Eric,
Enjoyed your recent ramblings. Actual descriptions of your property and your
plans for your permaculture farm, if you'll allow that label ;-) Good stuff to
hear, I'd like to see alot more of that on the list...
A couple of comments.
First, I put in four chestnut seedlings this spring which are doing very well.
Got them from Badgersett Research Farm. I am very pleased, they are tough
little plants growing well even in hot/dry spring with minimal attention.
Badgersett has bred several cultivars, a nut type, a tree type and an all
purpose type.
Also, for a good source of new/different/foreign plants to add to your edible
landscape, I would suggest you get a copy of Oregon Exotic's catalog. Some
amazing and weird stuff in there...
Second, I have a real dumb question about your tree-seed propogation. Are there
any special steps in planting nuts, acorns, etc. like putting them in cold
storage for a year, or is it not that complicated? I'd like to try and
propogate from seed some nice english walnuts this year but not sure how the
handle the nuts/seeds. Just bury them and wait perhaps? The young english
carpathian walnuts were grafted trees so Im not real sure what exactly I'd get
from their seed. I also have some nice old shag bark hickories that would be
nice to grow some new seedlings from - tons of nuts here.
Any advice would be most appreciated. Good luck finishing up the house, then
the real fun begins!
Greg
p.s.
What is your approx location/climate, I cant remember...
eric + michiko wrote:
> Jeff wrote:
> > Web pages talking about mixing pasture and trees.
>
> I spent some time thinning apple trees today, one of my favorite orchard
> activities. I find it meditative, allowing myself to move along the
> branches feeling, not thinking, about which apples want to stay. While
> doing this I also thought some about the information on the web sites Jeff
> mentioned and what our property is turning into. Some of this I've written
> here before and it rambles quite a bit, but I thought it was appropriate
> anyway.
>
> I see our property as an apple savanna (a new way for me of looking at it
> from ideas on the web sites), mostly mature apple trees 30' on center and
> sunny spaces in between. The last couple years we have patiently allowed
> the soil to regain some structure after years of annual disking. I have
> tried planting out a variety of plants to see what will grow without care,
> especially water. Year by year the variety of plants volunteering also
> gives me clues as to what could grow here. Mediterranean herbs, not
> surprisingly, do very well. Fruit trees of quite a variety seem to do well
> once established. (Our area grows unirrigated apples and grapes, because
> of the soil type there is moisture, but not water, below the surface.) Dry
> farming seems quite possible, and with our 6 month annual drought it is an
> appropriate strategy.
>
> We have not decided to have livestock at this point, but a friend might be
> interested in having her sheep in our orchard at certain times of the year.
> We have no fencing, so this would take some preparation. Some smaller
> animal would do well between the trees, and the trees are mature enough to
> withstand some company.
>
> One corner of our two acres has been set aside to become a food forest with
> a large variety of plants naturalizing and finding there own balance, a la
> Fukuoka and Natural Farming. If I find that it works well, I'd be tempted
> to do a lot more of it and have less area in intensive garden beds. I'd
> like to increase our numbers of perennial vegetables (recommendations
> appreciated) since I think they would fit in well. Self seeding and
> naturalized annual food and fiber are also in the plan. These could be
> grown in between the apple trees. I also plan to continue to add to the
> variety of food trees, possibly replacing some of the apples. Chestnuts
> are, in my opinion, a very valuable food tree. At this point I am working
> on propagating trees as well as directly planting tree seeds (chestnut,
> oak, acacia, plum, pear, loquat, olive, fig, etc.). I am also letting the
> birds plant their favorites; so far these seem to be walnut and valley oak.
snip...
