Dan Scheltema

Pigeon pea.  I'm trying some from seed I got out of Texas.  I'm hoping I can mulch it heavily and overwinter it here in panhandle Florida.  Not sure yet about how much biomass they will provide, but they are a legume and the peas are edible (see Caribbean peas & rice).

Banana!  Oh, not from seed, I suspect.  From pup you might get more pups from a dwarf variety in one year.  Great biomass.  Big in agroforestry systems in the tropics.

Roselle might work.  Grows pretty fast, a lot of biomass, and you should get seed within a year.  I did here.  Suspect it will overwinter for me with heavy mulch too.  Last year's didn't get mulched and didn't make it, but it was a cold winter here.  6 or more hard freezes which is very unusual. The pods are used for juice/tea,  The leaves are edible.  And definitely ornamental.

Totally forgot I posted this.  Thanks for the replies.

The subsoil pushed back over the field is proving challenging, though The cowpeas I put in immediately did okay.  The oats not so much.  I got some ryegrass over it over the winter, but that is sparse.  I think I will move it towards meadow and keep mowing it to feed my composting and chickens.  They eat it right from the wire compost bins as I am trying to fill them up.  Don't mind.  It all ends up compost one way or the other.

Rebecca Norman wrote:Ooooh..... I'd recently given up on my pond fantasy because of fear of mosquitoes, but now this is a great idea and it will propel me back into pond daydreams...

Here, so far, tree frogs seem to keep mosquitos in my water catching buckets etc under control.  After a bit they tend to swarm with tadpoles. Now the swamp in one corner of my property is a whole nuther thing.  I plan to put some sort of small fish in any pond I dig though.  More mosquito larva eaters is better!

Jeremiah Squingelli wrote:Has anybody else had strong success with anaerobic tea? Ingham is very confidently insistent that anaerobic tea or compost will kill your plants, and yet I've used anaerobic tea that sat in a sealed barrel in the sun for several months and smelled like septic tank and my plants only thrived, and I know other permies like morag gamble use an anaerobic comfrey tea to success, and there are also more traditional methods like bokashi.
I honestly feel like she's somewhat of a dogmatist regarding this

Check out the recent videos with Dr Christine Jones on this topic.  I think Dr Ingham's opinions may be a bit dated, or incomplete.  I don't know how much actual work she's done on anaerobic teas.  Korean Natural Farming (and other systems) has been using them for ages.  Never had an issue with them myself.

The soil is a combination of aerobic and anaerobic microenvironments so both are present.  Also, nitrogen fixing bacteria (for one) don't fix nitrogen in the presence of oxygen according to Dr. Jones.

Bottom line for me is maximal diversity of soil microorganisms.  Fungus is also very important, probably more important, than bacteria.

Green Cover Seed is running webinars with her.  There are several recent ones up.

I have about 15 black locusts in pots from seed.  Waiting for them to develop a bit more before I plant them out.  I have four I got as bare root last year that are all leafed out again.  Deer cleaned one off and stunted it a bit last year, but it's fine now.  Just shorter than the others that are in the 6-9' range.

Thorns? Yeah.  I grew up with REAL thorns so black locusts are kinda tame

I haven't tried doing hardwood cuttings so far, but could soon.  Did put in ten or so willows from cuttings.  They are so easy it's no fun.  Hoping they will penetrate some compaction from cement trucks just off my back porch.  Once they grow a year or so I'll chop down some.  Probably let at least one survive, but try to keep it pruned to a smallish size.

I definitely have bluebirds here in the panhandle.  Every morning there are 2-3 sitting on the power line leading to my house.  I put up three boxes for them over the winter and have seen the one closest to the house being checked out, but no sign any moved in except they are around the area a lot.  The one about 50 yards down on the next power pole I have spooked one out of several times on the way to my wood chip piles.  Hoping to get some families settled in this year, though they were around last year too.

More is better!

Next I need to move my temporary power pole (retire it from that job!) out into where I have been planting fruit trees and berries and start drilling and cleaning the birdhouse gourds I grew last year for purple martins.  Love to have a colony of those too.

nikki dee wrote:does anyone still have any thorny locust seeds i could purchase? my dad has been searching for months on end! it would make his year 🥰

Try www.hobbyseeds.com.  I got some from them last year.  Should get around to planting them.  The black locust seeds I got at the same time came up fine.

Check out natural beekeeping. https://horizontalhive.com/

"Keeping Bees With a Smile" is one book on the topic.  There are youtube vids around too.

Yeah, I drill hole sin the bottom for drainage.  Probably a good idea to boost the size of those, or drill more.

I can keep an eye on their growth to watch for roots reaching the edges.  I aim to plant them out as soon as possible, so shouldn't be a problem.  Should have a dog up to deer-prevention size by the time that happens.

I may get around to trying this soon, but so far just been putching the road-killed ones I pick up in a maggot bucket and letting chooks eat those as they fall down to ground. They love those.

WushI had a pickup. Open bed would be better for picking up roadkill. I have an SUV and it's riskier with them inside. To my olfactory sense that is.  Maybe pathogens too.