Maxime bisson

Alder Burns wrote:On clay soil, whatever else you do, DON'T dig a big hole and put in all kinds of soil amendments, compost, organic matter, etc. and then plant the tree in that.  When it rains heavy the water will collect in the increased pore space in that spot and not soak easily into the surrounding clay, and if this happens during the growing season the tree will quickly drown!  I have learned this the hard way on more than one site!  Plant the tree into the unimproved clay rather, and add any soil amendments on top as a mulch, or perhaps (especially if they are "nasty" amendments like humanure or roadkill or some such) buried in holes BESIDE and not UNDER the roots.  In many heavy clay soils it is often a good idea to plant the trees on shallow mounds, or even little raised beds, and the soil in these mounds can be thoroughly improved since the excess water can drain down and out.  The only exceptions might be if the trees are on a pretty good slope, or perhaps the mound portion of a swale, or some other such freely-draining location.  This is mostly a problem for young trees, so if your mounds gradually settle and level out as the trees mature it won't be a problem.  Some varieties are worse sensitive than others and often grafting rootsocks are chosen for "sogginess" tolerance.

This!! I killed hundred of trees this way. I used to dig a 3 foot deep hole with an auger, Now I juste use a small tree planting shovel and a pick to dig a hole just large enough to put all of the root mass in it. I had drastic improvement in survival rates.

I will definitely be interested by the results, I just received a pound of eastern red cedar seeds by the mail! Most will go to replant the areas where I logged, but it might be interesting to use them as a snow barrier, to capture large amounts of snow in strategic areas to protect more tender plants

well, I had the exact same situation, somewhere on my land was very wet, and trees had a hard time growing there, they wher all small with roting parts, so I cut everything in that area, leaving the trees that where on mounds, because they looked healty, and I wanted to keep some shade on the pond.

On the first year, I scraped the top soil, putting it aside, uprooted all of the stumps, and slowly began to dig what would roughly look like a "T" shaped pond. I only dug a shallow part of the pond so it was not at its final depth. Of course this was done using an excavator.

I did not work on it on the second year, however, life was very quick to take home there. There where thousands of tadpoles in my unfinished pond.

On the third year, I completed the work, taking extra care not to kill my new buddies (the frogs and tadpole did an insane difference in reducing mosquitoes and flies in the immediate area of the pond) So now it is about a tenth of an acre and roughly 10 feet deep in the middle with many terraces at varying height. I added a lot of debris, mostly stumps and stones to create more habitat for wildlife.

So far I havent added fish, I probably will, but I want to leave my pond naturalise for at least two more years so that there is enough biodiversity for me not to have to feed the fish.

Im am also planning on planting edible water loving plants like duck potatoes and lotus, I already have the seeds, but we still have 4 + feet of snow in the woods so, that will wait.  

Miles Flansburg wrote:In Colorado and Wyoming I have harvested lots of crawfish from everyplace from ditches to giant reservoirs. I am wondering about the need for lots of oxygenation. Many of these waters were slow moving and murky. The crawfish lived in holes in the muddy banks or under rocky outcrops. When I was young I found one frozen in ice, solid, I thawed it out and it crawled away ! So it seems to me that they are pretty hardy and wouldn't need much special care.

My tought too, I have a carry on my piece of land with about 3 feets of water in it, not much vegetation since its is almost bare rock, yet there are many crayfish in it wich seem to get by with little oxygenation.

Well I recall having seen a blog were a researcher, from ukraine i think, had breed a low alkaloids variety of the perennial lupines, i think it was somewhere around 2010, he later said in the comments, that a university in germany had the most advanced breeding program in that regard

well this is definitely what I was looking for! Now, I am just intrigued as to how it made its way here, nut from what I read it can remain a long time underground, waiting for the right conditions to germinate.

I will look into the genus, but that plant is like 5-6 feet tall so... i dont know

Hi fellas

I found this plant in my field on one of the swales i dug last spring, and I honestly have no idea what it is. At first i tought it might have been a sunflower relative, but my google fu is not strong enough i guess. Anyway, I have a few theories about how it ended up there going from bird deposit, to century old seed being activated by the earthworks.... But, it is most likely an intruder that came in my black locust seed bag wich originated from germany if that can help. Anyway, I would really like to know what this plant is, as I have never seen anything like it

Thanks in advance

Alright I will check these out, thanks

Hey guys,

I just saw a post on facebook from edible acre talking about this cold hardy peach. So i did some research, and realised that I would be able to make it grow on my location.

So, my question is, does anyone knows of a place to order seeds in canada? Because if I am not mistaken, it is impossible to import this species from other countries.