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Subject: Healthy soil and sustainable growing
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- From: "E. E. Mitchamore Jr" <emitch@att.net>
- To: "Healthy soil and sustainable growing" <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
- Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden
- Date: Sat, 30 Aug 2008 13:35:28 -0500
Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately, our
climates are too different to share much beyond a philosophy - not that
that is insignificant! We've lived on our land for 35 years and most
of that time was spent outdoors, so I know the land & climate pretty
well. Also, for the last 5 years we've been developing a native tree
nursery, so I'm fairly familiar with local flora.
I, too, have read everything I can get my hands
on. I've just finished Vol. I of Dave Jacke's Edible Forest
Gardens, and am starting my first Forest Garden. I eat a lot of fresh
fruit, so that's my main interest. Here's a description of it that I sent
to our local Permaculture group:
I have made some progress on my forest
garden plan. At this point I intend to use a 30' x 66' strip just
downslope from a nursery area, so that it will receive water and fertilizer
runoff from the nursery. Currently that strip is bounded on the (long,
downhill, north) side by a row of sunflowers (Maximillian and Common) at the
fence, a second row of alternating Agarita and Yaupon (both evergreen), and a
third row of Tx Mtn Laurel (also evergreen, and nitrogen-fixing), as a visual
barrier to the horse pasture beyond, to capture runoff, to block north
wind, and to impede critters (how's that for stacking functions?).
Currently this area has two Desirable
Pecans (which are not wide-spreading, oddly enough) about 20' tall, along the
uphill edge (South long edge), a Retama (nitrogen-fixing, light foliage), two
Figs and the aforementioned raised bed with Sunchokes (about 8' x 10').
There's a native thicket next to one end, with Live Oak, Elbow Bush (early
Spring,bee-attractor), Hackberry, Sumac & God knows what. The
other end has Ashe Juniper, Mx Silk Tassel & native grasses
nearby.
The plants I have growing in containers
are: Methly Plum, Grenada Pomegranate, three Doyle Blackberries, three
different Rabbiteye Blueberries, a Jujube, and three more Figs of different
varieties, along with hundreds of natives and herbs to select from. Nope,
I don't expect to get them all into that space. It's clear that I have
lots of figgerin' to do, but it's starting to get
interesting.
That's when I really started to realize that I
don't know what to put in the shrub layer. There just aren't any native or
commonly-used fruiting shrubs for this area. Apparently, I'm going to have
to research the shrub layer from scratch. If you have any thoughts or
information about hot-weather fruiting shrubs, let me know.
Although we have 4 acres, only about 1/2 acre
is fenced, and we have White-tailed Deer that would not allow fruiting shrubs to
grow so, for now, I'm limited to this small fenced area.
BTW, see website, below, for more philosophy,
etc. E. E. "Mitch" Mitchamore
www.hillcountrynatives.biz
|
-
[Livingontheland] Forest Garden,
E. E. Mitchamore Jr, 08/27/2008
- <Possible follow-up(s)>
-
Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden,
scakya, 08/28/2008
-
Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden,
E. E. Mitchamore Jr, 08/30/2008
- Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden, bruce smith, 08/31/2008
-
Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden,
E. E. Mitchamore Jr, 08/30/2008
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