Barbara Simoes

Nancy, I was just thinking, if the "wet zone" is going to be problematic, both in its scale and its position, is there a way to lay a literal gutter or French drain that would collect the water that you could then trench with more gutter dug into the ground that would re-route the water to where it is needed or at least shuttled out of the way.  Maybe you could create a small pond area where you could grow some watercress, or what have you, or just let it be for wildlife or as reserve water source for when you need it. Maybe it's just trenched down the hill.  I don't know if you have mosquitoes, black flies or bugs that are problematic like we do, but barring that, there is that permaculture premise that says to see all problems as solutions!--I think it's my favorite principle; I've come up with lots of "solutions" here!

I will be doing a similar thing out my back door (which faces north). Right next to the porch on each side of the walk, I have huge rhododendrons, but past them, on either side of a sidewalk that leads to the driveway, there was only grass.  It was always very lush because that area holds moisture, but it was a pain to mow.  It is now covered in cardboard and then woodchips on top of that.  It didn't have enough time to break down the grass below, so I'm letting it just be as is this season.  

Next year, it is my intention to make it an herb and flower (pollinator) garden.  I will grow things that are easy to maintain and that I will need on a regular basis.  This is where I will grow my basil, instead of taking up room in the vegetable garden.  I grow it as a crop from which I harvest almost weekly and make large batches of pesto to then freeze for easy winter meals.  Maybe some sorrel for a nice spring soup? I plan to plant dill so that when I'm canning, I will have plenty, although, again, right now, it's taking up space in the veg. garden.  I love tarragon and chives, and since I now pretty much concentrate my efforts in the permaculture fruit and nut realm, it will be nice to have some flowers nearby to help feed and draw in good insects as well as for color and fragrance--having some allysum near the walkway, for example, would provide a lovely fragrance.  Borage has that startling beautiful blue flower, while catmint blooms all season long. Some  pretty medicinals will also be planted in the new garden, so that they are closer. I might even transplant some wine cap mushroom spore. I guess the idea of planting in layers is deeply ingrained in me!  This is my view out my kitchen window over the sink, so I don't want it too wild, but I do want it full--full of color, usefulness, fragrance, life and useability.  I do have a bird bath already there, which is visited by birds on a daily basis.  It gives me a little thrill every time a bird chooses to grace me with its presence.  I guess they feel safe because they can very easily retreat to the rhododendrons from which I hear chirping all the year round!

I have a book called Make Your Own Groceries that I used to use all of the time.  I just typed in that title and Thrift Books had it and numerouse ones along that line.

I use a screen very similar to the one pictured above that my dad had built probably over 60 or 70 years ago. I place it on top of my very large orange double-wheeled wheelbarrow and then shovel on the compost from the bottom of the bin.  What doesn't get sifted through, goes back into the compost at the top. I use my hand and rub across the screen until nothing else will slip through. When I reach a level where I'm pulling out very recognizable items, avacado pits or banana peels, for example, I stop--work smarter, not harder!

Just a side note: if you buy produce, make sure to pull of those horrible little stickers.  They are plastic and will not decompose, nor do you want them to!

I have five square black plastic type composters and one crank type (which I rarely crank!).  I have them distributed around the property and mainly use them to put weeds into...which means, I don't want to use the compost in my beds, (I'm sure it never gets hot enought to kill weed seeds) but I do spread it across the lawn.  I also have a large area for dumping carts of debris out back behind a large evergreen grove.  

As far as food scraps, I keep an old tall rectangular Tupperware container on the door of the fridge.  I do this so as to not have fruit flies and the like.  It works beautifully. It's out of sight and not taking up cabinet space. I  empty it into the compost located at the edge of my covered back porch, which is very well sited as it's always easy to get to, even if we get a dumping of snow or rain. Last year, I decided that I would no longer put weeds in that one, so that I could use it in various gardens.  If I have leftover paper or natural fiber fabric left over, that gets composted too.

I thought that I would put the little stevia packets in there...When I went to sift the compost, which I do every few years, I discovered that they coat those with some sort of plastic, because I had thousands of little plastic stevia pieces that I then had to pick out.  Also, those stickers they put on fruit are plastic.  Through those out before composting to save yourself a whole lot of work later trying to pick them out. When they say plastic is in everything, it's true!

Here is a video about the eggshells and vinegar:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhcb3sA3tgY

Bonus for more northerly gardeners--Keith lives in Canada, so I used to watch him whenever he put videos out; his earlier videos are great.  Now, his kids put out videos once in a while, but I really liked most of his content.  Worth poking around.

Kathleen, I use the "Grow a Little Fruit Tree" method; I found the book at our library and then ended up purchasing it.  There is a video which also covers it pretty in depth.  I found it very hard to cut that first bare root tree  to knee high, but now I am very grateful that I did!  

Yes, I have "Raspberry Shortcake" by Bushel and Berry that I got from Stark Bros.  They also have blackberries and blueberries.  I love them because they really are like a soft shrub and they don't have thorns.  I wasn't expecting that they'd send out new plants so prolifically.  I've given a number of them away to friends.

Here are a few links to videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVzDKPHni_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-teXiJXm2g
Instructions and care:
https://www.bushelandberry.com/raspberry-care

I was sure that someone would mention grinding them to a powder after baking them so that they are safe and then filling capsules for a good dose of calcium.  I used to stockpile shells and do this.  Now, I have plenty to last me for a few years.  I remember watching a 60 Minutes segment where they said that the calcium you buy over the counter is pretty worthless.  The calcium in eggshells is taken up by our bodies and is valuable.

I am a collector and I wanted to plant everything that would grow in Vermont.  I wanted fresh fruit every month of the growing season and I wanted to preserve enough to get me through the winter.  I wanted to try fruit that I'd never tasted before.  I wanted natives and non-native fruits.  It's just me, here, but that didn't stop me!  I figured I could donate the extra to the food shelf or friends and neighbors.  Now that things are growing, I'm thinking that someone unfamiliar with a black currant, for example, will not be impressed by the taste or a che by its appearance or mulberries by their keeping ability.  Oh, well.

Some things have done really well and others, not so much!  The sweet cherry, for example, is a waste of space, but I leave it for the wildlife.  Rhubarb has done well, and I mostly grow it to give away, although it does make a nice wine and it is pretty!

In anticipation, I did get a multi-shelved dehydrator, and I did teach myself to can and freeze-dry.  Many things have not yet produced, so when they start I will be inundated.  Along with fruit, I also planted 4 hazelnuts and two heartnuts, which will be most welcome as they don't take much effort in storing or pruning.  (It is brutal to have to can when it's 95 degrees out and humid.

So, I start the year with rhubarb, then strawberries, honeyberries and cherries. The serviceberries, mulberries and goumi are getting some color, so they'll be next, with the blueberries coming on and producing through October. Being I have 40 bushes, I invite lots of friends over to pick.  It's a great way to catch up with them without having to entertain.  Each day, during their season, full pails are picked, so I am thrilled that I can give so many to people while saving me the labor of doing it alone, one blueberry at a time.  I give them the ones I pick, too.  I only have so much freezer space and most of it now goes to strawberries.  Raspberries are somewhere in there.  The plums, persimmons, paw paws, che and apricots have yet to fruit, so I'm not sure about when they will ripen.

The peach fruited for the first last year, and was, in my mind, surprisingly late--Aug/Sept?  I canned probably 30 quarts along with peach salsa, peach wine and peach mustard, and of course friends also became beneficiaries. The kiwi really produced last year, and I froze a good deal of them as well as gave a lot away.  

The elderberries were gobbled up by the birds before I could get out there and harvest last year, but I just make tinctures with them anyway and had plenty from the year before. It would be nice to perhaps try some wine, but as it is, I have cases. The gooseberries were mainly eaten as fresh fruit and the currants were made into fruit leather.  

The quince didn't produce enough to say so, but it looks like I will have plenty this year to can. The Concord grapes needed a total refresh, so I won't have any this year, but next year, I will be grateful for the juice that I'll can. The bush cherries and sour cherry tree will be going into pies when I need to bring a dessert somewhere. (I avoid sugar as a general rule, although I may tinker with monkfruit and some sort of thickener.)  The two goumi bushes are loaded and I have no idea whether they will be preserved or what the best method would even be.  I'm hoping that this will be the year that the che hangs on till ripe so that I can taste them.  Most of what I grow, I'd not tasted before hand.  I actually drove an hour to the university where I knew they grew persimmons so that I could taste them prior to getting some trees.  (I now have six trees!)

The Cornelian cherries, lingonberries, pears and asian pears have yet to produce, so I don't know about them either, although I hope to can the regular pears. ( I have some old pear trees which I'd received not knowing that they were infected with stony pit disease, so they really don't count.  I know that I can donate them to the food shelf if there are more than I can contend with or need.  The medlar trees only produced a few fruits last year, and I have to work on how to blet the fruit. This year, I'm hoping to have a better idea of what they taste like; I'm hoping for good things with them.  I have a few Chicago Hardy figs; some years I get fruit, but last year, I did not.  If nothing else, they're just a pretty plant which never get too big--I need to cut it to the ground each spring.

The bush raspberries are just starting out.  Last year, I got enough to snack on during my "walkabout" but they sent out a number of runners, similar to the strawberries, so I have more than tripled the number of plants.  Hopefully, I will get enough to freeze because they are some of my favorite fruits.  Three of the four apple trees are producing, but not so many that I can't just eat them fresh.  Applesauce is welcome in the colder months and I look forward to making apple rings in the dehydrator.

I would be hard pressed to choose just a few, but I know that peaches, bush raspberries, strawberries, kiwi, grapes, mulberries, pears and hazelnuts would make the list.  I love that I'm broadening my skills and taste...although, I am still working on enjoying the aronia berries. If nothing else, they have beautiful fall color!

I gave a tour a few weeks ago to my "Pollinator Pathways" group.   During the winter, we decide on a book to read and we get together every few weeks to discuss the chapters assigned.  We've read Braiding Sweetgrass, Nature's Best Hope, The Light Eaters, and Wilding.  We've become good friends through our gatherings and we even get together for a "Three Sisters" dinner in November--Thank you Robin W-K.

In the warmer months, we tour each other's gardens and have some speaker events.  It's a nice low-key group. I signed up to have my tour just two weeks ago. I have an acre, but there are so many edible and medicinal plants it's pretty amazing, even to me.  I wanted things to be blooming (and they were) and I wanted it early enough that I wouldn't have too much time to worry about weeding and tidying.  

Often, when I'm in the front food forest, people will stop and chat; there is a sidewalk that is well-used.  One thing leads to another and I'll offer them a tour.  They are always excited to see the property and are always blown away by the fact that it is only an acre and the fact that I take care of it all by myself!  That's the beauty of perennial plants, though.  They pretty much take care of themselves.  I can prune in late winter, I leave the leaves in the beds, the animals do the fertilizing and I do the harvesting--with a little help from them!