Andy Weilbaecher

This may already exist in some form. If so, if you could link me to it I'd greatly appreciate it!

I'm trying to make a Garden Guilder program that will help people try different combos of a guild to see how their attributes stack up and get a better vision of the whole design. 100% inspired by the data in Gaia's Garden from the great Toby Hemenway.

Before I create all of these entries though, I thought I might ask first:

Do you think this would even be useful?
Can you suggest any other data points that I'm missing that would be useful for guilding decisions?

From the book I get:

-Common Name
-Botanical Name
-Layer
-Hardiness Zone
--Tall-Tree
--Low-Tree
--Shrub
--Vine
--Ground Cover
--Root
--Herb
-Functions
--Air Purifier
--Animal Forage
--Nitrogen Fixer
--Soil Builder
--Pest Repellent
--etc...

I was thinking of adding:

-Plant Family
-Mature Height/Width
-Sun Requirements
-Years to Maturity

Any recommendations of useful additions would be greatly appreciated!

This is just a spare time project, but it will of course be free to use and accessible (If I can actually pull it off... ). Not trying to harvest your genius ideas for profit or something like that!

Thank you for any advice on this!

New Orleans City Park is asking for ideas on a large plot of land. How would you go about pitching a food forest idea to people who don't know what permaculture is?

I know Geoff Lawton came to Tulane Univ. after Hurricane Katrina. Maybe reach out to him? Any ideas?

http://neworleanscitypark.com/public-meeting

I have a bunch of oak and pecan logs. Should I just throw them in the holes, build the wood 3 feet above the soil and back dig the banana tree soil on top of the logs? Will this is any way affect the banana tree from coming back?

I have finally dug up the last of the group of banana trees in my backyard. It was producing little or no fruit and was brown and diseased for the most part. Because it was occupying and shading valuable space in my small garden area it needed to be removed. I am at the point where I have a bunch of dirt and 3 large holes. These are my concerns:

1. Will back shoveling the dirt potentially cause the trees to re-sprout? Should I put different dirt in to refill the holes?

2. I got to the bottom of all trees but the roots that were previously attached to the bottom of the trees are still seen in the dirt. They are small roots, not the big ones that were connected on 4 sides of each tree. Do I need to dig deeper to get to all these roots or is the corm of the tree attached to the bottom of the tree with a hunk of dirt and roots?

This was a laborious task but it beat the idea of pouring kerosene or chemicals on the tree. Any advice would be greatly appreciated as I'd rather leaves the holes unfilled then digging the holes again in a week when I see new shoots growing up. Cheers.

I bought some untreated wood and am planning on treating it.
I'm doing the SFG thing with 2"x8"x4ft pieces. 4 make a bed.
I am doing 4 beds so with 16 pieces I've come to the figure
of 110 square feet of surface area that must be painted.

I want to do 50% Pure Gum / 50% Raw linseed coat.
When that drys I want to do a Boiled linseed coat.

I guess my question is, how much do I need of these ingredients?
Do I need to do 2 coats of the first mix?
Does untreated wood take to these oils easily or will much need to be used.
Is it even worth it to treat untreated wood with linseed oil?

Also, I have heard of pulverized charcoal mixed with boiled linseed oil. Would this be a better option.

As always, price is important, among other things.

Thanks in advance for any help. I greatly appreciate it.

Andrew

PS: I'd probably need to treat the 4ft x 4ft plywood underneath the beds as well..