to the food forest is located on the western side of the beaked hazelnut, near to mountain ash, wild raisin, and berry bushes.

Golden canker is a problem for these around here, but I figure as i'll be pruning the fruit trees anyways, it gets me interacting with the tree and keeping it healthy in a sort of orchard way.
Anybody else adding these to their food forests as forage, pollinator attractors and shade-enjoying understory tree/shrubs? Or do you have some thoughts about keeping them away from the food zone for any reason? Attracting bear and deer might be one, but I imagine abundant food of other types puts us in similar territory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornus_alternifolia

We also have so many chokecherry volunteers around here and at the forest edge. I read a few articles about folks grafting plum onto these, maybe this is something to try for, tons of black knot on most of the choke cherries around here but do you ever happen on an especially resistant specimen? Would any resistance to black knot in the chokecherry rootstock benefit plum grafts? Is this a wild goosechase for very hardy Zone 05 - Zone 06 plum rootstock frankensteins?

https://oaksummitnursery.ca/blogs/news/grafting-pears-and-plums-to-wild-choke-cherry-and-saskatoon
This person is working on doing pears and apples too!

Wow!

Whirlwind of a Summer here in the bay as we get ready for Hurricane Lee with the latest tracks have it coming right up the Fundy. Winds shouldn't be too bad but we may see a lot of windfall with how much water is in the ground.

Very wet, humid, and cloudy July. Some records broken on rain amounts and we had 35 days straight of tropical mugginess, then a bit of sunshine in August but also wet. Man the blackflies, no-see-ems, and mosquitos, just killer this year! Normally wind off the water keeps em to a dull roar. Must plant more northern pitcher plants!

The veg-patch is late and frankly a bit miserable, my tomatoes may not survive the winds now, but in some ways the forest seems to be loving the mid-summer high water table. Our little veg patch is the tip of the iceberg. Farmers here have had a really tough time this last run-on couple years between hurricanes, the polar vortex, and then a cold and dry Spring complete with wildfires. Lots of folks don't know where to turn, or how they're going to keep going, but they do. Then, a very difficult season to bring in the hay with how moist everything has been. Stormy Weather may destroy much of one of the most robust and prolific crops around, the apples.

Vegetation is lush! And mycologically, mushrooms everywhere, all kinds, all over. Now that Autumn is around the corner new energy and winds are building to bring more plants and life to this little patch. But I've been thinking, I gota get into the woods more, for so many reasons, but also, how could one contribute toward a local food forest without real guidance from these surroundings?

We'll delay harvesting honey from the two hives until after this next storm. Hopefully we're not dealing with much fermentation! We had one swarm very very late in the season, last week of August, but they 'landed' on the one week we were away on a project, hah! Our neighbours got an air-show at least!

I think the front garden has really come into its own as far as golden-rods and asters go, was out for a walk the other day, and the place was just buzzing with activity, all kinds of native bees, flies, birds, and of course the honey bees. Now to add more trees, bushes, wildflowers, manure, ash, more on those plans (elderflower hedge) soon.

I've attached photos of some of the stand-out new bloomers in the front can't wait to propagate more:
Boneset with flower buds
Ironweed blooming
Purple Pitcher plant growth
Blooming Fireweed from cold-stratified seeds
Transplanted Cinnamon Fern
Absolutely divine meadowrue flowering after transplant from the ditch (I'm in love)
Cardinal Flower
Blue Vervain
Fledgling Downy Woodpecker
Toad
Native Spiraea (alba?)

Next post will feature a few locations in particular, and after that a bit about the back-garden and forest edge.

Berry lane with friends:
Guild beginning to form around that, with elderberry, comfrey, vining nasturtium, low bush blueberries, walking onions, lots of pasture wildflowers.
4 highbush blueberries all different varieties put on some great growth for their one year anniversary! Would love to add another 4-6.
We went to one of the commercial U-picks down the valley this season, the bushes were absolutely loaded, two of us picked 30 lbs in less than 2 hours from only 6-7 bushes.

Pears didn't bear any fruit from cold damage this season. the sickly/wind damaged one on 'berry lane' put on some great veg growth though!

Red Haven Peach had a rough start this year (see wet, muggy, cloudy July,) transplanted from nursery in the Spring, dropped all its leaves and trying to bounce back with a few more.

The trio at the far northwest side of the front garden, the most mature apple of the bunch, may finally have seen its day, I see a lot more fungus growing on secondary branches now, barely leafed out this Spring.
I may act in late Winter, or leave for one more year just to see, I did add lots of manure to see if I could help it through the cedar rust.

The mountain ash I transplanted from the forest, ended up getting some sort of leaf rust and dropped all its leaves early after some growth through to early August, which I saw all around the neighbourhood, just going to assume it made it through spending energy getting rooted, here's hoping!

Did find a lovely patch of wild viburnum down the logging road, I'm keen to transplant a few of these along with some northern bayberry, maybe into wetter, less nutritious areas.

Wild Raisin https://wildadirondacks.org/adirondack-shrubs-northern-wild-raisin-viburnum-nudum-l-var-cassinoides.html

This week we've been walking most mornings back to the logging trail where a big swath of the forest was cut/harvested a bit brutally approximately 12 years ago now. This area regenerates quickly with all the moisture, not that there aren't huge problems with clearcutting, but when you go back now, maples are sprouting from stumps up a good 12-15 feet with lots of vegetation, loads of ash, and understory trees and bushes. Wild raisin in abundance, some are even 12-15 feet with lots of coverage I was able to transplant a smaller plant maybe 4 years old I'd guess. They say it likes wet feet, so as you can see by the photo, with the rain we've had along the spring/marshiest zone in the front garden, the water table is very high!  Wet feet here you go!

Attached a photo of the wild raisin new home down the lane from pear, elderflower, comfrey, hazelnut.


Hobblebush http://versicolor.ca/nswfsOLDsite/species/Caprifoliaceae/VibLan/species.html
What I thought was some sort of variety of elderberry this Springtime, but I knew deep down it must be something else -- finally after some more reflection and going back to the main copse where I found the clone, I'm 99% certain what I brought back to plant at the wet forest edge is hobblebush, and it's survived the summer albeit downtrodden by raspberries, chokecherries, bermuda grass, etc. It's slouching around sending more roots into the ground, so that's pretty darn cool! A little photo of one of the leaves, and a bit of growth forming for next year, not the healthiest looking friend, but I have high hopes for it now that it's headed into Winter. Beautiful plant!

More photos of the hobblebush in woods, and berries further upstream under canopy, sending up shoots all over. spaced maybe 30-40ft apart

And a few photos of rhodora which is all-over the logging trail, I foraged a little to bring back to the front garden, along with a clump of cranberries.
Would love to find more friends for these

One photo of some spruce windfall debris from a few years ago that I'm breaking up and settling in between bushes and new trees.

Approaching the end of October, now increasingly wet, windy, and some of the first evenings frost may be on the table. brought back a clump of what I think may be Mountain Holly? I'll watch and go back to a few places in Spring to see the flowers and then fruit in Summer to ID for sure. https://newfoundland-labradorflora.ca/flora/dview/?id=178.

I've planted a small young clump that ?mountain holly? I found partying it up with neighbours at the edge of a clearcut. It's going in a zone of new planting for the year in the wettest area of the forest garden alongside mountain ash, wild raisin, cranberries, rhodora, hazelnut, native roses, pitcher plants, (and hopefully later this Autumn, northern bayberry, and a new hedge of elderberry cuttings)

I was also lucky to score a little bundle of alder slash from local dept of transportation work to add a bit of twiggy mulch this season.

Went up the ridge two weeks ago to a spot where the last few years I've been eyeing up some sort of native elderberry, alongside tons of yellow birch (I think yellow?) saplings. Brought back a duo of those two to the forest garden, to add to the hedgerow alongside neighbouring pasture.

Elderberry lane going in at the far end of the front forest garden with both shoots, roots, and cuttings. Approximately 9 clumps. This has been on my mind for a couple years now, can't wait to watch this grow, there used to be another spruce tree growing in the approximate location and a big poplar, so soil is not bad!

Also harvested another box of green tomatoes from the back veg patch October29 before cool weather sets in this week, they were volunteers from the year before so a late growing season.Such warm Octobers of late.

Was reminded doing a little reading on my local biome that hop hornbeam (ironwood) is native to this range on the slopes in the mixed hardwoods, so I'm interested in adding a few around amidst border trees as things develop. I don't notice many around locally I wonder if most were cut down to make odds and ends? If you use them as a planting, what do you or your neighbouring wildlife and plants like about them? Also keen for many more shade-tolerant diversity to the spruce plantings along the road like fir, moosewood, the hornbeam more uncommon local shrubs and ferns, once you start you can't stop thinking about what else could add to the lush complexity..

I like the idea of elderberry lane! Mine actually set berries this year for the first time - not sure if it was the better weather we had in June, aor the different varieties coming to maturity. I let the birds have them - I tend to prefer to use the flowers anyhow.

I'm interested in the wild raisin viburnums. I think they may grow well here too - we are damp and acid although not particularly cold in winter or hot in summer. Obviously you find them worthwhile to transplant. My reading indicated that the fruit is sweet but more pip than fruit. How would you assess them?

Spring 2024 update from over the North Mountain:

After a warm wet ending to Winter we have had a relatively dry Spring. We’re ahead on the trees leafing out, and apple blossoms, by a good 10-14 days, compared to normal and the feeling is compounded by a late start in 2023. Savouring the smells and textures remembering at the end of the day we only get to live through a handful of spring blooms, throughout a human lifetime..

I’ve been watering a lot of the brand new transplants, adding a few bushes and trees per week since late March. More to come on these

I’ve included a few photos from the hardwood stands, after going on at least 4 inspirational treks up the ridge this season. Ferns growing at the crook of on an old yellow birch, some rose twisted stalk, dutchman’s breeches, with red trilliums in the background. not pictured loads of toothwort, spring beauties, starflower, blue bead lily. All in all, i’m rooting for a little propagation station here at home to start more overstory sugar maple, yellow birch, and beech (problems with the later due to disease)

In the forest garden here at home some new-addition standouts for me this season are the rhodora, bunchberry, and the mountain holly’s beautifully delicate pin-like flowers that are just coming to an end.

Nancy Reading wrote:I like the idea of elderberry lane! Mine actually set berries this year for the first time - not sure if it was the better weather we had in June, aor the different varieties coming to maturity. I let the birds have them - I tend to prefer to use the flowers anyhow.

I'm interested in the wild raisin viburnums. I think they may grow well here too - we are damp and acid although not particularly cold in winter or hot in summer. Obviously you find them worthwhile to transplant. My reading indicated that the fruit is sweet but more pip than fruit. How would you assess them?

Hi Nancy,

I see them in the forest in the regenerating areas, more than the old growth established zones, they do persist in quite shady areas in a lovely way, also compete/compliment with alders, chokecherries, willow, serviceberry, and I'm sure provide much needed bird forage when the going gets tough, but I do think you'd need to be pretty determined to harvest enough for substantial nourishment, I view them more like a snack perhaps :) Open to be proven wrong by these wonderful plants!

Frontgarden:

Happy to see as we begin year #4 The assorted golden-rods and asters of the front forest garden seem to be well on their way to converting much of the area from grasses to stalky perennial flower

This year I opted to cold-sow a bunch of joe-pye, blue vervain, swamp milkweed, echinacea, and have recently potted everything up. Some of the remaining grassy sections I've sown a three sisters type combination of corn & sunflowers, once those are coming stronger, i'll do squash, pole-beans, and then in the early Autumn, plant in the seedlings after they've had a chance to develop through the season.

Elderflower lane is taking well, I'm peppering in a few beaked hazelnuts there as well. Hooray!

Hoping to see many more of the  candelabra like flowers of the blue vervain compliment goldenrod during the height of Summer and honey flow.

The front pear guild #2 with sick tree that was girdled by a stake and zip-tie when we arrived, is leafing and flowering a little more each season. This one is bedded between berry lane more of a classic fruit tree/berry bush harvest area, and the next lane down being spring-fed assortment of native bushes, wildflowers, and trees -- now with hobblebush, rhodora, elderflower, comfrey, rhubarb, haskap, blueberry, alternate leaf dogwood, lingonberry, bunchberry, sheep laurel, mountain holly, tall meadow-rue, highbush cranberry, coastal sweet pepperbush, wild raisin, local ferns.

Sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia)

Lucky to have added a pair of Sweet Pepperbushes to the spring/low lane. I don't think these plants I have here are descended from the population locally, as they're only found on three small lakes in the southwestern end of the mainland, perhaps propagated from seed from another east coast grower in the states but I'll have to find out more on that one.

Great COSEWIC assessment status report from 2014 here:

https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/species-risk-public-registry/cosewic-assessments-status-reports/sweet-pepperbush-2014.html

As it's a species Critically Imperilled (N1) in Canada, Nova Scotia. Loads of great information on the plant here in this landscape, and alludes to a variety of studies done with the plant from all over, great stuff!

A few notes I find particularly interesting:

"Sweet Pepperbush is one of many nationally rare, disjunct species of the Atlantic Coastal Plain in southern Nova Scotia. Outreach programs have resulted in fairly wide understanding and appreciation of this rare flora. Sweet Pepperbush is particularly appreciated by some landowners because of its showy flowers and strong, pleasant fragrance, characteristics that have made it a widely used ornamental species with many developed cultivars. Canadian populations are isolated from others by 200+ km and are the northernmost worldwide, suggesting potential significance to the species’ range-wide genetic diversity."

"The traditional view on migration of Sweet Pepperbush and other Atlantic Coastal Plain plant species into present-day Nova Scotia (Roland and Smith 1969) is that these plants reached Nova Scotia after having colonized (or having persisted throughout the period of glaciations on) land between present-day southern Nova Scotia and Massachusetts exposed by lower sea levels. This suggests a slow migration to Nova Scotia via shorter-distance dispersal events over thousands of years. A recent evaluation (Clayden et al. 2009) suggests this scenario may be unlikely for southern species like Sweet Pepperbush because offshore land is now known to have had high boreal or arctic climate, and to have been more limited in time and space than previously believed. Thus very long-distance dispersal (on the scale of 200 to 400+ km between southern Nova Scotia and New England) may be possible for Sweet Pepperbush over geological time."

Ice age Beauty or windswept paradise?!

Interspecific Interactions
Sweet Pepperbush is well known as an attractive plant for pollinating insects, especially bees (Taschereau 1986; COSEWIC 2001; Bhattacharya et al. 2003; Clemson Extension 2010; Missouri Botanical Garden 2013). The pollination biology of Sweet Pepperbush in New England was investigated in detail by Hemingson (1986). She collected insects from Sweet Pepperbush flowers, finding 140 species in the orders Hymenoptera (bees, wasps and ants – 58 species in 13 families), Coleoptera (beetles – 32 species in 12 families), Diptera (flies – 15 species in five families), Hemiptera (true bugs, treated in the broad sense here – 21 species of 9 families) and Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths – 14 species in 6 families). Hemingson (1986) found Black-headed Soldier Beetle (Cantharis nigriceps), Common Eastern Bumble Bee (Bombus impatiens) and Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) were the most abundant flower visitors. Her observations of insect behaviour and insect pollen loads led her to conclude that bumble bees (Bombus spp. sensu lato) were the main pollinators. Jordan and Hartman (1995) reported visits to the flowers from many species of bees, flies and beetles in New Jersey and butterflies are also reported as frequent visitors (Clemson Extension 2010; Missouri Botanical Garden 2013). Bees (species not noted) are abundant visitors to Canadian subpopulations of Sweet Pepperbush (Belliveau pers. comm. 2012; Hill pers. comm. 2012). Bhattacharya et al. (2003) investigated movement of bumble bees and carpenter bees (Bombus impatiens, B. affinis, and Xylocopaspecies) between patches of Sweet Pepperbush in Massachusetts. Only three of 113 bumble bees recaptured in five to six day studies moved away from the patches of Sweet Pepperbush (between 240 m2 and 820 m2 in size, all within a 150 m x 150 m area) at which they were originally captured. The site fidelity of these highly mobile generalist pollinators suggests high nectar and/or pollen rewards within pepperbush patches."

Bumbles love to stick around!