Oliver Huynh

Hello,
I think you capture carbon every time you chop and drop something or bury wood, be it in a hugel or as biochar.
'Undefined' source for electricity may well be gas or coal power plants.
Have a nice evening,
Oliver

Hello Konstantinos,
Are you planting cork oak too, Quercus suber ?
It offers other uses from its bark and edible seeds too
Or maybe it just does not grow where you are working ?
Have a nice day,
Oliver

Anne Miller wrote:Here in Texas hostas work well in those conditions.

Unfortunately we also have lots of slugs around here.
Succulents and hostas do not survive long.

Have a nice evening,
Oliver

Even on scorched earth some trees are growing ... Like an orange tree in Belgium ... Evolving from pines and dead cypresses to a small patch of Mediterranean maquis.
Plans had to be changed, from the usual orchard to wilder and drier conditions. Still looking for a resilient water pumping tree. Two Japanese walnuts have just sprouted under the heat dome, maybe worth a try ?

The gaze of visiting people also changes with time. From mockery to a quiet silence when they realize there is nowhere else in the neighbourhood where you have to battle butterflies and bumblebees to walk down a path and brambles bear more fruit than spines.

The land is a teacher.

Have a nice evening,
Oliver

Hello,
Amelanchier ovalis, blackcaps raspberries and feral apricots and peach trees are coming strong here, under similar conditions.
I will have to replace my apple trees too, some were grilled in may. 'Granny Smith' is still alive but will not bear anything.
Have a nice evening,
Oliver

Hello,
Wherevever I want mint, I have to dig a pond and plant it inside ; it is just too dry for it to spread around here.
In the veggie garden, two related species are growing wild, lemon balm and black horehound ; both are medicinal and loved by bees, though black horehound is rather unpleasant at first contact.
I let them spread along the midline of my growing alleys, which are 'perennial lines' including patience dock, fennel, fruit and redbud trees.
They make the garden even more soothing.

Have a nice evening,
Oliver

black radish ?
It is a winter staple for me.

Wild sorrel and sycamore maples ; I use sorrel where comfrey is usually recommended as it does not grow here.
Both are very fast-growing and deep-rooted plants, they are my main source of mulch.
Sorrel is currently giving way to nettles as the soil improves, but coppiced sycamores stay strong.

Have a nice day,
Oliver

paul wheaton wrote:Crop rotation has been proven, over and over, to be an excellent strategy ...    for monocrop systems.

Good morning Paul,
Indeed i start from a monoculture.
If I left the garden for a year I would find a 2-feet high carpet of goutweed, smothering everything including young trees.
The chards, nettles and parsnips i mentioned earlier are not able to compete without intervention.
It is freeze- and drought- resistant, immune to slugs, loved by wild bees and fortunately delicious with garlic and olive oil.
The point is I cannot eat it three times a day every day, being its sole predator around here. Lime and mowing weekly will also contain it.
So under my conditions i have to do some babysitting to introduce diversity at this present time. Rotation allows me to mitigate other constraints as space, water and slug pressure, but we are talking about tens of square feet and not acres.
Hopefully some beetles or butterflies with an interest in it will come to balance the system, or it will exhaust naturally.
We'll see that with time.

Jeff Marchand wrote:   I had to re-read "usual spring drought" twice.  

It is quite unexpected in Belgium, but repeated the last 3 years so it becomes a pattern : no rain from february to the end of may with temperatures peaking at 25-30°C in march-april.
Then irregular storms with hail in may-june, then again dry heat until september.

By irregular, i mean neighboring villages might receive fifty liters per square meter or more overnight and no single drop here.

We used to have consistent rain throughout the year before and adapting to this new reality is quite hard.

Have a nice evening,
Oliver