Maureen Burgess

Jenny Wright wrote:

Ben Zumeta wrote:I would try to leave some larger canopy trees if I could to hold soil, reduce wind, and provide dappled shade for establishing your young trees. Especially in hot climates, most young trees are evolved to do best in dappled shade, as most tree seeds fall in forests. The trick is then felling them without harming the young trees, but I bet you could find benefit from leaving some oaks on the north side of the property.

Pawpaws are one of those trees that do best in the canopy as young trees.

I'd go about removing and replacing trees very slowly, especially in South Carolina. If you try to remove a bunch of trees at once, the first good thunderstorm that comes along afterwards wIll wash away all your topsoil and then the sun will bake what's left into a hard shell.

The game is to do it in sections as erosion is a big problem for us.  There's no question that some trees will have to go and retaining walls put in.  We just had a bad thunderstorm that actually helped with giving us ideas on where we can put in swales to help water the plants.

Ben Zumeta wrote:I would try to leave some larger canopy trees if I could to hold soil, reduce wind, and provide dappled shade for establishing your young trees. Especially in hot climates, most young trees are evolved to do best in dappled shade, as most tree seeds fall in forests. The trick is then felling them without harming the young trees, but I bet you could find benefit from leaving some oaks on the north side of the property.

I hate losing any of the forest we have.  Thanks for the tip about the north side.  We do need wind protection

Jenny Wright wrote:If you do go ahead with removing the oaks and pines, depending on the size and shape of the tree, you can get some money for the oaks- I would look into that before using them in a hugelkultur mound for example. The pines are worth a little less- when we had some pines removed, the price of removal was a little less because the company got some money for the wood but not a ton.

Pines can be extremely useful for pine straw for mulching the garden. You can even sell bundles of it- there is a market for it for crafts as well as mulch. The oak leaves provide awesome mulch and compost too. And there are some threads on here about harvesting and baking with the acorns that you might want to look at.

We do have a lot of muscadine but it doesn't block out the neighbors or sound in the winter.  

Our plan was to use the pines as posts for wire fencing around the perimeter and use the oak for firewood as we heat our place with a wood burning stove.   And a mulcher is on the shopping list.

Thanks for the tip about the acorns!  

Ben Zumeta wrote:I’d also leave trees providing shade to the west side of a structure/house, nursery or garden.

We had planned on leaving 2 of the big oaks on the west side, but are going to have to remove some of the treeson the east side because erosion problems are so bad we are going to have to put up retaining walls trying to put in swales.  I wish we could find another way around it but have not come up with another solution.

Heather Staas wrote:Are you on FB by chance?   There is a "South Carolina Permaculture" group on FB if you search for it.    Not a big group, about 150 members.   But it might lead to some in person help or local resources for you!   Good luck.  

Thank you, Heather!  I just joined!

Joshua LeDuc wrote:Hi Maureen, I started my food forest 3 years ago by planting some pecan and apple trees, and since then I have been adding as much diversity around the initial plantings as money and time will allow.  I have also been guilty of paralysis by analysis more than a handful of times while trying to figure all of this out.  Yes, observation of your land is crucial as well as learning from your mistakes.  I found the book Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-scale Permaculture by Toby Hemingway a great resource for creating a food forest on the homesteading level.  Good luck!

Thank you for the references, Joshua.  Among the first food trees we're looking at are pecans, apples, and peaches.  It's good to hear someone else started out with the same plans!

Thank you, Ben, for your advice.

We plan on replacing the woods we have with privacy/sound absorbing trees on the perimeter with fruit and nut trees along the inside.  I hate to lose the woods, but neighbors are cutting down their woods leaving us with little choice but to become more proactive in addressing the serenity of our property.

We were looking at transplanter containers for the trees until they were ready to plant.  We don't have bedrock to do it your way, but the tip on facing them to the north until it is time to plant is tremendous help.  

Thank you again,

Maureen

Thank you, Debbie Ann!  I'm still learning my way around the site and appreciate your answer!

Jenny Wright wrote:https://permies.com/t/174517/garden-plan-Garden-Master

You can look at my post here to see some of the ways I make my plans, along with some nifty things I've recently learned.

Thank you, Jenny.  Our county website allows us to get different kinds of maps of our property that have been helpful with broad overviews of elevations and so on.  I definitely understand your ideas there and see where i can take them to different levels.  

Thank you for the tips!

Elizabeth Stan wrote:Hi there!

Fellow newbie here, we've just moved to the south western area of Virginia and are attempting to do something similar to you!

I don't have a lot of advice but I thought maybe you'd like to know you're not the only one in the newbie boat.

We've just been observing and learning what we have around us for the last six months so far, and I've started a small hugelkulture herb spiral, as well as a small no till/no dig kitchen garden (I've yet to plant anything in it yet because I'm scared that there will still be another frost here soon). We've planted a few fruit trees to start my tree guilds and are slowly but surely planning out exactly where we want to build our various farm structures and what not.

I wish you the best of luck in your endeavors! Maybe we'll be able to learn from each other along the way, too!

Hi Elizabeth,

I will be sure to keep you in mind as we move forward with our projects.  So far, I only have a small flower garden for the bees and butterflies that is holding its own.  It gets the late morning and afternoon sun.  I also have another small garden near it mixed with food and flowers.  We got a handful of cherry tomatoes last year, the rabbits got most of my kale and spinach this year, but the irises are doing great.  I'm glad we're dependent on my farming skills for food!

Maureen