John Wolfram

Anne Miller wrote:What harm can come of writing a nice letter?

I think the ideal situation would be living on the property, getting to know the neighbor, and then casually mentioning you would be interesting in buying part of their land if they're ever interested in selling. The letter might get faster results, but some people will see dollar signs when they receive a letter and expect multiples of fair market value for the land.

Jerry McIntire wrote:Trees are generally available during a short window when shipping and planting will most likely be successful. The farther north, the more true this is. Getting on the email list of a couple good suppliers is a way to learn their availability dates and when you can place orders early to get limited stock. I would also check your local county extension service because they often sell native trees at good prices, in quantity.

My experience getting trees is that if you want a decent selection you need to order way before shipping dates. For March/April pickup of trees from my state nursery I usually need to order in October of the previous year. For some commercial nurseries, I've gone as early as September for spring delivery the following year.

Caitlin Robbins wrote:

Ben Zumeta wrote:America does not have a deer problem, we have a wolf and grizzly deficiency.

You said it, Ben! And a mountain lion deficiency.

Indeed, and to modify one of Sepp Holzer's quotes, if we don't have those animals then "you must do the pig's wolf's work!"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc4GXVJB3WI

Lawn care companies are in the business of making money, and if they had a one time treatment that was effective for years and years they would go out of business. In this case, corporate greed is your friend as it means the crap sprayed on your lawn will stop working and decompose fairly quickly.

I believe Adam Smith described specialization and the division of labor as a "motor for generating prosperity." Unfortunately, permaculture farming tends to be a practice of generalization which tends to not be nearly as profitable. A true polyculture farm has numerous different plants and animals so it unlikely that a single practitioner could ever gain mastery of growing and selling each of the various components. Perhaps  a community of various specialists could run a tremendously successful permaculture farm, but that introduces a whole new set of challenges.

I don't have any suggestions for the gasoline other than potentially add a bit to a car's gas tank if you're feeling brave, but in the future you might be able to avoid this problem by buying ethanol-free gas (https://www.pure-gas.org/ costs about $1 per gallon more) and storing your gas in one of those new EPA approved non-venting containers (they suck for pouring, but are good for keeping gas fresh).

I'm usually pretty leery of blanket statements that something is either good or bad. I'd be willing to bet that for at least one type of tree volcano mulching is perfectly fine, and for another type of tree it's tantamount to a death sentence.

Kris Nelson wrote:

John Wolfram wrote:Sure it would be better if the branches hadn't been cut, but in a few years time the effects should be minimal.

Alright, so I would rub off the buds growing vertically, and keep the ones growing more horizontally to get the proper primary scaffold angles, correct?

I would probably just let everything grow for this year, and then select branches next year.

I've only tried sprouting pawpaw seeds once, but in general they are very slow to sprout even under ideal conditions.

Kris Nelson wrote:Won't the new scaffolding be bad with the existing properly directed scaffolds creating new primary scaffolds off in odd directions? It wouldn't be better to have primary scaffolds starting off from the root trunk, not these very short branches?

Sure it would be better if the branches hadn't been cut, but in a few years time the effects should be minimal.