Every video is such a treat. I don't know how you have enough time in the day to do it all! I'm in Northern New York and your growing season seems further along than ours.
Haha thanks, trust me, it's not. I see other permies who follow the same rules as me, and their peaches are loaded up right now. Mine just pushed 1 inch worth of leaves yesterday. This is also nothing... wait until you see this place in a month... literally a jungle. Also, it's not work to me. There is no greater moment in the day then when I'm done my work and can run outside and turn back into a caveman for the rest of the day. And this is coming from an ex world of warcraft hardcore gamer type. I used to spend 24 hours a day inside, whether its work or home gaming hobby. Now I'm outside every moment I can be. Permaculture has truly changed my life in every possible way. The craziest thing is actually that in University I was a varsity baseball player and also a gym rat. I hit 205lbs at about 8% body fat. I was a weird mix of athlete and video gamer lol. But now, I'm down more at 170-175lbs, I only formally work out in the winter, but all summer long my workouts are just hauling woodchips and farmer carries of watering cans. And I'm WAY stronger now than I was in University. Way way healthier too. I'm almost never sick, I sleep great, have 3x more energy. Honestly, discovering my passion for growing food forests literally changed my life in every way imaginable. Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment.
Hello from Ottawa, I watch a lot of your videos and I must say that they are all impressive, great info and well delivered, thanks for sharing so that we can also succeed in creating beautiful, functional garden spaces 🌱
Thanks Debra! How is Ottawa right now? That city comes to life this time of year, and is just such an awesome place to be. I did 2 work terms up there and loved them both. I suspect this summer may be a little different from traditional Ottawa summers of patio bars and biking and walking and running.
Things definitely are not what I would consider normal here, too many businesses shut down and everyone living in fear of this virus so I just go to our cottage and work on building gardens for next year to plant food, berry bushes and fruit trees, who knows how things are going, people should grow food. It is hot and humid right now often in the 30’s but the weather is all over the place but way better than winter ! Ottawa is a nice place to live and everyone is making the best of the situation, you are very fortunate to live on such a large piece of land, keep the videos coming 🌸🦋🌷
New to your channel, and loving it so far! I really appreciate all the soil and plant sciencey stuff. I remember things so much better if I understand the how's and why's.... Big thumbs up from Cairns Australia! 👍🏽🙏🏽
I'm the exact same. There is too much "do this, do that" in gardening with no backup to why. Often the best reason is "because that is how my grandma did it".
Hey I don't know if you'll see this comment, but you could consider editing the title of this video to *add the words aerobic comfrey tea or aerated comfrey tea to the video title and also the video key words.* I sub to your channel, saw this video a while back and forgot about it, then lately have been searching youtube for aerobic comfrey tea videos and could not find any. Maybe I should have put aerobic instead of aerated. I think I searched for aerated comfrey tea. (All I saw as youtube search results was the many let it rot in a closed bucket so it stinks to high hell w/anaerobic bacteria videos.) Finally I searched your channel directly and after seeing two other comfrey videos of yours found / half remembered this fantastic video.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Awesome! Glad you didn't mind the suggestion. I'm watching your video rise in the search results for aerobic comfrey tea already. I think it should rise even more once all of youtube's servers sink up and they all have your new video title. (Looks like maybe the key word info is updated on all youtube servers but not title yet.) Aerobic is kind of a science-y term for people who already are in the know, so I'm also checking results for aerated comfrey tea also, which is what I was searching in the last few days. I'll check how your video ranks tomorrow once all the servers are up to date. You deserve to get in on the search traffic of comfrey tea since your info is really really good on it.
That's so awesome! I'm glad to hear everything lived and is coming up. Also awesome that you gave a bunch away also, and someone else will have Jerusalem Artichokes growing out of their ears!
I've been looking for JA down here in New York and can't find it anywhere. After the videos of the pancake making and discussion of how good they are, I've been looking around for them and just can't find them here.
Loom up edible acres. He is in New York and sells tons of permaculture plants, and I know he grows JAs. Tell him Canadian Permaculture Legacy sent you lol
Now that's a knife! Machetes have been used in my home state of Queensland to cut down sugar cane for many years. So to be a true Queenslander, I better get one so I am ready when I plant my comfrey. My initial thought was to plant a lot of it near my compost bin, but I have recently been challenged to place compost bins or leaf mold towers wherever I need to improve soil fertility so now I understand why you have it growing in so many areas. I am so happy to know that I don't have to fly to Mars before science(ing) the s*!t of it. So thank you, in no small part, to both you and Matt Damon.
How long do you let the comfrey tea ferment before using? Very glad for another hint about preventing the spread of bermuda grass, which has stunted or killed many of my plants. I'm in Southern Oregon, on a tiny suburban plot I am turning into a food forest. I really appreciate your videos and learn something from each one.
I'm glad! For anaerobic tea most people say leave it for a good month. I hate anaerobic teas myself (besides being gross as all get up). Aerobic tea will be ready faster because of all the aeration and mixing and flow that is happening. All that agitation helps draw nutrient out of the comfrey, by constantly mixing the nutrient gradient that would otherwise develop in more stagnant water. I would say a good oxygenated bubbled comfrey tea is ready in about 1 to 2 weeks. Just keep checking the water. It will keep changing color. Theres also no reason you cant use a bit, top it up, use a bit more a few days later, top it up... and once you notice the water isn't really changing color much anymore, then get a new batch from the garden and put it kn the pillow case, and put the old stuff in the compost, just like as with a tea bag.
"If you remember my tips on asparagus..." haven't seen that video. Could you maybe link it? Thanks for your videos, I'm loving your channel. Greetings from the Netherlands 😉
Hmmm I spent some time trying to find it, but couldn't. I have a feeling it's somewhere inside a 20+ minute walkaround video. Maybe in the spring I will expand my asparagus plantings (I've been meaning to do that for a year now) and I'll do an asparagus planting video. For now, I know that Gardening in the North has an amazing asparagus video: th-cam.com/video/DMjKgbBAE40/w-d-xo.html. To be honest, her video is really comprehensive, I'm not sure there's much value in me doing one. I may, but hers is really good, check it out.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy thanks! That was a great video and a really nice discovery. She hs a new subscriber! Nevertheless, I'd love to see your plants and learn from your experience too, so don't skip showing your asparagus plants this spring
???? I remember rule #1 is to keep the soil covered 😀. When creating a sealed for the first year, do you cover the bottom of the soil? If so, what material do you use to cover the bottom of a swale?
Usually sow clover and cover with leaves or thin layer of woodchips. Not much because it's going to get filled by rains. Ideally you can sow at a time that you don't get a massive rain that will pick up the seeds.
I've been learning about KNF (Korean natural farming) and one the many things involved is what's called FPJ (fermented plant juice) which is achieved by anaerobic bacteria so your statement about the line between good guys and bad guys being aerobic vs anaerobic confuses me. You seem to have a very strong grasp (or at the very least a deep understanding)on the bacterial/fungi world and I was wondering if you could elaborate on the "good guys" we can use for our food forests.
To be honest I'm not sure. I will have to look into it. However if I were to ferment something anaerobicslly, first off I would want to capture the methane and use it for heating and cooking. Secondly, before putting it on plants I would run it in a bubbling system for at least 24 hours to swap the microbiology to aerobic before applying it to plants. Putting anaerobes on soil seems like a terrible idea. I mean, the nutrient value is still there, it's still going to act as a fertilizer. And the anaerobes will die eventually in an aerobic system after they are applied and exposed to Oxygen. But in the meantime, they will not be friendly to plant roots. They will also produce a bunch of low pH acids and potentially longterm constant application of this can turn soil acidic. If that is the goal, then maybe that's why it works for them. Maybe their native soils are like 7.6 or more, and they eventually get them down to the 6.2 to 6.7 range by doing this.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Interesting, I will keep studying this. If by chance this topic speaks your interest I would be delighted to watch a video with your take on it. I'm very appreciative of your engineer mindset being applied to the plant world it just seems to really sense to me the way you explain things. Thank you for your time 😊
Thanks for that great explanation about killing perennials by cutting them back just after they flower. Do you think that would be enough to kill taprooting plants like thistle and burdock?
Absolutely. Nothing can survive this. Not thistles, not field bindweed, not kudzu. It's all about energy in vs energy out, and if you keep starving a plant of photosynthesis while at the same time making it spend root energy from previous years on rebuilding new solar panels (which you then cut again), then by pure physics and thermodynamics, the plant dies. And "in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" - Homer Simpson. Indeed, this will kill anything.
Quick question: I notice you chop/drop the comfrey on top of your wood chips. Would it be better to tuck it under the wood chips so it's in contact with the earth or does it not matter at all for capturing all the nutrients... Thanks!!
No, don't do that. There is no need to, the soil life will bring it down bite by bite. Doing it under the woodchips will be extremely disruptive. The woodchips are filled with mushroom mycelium and you should try to disturb those as little as possible. Infact I'm far more disruptive in my videos demonstrating (say, pulling back woodchips to show you guys how amazing the soil is). Ideally, the only time you disrupt at all is when you pull back some woodchips to access the soil level to plant a new plant, then recover it. And when you do even that, you should aim to minimize disruption. Even adding compost to the system.... if it's your first year maybe you can pull back the woodchips and add lots of compost... but after that, the ongoing maintenance component shouldn't be doing that. All you should be doing is sprinkling bits of compost now and then (directly on top), and maybe topping up the woodchips. Let rain and nature bring it down under the chips.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Amazing, thank you so much for your reply. That also is way less work, so good to know! I'm in Duluth, MN, and am in year 3 of my food forest. We're doing something very similar to what you're creating, and it's super fun to see another cold climate guy doing the food forest thing. We're a little colder than you, so when watching your videos I can preview what's coming in 1-2 weeks :) Thanks so much, you're very inspiring and give me a lot of new ideas to test in my forest. Thanks so much!
@@m.z.593 Potatoes have to be dug up, it's hard not to disturb soil. Some people grow them above ground in boxes for this reason, so as not to disturb other plants much.
Zone 4, maybe none. Try greenbarn nursery, they claim to have seedling paw paws that are the most cold hardy. I have maybe 15 varieties of paw paws, and they have all survived through at least a few -40C winters. I do have them in a well sheltered spot, so it's possible on those -40C nights, they maybe were experiencing slightly better weather.
Honestly I'd like to read more on it. Got any good videos or anything to suggest? Its getting a lot of word of mouth lately. (Korean Natural Farming for anyone who doesn't know the acronym)
Hey! My city is setting up another food forest in a park near me and I offered to help them. I'm putting together a list of all the plants to include, and so far have comfrey, clover, strawberries, garlic, herbs, nitrogen fixing bushes, fruit bushes, trees etc. and was wondering how I could put all the guilds together for the design team. You've probably mentioned it in other videos, but is there a spacing you'd recommend for the different layers? My thinking was a hexagon shape with a tree in the middle with herbs, groundcover, and deep rooting crops around it, but obviously I can't use the same spacing for a bush as I can for a strawberry and at some point it becomes a geometry problem. I'm basically trying to figure out some sort of "unit cell" template or group of unit cells that I can use to plan out big areas by using tessellation. Can you break down a food forest into one small complete guild? I know every plant is different but for the sake of simplicity can you say a tree takes up x amount of space, a bush takes up x amount of space etc. I've heard of planting 10 support plants for every production plant, but am not sure what that would look like in practice, especially since I'm not used to planning everything out beforehand or having parks and rec hoops to jump through. Are there certain ratio's of the layers that should be taken into account? ie 2 bushes/bush guilds for every tree/guild etc. It's really cool that the city is doing this and will provide the plants, but it's definitely a large project that requires a lot of time and effort. Any help or advice is appreciated. I have a rough idea, but really want to make an accurate template for spacing for the city plans. Thanks again for the videos and plant wisdom you share
It's kind of hard to answer that, because if you put things at their max height/width spacing, then the first few years will look so weird and barren. So typically what you can do is plant things a little too close then jam a bunch of nitrogen fixing bushes and trees in between everything. Then as the food forest matures and starts getting crowded, the N-fixers get increasingly aggressively chopped, until they are basically thinned in numbers by 50% or more. Yeah, so if a tree is normally a 50 foot tall and 40 foot wide tree, then that's likely your overstory layer. Plan those out at say 30 foot spacing or even 20-25. Then jam understory trees in between those. Then jam bushes in between all that, and just cram cram cram. You may enjoy reading this: midwestpermaculture.com/2013/04/plant-guilds/ It has a neat booklet showing some guild guides. Just one warning... don't get stuck in thinking there are perfect guilds. Anything goes with anything, it's more about matching sizes and squeezing in stuff so it fits together, than it is about exactly what tree and exactly what flower. The only time I think about what tree to put in a guild is when I'm thinking about wet or dry soil, and sun or shade location. Then match trees in environments they like the most. But don't get stuck thinking certain flowers do well with certain trees, and that kind of junk. You can catch analysis paralysis very quickly that way.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy ah, that makes sense. I like the idea of planting more nitrogen fixers and thinning them out as other things take over. That link also had some good pictures showing how things can be arranged. Thanks!
Are you sure about this aerobic/anaerobic thing? I've seen other youtubers do the unaerated weed brew and after trying it, my plants are responding to it well- even the tender seedlings. Could it be that soil organisms are effectively eating both the aerobic & anaerobic bacteria so it doesn't pose a problem? Maybe if you don't let it get too strong- I replenish with new water after using and let it continue to ferment and occasionally add more weeds. It only takes a few days to start fermenting where I live. When I spray a jet of water into it, it fizzes. It does stink like hell though. I call it my witch's brew. lol
To be honest, I'm not qualified to answer that question. For this stuff, I go exclusively by what soil scientists like Dr Elaine Ingham and Dr John Todd say (2 of the most well respected people on the planet in their field). Many of the things I say in my channel are directly from the experts, and aren't actually coming from me. I would be interested in hearing Dr Ingham's take on this. I know various Korean gardeners swear by anaerobic liquid manures. I have a feeling that the very act of spraying it through a hose, through the atmosphere will actually kill many anaerobes. But again, totally not an expert. They run aerobic systems and aerate their manures, so I teach the same thing. They have 50+ years and incredible reputations, so I always try to default to the brightest scientists.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Good to know- thanks for the quick reply! Am enjoying all your content. It'd be interesting to do an experiment with the two methods and see how it affects three groups of plants of the same age and conditions with one as a control.Maybe this experiment has been done already but I haven't yet seen on youtube.
I'm not sure. I don't think I will do it though, because I would be afraid of spreading pathogenic microbes into my soils. Maybe something that is better suited to more controlled environments than I can make here.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Ok- I have read some opposing scientific literature on this and it is very confusing! My humble gardener's intuition is that anaerobic bacteria will not survive in soil that is adequately draining thus leaving behind beneficial digestate for the plants to use. But the question is- will my plant roots and leaves be infected with pathogens? I have been doing this for maybe a couple of months so I will let you know if I see any noticeable decline or disease on my plants. My own little backyard experiment, however unscientific and inconclusive! LOL
Every video is such a treat. I don't know how you have enough time in the day to do it all! I'm in Northern New York and your growing season seems further along than ours.
Haha thanks, trust me, it's not. I see other permies who follow the same rules as me, and their peaches are loaded up right now. Mine just pushed 1 inch worth of leaves yesterday. This is also nothing... wait until you see this place in a month... literally a jungle.
Also, it's not work to me. There is no greater moment in the day then when I'm done my work and can run outside and turn back into a caveman for the rest of the day. And this is coming from an ex world of warcraft hardcore gamer type. I used to spend 24 hours a day inside, whether its work or home gaming hobby.
Now I'm outside every moment I can be. Permaculture has truly changed my life in every possible way.
The craziest thing is actually that in University I was a varsity baseball player and also a gym rat. I hit 205lbs at about 8% body fat. I was a weird mix of athlete and video gamer lol.
But now, I'm down more at 170-175lbs, I only formally work out in the winter, but all summer long my workouts are just hauling woodchips and farmer carries of watering cans. And I'm WAY stronger now than I was in University. Way way healthier too. I'm almost never sick, I sleep great, have 3x more energy.
Honestly, discovering my passion for growing food forests literally changed my life in every way imaginable.
Thanks for watching and thanks for the comment.
Hello from Ottawa, I watch a lot of your videos and I must say that they are all impressive, great info and well delivered, thanks for sharing so that we can also succeed in creating beautiful, functional garden spaces 🌱
Thanks Debra!
How is Ottawa right now? That city comes to life this time of year, and is just such an awesome place to be. I did 2 work terms up there and loved them both.
I suspect this summer may be a little different from traditional Ottawa summers of patio bars and biking and walking and running.
Things definitely are not what I would consider normal here, too many businesses shut down and everyone living in fear of this virus so I just go to our cottage and work on building gardens for next year to plant food, berry bushes and fruit trees, who knows how things are going, people should grow food. It is hot and humid right now often in the 30’s but the weather is all over the place but way better than winter ! Ottawa is a nice place to live and everyone is making the best of the situation, you are very fortunate to live on such a large piece of land, keep the videos coming 🌸🦋🌷
New to your channel, and loving it so far! I really appreciate all the soil and plant sciencey stuff. I remember things so much better if I understand the how's and why's.... Big thumbs up from Cairns Australia! 👍🏽🙏🏽
I'm the exact same. There is too much "do this, do that" in gardening with no backup to why. Often the best reason is "because that is how my grandma did it".
Hey I don't know if you'll see this comment, but you could consider editing the title of this video to *add the words aerobic comfrey tea or aerated comfrey tea to the video title and also the video key words.* I sub to your channel, saw this video a while back and forgot about it, then lately have been searching youtube for aerobic comfrey tea videos and could not find any. Maybe I should have put aerobic instead of aerated. I think I searched for aerated comfrey tea. (All I saw as youtube search results was the many let it rot in a closed bucket so it stinks to high hell w/anaerobic bacteria videos.) Finally I searched your channel directly and after seeing two other comfrey videos of yours found / half remembered this fantastic video.
Done! thanks, this had a stupid title before! wow!
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Awesome! Glad you didn't mind the suggestion. I'm watching your video rise in the search results for aerobic comfrey tea already. I think it should rise even more once all of youtube's servers sink up and they all have your new video title. (Looks like maybe the key word info is updated on all youtube servers but not title yet.) Aerobic is kind of a science-y term for people who already are in the know, so I'm also checking results for aerated comfrey tea also, which is what I was searching in the last few days. I'll check how your video ranks tomorrow once all the servers are up to date. You deserve to get in on the search traffic of comfrey tea since your info is really really good on it.
Yup, I think I've found the hobby I want to start with when the moment I get can my hands on some land.
Make it happen Lars :)
Hey dude! You gave me a LOT of Jerusalem Artichokes a month ago and other perennials!!! :) Thank you very much again!
That's so awesome! I'm glad to hear everything lived and is coming up. Also awesome that you gave a bunch away also, and someone else will have Jerusalem Artichokes growing out of their ears!
I've been looking for JA down here in New York and can't find it anywhere. After the videos of the pancake making and discussion of how good they are, I've been looking around for them and just can't find them here.
Loom up edible acres. He is in New York and sells tons of permaculture plants, and I know he grows JAs. Tell him Canadian Permaculture Legacy sent you lol
Now that's a knife! Machetes have been used in my home state of Queensland to cut down sugar cane for many years. So to be a true Queenslander, I better get one so I am ready when I plant my comfrey. My initial thought was to plant a lot of it near my compost bin, but I have recently been challenged to place compost bins or leaf mold towers wherever I need to improve soil fertility so now I understand why you have it growing in so many areas. I am so happy to know that I don't have to fly to Mars before science(ing) the s*!t of it. So thank you, in no small part, to both you and Matt Damon.
LOL
Thanks for sharing your knowledge with us. Blessings to you and your family!
Great stuff, started my own food forest in MA this year
How long do you let the comfrey tea ferment before using?
Very glad for another hint about preventing the spread of bermuda grass, which has stunted or killed many of my plants. I'm in Southern Oregon, on a tiny suburban plot I am turning into a food forest. I really appreciate your videos and learn something from each one.
I'm glad!
For anaerobic tea most people say leave it for a good month. I hate anaerobic teas myself (besides being gross as all get up). Aerobic tea will be ready faster because of all the aeration and mixing and flow that is happening. All that agitation helps draw nutrient out of the comfrey, by constantly mixing the nutrient gradient that would otherwise develop in more stagnant water.
I would say a good oxygenated bubbled comfrey tea is ready in about 1 to 2 weeks. Just keep checking the water. It will keep changing color.
Theres also no reason you cant use a bit, top it up, use a bit more a few days later, top it up... and once you notice the water isn't really changing color much anymore, then get a new batch from the garden and put it kn the pillow case, and put the old stuff in the compost, just like as with a tea bag.
Cudos from the east coast. Zone 6 on the south coast. Try a bill hook for chopping. They’re great.
I actually just got one, it's awesome. Makes it easy to get close to tree trunk, without damaging the tree.
"If you remember my tips on asparagus..." haven't seen that video. Could you maybe link it? Thanks for your videos, I'm loving your channel. Greetings from the Netherlands 😉
Hmmm I spent some time trying to find it, but couldn't. I have a feeling it's somewhere inside a 20+ minute walkaround video. Maybe in the spring I will expand my asparagus plantings (I've been meaning to do that for a year now) and I'll do an asparagus planting video. For now, I know that Gardening in the North has an amazing asparagus video: th-cam.com/video/DMjKgbBAE40/w-d-xo.html.
To be honest, her video is really comprehensive, I'm not sure there's much value in me doing one. I may, but hers is really good, check it out.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy thanks! That was a great video and a really nice discovery. She hs a new subscriber! Nevertheless, I'd love to see your plants and learn from your experience too, so don't skip showing your asparagus plants this spring
Excellent:)
Will do.
???? I remember rule #1 is to keep the soil covered 😀. When creating a sealed for the first year, do you cover the bottom of the soil? If so, what material do you use to cover the bottom of a swale?
Usually sow clover and cover with leaves or thin layer of woodchips. Not much because it's going to get filled by rains.
Ideally you can sow at a time that you don't get a massive rain that will pick up the seeds.
I've been learning about KNF (Korean natural farming) and one the many things involved is what's called FPJ (fermented plant juice) which is achieved by anaerobic bacteria so your statement about the line between good guys and bad guys being aerobic vs anaerobic confuses me. You seem to have a very strong grasp (or at the very least a deep understanding)on the bacterial/fungi world and I was wondering if you could elaborate on the "good guys" we can use for our food forests.
To be honest I'm not sure. I will have to look into it. However if I were to ferment something anaerobicslly, first off I would want to capture the methane and use it for heating and cooking.
Secondly, before putting it on plants I would run it in a bubbling system for at least 24 hours to swap the microbiology to aerobic before applying it to plants.
Putting anaerobes on soil seems like a terrible idea. I mean, the nutrient value is still there, it's still going to act as a fertilizer. And the anaerobes will die eventually in an aerobic system after they are applied and exposed to Oxygen. But in the meantime, they will not be friendly to plant roots. They will also produce a bunch of low pH acids and potentially longterm constant application of this can turn soil acidic. If that is the goal, then maybe that's why it works for them. Maybe their native soils are like 7.6 or more, and they eventually get them down to the 6.2 to 6.7 range by doing this.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Interesting, I will keep studying this. If by chance this topic speaks your interest I would be delighted to watch a video with your take on it. I'm very appreciative of your engineer mindset being applied to the plant world it just seems to really sense to me the way you explain things. Thank you for your time 😊
Thanks for that great explanation about killing perennials by cutting them back just after they flower. Do you think that would be enough to kill taprooting plants like thistle and burdock?
Absolutely. Nothing can survive this. Not thistles, not field bindweed, not kudzu. It's all about energy in vs energy out, and if you keep starving a plant of photosynthesis while at the same time making it spend root energy from previous years on rebuilding new solar panels (which you then cut again), then by pure physics and thermodynamics, the plant dies. And "in this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" - Homer Simpson.
Indeed, this will kill anything.
Canadian Permaculture Legacy brilliant! Thank you SO much! That’s the route I’ll take.
Quick question: I notice you chop/drop the comfrey on top of your wood chips. Would it be better to tuck it under the wood chips so it's in contact with the earth or does it not matter at all for capturing all the nutrients... Thanks!!
No, don't do that. There is no need to, the soil life will bring it down bite by bite.
Doing it under the woodchips will be extremely disruptive. The woodchips are filled with mushroom mycelium and you should try to disturb those as little as possible. Infact I'm far more disruptive in my videos demonstrating (say, pulling back woodchips to show you guys how amazing the soil is).
Ideally, the only time you disrupt at all is when you pull back some woodchips to access the soil level to plant a new plant, then recover it. And when you do even that, you should aim to minimize disruption.
Even adding compost to the system.... if it's your first year maybe you can pull back the woodchips and add lots of compost... but after that, the ongoing maintenance component shouldn't be doing that. All you should be doing is sprinkling bits of compost now and then (directly on top), and maybe topping up the woodchips.
Let rain and nature bring it down under the chips.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Amazing, thank you so much for your reply. That also is way less work, so good to know! I'm in Duluth, MN, and am in year 3 of my food forest. We're doing something very similar to what you're creating, and it's super fun to see another cold climate guy doing the food forest thing. We're a little colder than you, so when watching your videos I can preview what's coming in 1-2 weeks :) Thanks so much, you're very inspiring and give me a lot of new ideas to test in my forest. Thanks so much!
Haha I was just going to say, you are way colder than me!
Maybe that's a stupid question bit how do you harvest stuff like potatoes without disturbing the soil too much
@@m.z.593 Potatoes have to be dug up, it's hard not to disturb soil. Some people grow them above ground in boxes for this reason, so as not to disturb other plants much.
I didn’t know Paw Paws were possible in zone 5.
What kind of paw paws will grow in a zone four or five? Thanks!🌱
Zone 4, maybe none. Try greenbarn nursery, they claim to have seedling paw paws that are the most cold hardy. I have maybe 15 varieties of paw paws, and they have all survived through at least a few -40C winters. I do have them in a well sheltered spot, so it's possible on those -40C nights, they maybe were experiencing slightly better weather.
yo legacy know about KNF IMO? before and after pics on that cool
Honestly I'd like to read more on it. Got any good videos or anything to suggest? Its getting a lot of word of mouth lately. (Korean Natural Farming for anyone who doesn't know the acronym)
Hey! My city is setting up another food forest in a park near me and I offered to help them. I'm putting together a list of all the plants to include, and so far have comfrey, clover, strawberries, garlic, herbs, nitrogen fixing bushes, fruit bushes, trees etc. and was wondering how I could put all the guilds together for the design team. You've probably mentioned it in other videos, but is there a spacing you'd recommend for the different layers? My thinking was a hexagon shape with a tree in the middle with herbs, groundcover, and deep rooting crops around it, but obviously I can't use the same spacing for a bush as I can for a strawberry and at some point it becomes a geometry problem. I'm basically trying to figure out some sort of "unit cell" template or group of unit cells that I can use to plan out big areas by using tessellation. Can you break down a food forest into one small complete guild? I know every plant is different but for the sake of simplicity can you say a tree takes up x amount of space, a bush takes up x amount of space etc. I've heard of planting 10 support plants for every production plant, but am not sure what that would look like in practice, especially since I'm not used to planning everything out beforehand or having parks and rec hoops to jump through. Are there certain ratio's of the layers that should be taken into account? ie 2 bushes/bush guilds for every tree/guild etc. It's really cool that the city is doing this and will provide the plants, but it's definitely a large project that requires a lot of time and effort. Any help or advice is appreciated. I have a rough idea, but really want to make an accurate template for spacing for the city plans. Thanks again for the videos and plant wisdom you share
It's kind of hard to answer that, because if you put things at their max height/width spacing, then the first few years will look so weird and barren.
So typically what you can do is plant things a little too close then jam a bunch of nitrogen fixing bushes and trees in between everything. Then as the food forest matures and starts getting crowded, the N-fixers get increasingly aggressively chopped, until they are basically thinned in numbers by 50% or more.
Yeah, so if a tree is normally a 50 foot tall and 40 foot wide tree, then that's likely your overstory layer. Plan those out at say 30 foot spacing or even 20-25. Then jam understory trees in between those. Then jam bushes in between all that, and just cram cram cram.
You may enjoy reading this:
midwestpermaculture.com/2013/04/plant-guilds/
It has a neat booklet showing some guild guides. Just one warning... don't get stuck in thinking there are perfect guilds. Anything goes with anything, it's more about matching sizes and squeezing in stuff so it fits together, than it is about exactly what tree and exactly what flower.
The only time I think about what tree to put in a guild is when I'm thinking about wet or dry soil, and sun or shade location. Then match trees in environments they like the most. But don't get stuck thinking certain flowers do well with certain trees, and that kind of junk. You can catch analysis paralysis very quickly that way.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy ah, that makes sense. I like the idea of planting more nitrogen fixers and thinning them out as other things take over. That link also had some good pictures showing how things can be arranged. Thanks!
Are you sure about this aerobic/anaerobic thing? I've seen other youtubers do the unaerated weed brew and after trying it, my plants are responding to it well- even the tender seedlings. Could it be that soil organisms are effectively eating both the aerobic & anaerobic bacteria so it doesn't pose a problem? Maybe if you don't let it get too strong- I replenish with new water after using and let it continue to ferment and occasionally add more weeds. It only takes a few days to start fermenting where I live. When I spray a jet of water into it, it fizzes. It does stink like hell though. I call it my witch's brew. lol
To be honest, I'm not qualified to answer that question. For this stuff, I go exclusively by what soil scientists like Dr Elaine Ingham and Dr John Todd say (2 of the most well respected people on the planet in their field).
Many of the things I say in my channel are directly from the experts, and aren't actually coming from me.
I would be interested in hearing Dr Ingham's take on this. I know various Korean gardeners swear by anaerobic liquid manures.
I have a feeling that the very act of spraying it through a hose, through the atmosphere will actually kill many anaerobes. But again, totally not an expert. They run aerobic systems and aerate their manures, so I teach the same thing. They have 50+ years and incredible reputations, so I always try to default to the brightest scientists.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Good to know- thanks for the quick reply! Am enjoying all your content. It'd be interesting to do an experiment with the two methods and see how it affects three groups of plants of the same age and conditions with one as a control.Maybe this experiment has been done already but I haven't yet seen on youtube.
I'm not sure. I don't think I will do it though, because I would be afraid of spreading pathogenic microbes into my soils. Maybe something that is better suited to more controlled environments than I can make here.
@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy Ok- I have read some opposing scientific literature on this and it is very confusing! My humble gardener's intuition is that anaerobic bacteria will not survive in soil that is adequately draining thus leaving behind beneficial digestate for the plants to use. But the question is- will my plant roots and leaves be infected with pathogens? I have been doing this for maybe a couple of months so I will let you know if I see any noticeable decline or disease on my plants. My own little backyard experiment, however unscientific and inconclusive! LOL