Emily Harris

Just curious what people are growing now (late August) in their upstate SC garden/food forest.

I just planted, on 8/19, a second round of Chinese Long Beans also known as Yard long beans or  Asparagus Beans. I planted them for the first time in a raised bed this spring and I got a full crop following the excellent tutorial on the "AsianGarden2Table" YouTube channel which is out of Florida. I didn't use the trellis recommended on the channel and I should have. Instead I used a nylon net and the beans wove themselves up through the mesh of the net. The second batch I'm planting in the ground using pieces of twine  that hang down between two 7.5' poles about 15 feet apart for each bean vine to grow up. I hope I'm not cutting it too close to our first freeze. The plants are about 4-5 inches tall now. It will be a few more days until they'll be ready to attach to the string trellis that is closer to what AsianGarden2Table uses.

I also have Candy Roaster squash that was planted about 8/10. I hope I get a crop of those as well. Otherwise Tomatoes, eggplants and peppers still seem to be producing.

Does anyone grow long beans or Candy Roaster squash and if so what has your experience been like growing them here? Also are there any artichoke growers?

My first attempt at growing long beans is shown below (along with some Zinnias, Artichokes and eggplants growing at the end.

Yes Joy. I discovered Stefan Sobkowiak, three of four years ago. I have been pruning my fruit trees based on his methods - especially my peach trees which were way too big, to get them to a more manageable size. Training the branches down and out to the sides rather than letting them grow up really works to reduce water sprouts and encourage fruit production. I was getting a ton of water sprouts. I would take his course except for the fact he only accepts PayPal.

Do you know about the channel "Permaculture Homestead"? Tory Morton is a true blue permaculture expert and has run multiple "food forests". He is based outside of Columbia, SC!  Maybe one day we could take a field trip down to the one he designed and manages for a market right next door.

I actually had a fruit tree consultant from Clemson come out and look at my trees. He told me that an Asian pear tree I had was never going to fruit and that I'd been ripped off and he said I was probably sold strictly root stock. So I took it out. I currently have Jujubes a persimmon, a fig tree, Mulberry trees. a quince tree, some Concord and Catawba grapes (with an uneven ripening problem), black berries, and raspberries. I'd love to grow Paw Paws.

I took a fruit tree care course from OrchardPeople.com  which was a good review but weak on the pruning side of caring for trees. It more or less taught what most arborists are taught: to prune only in winter. I find the videos geared for commercial growers the most helpful. They taught me things like which wood growth on certain trees produce fruit and which won't, which is important if you want to maximize fruit production.

I'm also trying to get some Artichokes growing. I have four at the moment one is in a straw bale... and I do have a tiny bit of Asparagus. For annuals I have two varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and Japanese cucumbers Suyo Longs (parthenocarpic) which produced like champs. I had some volunteer squash which I think came from seeds in my anaerobic Bokashi (from SD Microbes Works) food waste composting system. I only use plant based wastes. I also have candy roaster squash and did have Chinese long beans and am about to plant more. I've got various peppers, herbs, eggplants, Perilla leaves (Shiso leaves) and a TON of mint. I also grow garlic every winter. This past year, although I got a full harvest of about 80 bulbs, several of the bulbs were under sized.  I think they had too much competition from weeds and or the soil wasn't loose enough. I'll be putting them in raised beds this year.

Hi John! No I didn't but I'd still like to.  I feel the same way as you about social media which hasn't helped. Maybe if I was on Twitter (X) or Facebook I'd have gotten something going by now..

Right now I'm taking a break from weeding  and was delighted to see the notice from Permies.com about your post.  I've been wondering if any South Carolinians from the Upstate might have joined the paid forum created by the  YouTuber  "David the Good" and that perhaps I should join it and find out. David's homestead is based in Alabama. There is also the FreedomCellNetwork which might have more members by now from our area who might be interested in Permacultrue or at least growing a lot of their own food organically..

How is the Facebook group you joined? Are there any members from the Upstate?

I would love to join an Upstate SC growers group if there was such a thing that didn't require going on Facebook or Telegram or similar social media. So I thought I'd  ask people  on this forum who live and grow organic fruit, vegetables and herbs if they know of one or would like to form one to at least share experiences on-line if not also meet, share and even help each other in all that goes into the actual growing of organic food in your gardens

I'm in zone 8A with a youngish aspiring food forest and would like to improve the fruit tree production and have found it difficult to find an experienced arborist that knows about fruit trees and pruning for production. Are there any fruit tree growers/orchardists  in the  Greenville area? My peach, plum and Asian pear all have issues.  My grapes are experiencing uneven ripening.  All the various berries I have growing aren't thriving like I'd like.  

I have a mysterious vegetable or possibly a fruit that volunteered in my Hugelkultur  bed that I wonder if anyone can identify.

I'm also wanting to avoid bringing in  broadleaf pesticide/Grayzon  contaminated compost which has found its way into many commercial soil amendments and mulches and if used in a garden produces weak spindly plants and impacts the garden for 3 years so I'm experimenting making my own soil using a mix of weeds, leaves, twigs, pine cones, fruit and veg food wastes.

Perhaps we could share our growing experiences

I have a ton of healthy Mint and Shiso plants growing I could share with dozens of you. I should be able to say the same about peaches based on the number of trees I have if I was getting normal production out of them.  

Let me know what you think.

Off topic question/challenge:  I have a mysterious vegetable or possibly a fruit that volunteered in my Hugelkultur bed that was once a compost area for non-animal based food wastes. I wonder if anyone has ideas about what it might be. See the attached picture. It reminds me of what an albino acorn squash might look like with whitish skin instead of green and bright yellow stripes instead of light green. Does anyone know what it might be? Is it a melon?

I LOVE my 4 wheel Gorilla cart. I have the medium duty one with the non-deflateable tires that can hold up to 600 lbs.

I don't know how I managed so many years using a push wheel barrow (which I retired when its only tire got a flat). This cart has so many more uses!  I've even used it as a step stool ( portable scaffolding) to reach my gutters. I can transport far heavier loads than I could in the wheel barrow and the ease of transporting the loads are a dream compared to the wheelbarrow.

I think I got this from HEALTHY HEALING by Dr. Linda Page. Try making a paste of fresh Rosemary and taping it to your temples. Also the brain does a lot of repair work during mid-afternoon naps.

Regarding supplements. Try to stay with the WHOLE HERBS. The man-made vitamin and mineral chemical isolates of herbs are not as recognizable by the body and are hardly "natural" as they are separated from their other constituents and buffers in a laboratory. All they do is stimulate but later enervate (as with every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) as I found out after 15 years of taking the vitamins and minerals and now have switched to herbs exclusively.

I agree with the others that say too much water is most likely the problem due to the very dark (and wet) looking soil and those yellowing leaves on the tomato plants.

The way she can check to see if watering is necessary is to check the soil moisture BEFORE watering to MAKE CERTAIN it is really needed. She can use her finger or,  I have a moisture meter called "Three-way Meter" that was under $20 and so far is very reliable.  I never water if  it indicates the soil has good moisture. I only water if it leans towards becoming dry and then I  try to give an inch of rain water or filtered municipal water.

Where I am (zone , it is generally in the 90s every day and I sometimes only need to water every OTHER day.  

If you understand herbs at all you know what will help the most are the herbs that work on the part of the body where the symptoms are occurring but also since our bodies are nothing but a bunch of cells and two major fluids (blood and lymph) it is important to keep those fluids clean - especially the lymph which is the body's main sewer system- ALSO OUR IMMUNE SYSTEM - and cleans away wastes from our bodies' cells and ideally transports them down to our kidneys and out into our urine.

The way to keep the lymph fluid clean is with the lymphatic herbs and with a clean diet that won't clog your lymphatic system/immune system.

I have brought on floaters myself by eating meat, dairy and refined grains together. which have little chance of being fully digested and expelled from the body, especially when eaten together. I got rid of them with an eyewash I made based on Dr. John Christopher's formulas using Eyebrite and Cayenne Pepper tincture. His Eyebrite formula is sold on Amazon and has Eyebrite, Bayberry Bark, Goldenseal, Red Raspberry Leaf and Cayenne Pepper in it. I got relief in hours after using it and only needed to use it a few days to get rid of the worst floaters I'd ever had. Study Dr. John Christopher's work and buy his books if you want to learn how to heal all ills. Dr. Linda Pages books are another good resource as is Dr Robert Morse.

To permanently rid ourselves of all chronic and degenerative conditions and "dis -eases", the answer is to get clean inside by detoxing our bodies. Doing a parasite cleanse is just part of it. A colon cleanse should be done at the same time as well as a liver cleanse using only herbs grown in Nature - not to be confused with man-made isolate vitamins and mineral supplements which the body can't fully recognize, digest, assimilate and eliminate but instead, the man-made supplements just stimulate at first but later enervate. Using whole herbs which the body sees as food, we can fully heal and get to the point where we no longer need them.

Besides the three cleanses above we need to work on dislodging and cleaning our lymphatic system which includes fluids in the eyes . That would entail taking herbs such as Dandelion and others - all the while supporting our adrenal glands which oversee our endocrine system and our kidneys which the metabolic wastes have to pass through if we are going to regain robust health.  Lastly to do a cleanse we need a water rich raw plant based diet of mostly raw fruit and raw fruit-like vegetables with seeds and tender greens and to be dedicated and disciplined for 3-6 months while we detox our bodies and get rid of old wastes, dissolve tumors etc. Sometimes for those with "incurable" conditions, it takes longer but it is definitely doable. Nature has remedies for all our ills.