Jan Herder

Most likely deer. Nothing survives here without fencing. I’ve had a buck destroy my deer fencing out of spite no doubt. Last winter they even ate all the rhododendron which is poison to them.

The top of our swale has the worse soil, so elders there. The side away from the swale, on the swales edge, has a mix of topsoil and the hard pan/clay, so that’s blue berries and hazels. I pepper it all with comfrey. In the swale/ditch itself I harvest the soil/compost, clippings, etc. which I have thrown in to build soil back on the top.

This is awesome! We are going in this direction as well. I appreciate all the insights and suggestions from all the comments. Thank you!. Pseudograins also look like a good option. We had our first try at amaranth this year, adding quinoa next. Shaun has lots of tips for growing in shade on his channel Edible Acres. Currently we have around 30 hazels, considering tripling that. The tithes for the squirrels are quite high.

Great info on this because I’ve wondered about water/pollinator issue. These are our second year of seeing pods on 6-8 year old trees. There was one fully formed nut, not shown, but yay! Wet spring drought since so it’s something to watch.

Those look exactly like ours, here in mid Maine. Same age. We had a deer breakin their first year and all the leaders got nibbled. But it’s drought that’s causing the issues as far as I can tell. The zinc idea is brilliant! But water and thick thick mulch has kept them going. The ones I compost tea with comfrey are doing best.