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RE: How Has Natural Medicine Impacted My Life? - Part 2 - Kombucha and Water Kefir - My response to @naturalmedicine's question, with ALL SBDs pledged to #tarc
Oooh, I am going to become your student.
I discovered a nonspreading cultivar of Japanese Knotweed on my property last year in much the same way--totally by accident. I blogged about it, and since have learned to use both the root and the stems to make itadori tea. I also use a lot of Joe Pye and goldnerod for kidney health and eat most of the leafy weeds I have growing in the yard.
Elderberries interest me. This is a plant I've heard of often but am not personally familiar with. I shall go on an elderberry hunt very soon in hopes of finding some on my land. :-)
The nonspreading variety of Japanese knotweed interests me, as I prefer sticking with plants that won't take over our woods any worse than they already are, but for the most part I'm trying to bring in the native plants and herbs that were common here prior to European invasion and subsequent overharvesting. (My own heritage straddles both sides).
That said, I have a couple dozen goji berry (wolfberry in California) bushes I'll be planting once the weather really cools down, so I'm not strictly going native, but I am limiting non-natives to those known to be noninvasive in this climate.
My overall goal for this place is to eliminate (insofar as is possible) the non-native invasives, to bring back the nativeplant communities they supplanted, to reestablish the mycological symbiotic relationships that existed here for thousands of years, and especially, to reestablish American chestnuts as the dominant tree species in our woods.
My ultimate goal is for my property to serve as a living seed bank for the Calfkiller River, and eventually, for the entire Caney Fork watershed.
And yes, I realize that the chestnuts may well have to be hybrids, and not pure American chestnut, especially since it is pretty clear that we may well have blight here.
I planted three Dunstan chestnuts three years ago, which are American x Chinese hybrids that are claimed to have never been killed by blight.
One failed to make it through the first winter. After the second winter, one tree made it through fine, but the second, though it leafed out when the first did, died back to the ground within four to six weeks.
I was surprised this spring, when it resprouted from the ground once more, so my plan is to plant horseradish at the base, and see if possibly that offers some protection. I'm also watering with neem oil, which is also antifungal, in hopes that if it is blight, it will stop it in its tracks.
Interestingly, all three trees had the remains of blossoms when I purchased them in the fall, three years ago. None of the trees have flowered since, so it's pretty clear that they are not particularly happy where they are.
Looking now for alternatives, since Dunstans don't seem to be especially appropriate for our area. I'll try them again, particularly along the river where the moisture level is more consistent, as my trees were end-of-season closeouts from Walmart, and may simply be reflecting the lack of care they received while there.
I'll be contacting Tennessee Tech, since I understand they have an ongoing chestnut breeding program, which means that (hopefully) anything they develop should work well on my place, as they are a mere twenty miles north of me.
Wish me luck - I am seeking a variety that has far more American characteristics than Japanese or Chinese, meaning tall, fast-growing spreading tree, with excellent quality timber; not a shrubby bush.
Not an easy task.
Oooh, let me know how it goes with the chestnut trees. Part of the rescue house is built with the old wormy chestnut. I look at it and think it's such a shame that those trees won't grow anymore.
Here's the post I made about my "Crimson Beauty" knotweed bush. I think it's so cool that I was able to trace it back to the nursery that propagated it. :-)
https://steemit.com/colorchallenge/@rhondak/color-challenge-thursday-green-itadori-tea-with-leaves
Yeah, I'm still learning too!
When I moved from California to Florida, I had to relearn native plants all over again, and the same thing occurred when moving from Florida to Tennessee . . . yes, with both being in the South, there are a lot of plants in common, but in moving from Zone 9b to Zone 6b, there are a whole lot more plants that are NOT in common, and that's not even counting the invasives.
I did spend three summers here attending regular plant walks with a guy teaching about the native and non-native edibles in the area; and with the Cumberland Mycology Association, learning a lot about the herbs and mushrooms we have here, but the fact remains that with everything I learn, the more I realize that I don't know.
Which keeps me fascinated.
There are still a vast majority of plants and fungi that I don't recognize by sight, and I have to hit the books or a decent search engine to identify with any certainty, especially as so many edibles have poisonous lookalikes.
I'm a big believer in erring on the side of caution. Especially with mushrooms, if Marek isn't around, since he's been mushrooming since he was a kid, I stick to the varieties that I know don't have toxic lookalikes.
I haven't yet forayed into wild mushrooms. Too risky for this old girl. But I'll eat the ones I buy in the store all day long. LOL
I never really had, either, until Marek and I got together.
But, being from Poland, he and his family had gone mushrooming from the time he was a kid, and as he found a great spot for really good boletes, really close to our home, he got me hooked.
That said, I stick with the ones with no toxic lookalikes, as I know how difficult it can be to identify some of them, and I'd just as soon not meet an untimely end in an entirely preventable way. ;-)