Paul Carson

Hey everybody, I'm getting ready to move to LA and am looking to see what permies are in the area.

I'm coming from my hometown of Denver, Colorado and I know finding like-minded individuals will be good for the nature boy in me. I'm also curious to see if there is anybody who has a potential living situation they could offer. I’ve been planning on an apartment, but before I commit to that, I'm reaching out to see what other options, if any, there are. I'm 25 years old. I'm moving to LA for film, but have a deep love and respect for nature. They are definitely my true passions! Feel free to respond to this post, or PM me. I can give you my personal email, or phone number and we can get to know each other and see if we would be a good fit. I'm coming out with a good amount of money, and a six month plan, so I won't be the deadbeat you can't get rid of. Let me know, and thanks for reading this post.

Hey Permies.
I posted this idea for a deer fence in the Nibblers forum a few days ago, but haven’t gotten any responses. Let me know if the below doesn’t make sense:

I’ve been thinking about this design, and would appreciate your thoughts and feedback. The idea is trying to mimic the idea of cattle grates: Let the animals fear of injury to their legs trump their desire to nom your garden.

I’ve attached a rough sketch of the design. I’m not an artist, so I’ll provide a short description alongside of the pic. To protect one side, you’ll need:

-2 lengths of netting material. Say, 3 feet wide, and however long your requirements are.
-4 stakes to connect the netting material to. Should reach height of around 6 feet when in ground.
-A few pieces of string hanging down from the top, to further increase the fear of being trapped.
-Optionally, and not shown, bamboo poles to increase the height from the stakes. You could also string netting material to these.

The bottom net will be 6 inches to a foot above the ground. It has enough slack that when stepped upon, it gives to the ground. The gaps in the net are small enough that they won’t pose a problem to a human foot. They are wide enough though, that a deer would fear of becoming entangled.

It seems like this would have distinct advantages over traditional deer fences. It’s cheaper, temporary, and won’t block as much sunlight. You can enter from any side you wish, and easily bring tools and wheelbarrows with you. It could also double as a trellis of sorts.

Let me know your thoughts, and thanks for taking a look.

No, I use it like comfrey. I pick the leaves and put them where I want to help amend the soil. Your compost pile will work great.

I observe mullein in nature, and it grows in some rough places! Rocks/clay/sand/dry- nothing seems to faze it. And it makes quite a bit of biomass throughout its’ short lifetime. I believe nature uses the tools at hand to create ecological succession, slowly transforming areas to support more life, and more biodiversity. The mesa behind my house is mostly grasses, cacti, and brush. But as mullein continues to slowly create and improve soil each year, new plants/fungi/animals will find niches they can fill, further speeding the process. And perhaps in a hundred years or so, trees will be the predominating feature of the landscape.

That’s a long time to wait. But that’s where our species comes in. The more we observe and understand how nature builds ecological succession, the more we can mimic it, and condense the process to not only happen within our lifetime, but within a few seasons. That way, we can all sit back and watch our system work for us when we’re 87.

I see no reason why you couldn’t harvest the leaves this year. As I’m sure you know, mullein is biennial, and will produce seeds during its second year. So I’d harvest what you like, while leaving a few plants to go to seed. Though as long as you leave the root structure intact, all the plants should return next year anyhow.

I’ve watched the mullein population grow from a sparse few, to an incredible magnitude on the mesa behind my house. Their leaf litter is slowly accumulating, covering rocks and bare earth. It’s changing the soil environment. I’m interested to see what the results are. It should only be another 20 years or so, haha.

Keep us informed on how your experiment goes!

Thanks for the replies so far Permies.

Allen- Thanks for the tip. I wasn't sure where to post this question, but it's great to know how to search all the forums. A separate biochar forum would be an excellent addition to a great site.

Ghislaine- An excellent link. Very inspiring, thank you!

Landon- Thanks for your reply! It's great to hear that you've had huge success with it. Using the search, I actually found another thread you'd replied in, saying you had plants that were 3X the size of the non-char plants. That speaks volumes for how effective biochar can be.

Hey Permies, hope everyone is doing well.

I’m looking to start a few new garden beds in the spring, and want to incorporate biochar into them as an experiment. I've been doing research, but I'd like to hear your firsthand accounts. What would you recommend as a good ratio of char to soil? Did you inoculate it first, or use it as is? And finally.. what were your results? Thanks for the wisdom.

Hey all, I would love your opinion:

A friend of mine has a 2 by 10 foot edging of rocks in his yard. He wants to grow flowers there. The rocks are standard, small river rocks. Underneath is a weed barrier. Would it work to simply build a sheet mulch right over the rock as is, or would it behoove us to do the extra work and remove the rock and barrier? If he wanted to grow plants for food or medicine, I’d definitely vote to do the work. But since it will be for show and pollinators, it may not be worth the extra effort. What do you think? If leaving the rocks/barrier would be fine, how high do you think we would need to build the sheet mulch in order to not compress the roots? Thanks for the wisdom.

-Paul