Andy James

Trace Oswald wrote:I'm dealing with it right now on my new land. I have a lot of cedars,  all have cedar Apple rust. I don't know a way of dealing organically short of removing the trees.  That's what I'm doing.

Yikes. That was my initial thought, but my wife really likes this juniper tree.

I noticed the orange blossomlike, mushroomlike indicator yesterday on a juniper tree that sits about 125 ft from our Apple trees. Is there anything I can do to protect the Apple trees without removing the juniper?

The leaves on the apples did get yellow-ish last last summer. My fear is that that this has already taken hold of the Apple trees. The area to the left of the slide in the distance of photo is where Apple trees are located.

Has anyone moved through this in the past? What was your approach? Success?

Sounds like a decent, strong, little buddy to keep around!


How about for medicinal use, have you harvested for that purpose? What did you do with it, and how were the effects/ side effects?

So this is the first year it has really expanded from its initial volunteer establishment late last year. I have comfrey under a few fruit trees and they do not seem bothered by eachother. The creeping Charlie stays a little further away from the comfrey, no complaints about that. I’m seeing a lot of the wild strawberries that had established themselves lose ground though.

I was pretty worried about the bergamot’s ability to come back in a meaningful way. I just started to see sprouts yesterday coming up within the thickest of the creeping charlie. I really like bergamot, so the ability for the two to cooperate will probably determine the fate of the creeping Charlie.

I had planned on bringing violets in as a ground cover this spring, but I am slowly being convinced that they will not be able to do battle with the stubborn grasses as effectively as this creeper. Perhaps the violets are best left to spread out in the woods and my labor best focused on other things.

I have a lot of (what I call) Creeping Charlie comming in around my fruit trees.

I checked it’s potential uses on quick internet search and was surprised to find how many uses there are- especially medicinal.

I’m on the fence about whether or not to remove and replace it with a different ground cover.

Has anyone used this plant, or currently making use of it? What was/is your experience like?

I started this method last year for the first time. Unlike original post I don’t have too much gardening experience.

I only went about 4” deep with chips on top of cardboard. I was fortunate to be gifted numerous plants after I mulched, and so found myself pulling back chips, cutting holes in cardboard, and digging out yet to be killed grass and filling in with dirt from the woods and chicken poop.

I would love to go 8” deep, but as you will read I am gardening as if my failures will be my best teacher (mostly due to time contraints).

Everything did relatively well. My soil, one year later, is improving and many of the perennials i transplanted in are coming up!

I should note that my process began around 5 established fruit trees (2-4 yrs old) that use to stand alone in an overgrown weedy lawn with a ring of mulch around them.

I’ll mulch more this week and do the same as I did last year.

I’m not well planned, I don’t always know if what I am doing will succeed, I’m designing my trails this year instead of last year. I’m having far fewer failures than I anticipated, and the things that won’t make it back this spring we’re free and easily replaceable.

There was some talk about chickens and ducks a few pages back. I can attest to the success in this advice. I used mostly murky duck water from a kiddy-pool last year. I thought it would burn most of my plants, but also enjoy the journey of (what I’m calling) “f around and find out” gardening. The kiddy pool happened to be closer to my project than the hose... so that happened and it was a great success!

I hope this gives people considering food forest/ garden of eden style soil work a confidence boost! If Someone like me can enjoy some successes- you’ll do great!

Bryant RedHawk wrote:Are these indoors? in a green house? outside on a patio?

Ope, that all seems very important.


They are indoors. I started them in an east facing window, and moved them to a south facing window yesterday. I don’t plan on taking them outside for about a month or so (Michigan- US).

I’ll take your advice in your last sentence. Would you recommend covering the pot with same plastic bag, or throwing some mulch on top of the soil to retain moisture? Is it important for the soil to be able to have some air at this point?

Thanks!

I am attempting to propagate some service berries from dormant cuttings.

I dipped the bottoms in aloe prior to sticking them into soil.

I kept them in their own little pots with bags over the top of them for about a week.

Is it safe to remove the bag from the top of the pots at this stage of growth?

Any advice moving forward would be appreciated!

All currently have 2-3 leaf buds like the one in the picture.

just for fun

Kale, beet, and pea sprouts are the ones I see most often (especially in resteraunt).

I would be curious to know what would make a sprout inedible.