Linda Polle

Sounds great. I am currenty conducting exeperiments with fermenting foods. The agent of fermentation is sour cream. What I do is pack the fruit or vegie in clean large mouth jars making sure liquid is covering the food. (if not add water).
Then let it set for two or three days, and then put it in the back of your frig or other cool place. I suggest that you set the jar in another dish, as the fermemtation will force some of the liquid out of the jar and creat a mess.
Taste from time to time to achieve the level of sourness you desire.  To date I have fermented red cabbage mixed with beets (salt vegies) and fresh cherries.
I plan to try grape tomatoes, and dill flavored green beans, and onions in a brine next

Anyone try a vacuum cleaner on a low suction setting?

First let me disqualify myself.  My farming experience has been in Minnesota, on clay soil in the USA midwest.  However I am well traveled and lived on the Gulf of Mexico when it was in high school. In college I did take Crops and Soils as part of an undergraduate education in Biology,

Two things you should look into.  The Scots have had to manage [that is shelter] gardens from winds. In Minesota such plantings are named "shelter belts".

On the Gulf Coast I have seen landscape plants [roses] started in tubes of roofing paper [any waterproff plastic might ubistute].  The idea being the stoppage of the leaching, that is washing away,  of plant foods into the sand.  Once the plant's root system gets down to the clay it should be able to find nutriants.

Costal land scares me. With Global warming.  Yesterday I did see a system of bulk marerials bags [square meter or so size bags used to sell dry construction materials]  bound in fence wire,  to be filled with sand and stones, as a means of holding back flooding.  They might also be used to build tree sized planters for your fruit trees.

A product named "Tangle foot" is marketed in the USA to stop ants.
Basiclly it is a mix of a startch and protien to make a gummy paste. This is spread in a wide band on the tree trunk.  When the ants try to climb the tree, they will get caught in the gooy mess, and go no further.

Good luck, Doc Linda