Alder Proust

I don’t have any right now but will in a few months!

Is there a reason you need it killed? I've come to appreciate grass for holding organic matter in place as other things get going, as well as provide root zone habitat for all kinds of critters. If you put leaves on a mound for example, they'll blow away on the first windy day, but if you put leaves on a mound and grass grows through them they'll get held in place pretty darn well. Just a thought, there are definitely valid management reasons for killing grass but I'd first make sure that those exist. If not, I'd take an earlier poster's suggestion of aiming to eventually smother it with organic matter, but being okay with when it eventually grows through.

Hi folks,
I have free access to a LOT of humate, basically as much as I could ever want or use. This is a new resource for me and I'm curious if there are any best practices for application or things to avoid. For example, I notice that when it gets wet it has a tendency to bind, so a thick layer over woodchips, for example, seems to shed water unless the surface is textured. Any recommendations?

Hi all!
One of the few trees that will grow unbidden in our area are Siberian elms, the much-reviled asian introduction into the Southwestern United States. As someone who's generally a fan of making use of volunteers and eager to learn to graft, does anyone know of any species that siberian elm might serve as a useful rootstock for? Perhaps a Lacebark or American elm?

Wow, I had no idea that folks were seeing success in ground with Arbequina! Gives me hope for our own ability to grow them. For the folks that have responded, have you been giving them special winter treatment of some kind?

Hi folks,
I'm living up here in the US Southwestern High Desert, zone 7b, just doing some thinking about olives. There are rumors of cold hardy varieties like Arbequina surviving in various courtyards, patios, and sunrooms in our city but I have yet to find any of the reported in-ground specimens. I like experimenting and zone pushing, however, so I wanted to ask this community- does anyone have a good source for seed from a variety growing in Zone 8? Hoping that if I plant tons in a favorable, sheltered area then I can eventually find one that can tolerate our zone 7 conditions with some cover. It seems like a wonderfully climate-ready plant if we can get it through the winter!

For me, seeds are a bonus. Asparagus is the only perennial vegetable that grows wild in my area. I have them tucked all over the place, some the wild varieties planted from seed and some cultivars, mostly Mary Washington. I always let the females go to seed and then collect and plant those out in the hopes that over successive generations I'll get the thicker spears and sweetness of the cultivars with the toughness of the local varieties.

I assume you're referring to James Prigioni's asparagus video- he's a really smart, talented grower. His tactics prioritize productivity of his edible species, and his advice is great for that purpose. If you have other objectives (like mine- I'm trying to let stuff naturalize and take more of a "foraging" approach to my garden where I take minimal harvests from plants like asparagus where the harvestable bit isn't fruit) you can have a lot more flexibility in what the plants do and generally just let them be. Asparagus is a super tough plant, and you'll be fine if you let it go to seed, I tend to just be a bit more judicious about the harvests I gather knowing that i'm not optimizing for harvests.

Hi all!
I'm in high desert western US, and I'm grappling with Bermuda grass. When we moved to our current house, the previous owners had seeded both with bermuda grass.  It does surprisingly well here, often it's basically the only thing growing in a given area. It actually does seem to improve or preserve the soil underneath it, as the areas that have bermuda grass seemed to be the only ones that weren't compacted. Shortly after moving it, we put down 6-12 inches of mulch over the front and back yard, courtesy of the local tree crews, and planted out both with food forest species. We're hitting year four now and things are doing great, and I'm thinking about the next phase of our planting, which is to fill the groundcover niche currently occupied by the Bermuda grass. The mulch seems to have knocked it back enough for the woody perennials to establish, but it's starting to come back with a vengeance now.

So here's my question: Should I bother replacing it, and if so, with what? It needs no care or water and seems to do a good job keeping topsoil in place, but it doesn't really give any other valuable yields that something like Mallow or clover might. I hear that grasses compete pretty aggressively with trees and other woodies, so that seems like a good reason to get rid of it, but what else can survive and outcompete bermuda in these conditions? So far I've tried sainfoin, which grows but not thickly enough to outcompete it, common mallow, which does pretty well but needs watering, sweetclover, which grows a bit too upright to shade out the grass, and yarrow, which grows thickly enough but doesn't spread fast enough to beat out the bermuda

Any recommendations, things I should think about, or anything else? Thanks!

Wow, zone 6! Amazing. There are rumors of olives around here too but I haven’t met any of their caretakers yet.
I’m thinking of getting a bunch of barrels and filling them with water to serve as a thermal battery, I can sandwich the tree between the barrels and a south facing wall, and cover with poly, hopefully creating enough of a buffer to keep vibrant.

Hi folks! I’m curious if others have tinkered with growing olives in-ground in cold-ish climates. I’m in high desert zone 7b. I plan on experimenting with putting a mission or arbequina variety in a heat trap patio area. I’ve managed to grow figs in that area with no cover so I thought I’d try figs’ spiritual ally, olive.

I’ve got a few questions for those who grow olives- first, what kind of damage do they experience in the cold? Figs for example will die back to the roots if I manage to screw up- It’s never gotten cold enough to kill them completely here. Is the same true of olive? Will it sprout from the roots, and are those roots hardier?

I’m also curious if folks have tried cover for them- some of my figs get wrapped with burlap and covered with leaves for the winter and that works quite well. Im wondering if it would be possible to do that with olives or if the evergreen nature would preclude it.

Thanks for entertaining my questions!