A Short Morning Tour of Willow Acre, Zone 6a, NE Indiana

I may have been incognito for a while, but that doesn't mean all my sap went into my roots and I went dormant. I've been pretty busy around my little one-acre permaculture paradise. I wanted to share a short video of me wandering around the backyard, better known as "Willow Acre." Tim N. has been great about documenting his adventures. Maybe I should take a cue from him. I'm hoping to schedule regular video tours for those interested as things start to get hairy and scary going into the summer. My goal is to spend at least half an hour to an hour per day doing something valuable on this little acre.

j

Glad to see you back here and glad things are happening, even though there were a couple of setbacks.  But you'll get it, you just need the bees again.

Really enjoyed the walkthrough. One acre doing that much work is impressive, especially the way you've layered everything in. Looking forward to the summer updates when it all fills out.

I’ve got so many ideas for Willow Acre! Everything is an experiment. Some have succeeded, some have failed, some have “morphed” in unexpected ways. 2026 is “the year of the dragonfly.” And the rebound of the bees. Fruit and berries are a given. Herbs and salsa garden, too. If I get a healthy crop of kale and collards, I’ll be ecstatic.

j

Last year's final chip drop is just about used up. You can see where it went in the pic below if you zoom in. The orchard is loving it. Many wheelbarrows full. Twelve bedding forks-full into each barrow trip. I got my steps in the last few days, that's for sure. I laid them in deep.



j

I have done some stuff to Willow Acre over the past couple of days, and I'm not even close to finishing. Let's go through it. First, the "tadpole pond" along the local riverwalk is quickly drying up, and the baby frogs are so early in development, I think most of them are going to become biofilm. I've rescued two Mason jars of the so far and transferred them to my kiddie pool pond. Most of them aren't going to survive. I'm sad but realistic. But each time I go out, I'm gonna keep rescuing more until their original home returns to leafy forest floor. If one or two of my transferred taddies survive to adulthood, I'll have done a good thing for my ecosystem. Sorry no picture for that one. I'll try to remember to take a pic on today's walk.



I typed in a string of suggestions and reference photos to that chatty non-person computer personality asking it to imagine what Willow Acre will look like in a couple of years. I was largely unimpressed except for this one. I think it is pretty close, because I'm going to let the center return to meadow, and shoot it through with walking paths. It'll be a pollinator's playground.


I moved the beehives away from the willow circle so that their corner of the yard is calm, shady, and and as near as possible to their native habitat, aka the back corner of the yard up against the walnut ditch. I'm within a week or two of picking up my bee package. I'm hoping a swarm finds the second hive.


My brother gave me some irises last year after he did some intensive landscaping changes. The first of them bloomed this morning. So beautiful. I can't wait for the rest of them to open up!


Finally, my wife's best friend from grade school bought a trellis and they sent the wrong one. She gifted it to us. I put it together, stuck it over the walkway to our front door, which no one ever comes to except the mailman, and decided to stuff it full of scarlet runner beans (edible beauty), coral honeysuckle, and Nelly Moser clematis. I've planted the scarlet runners, but the other two companions haven't arrived yet. I have been dying to see what it will look like in full bloom. The above is one possibility.

How are your projects going? Show me below!

j

Okay, Nugget has been walked. I fully intended to visit the tadpole pond, but it doesn't exist anymore. I suppose the two inches of rain we got last night had something to do with it. Yep, the pond was washed away into the river. The two canning jars full of taddies will have to do in my kiddie pool pond. I'm glad I was able to save them since their brothers and sisters were washed away. See below.



One other thing I forgot to post was this tantalizing photo of my very thorny blackberry bushes about to burst into flower:



Have a great evening, won't you? I'm getting ready to fire up the Blackstone and grill up a few pounds of chicken fajitas. Why cook a single meal when you can freeze enough to last three or four more weeks?

j

Jim Garlits wrote:I’ve got so many ideas for Willow Acre! Everything is an experiment. Some have succeeded, some have failed, some have “morphed” in unexpected ways.

That sounds about right!
I enjoyed the walk round Jim - thanks for sharing your backyard with us.

For some reason, this video cut out a couple of minutes before I *thought* I ended it, but I was rambling anyways, so it's all good.

Have a big yard? Want to turn it into a permaculture paradise? Mot it into ZONES!



Jim