sam decker wrote:We're in the process of searching for property in alabama and moving from central florida. We're a generational farm family and my granny was gardening like this before it was called "companion planted/food forest' We've carried on the traditions and added to the knowledge along the way. Now with moving to alabama I feel as if I have alot to learn, I've studied soil life here and learned so much over the years and with the clay up there it feels like a game changer. Down here we have what people call "black gold" soil lol. So I'm researching what clay can and can't do in comparison so that I don't start a war with it lol. What have you had the most issue with so far. I grow moringa and I know that it will grow just about anywhere plus with the "chop and drop", "composting" and "hugelkulture" it will help create the "black gold soil" for gardens.
That's awesome! I wish I had generational experience to draw from; I'm kinda starting from scratch. Where in Alabama are y'all looking, if you don't mind saying? If it works for y'all, you might look into the Black Belt-- old prairie, good soil. So, I realized I probably shouldn't have dug so deep into the clay here (which wasn't deep). The soil here is pretty tired from years of being overworked--not much topsoil left, and most of it is near the house-- but I know places with accumulated organic matter around here have good rich, black stuff (like under old live oaks). My half-dug garden turned into a temporary pool during summer rains and I left it alone. So I didn't grow any veggies this year (besides some at my parents' and at work). I'll finish digging it/mixing it with bagged topsoil just to finish what I started, but I'll have to sheet mulch or at least smother the weeds that recolonized it. From now on, I figure I should just go up instead of down. I'm thinking it could be an interesting study to see the difference between it and raised beds, trying some of the same stuff, but I'm not there yet. I wish I had more info for you, but I'm really still in the beginning stages. I do have one little moringa that I'm hoping will make it through the winter with a good leaf mulch or something over it once it dies back.
I haven't done much on property since my first post. Although I did just plant a couple baby hybrid Castanea (Chinese chestnut x Allegheny chinquapin crosses [C. mollissima x pumila]). The site I bought them from says that chinquapin don't cross with other chestnut species (so I guess they manually did theirs) due to different flowering times (although we do have a recorded living American chestnut in the state that's got chinquapin DNA, so it has happened in the wild). Eventually I'll round out my kinship chestnut garden with some Chinese (/hybrids).
I've also got a lot of seedling American hazelnut that were still cold moist stratifying in my fridge when I first posted. In the wild, they don't grow this far south, so I do not have very high hopes for them, but they made it through summer ok in their pots. They were a gift and I'm down to experiment. Same goes for some seedlings from an Ashworth bur oak. I also have someone sending me some chinkapin oak acorns, so I'll have plenty of palatable acorn selections to play with (will probably plant them out at another site to save room here). And I've got some other odds and ends I didn't mention the first time, such as loquat seedlings, some of which I will plant out this winter-ish.
