Dylan Harlow

Tyler Ludens wrote:

It would be keen if there were groups of permies traveling the country stopping in to stay for awhile on other permies' land!

Tyler, this is so far in the future now, but I myself have been working on something like this for the past handful of years! If you’d like to bounce ideas around about what potential semi-nomadic land stewards might look like, PLEASE give me a shout! The idea I have so far is Project: Land Stewards; a group of people that travel from place to place, with permanent raised platforms set up at each site for pack/unpack-able yurts. At each site, I have a whole list of native plant species, herbs, and crops of the NorthEast that can be integrated into surrounding landscapes; and that exponentially increase abundance of harvest with each passing year. I think if you could get a steady donation flow going into a group like that for staple food/basic expenses, and provide paid work through “regenerative landscaping” for surrounding properties/households, say, 2 days/wk. There’s a whole lot more I’ve got on how it might look, but I would love any feeeback, tweaks, questions, or advice
Hope the winter is treating you well wherever you may be
-Dylan

Megan Palmer wrote:We grow several chili plants that overwinter indoors  and they fruit well. One of them is at least six years old, I prune it hard every year and even if all the leaves drop it manages to bounce back.

The leaves all drop if I forget to bring it back inside and it gets frosted.

Basil and cherry tomatoes do well indoors for me too.

We don't get any direct sun for about six weeks in wi ter but fortunately,  our house is very light.

I have a couple of Okinawa spinach plants growing at the community garden but hadn't thought of potting them up to grow indoors, will definitely try that too.

Megan, thank you so much for sharing this- I had no idea chilis could be so hardy, or how successful even summer plants could be! I’ve been growing some carrot+ beet greens from root cuttings in little plates of water with punches of soil over the last couple of years, but I usually compost them when winter passes. I’m wondering; do you think they could keep growing year after year if put in soil? Could they keep growing if left in water? Would love to hear your thoughts/experiments :)

Sean Banks wrote:don't know if this was mentioned but you can grow your own insecticide......for example tobacco and pawpaw both contain toxins that kill insects......all you have to do is mash the leaves and add some water then spray on your plants. Replacements for limestone include wood ash....that will increase the pH like limestone.....

Man, I didn’t even think of pawpaw OR tobacco- thank you for sharing this! If anyone lives in the NorthEast, I’ve also been starting to experiment with bittersweet. The berries are high in saponins, and I’ve found that fermenting them in water at a ratio of 1g:5g, berries:water can give you a very effective spray for aphids! I haven’t experimented that much, but straining the solution through a cheesecloth, then diluting with water (I freestyled that part, but I think I roughly doubled the resulting liquid by adding water) seems to work pretty well as a spray. I tried adding just a teaspoon of vinegar in there and that seemed to help too. If anyone else tries this, please let me know what you find out!!

Branching off of the potato idea, I would highly recommend looking into the American Ground Nut. It’s a legume native to most of the North Eastern/ Mid Eastern U.S. The shoots, leaves, flowers, pods, and “nuts” are all edible as it grows; and better yet it yields shallot sized tubers that have 3x higher protein than potatoes with a bunch of other additional micronutrients and minerals. The tubers are harvestable after 1 year, so it takes a little patience. But if you plant one large patch each month up until late fall-mid winter(depending on climate- if your in a wamrer climate like North Carolina you very well might be able to plant one patch for every month of the year), you’ll be set for the following growing season and have a staggered monthly abundance. When you harvest a patch, plant the largest tubers (or seeds saved from the pods) in a different spot, and chop up the remnants of the plants; placing said chopped pieces on top of the now disturbed soil. Since you’re preferably growing these patches in wilder areas, this covering will protect the soil from becoming sun baked/fry, and cycle nutrients back into the top soil as the matter decomposes.
Keep this repetition up and you’ll have a series of protein rich, abundant plots that literally thrive best in the understory of a forest. And, if following the mulch advice, might even help add a little topsoil to your surrounding wilderness. Happy planting, and happy eating 🍽😋🍽