Diane Kistner

Maybe these Georgia Heirloom apples, then, might actually work well, Steve. You've encouraged me to maybe try a few.

Yum!

I'm growing purple shiso, so I'm very interested in this thread. It grows like a weed but looks very pretty in the sunshine. Nice contrast with all the greenery. It really puts out the biomass, too, so I'm going to try chopping & dropping. Question is, other than squirrels, what else might it deter?

I had tossed out a bunch of seeds a while back, and when something came up in my garden, I thought it was Papalo. But as it has grown, turns out it's Jewels of Opar. I didn't realize you can eat the leaves, but they are good! Very tasty for sandwiches and salads. A pretty plant, too.

This link is to a place selling seeds, but I'm posting it because it has wonderfully detailed information about this plant, including its edible and medicinal uses. Lucky me, I'm in Zone 8!

https://tinyurl.com/ycdpyvug

R Laurance wrote:New Zealand spinach Tetragonia tetragonoides in my opinion has both a better flavor, and is more productive. The leaves are much thicker than the Causasian spinach leaves, being nearly a succulent type of leaf whereas the Caucasian leaves are quite thin so in cooking requires much more for the same amount of volume. Leaf for leaf, the NZ spinach is about four times heavier (more water, no doubt). Wikipedia states that some places have classified the NZ spinach as an invasive plant. I can attest to that as being a possibility and I exploit that potential to keep it in my growing area. It produces one flower (one large seed) at every leaf node and is a sprawling grower quickly growing in all directions. It is a perrenial in its native habitat but here in Sweden it is only an annual, yet reseeds itself quite easily sprouting every Spring on its own, from the masses of previous year's seeds. In the gardening area where I keep it contained, to a degree, it starts growing from sprouts about the first of June, and unlike 'real' spinach it doesn't bolt with hotter days ... I guess with one seed at every leaf node one could say it is in a constant bolt, though. Whilst I am putting out and maintaining my regular annual garden veggies I note if and where the new plants are sprouting. If they are too close to an area that I feel they would overcrowd, I just pluck up the seedling. If there is ample space, I allow it to grow until it begins impinging on other favored plants at which time I either harvest the leaves for the freezer or add the plant to the compost pile as it makes abundant green biomass. It doesn't seem to continue growing from remaining bits of roots left in the soil. Additionally, the hens love it, so at times I have blocked off an area of the garden and invited them in for a week to scratch around and consume the greens. All in all, I don't feel that NZ spinach is cumbersome with maintenance work and tends to have a high yield of use in our permaculture system.

So helpful! Thank you!

Skandi Rogers wrote:If you are finding lots of dead birds together you should speak to whoever does the environment in your country. They often want to test for things like bird flu.
Cats will take birds but they tend to make a mess and leave feathers everywhere.

This is a very good suggestion, given how we're having outbreaks of all kinds of viral goodness....

Has anyone used any poisons nearby? What state do you live in? Did you sheet mulch your garden? Where did you get the mulch? When I first started working on my forest garden, I trucked in loads of free mulch from our landfill. Nothing would grow. No critters came near it. Then a person in the know told me they'd had the mulch tested and it was loaded with toxins. Now, three years later, I'm finally seeing an explosion of wildlife here, and my plantings are taking off.

Cristo Balete wrote:I thought heirloom apples would be great, but the ones I tried were fussy, inconsistent from year to year, tended to have scab, and seemed more vulnerable to critters.   So lists are good for research, but maybe the best way to tell is go around locally in late summer, see which old trees -- which could be heirloom, or at least vintage -- are healthy and produce well, either get cuttings from them or find out if the owners know what they are.  Take a magnifying glass with you and really look at the leaves, and whatever damage they have on them, closely.

It is good to plant some newer, reliable fruit trees so you can be pretty sure that after 5-6 years they will produce well and be as disease free as possible. They will keep your spirits up when the other trees are looking iffy.

Try to stay skeptical about heirlooms, because if you commit to an apple tree it could be 5-6 years before it produces, and if it doesn't work out, you've lost a lot of time.

This is excellent advice, Cristo. Thanks.

Tj Jefferson wrote:Had an issue getting the bones due to COVID in March. Hope to make a few batches this year. Will post if/when I do.

Oh, yes, please do!

Tj Jefferson wrote:Making some this year. Thought I would freshen up the thread. I probably will offer some through permies.

TJ, did you ever make some bone sauce? I found this thread because I searched for "bone sauce for sale." We have deer here, but we are prohibited from burning anything, so I'm hoping to find someone who would sell me a little. Anyone?