Ash makes amazing firewood (it's what I burn the most), it splits really well and burns great. It's also really beautiful wood, great for wood working too. I'll be following this series to see how the plants fare with the deer - they're killing my raspberry barrier plants like crazy.
Ash is great firewood for sure, but my thinking is I can bring in black locust as firewood from another site and keep the carbon in the woods where it grew on the main site. This is my folks land and they run wood heat but they blast through firewood. Feels super wasteful the way they burn, so I'd rather bring them wood from elsewhere!
EdibleAcres totally makes sense, I was more talking about my site than yours. Haha! We mostly have poplars and Manitoba maples (box elder) here with some elm, ash, oak and the odd evergreen. I usually only take fallen or standing dead wood so there's lots of ash right now (emerald ash borer) and the maples and poplars don't live very long so they're always falling over too.
Good job getting ahead of the Emerald Ash Bore! It has hit us in KY already and transformed our woodlands that had several ash trees...it looks like a parallel process that we are working on... I am planting jujubes, pawpaws, and thornless blackberries, and of course comfrey as the rhizome barrier - thanks Sean for all the great tips!
Nice. Your attention to detail about techniques and plants is sooooooo helpful. And your photos show exactly what you are talking about. I will be planting horseradish to break up compaction. I am guessing that it has deep roots. I will see next summer by how it remains green when our Pacific Northwest summer dries out. Most people treat Horseradish as a joke... I was able to dig up a lot that were not wanted, and will experiment with them. I view such powerhouse strong growers as allies.
Thank you. I am aware of that...but I am doing no-till... It might be handy to know that. I started some by buying some from the grocery store. I looked for roots that appeared fresh and had some tiny live roots dangling from them. Some such will sprout and grow...not all...but it is a very inexpensive way to acquire it as a plant. You probably know that the greens are edible. They have a strong taste....nice in certain dishes. They are such vigorous growers that I imagine that they would be a good addition to brews of fermented plants for fertilizers...similar to nettles and comfrey in that regard, although maybe not as powerful.
How many properties do you have? How close are they to each other? I have trouble following where you are in your various videos but I love your work and your great respect for plants.
Good questions here. Sorry for the confusion. I think I owe it to the community to figure out a way to clarify this. Perhaps in a video... BUT I work on 4 properties. 2 main spaces in the videos. This is the 'main nursery' space of 6 acres, our smaller space with the chickens and high tunnels is .5 acres. They are 16 miles apart unfortunately.
EdibleAcres, I have gone back and looked at some of your older videos - where is your cob house? Is it on one of the 2 spaces in your videos? Do you use it?
Hello, new subscriber here! I intend on planting an orchard of sorts on my property and I have a similar distribution of evergreen and deciduous trees on the lot. i was wondering how you determined that the site would be a productive area for fruit production? Often, when I drive past a monoculture orchard it appears that everything is in full sun and I was curious how much sun common fruits do in fact need to be sufficiently productive? I am in the piedmont region of Georgia btw if this helps shed light (hehe) on my climate and circumstance. Thanks!
I would encourage you to explore the hedgerows, abandoned fields, edges, etc. and see what is growing and how they are doing it. Mimicking the hedges and wild spaces is more of a fruitful path than mimicking the open orchards, I think.
Great question. I have no formula there. To be honest what is almost always the game plan is to make these large, 'raw', hugelmounds in the woods without covering them and for the most part plant in the areas that are open around them into trees and orchards... As the piles break down naturally over the course of a few years, we then start planting annuals on them for a bit, and then when they become broken down and obscenely rich and vital we move them into perennials. Since I don't have an excavator to move a massive amount of soil around it's become a work flow that feels functional for us...
edibleacres.org is the site. We'll have schisandra available next year I believe, but turkish rocket and senna as well as many others are available now!
Ash makes amazing firewood (it's what I burn the most), it splits really well and burns great. It's also really beautiful wood, great for wood working too. I'll be following this series to see how the plants fare with the deer - they're killing my raspberry barrier plants like crazy.
Ash is great firewood for sure, but my thinking is I can bring in black locust as firewood from another site and keep the carbon in the woods where it grew on the main site. This is my folks land and they run wood heat but they blast through firewood. Feels super wasteful the way they burn, so I'd rather bring them wood from elsewhere!
EdibleAcres totally makes sense, I was more talking about my site than yours. Haha! We mostly have poplars and Manitoba maples (box elder) here with some elm, ash, oak and the odd evergreen. I usually only take fallen or standing dead wood so there's lots of ash right now (emerald ash borer) and the maples and poplars don't live very long so they're always falling over too.
Good job getting ahead of the Emerald Ash Bore! It has hit us in KY already and transformed our woodlands that had several ash trees...it looks like a parallel process that we are working on... I am planting jujubes, pawpaws, and thornless blackberries, and of course comfrey as the rhizome barrier - thanks Sean for all the great tips!
Robert Rembert Emerald ash borer has already killed all our ash, here in Indiana.
Nice. Your attention to detail about techniques and plants is sooooooo helpful. And your photos show exactly what you are talking about. I will be planting horseradish to break up compaction. I am guessing that it has deep roots. I will see next summer by how it remains green when our Pacific Northwest summer dries out. Most people treat Horseradish as a joke... I was able to dig up a lot that were not wanted, and will experiment with them. I view such powerhouse strong growers as allies.
Great plant, the horseradish. Just be careful that any where you plant it, if you dig anywhere near it will absolutely spread!
Thank you. I am aware of that...but I am doing no-till... It might be handy to know that. I started some by buying some from the grocery store. I looked for roots that appeared fresh and had some tiny live roots dangling from them. Some such will sprout and grow...not all...but it is a very inexpensive way to acquire it as a plant. You probably know that the greens are edible. They have a strong taste....nice in certain dishes. They are such vigorous growers that I imagine that they would be a good addition to brews of fermented plants for fertilizers...similar to nettles and comfrey in that regard, although maybe not as powerful.
Wow! Very nice!!!
How many properties do you have? How close are they to each other? I have trouble following where you are in your various videos but I love your work and your great respect for plants.
Good questions here. Sorry for the confusion. I think I owe it to the community to figure out a way to clarify this. Perhaps in a video... BUT I work on 4 properties. 2 main spaces in the videos. This is the 'main nursery' space of 6 acres, our smaller space with the chickens and high tunnels is .5 acres. They are 16 miles apart unfortunately.
EdibleAcres, I have gone back and looked at some of your older videos - where is your cob house? Is it on one of the 2 spaces in your videos? Do you use it?
Is there a particular strain of Chestnut that you prefer? Or do you go for a variety?
I really like complex mixed parentage types!
Hello, new subscriber here! I intend on planting an orchard of sorts on my property and I have a similar distribution of evergreen and deciduous trees on the lot. i was wondering how you determined that the site would be a productive area for fruit production? Often, when I drive past a monoculture orchard it appears that everything is in full sun and I was curious how much sun common fruits do in fact need to be sufficiently productive? I am in the piedmont region of Georgia btw if this helps shed light (hehe) on my climate and circumstance. Thanks!
I would encourage you to explore the hedgerows, abandoned fields, edges, etc. and see what is growing and how they are doing it. Mimicking the hedges and wild spaces is more of a fruitful path than mimicking the open orchards, I think.
How and to what extent will you cover the hugel mounds? Seems like it will take a lot of topsoil/compost, etc.
Great question. I have no formula there. To be honest what is almost always the game plan is to make these large, 'raw', hugelmounds in the woods without covering them and for the most part plant in the areas that are open around them into trees and orchards... As the piles break down naturally over the course of a few years, we then start planting annuals on them for a bit, and then when they become broken down and obscenely rich and vital we move them into perennials. Since I don't have an excavator to move a massive amount of soil around it's become a work flow that feels functional for us...
Hi Sean how can I get Turkish rocket,sena and shazandra berry from you thank you
bitatk edibleacres.com is his store. I just bought Turkish rocket and sena from him this week.
edibleacres.org is the site. We'll have schisandra available next year I believe, but turkish rocket and senna as well as many others are available now!
Free range some chickens through there.
Someday. For now I'm not at this site enough to be able to do that.