Loved watching your tour, so interesting! We are focusing on infrastructure at the moment, but can't wait to turn our attention back to the food forest side of things once we've got our solar project up and running! All the best with your food forest :)
It looks like you have a lot going on! Lots of promise! Luckily my state didn't screw up that bad, but I no longer qualify for my states unemployment because I didn't make enough before getting told to stay home in the second quarter last year.
That's too bad. Guess it doesn't really matter the reason, the end result is that we're not getting paid. Definitely could have bought a lot of plants... and food, but mostly plants. It was great getting to chat with you. I've now spent way too many consecutive hours glued to a screen and I think my eyes are about to start bleeding, but I'm going to check out your garden tour and some of your other stuff as soon as my eyes stop twitching and I've handled the garden emergencies I've been trying to ignore so I could get this video done. 🙃 I'll be seeing you around. 🙂
@@stonedapefarmer definitely! I am about to start filming, and then getting ready for a live tonight, but will definitely check out some more videos later!
Best of luck with the live (if it hasn't already come and gone.) Just got the last of my peas in the ground, and now I'm working on the lentils. If I manage to get that done before you go live, I'll be there. 🙂 Or maybe I'll set up the speaker so I can at least listen while I work...
They you very much for watching... and taking the time to actually read the description! I wasn't sure anyone did that. 🤣 I'm in Oregon, between Portland/Salem and the coast.
I can't wait to have enough space to try planting all these different berries and nuts. Right now I'm carefully picking what I think will fit, and then just one bush/tree of each type hoping that they will survive. Looking forward to being able to plant some larger stuff in the future like hazelnut, elderberry and blackberries and just letting them go wild. Some walnuts and pecan trees would be amazing too, or even a paw paw tree. What would be your #1 tip for someone wanting to start their own forest garden from scratch?
Just start. Most things you can take with you once you find your dream land. I've been growing asparagus in a big half barrel planter for like the last 5-7 years. Only this year was I finally able to get it into the ground. It never thrived, but I got a few meals a year, and it was massively appreciated last year when I suddenly couldn't buy food. For bigger things like trees and bushes (whatever you can fit in your existing situation, or on borrowed land as an alternative), learn how to propagate them. "Starting over" is a mindset. Sure, it's kind of a bummer that I had to cut my figs down just as they were getting old enough to fruit, but now I have maybe hundreds of trees where before I had 3. I can plant as many as I care to and gift, trade, or sell the rest. I've traded for berries, sunchokes, vegetable seeds, etc. And I can graft new varieties into those trees after they're established and save myself the time of establishing a whole other tree. And to practice propagation, just grab cuttings, seeds, etc. that you find for free... from friends, family, it neighbors, from public parks, from the landscaping outside of businesses (literally got rosemary this way), in wilderness areas, or public rights of way. If it's private land, just ask before you take something... most people won't care unless they're paranoid and think you're just casing the joint. 🤣 And even if you have stuff that you can't take with you, just remember that it benefits those that come after you and makes the world as a whole just a little bit better.
@@stonedapefarmer Thanks! Yeah that's what I've been doing so far, just planting stuff and figuring out how to grow from seed, trying to germinate all the fruit seeds I come across, take cuttings here and there. Just doing what seems fun and learning as a side effect already makes life a lot better than before I had a garden at all. Curious to see what the future will bring :)
For sure! I still can't believe that I got store bought chestnuts to sprout. Heck, even if I only get the two of them, I only spent a dollar on them, so 50¢ a tree ain't a bad price. And the more I get the cheaper they become!
Lmao What part of Oregon ya in? :) Looks incredibly beautiful. We really have just about the best land here for a food-forest. 11:20 I concur, wise decision. I've been on ladders enough in the past to NEVER want to have to climb one again. Most commercial Orchards have moved away from the liability of full size trees in favor of espalier or dwarfing root-stock.
I'm between Portland/Salem and the coast. And yeah. Paul Gautschi convinced me. I'm planting and caring for trees for my benefit, not my detriment. Most of it will be maintained so that it can be worked from the ground with a hand saw. The taller stuff will either be stuff that is harvested from the ground after it drops, or else things that can be maintained with a pole saw and fruit picker. And once it gets too big to manage like that, then I'll either leave it for the birds or cut it down and replant it, and then I'll have firewood, or mulch, or wood for smoking, or mushroom logs. But by that point I'll have a succession of trees at varying ages and manageable heights.
@@stonedapefarmer Hah! I almost guessed! The coastal range is an incredible special kind of thing imo. Sounds like you have the right ideas! Paul Gauchi is awesome, I follow a younger brother who works with him up there, just pretty spectacular what labor and patience can do ya. I got lucky and stumbled onto the deep mulch Eden method. My mother was annoyed with our feral 1/8th acre of lawn so we got free wood chips and decked the place in 8 inches. after 3 years and a little bit of fertilization, the perennials like the raspberries and rosemary and mint started exploding. they all quintupled their size or more in that 3rd year even though previously they were either stagnant or very slowly expanding. The rosemary was half dead and ended up 6 feet tall after a couple years in those conditions. In the back yard, the dog-jungle had 7 foot tall grass and 9 foot tall thistles lmao. and it was never even fertilized back there. Then later on I hear that's a thing, takes time but dang does it work.
@@stonedapefarmer Your work looks incredible btw! I'm hoping for your mulberry because I really wanna try those some time and I have been wondering why I never see them growing xD
Yeah. Any time I start a new garden, I have to remind myself that it'll take at least 3-5 years to really get going... I mean, you can theoretically do it in one if you have the resources and you have a microscope and know how to use it, but I think 3 years is a good compromise for a more hands off approach. I just wish I had a more consistent source of chips out here. Really wish the big companies would drop here, but they refuse. 🙁
@@stonedapefarmer I've been able to get some container gardens doing okay in one season but even they do better the second year, and that takes a lot if work managing making the soil which indeed would get incredibly expensive over a large area. But I enjoy being taught patience by plants lol You may just want to rent a chipper and collect some branches and make your own, that or contact some local smaller outfits, thats who gave us the wood chips back then :)
We had about 20 deer last year because the logging created a population boom followed by overgrazing. Most of them starved to death because it was illegal to hunt them. 🙄 Neighbor was able to pull a tag and shoot the one genuinely obese 305 pound buck that was roaming around. We're back down to about 5 deer this year, which is about what the land will support. And there's enough to eat that they won't risk getting that close to my dog. Last year I constantly had them at my doorstep, though. Starving and willing to take risks. I'd love if they'd eat berries down to the ground here. The garbage we've got is terribly invasive and will grow 20 feet up into the trees and become ladder fuel for wild fires. Goats will eat them, but I'm just not set up for goats yet, so gotta manage them the hard way. A good dog and nettle tea do wonders for deer. Certainly a better solution for me than fences between the cost, labor, and loss of access. Thinking about doing some traditional hedge laying further out on the property, but time will tell. Probably only if I decide to create paddocks to rotate livestock through, otherwise I don't like to create barriers that you have to go around.
@@stonedapefarmer Thanks again for your response. Enjoyed the tour. I'm kinda trying the same thing, setting up a food production system with minimal outside inputs. Planted some senna seeds by the high value plants this spring. It's rumored to deter deer. Will update you if it works 🤞. I had to spring for some fencing, can't afford to keep losing everything to the deer.
Yeah. It's a tough call to decide if and when to intervene with the wild life. I wasn't paying attention and let a gopher get right in the middle of my garden. Has knocked over 2 favas so far, but hasn't killed anything. 🤞 Trying another round of deterrents, but the potential damage could be pretty catastrophic, so I'll probably try to get a trap this weekend.
I think they're being a little more selective after the pandemic, but if you look up the ARS branch of the USDA, you should be able to find out what's currently available.
Nicely done! I watched the whole thing. If you need anything that you've seen in my videos, just ask, and if you want to come to our online meetups (FoodForestGardenClub.org), I'm happy to send you a Zoom link. You would totally fit in with our crowd. Plus, we unemployed guys have to stick together, so I'll waive the usual membership. ;)
That sounds great! Honestly, the only reason I haven't joined is because I can't justify the cost right now, but I totally want to support the amazing work you're doing. And I don't want to stick you with the bill for shipping when you're not any more employed than I am. When I can cover the shipping, I'll send you a list. 🤣 We also have limited bandwidth and pretty microscopic data caps (like, I literally might have to go to a friend's to upload next week's video... and we've already had our service terminated once for going over our data cap and were without internet for a month and a half before they reinstated us). Happy to be an honorary member, but probably won't be able to do zoom calls until the landowner finishes the internet upgrades that they're working on. You did mention forums, or a chat on Instagram or something, yeah? That's probably more my speed at the moment.
@@stonedapefarmer Fair enough. When you have the bandwidth for Zoom, let me know! In the meantime, you are now part of the Food Forest Chat on Instagram! People are already welcoming you there. ;)
@@karlsfoodforestgarden6963 Great! Just got in from planting and saw the invite... just barely beat the setting sun, but man does it feel good to have more plants in the ground. Now to get caught up on things, not the least of which is sleep. 🤣
Thanks for sharing your garden adventures :) Nice to see what Oregon looks like.
Well, thanks for watching. It's my pleasure. 🙂
Loved watching your tour, so interesting! We are focusing on infrastructure at the moment, but can't wait to turn our attention back to the food forest side of things once we've got our solar project up and running! All the best with your food forest :)
Thanks! We've got lots of infrastructure pending. Blegh. Might finally be able to bathe soon. 🤣
Best of luck with infrastructure and food foresting.
@@stonedapefarmer Thanks, same to you too :) Lol to being able to bathe, we feel your pain!!!
@@The_OffGridFamily Yeah. I think that comes with the territory. 🤣
It looks like you have a lot going on! Lots of promise! Luckily my state didn't screw up that bad, but I no longer qualify for my states unemployment because I didn't make enough before getting told to stay home in the second quarter last year.
That's too bad. Guess it doesn't really matter the reason, the end result is that we're not getting paid. Definitely could have bought a lot of plants... and food, but mostly plants.
It was great getting to chat with you. I've now spent way too many consecutive hours glued to a screen and I think my eyes are about to start bleeding, but I'm going to check out your garden tour and some of your other stuff as soon as my eyes stop twitching and I've handled the garden emergencies I've been trying to ignore so I could get this video done. 🙃
I'll be seeing you around. 🙂
@@stonedapefarmer definitely! I am about to start filming, and then getting ready for a live tonight, but will definitely check out some more videos later!
Best of luck with the live (if it hasn't already come and gone.) Just got the last of my peas in the ground, and now I'm working on the lentils. If I manage to get that done before you go live, I'll be there. 🙂 Or maybe I'll set up the speaker so I can at least listen while I work...
@@stonedapefarmer not yet. 10pm Eastern.
I take it I missed it? Or did it get cancelled? I didn't get a notification and I don't see a replay. 🙁
I'm starting a bunch of chestnut tree's this year. Maybe I can get some over to you.
Great and thanks for sharing all the knowledge especially all this links in the description. Where are you based?
They you very much for watching... and taking the time to actually read the description! I wasn't sure anyone did that. 🤣 I'm in Oregon, between Portland/Salem and the coast.
I can't wait to have enough space to try planting all these different berries and nuts. Right now I'm carefully picking what I think will fit, and then just one bush/tree of each type hoping that they will survive. Looking forward to being able to plant some larger stuff in the future like hazelnut, elderberry and blackberries and just letting them go wild. Some walnuts and pecan trees would be amazing too, or even a paw paw tree.
What would be your #1 tip for someone wanting to start their own forest garden from scratch?
Just start. Most things you can take with you once you find your dream land. I've been growing asparagus in a big half barrel planter for like the last 5-7 years. Only this year was I finally able to get it into the ground. It never thrived, but I got a few meals a year, and it was massively appreciated last year when I suddenly couldn't buy food.
For bigger things like trees and bushes (whatever you can fit in your existing situation, or on borrowed land as an alternative), learn how to propagate them. "Starting over" is a mindset. Sure, it's kind of a bummer that I had to cut my figs down just as they were getting old enough to fruit, but now I have maybe hundreds of trees where before I had 3. I can plant as many as I care to and gift, trade, or sell the rest. I've traded for berries, sunchokes, vegetable seeds, etc. And I can graft new varieties into those trees after they're established and save myself the time of establishing a whole other tree.
And to practice propagation, just grab cuttings, seeds, etc. that you find for free... from friends, family, it neighbors, from public parks, from the landscaping outside of businesses (literally got rosemary this way), in wilderness areas, or public rights of way. If it's private land, just ask before you take something... most people won't care unless they're paranoid and think you're just casing the joint. 🤣
And even if you have stuff that you can't take with you, just remember that it benefits those that come after you and makes the world as a whole just a little bit better.
@@stonedapefarmer Thanks! Yeah that's what I've been doing so far, just planting stuff and figuring out how to grow from seed, trying to germinate all the fruit seeds I come across, take cuttings here and there. Just doing what seems fun and learning as a side effect already makes life a lot better than before I had a garden at all. Curious to see what the future will bring :)
For sure! I still can't believe that I got store bought chestnuts to sprout. Heck, even if I only get the two of them, I only spent a dollar on them, so 50¢ a tree ain't a bad price. And the more I get the cheaper they become!
Lmao What part of Oregon ya in? :) Looks incredibly beautiful. We really have just about the best land here for a food-forest. 11:20 I concur, wise decision. I've been on ladders enough in the past to NEVER want to have to climb one again. Most commercial Orchards have moved away from the liability of full size trees in favor of espalier or dwarfing root-stock.
I'm between Portland/Salem and the coast.
And yeah. Paul Gautschi convinced me. I'm planting and caring for trees for my benefit, not my detriment. Most of it will be maintained so that it can be worked from the ground with a hand saw. The taller stuff will either be stuff that is harvested from the ground after it drops, or else things that can be maintained with a pole saw and fruit picker. And once it gets too big to manage like that, then I'll either leave it for the birds or cut it down and replant it, and then I'll have firewood, or mulch, or wood for smoking, or mushroom logs. But by that point I'll have a succession of trees at varying ages and manageable heights.
@@stonedapefarmer Hah! I almost guessed! The coastal range is an incredible special kind of thing imo.
Sounds like you have the right ideas! Paul Gauchi is awesome, I follow a younger brother who works with him up there, just pretty spectacular what labor and patience can do ya.
I got lucky and stumbled onto the deep mulch Eden method. My mother was annoyed with our feral 1/8th acre of lawn so we got free wood chips and decked the place in 8 inches. after 3 years and a little bit of fertilization, the perennials like the raspberries and rosemary and mint started exploding. they all quintupled their size or more in that 3rd year even though previously they were either stagnant or very slowly expanding. The rosemary was half dead and ended up 6 feet tall after a couple years in those conditions.
In the back yard, the dog-jungle had 7 foot tall grass and 9 foot tall thistles lmao. and it was never even fertilized back there. Then later on I hear that's a thing, takes time but dang does it work.
@@stonedapefarmer Your work looks incredible btw! I'm hoping for your mulberry because I really wanna try those some time and I have been wondering why I never see them growing xD
Yeah. Any time I start a new garden, I have to remind myself that it'll take at least 3-5 years to really get going... I mean, you can theoretically do it in one if you have the resources and you have a microscope and know how to use it, but I think 3 years is a good compromise for a more hands off approach.
I just wish I had a more consistent source of chips out here. Really wish the big companies would drop here, but they refuse. 🙁
@@stonedapefarmer I've been able to get some container gardens doing okay in one season but even they do better the second year, and that takes a lot if work managing making the soil which indeed would get incredibly expensive over a large area. But I enjoy being taught patience by plants lol
You may just want to rent a chipper and collect some branches and make your own, that or contact some local smaller outfits, thats who gave us the wood chips back then :)
Wishing you luck 🍀 Do you get much deer pressure? Deer eat most berries to the ground here unless protected.
We had about 20 deer last year because the logging created a population boom followed by overgrazing. Most of them starved to death because it was illegal to hunt them. 🙄 Neighbor was able to pull a tag and shoot the one genuinely obese 305 pound buck that was roaming around. We're back down to about 5 deer this year, which is about what the land will support. And there's enough to eat that they won't risk getting that close to my dog. Last year I constantly had them at my doorstep, though. Starving and willing to take risks.
I'd love if they'd eat berries down to the ground here. The garbage we've got is terribly invasive and will grow 20 feet up into the trees and become ladder fuel for wild fires. Goats will eat them, but I'm just not set up for goats yet, so gotta manage them the hard way.
A good dog and nettle tea do wonders for deer. Certainly a better solution for me than fences between the cost, labor, and loss of access. Thinking about doing some traditional hedge laying further out on the property, but time will tell. Probably only if I decide to create paddocks to rotate livestock through, otherwise I don't like to create barriers that you have to go around.
@@stonedapefarmer Thanks again for your response. Enjoyed the tour. I'm kinda trying the same thing, setting up a food production system with minimal outside inputs. Planted some senna seeds by the high value plants this spring. It's rumored to deter deer. Will update you if it works 🤞. I had to spring for some fencing, can't afford to keep losing everything to the deer.
Yeah. It's a tough call to decide if and when to intervene with the wild life. I wasn't paying attention and let a gopher get right in the middle of my garden. Has knocked over 2 favas so far, but hasn't killed anything. 🤞 Trying another round of deterrents, but the potential damage could be pretty catastrophic, so I'll probably try to get a trap this weekend.
Oh, and I'm definitely curious how the senna works out. Keep me posted!
Where can I get more information about free seeds from GRIM?
I think they're being a little more selective after the pandemic, but if you look up the ARS branch of the USDA, you should be able to find out what's currently available.
Nicely done! I watched the whole thing. If you need anything that you've seen in my videos, just ask, and if you want to come to our online meetups (FoodForestGardenClub.org), I'm happy to send you a Zoom link. You would totally fit in with our crowd. Plus, we unemployed guys have to stick together, so I'll waive the usual membership. ;)
That sounds great! Honestly, the only reason I haven't joined is because I can't justify the cost right now, but I totally want to support the amazing work you're doing. And I don't want to stick you with the bill for shipping when you're not any more employed than I am. When I can cover the shipping, I'll send you a list. 🤣 We also have limited bandwidth and pretty microscopic data caps (like, I literally might have to go to a friend's to upload next week's video... and we've already had our service terminated once for going over our data cap and were without internet for a month and a half before they reinstated us). Happy to be an honorary member, but probably won't be able to do zoom calls until the landowner finishes the internet upgrades that they're working on. You did mention forums, or a chat on Instagram or something, yeah? That's probably more my speed at the moment.
@@stonedapefarmer
Fair enough. When you have the bandwidth for Zoom, let me know!
In the meantime, you are now part of the Food Forest Chat on Instagram! People are already welcoming you there.
;)
@@karlsfoodforestgarden6963 Great! Just got in from planting and saw the invite... just barely beat the setting sun, but man does it feel good to have more plants in the ground. Now to get caught up on things, not the least of which is sleep. 🤣