Scott Foster

I'm reaching a point in my food-forest where nothing receives tender loving care but I'm also hitting that tipping point where nature takes over.

Last year I dug a large ditch just beyond the white peonies in the photo below and filled with a bunch of wood and debris.  I then scattered wildflower seeds like yarrow and planted a few sunchokes.

I started Martha Washington Asparagus from seed and planted out a bunch of tiny seedlings in the freshly dug area.  A bunch of them didn't make it (or I can't see them) but a bunch of them did.  There are probably some hidden I don't see.  I will go out and clear some of this up this weekend.

The asparagus plant that is the most vibrant was planted next to a baby Japanese maple that volunteered, and I re-planted.  I also broadcast some clover and let it run.  The plant you see in the picture has been trimmed quite a bit because it started choking out the maple.

In the large patch, I planted alpine strawberries next to the asparagus but Alpines are a slow grower.

If you use strawberries I would go for a full-sized everbearing variety.
My asparagus seedlings are being grown like they are wild. They are making it.  With a little hand weeding, they would explode.  I'm always nervous to keep things too neat with baby plantings because the wildflowers provide, shade, moisture, and refocus pests.

Don't do what I did and use mint and sunchokes.  Yeah, I should have known.  So to answer your question, my asparagus is growing with alpine strawberries, wildflowers, weeds, Japanese maple, and clover and they are making it.  I think most ground covers would work.

Hi, Just a quick question for anyone who grows their food in an apartment.


What grows best in small spaces?


What are some tips and techniques you would share that make small space gardening bountiful?

Comfrey is from another cosmos.  I purchased a small pack of roots 2 or 3 years ago and I just keep digging roots.  I've lost count of how many comfrey plants I have but it's in the 100's.

I've been using edible acres method of planting comfrey between the grass and garden-bed boarders.  It works really well to set the line.  I did another border in a very simple and sloppy manner about 2 weeks ago and comfrey leaves are already popping.






Follow up video

Just a little update:  I kept feeding my starter but didn't get around to baking bread so my levain is a month along and wow does it make tasty bread.

I used an uncovered cast iron frying pan on 450 for 50 minutes and it was a little moister than I like in the center.  

Next time I'm going to use my covered cast iron dutch over to see if I can get more of a rise.

I used 2 cups of organic spelt flour and 1.5 cups of unbleached flour with 3 cups of water.

Didn't grease the pan.

What I would do differently.  I put the dough in a bowl for the second rise so I had to dump it into the pan, next time I will do the rise in the pan to get a prettier top.

The crust on this is delicious.  I feel like a Roman Centurian when I'm eating it.  It's so filling I can see why the Romans called spelt the marching grain. I usually eat 2 or three bowls of stewed lentils but yesterday I ate a very small bowl and a hunk of this bread slathered in butter. I was so full after eating I felt a little queasy.

Jordan Holland wrote:I didn't see anyone post this method, but I recall reading of an old method (from Poland, I believe) where they would have a designated wooden dough bowl. It was never cleaned and I would assume the nature of wood would absorb some yeast, as well as the small flecks of dough that dried on the sides would innoculate the new dough as it was made.

Vikings used ornately carved wooden Totem Sticks to stir Mead.  They thought fermentation was the magic of Kvasir, the wisest man in the world but it was yeast on their magic totem.

I tried making Levain.  The recipe I used said it takes 3 to 5 days.  I was getting some bubbles but not enough activity to raise a good loaf of bread.  I read about reducing your levain by a third and continuing to feed it.  That worked.

I fried a sourdough pancake in olive oil and added some garlic chives from the garden.  Yum.   This was done with regular unbleached flour.  

Watch out Paul I see a virtual milkshake coming your way.  Hahaha.  

The guy's an incel.

People forget they have freedom of choice.  

I ordered and started my seeds a little early last year so I waited this year.  I did order some flowers and perennials I wanted to baby but I waited on most of the veg.

Last week I ordered from 3 different places still couldn't find everything I wanted.  Some of the seeds are back-ordered.  The earliest seeds will arrive, April 22 but some of the stuff won't show up until May or even June.

I have enough perennials in the forest to keep me going, walking onions and garlic chives are popping.

Take a look at Andrew Camarata's channel, he's built a castle from shipping containers.

Here he's moving a container with a backhoe and chains.

It takes a lot of time for clay soil to start breaking down.  

I have a couple of areas with clay soil that were chipped for a couple of years but it wasn't as effective as my loamier areas.  I started using the clay areas to pile any kind of biomass I could find.  Also planted some basket willow.  The soil  is getting better.

If your entire garden area is like this you might consider doing some raised beds or hugels to get started with.  Just keep piling on leaf litter, trimmings and etc.