2018 CURRENT HAPPENINGS: FOOD FOREST EXPANSION
Here is an update on what we are currently working on. We wanted to start a food forest when we moved here in 2014. The property already had 5 apple trees, 2 pears, a few wild plums, black walnuts, hickory, oaks, wild black raspberries, and red mulberry. These have all mostly grown wild since we moved here. Just too much going on in life to attend to these.
It has been a slow process, but this year we finally have been able to get some of the trees and perennial plants to expand our food forest with intentional plantings. However, in 2014 we did plant two thornless blackberries. Last year we also purchased two varieties of blueberries. One is a blueberry that I forget the name of. Another is Pink Lemonade blueberry. As the name implies when it ripens it has a pink color and is sweet and tart. These, however, were not able to be planted and are in their original pots, probably root bound now. I covered them with a pretty thick layer of straw over the winter to keep them from getting too cold. Luckily that worked because now they are starting to come out of dormancy. I'm happy that worked.
This year we bought several plants. 10 trees, 7 berries bushes, 25 strawberries, and 10 asparaguses. We are very behind, as many of these are still not planted yet. We also got 6 elderberry cuttings from my aunt and uncle, which are inside growing okay. There is an additional tree we got for free basically, which I will explain farther down.
Oops! My bad. We purchased 10 lbs of jerusalem artichokes. They came by the US postal service. The seller informed me they had already started sprouting. I didn't mind at all because my intention was to plant them, not eat them. I thought GREAT!!! I've got a headstart. They were shipped during a pretty stormy week so I think they got a bit wet during the trip here.
This is what they looked like when they got here. Awesome I thought! They will pop out of the ground pretty quickly I assumed.
Well, I was unable to get them in the ground quickly. I had to get the trees in fast because they were bare root and in compact pots to get their root systems advanced to speed the tree along. They were at risk of dying if I didn't plant them right away, especially since some of them were already starting to come out of dormancy. So, being preoccupied with that, I forgot about the jerusalem artichokes and they started molding badly. Sigh.
As soon as I noticed this, I had to pick out the ones that became mushy and wash off all the others. I ended up losing about 3 pound worth. However, luckily I was able to save the rest by washing in about 4 changes of water, then letting them air dry in a single layer outside in the shade. I didn't know if they were going to survive, but it was worth a shot.
Here are the trees we ordered and planted
As you can see, this was ambitious. Sometimes I over-estimate my productivity. It takes me forever to do things nowadays, even when I had help with this.
The 25 strawberries and 10 asparaguses came as bare root. Unfortunately, the strawberries came already coming out of dormancy, so I tried to cover them in mostly dry soil to slow their growth down until we could plant. Of course, being slow as I am, they were like that for a couple of weeks. Can you believe they began poking their head above the soil? LOL of course they did. Duh. I should have expected that. HAHA. The same happened with the asparagus. Oh well.
Here are the 3 thornless blackberries
Here are the Kiowa thorned blackberries, which the blackberries are supposedly capable of growing to a whopping 3 inches in size. They are supposed to be gigantic.
This is supposed to be an everbearing blueberry
Here are two hazelnuts, the specially grafted yellow & red delicious apple, and the red and yellow sweet cherry. These all came as bare root trees in dormancy.
Dwarf sweet cherry, two varieties of dwarf peaches, two pawpaws, and the dwarf asian pear
The semi-dwarf double grafted cherry came broke at the top graft
Boo, that sucked. Guess that's what happens when the FedEx guy delivers your stuff in a moving van because the regular delivery truck broke down. No worries. Stark Bro's sent us a replacement. Now we have an extra semi dwarf cherry. Although, we've no space left to plant it in the ground and are not sure which cherry it will be, or if it's still grafted enough for both varieties.
ALL IMAGES ARE COPYRIGHT 2018 BY ME, @phedizzle. Hope you enjoyed them!
Okie Dokey. That's what we are currently working on for our homestead. For now, that's all. More updates coming soon. Until the next post... If you found this post enjoyable, please consider upvoting, resteeming, following, and commenting! Thank you kindly for reading...
Here are previous posts of mine:
STORIES:
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: EXPOSING MY ROOTS (introduction post)
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: Chapter 1
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: FAMILY OWNED: Chapter 1 Section 2
BAREFOOT IN THE BOONIES: ABANDONED BASEMENT: Chapter 1 Section 2
2011 GARDEN:
2011: DESIGN AND BUILD
2011 BACKYARD TRELLIS, PERIMETER, & VOLUNTEER
2011 TIRE PORTION OF THE GARDEN
2011 BRASSICAS-TIRE GARDEN
2011 DWARF ORCHARD
RECIPES:
SANTA DELIVERED SHROOMS-SHITAKE OYSTER SCRAMBLE
SWEET CINNAMON POPCORN
MOCK ALMOND JOY--CHEAPER AND HEALTHIER
HANGRY TERIYAKI
RASHES--WHY I SWITCHED TO THIS COMMON DIY LAUNDRY SOAP AND HOW I MAKE IT
SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH FORAGED FINDS: FIRST FOOD FORAGE OF 2018
POEMS:
WATCHING THE SPRING WAKE UP
SHE IS DYING
WEEPING WILLOW
PLANTS AND ANIMALS-EDUCATIONAL:
GRASS IS OUR FRIEND
LITTLE BLUESTEM--BENEFICIAL AND BEAUTIFUL
BEHOLD THE BEAUTY OF THE FALSE INDIGO BUSH
WALK ALONG WITH ME:
WALK ALONG WITH ME 1
WALK ALONG WITH ME 2--WINTER 2017/2018
2018:
WILD TURKEY TAIL AND REISHI MUSHROOMS
HUGELCULTURE BED STARTED BUT THERE IS A LOGISTICAL OBSTACLE.
(Created by @bembelmaniac)
(Created by @soulturtle)
So come say hello in the following Discord chat rooms:
"food forest" what a EXCELENT Name for that!! you are living my dream :( i wish i could have a food forest + chickens : ilimited food
You definitely bought yourself a bunch of work! The end results will hopefully be worth all the work. If all the plants grow, you're going to have a lot of fresh fruit. :-)
Oh I sure hope they all grow! So far the trees look pretty good. The groundhog has been at their roots, though. Makes me sad but so far the trees don't seem affected. The strawberries aren't doing well. They got water logged after putting in red cups. The rest is doing okay. Not great, but not dying yet either.
Yeah, a lot of plants don't deal well with transplant shock. Hopefully they'll keep growing.
They're not seemingly having transplant shock problems. I think it's the groundhog. Bums me out. There's a company coming Thursday to see about trapping and releasing them. I planted them while mostly dormant or after acclimating. They've all got leaves. I Know the groundhog is at the roots cuz when I water I can see the tunnel. ) :
Yeah, that really doesn't help at all when the rodents start eating the roots.
This is an awesome homesteading post! I have a pear tree out back that I really need to tend to better but I haven't had the time so I can totally relate to that part of your post. It sounds like you are really getting everything together for your food forest. Have fun and thanks for sharing!
Ivy
Thank you @socent. Our pears are neglected, too. So are our apples except for one that was heavily pruned this year. We can only do as much as we can do. We can try to do more, it just doesn't always happen. Fresh pears, though. They're Devine, aren't they? Do you eat yours fresh or preserve? I ate some last year but also turned some into vinegar. It was better than the apple cider vinegar. If you haven't tried that, I highly recommend it!
We get so many pears off of that one tree that we can't eat them all so we definitely share some with others and put some away by preserving them. We made pear butter last year and it was fantastic! I haven't tried making vinegar, never heard of it actually. I will definitely take it into consideration and appreciate the tip!
Ivy
Great post, what was your plan with the Chokes? The most invasive thing I have ever seen, but the soil is vastly improved. But it grows only chokes, the way it spreads I'm not sure if it's possible to fully remove them at some point. Hem them in with something physical if you get them going in the future. I just finished a new article myself, please check it out and let me know what you think! https://steemit.com/permaculture/@mobios/get-shut-in-the-cold
Well, the chokes are for many reasons. They're native here, grow very well even in our clay soil, don't need much from us, perennial, high fiber, low glycemic, pretty, big enough to use for visual block, help our soil, and cover difficult to mow areas of our yard which are sloped. Also, they sell for a good price and can be harvest year round. It attracts pollinators. The area can also be covered with straw to help keep weeds down. We plan to dig up many during the fall.
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that is awsome gardenig....
Wow, that's a beautiful selection of such diverse trees. Glad you salvaged some of those artichokes at least. Farming can be hard work, so its bound to happen that plans never go as expected. Still, I hope all your efforts literally bear fruit someday. You'll have some delicious stuff coming in awhile!
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