This post covers Epi064 Great Escape Farms Podcast – The Week in Review, Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin, Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization, and Harvesting Latefry Muscadine.
Great Escape Farms Podcast
Great Escape Podcast is an audio version of the blog posts from Great Escape Farms, Specializing in Unique Edible Plants, Permaculture Gardens, and Homesteading. The blog posts can be viewed at GreatEscapeFarms.com.
If you would like to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, you can do so by clicking on Great Escape Podcast.
Click on the icon below for other RSS feed options.
Please help us by going to iTunes or whatever podcast feed you use and rate our program. We are a new small company and the ratings will help us become more popular on the podcast feeds.
Want to Help our Small Business Out?
Any time you are going to buy something from Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
We value your feedback and want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about Epi064 Great Escape Farms Podcast.
Today we talk about Harvesting Latefry Muscadine. The Latefry variety is a wonderful bronze variety of muscadine that tastes similar to a sweet grape. We will discuss some basic muscadine information, how to harvest them, and how to prune them.
Basic Muscadine Information
Harvesting Latefry Muscadine
The Muscadine (Vitis rotundifolia) is a grapevine species native to the southeastern and south-central US from Florida to Delaware, west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma. Muscadine fruit range from bronze to dark purple to black in color when ripe with a few varieties staying green when ripe. There are over 300 varieites grown in the US. Many need a pollinizer, but some are self-pollinating. A black self-fertile muscadine vine can pollinate a bronze female muscadine vine and vice versa. Female Muscadine vines average 50-60 lbs of fruit per plant and 60-80 lbs per self-fertile muscadine vine.
They grow well in sandy loam and like full sun. Muscadine are hardy in zones 7-9 and should not be grown in regions where temperatures frequently go below 10° F. They will be more cold hardy if planted against a south facing wall. They are very pest resistant and require little or no spraying.
Harvesting Latefry Muscadine
Muscadines have a tight, non-shedding bark, warty shoots and unbranched tendrils. The leaves are slightly lobed, 2-1/2 to 5 inch with coarsely serrate edges and an acuminate point. The round, 1 to 1-1/2 inch fruits have a thick, tough skin and contain up to 5 hard, oblong seeds. Muscadine grapes start ripening mid-September to late October.
Varieties
There are several patented varieties out there. I have two varieties that use to be patented, the ISON and Late Fry. They were patented, but a plant patent runs only 20 years so the patent has expired on each of these varieties. While you can now legally propagate them, you cannot market them with the name ISON and Late Fry, because the names are trademarked.
Latefry
The Late Fry muscadine variety is another late season grape that is bronze and self-fertile. It produces delicious fruit that contains 20% sugar. The fruit is large and has high yields.
Harvesting Latefry Muscadine
It is very cold hardy with delicious edible skin. They like full sun, moist, well drained soil and are deciduous. The mature height is 10-15 ft. and they are hardy to USDA zones 7-10.
Harvesting
When they have a bronze color they are ripe. They are harvested by just reaching up and pulling on them. They will stay ripe on the vine for a while. The outer skin is a little tough. The inside is bright green and is sweet and slightly tart.
Pruning
The vines consist of the trunk, permanent arms, and the fruiting spurs. Pruning must be done each year to get a good yield of large fruit. Pruning should be done in winter or earliest spring, before the buds swell.
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the YouTube video below titled Harvesting Latefry Muscadine.
Thanks for visiting the Harvesting Latefry Muscadine post.
Please give us your thoughts on Harvesting Latefry Muscadine by commenting below.
This post, titled Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization, talks about what needs to be done to prepare a propagation bed with softwood cuttings for winter. We also go over what we need to do with last year’s cuttings that are now potted.
Propagation Bed Basics
The propagation bed consists of sharp sand and an intermittent mist system set up. The mist system sprays water on the leaves of the plants for ten seconds and comes on every five minutes. This mist keeps the leaves wet, which keeps the plants from drying out and gives the little cuttings time to put roots down.
Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization – Propagation Bed
The sharp sand is something that they call concrete sand. The sand allows the water to pass easily through. Since the cuttings don’t have roots yet or at least have small roots after a few weeks, we don’t want water sitting around. If water did saturate soil around the root area, the cuttings would rot before they put down roots.
Change The Timer
Before the system is totally winterized, I need to do some things now. First, because the days are getting shorter, the days are cooler, and the sun is not so intense, I’m going to change the timer. I’m going to set it to come on for ten seconds, but only to come on every 10 minutes vs. the 5 minutes that I had the system set for during the heat of the summer.
Remove Dead Plants
Next, I’m going to go through each plant and get rid of the ones that didn’t take root. I want to do this now because the plants still have leaves on them. This will be harder to do once all of the leaves have fallen, because I can’t tell what is alive and what is not. I will also give a slight tug on the cuttings to weed out the ones that don’t have a good root system. If they don’t have a good root system at this point, they won’t make it through the winter.
Later in the Year
Later in the winter I will dig up all of the rooted cuttings and put them in the refrigerator. This will keep them dormant and give me extra time to ship them in the spring. I will ship these plants as first year rooted cuttings.
Last Year’s Plants
I will go through all of last year’s plants that I still have, which are all in pots now. I will remove any pots that have plants that didn’t make it. The items that will stay in pots until next summer will need to be protected from temperatures below 20-degrees Fahrenheit. If I just left the pots out and we went down into the teens, the root system would get too cold and die. So plants left in pots need to be moved into the garage once the leaves fall off.
Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization
Most of the plants will not stay in pots. As soon as they are fully dormant, but before the weather gets too cold, they will be dug up and moved to a refrigerator for shipment. They will be sold as and shipped as second year rooted cuttings.
Future Winterization
In another six to eight weeks I will remove all of the plumbing, drain it and put it away for next year. I cannot leave it out as it is because the pipes will burst when the temperature goes down into the twenties during the winter.
How to Buy the Plants
If you are interested in buying any of these plants, you can check them out at GreatEscapeNursery. We will open Spring ordering in early November. The plants are small, and inexpensive, so we expect to sell out early.
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the video titled Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization
Thanks for visiting the Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization post.
Please give us your feedback on Backyard Nursery Propagation Bed Winterization by commenting below.
This post is about how to make a red wiggler worm compost bin. I will show you how to make the bin and what items to put in it. The parts used are two plastic tubs or bins, two 4×4 blocks, brown compost material, green compost material, a little water, and red wiggler worms.
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – Parts
Drill Holes
The first thing you need to do is drill some holes for the worms. The holes will only be drilled in one of the bins. The other bin will have no holes at all.
On my system I put six holes on the bottom of the bin to drain the liquid out of the top bin into the bottom bin. This will prevent the worms from drowning if there is an excess of liquid.
In the upper part of the bin, I drilled 16 holes, four on each side, so the worms get some fresh air. I also drilled 12 holes on the lid for the same reason.
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – Holes Drilled
Put 4×4 Blocks In
Now put the two sections of 4×4 blocks (about 6 to 8 inches long) in the bottom of the bin with no holes. Then put the bin with holes into the bin with no holes. The 4×4 blocks will hold it up in the air by almost 4-inches. This allows the air to get into the upper holes and allows any liquid to drain into the bottom bin.
Layer Browns and Greens
Now layer the browns and greens in the upper bin with the holes in it. Browns are items that are high in carbon like shredded cardboard or paper, brown leaves, or straw. Greens are items that are high in nitrogen and include items like vegetables and fruits, coffee grounds, and green leaves.
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – Layers
For mine, I did about four inches of paper, followed by kitchen scraps, then another four inches of shredded paper. I then cut up a watermelon and put the watermelon rinds in for the next layer. Then I put in four inches of shredded paper and went out in the yard and pulled some green leaves off of various plants. Then I put one final layer of shredded paper on top.
Wet The Top
You will need to wet the very top layer of brown. Using a spray bottle is the best way, but I did not have one at the time. So I just dipped the shredded paper in a bowl of water and then rung it out and put it in the bin.
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – Wet Top
Kick Start
The last step of the layers is to put a little compost or good soil from under leaves on top of the layers. Just a couple of handfuls or so. This is just to kick start the microbial action to help the compost get started.
The Worms
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – 1000 Worms
I ordered 1000 red wiggler worms on Amazon from Uncle Jim’s Worm Farm. They arrived about a week after I initially layered the compost material in the bins. The worms came in priority mail and were shipped in dry Pete moss. They instructions said to pour ½ cup of water on the Pete moss and let them sit for just a bit before adding them to the garden or compost bin. I used bottled water that was at room temperature. I didn’t want to use tap water because of the chlorine.
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – Water Added
After about an hour or so I poured the worms on the compost material. They seem to be lively and moving around well. I will do another video in a couple of weeks giving you an update on how the red wiggler worm compost bin is coming along.
Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin – Worms Added
Worms on Amazon
Here are the worms I got on Amazon except the ones below are 500 count vs. 1000:
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the video below titled Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin.
Thanks for visiting the Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin post.
Please give us your thoughts on Red Wiggler Worm Compost Bin by commenting below.
This post covers Epi063 Great Escape Farms Podcast – The Week in Review, Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures, Fish Pond Winterization, and Propagating Nanking Cherry.
Great Escape Farms Podcast
Great Escape Podcast is an audio version of the blog posts from Great Escape Farms, Specializing in Unique Edible Plants, Permaculture Gardens, and Homesteading. The blog posts can be viewed at GreatEscapeFarms.com.
If you would like to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, you can do so by clicking on Great Escape Podcast.
Click on the icon below for other RSS feed options.
Please help us by going to iTunes or whatever podcast feed you use and rate our program. We are a new small company and the ratings will help us become more popular on the podcast feeds.
Want to Help our Small Business Out?
Any time you are going to buy something from Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
We value your feedback and want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about Epi063 Great Escape Farms Podcast.
This post is about Propagating Nanking Cherry. We talk about how to take softwood cuttings and use them to propagate these plants. First, we will cover some basics about nanking cherry.
Propagating Nanking Cherry – The Fruit
Nanking Bush Cherry Basics
The Nanking Bush Cherry, Prunus tomentosa, is another unique edible plant, in bush form, that is showy in the spring with flowers and in the summer with the bright red cherries clinging closely to the branches. It can be used as an ornamental, fruit producing shrub or as a wind break in a hedge row.
The Flowers
In mid-Spring the bush produces white or pink flowers that are fragrant and attract beneficial insects. They are partially self-pollinating, but do better with another variety around.
The Fruit
The red fruit is sweet and tart and taste like a cherry with a pit in the center. Since there are not a lot of named varieties in the US and most are propagated by seed, the flavors of the fruit seem to vary greatly. You can also find some plants online that have yellow or pink fruit, as I just did (and purchased.)
The fruit is very close to the stem on a very short stalk. The stalk usually stays on the branch leaving an opening on the fruit that will cause it to leak juice. This causes the fruit to not store well. The fruit can be used for fresh eating, dried fruit, fruit leather, preserves, jams, jellies pies, tarts, and fruit juice.
Propagating Nanking Cherry
The Basics of Propagation
Propagation is done by seeds, layering, and cuttings. For seeds, clean the pulp off the pit and stratify for 2-3 months. Laying involves burying a portion of the tip or mid branch until it roots and then cutting it away from the main plant. Cuttings can be done with hardwood in the fall/winter or soft wood in the spring. This past summer I had a 75% success rate with softwood cuttings in a mist bed.
Softwood Cuttings
For this post we are going to take softwood cuttings. Softwood cuttings are this year’s growth that started in the spring. This wood is usually just slightly a different color and last year’s wood just looks a little more worn and older.
Make the Cut
Cut the softwood branches off of the plant. Then cut the branches down so they have four internodes. Internodes are any place a branch or leaf comes out. I usually go with four for nanking cherry. Leave two leafs at the top and remove the bottom leafs.
Rooting Hormone
Dip the bottoms of the cuttings in rooting hormone. I use dip and grow liquid hormone because I only need the one product and I can mix it as strong as I like. Softwood cuttings does not require very concentrated rooting hormone, whereas hardwood cuttings require more concentrated solution.
Cuttings in the Planting Medium
Now it is time to place the cuttings into the planting medium. Push them into your planting medium about two inches down. Your planting medium should be something that drains freely and easily. You do not want to saturate the soil where disease and pathogens will proliferate.
Propagating Nanking Cherry
Keep the Leaves Wet
These little cuttings will die if the leaves dry out. You don’t want to soak the ground, but you do want to keep the leaves wet. The best way to do this is with a mist irrigation system that automatically comes on. I use the Galcon 8056 and have it programmed for 10 seconds on and 5 minutes off. This runs all day, but shuts totally off from 9 PM until 6 AM.
Leave Them Be
The cuttings need to stay in the rooting medium until they go dormant. This usually happens by December or January timeframe. Once they are dormant, they can be moved to pots or to their location in the yard.
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the video below about Propagating Nanking Cherry.
Thanks for visiting the Propagating Nanking Cherry post.
Please give us your feedback on Propagating Nanking Cherry by commenting below.
This video shows you how I go about Fish Pond Winterization. This is a two pond system with a stream connecting them together. I will show you how to prepare the ponds, stream, and fish for winter.
The Upper Pond
The upper pond does not have fish in it. I just leave it uncovered and leave the plants in it. In the spring time I will shut the pump off, completely drain the upper pond, rinse it out and then fill it back up again.
Fish Pond Winterization – Upper Pond
The Pump
You’ll notice from the previous statement that I leave the pump on during the winter. This keeps the water flowing so I don’t have to drain all of the pipes. Because the pump is low in the water, where the water is warmer, it keeps the pump and pipes from freezing. It also keeps the top of the pond from completely freezing. If the top of the pond froze solid, it could build up gasses in the water that could harm the fish.
The Stream
For winterization I pull the decorative rocks out of the stream. This prevents the stream from clogging up with fallen oak leaves. If I do end up with a collection of oak leaves in the stream, I’ll pull them out from time to time. I only check on it once a week or so. If the stream did clog up with oak leaves with the pump on, it would end up overflowing the water in the stream and emptying the pond of water.
The Lower Pond
Fish Pond Winterization – Lower Pond
The lower pond needs all annual plants removed and the tall perennial plants to be trimmed back. This is so the debris doesn’t fall to the bottom of the pond and create anaerobic composting, which is not good for the fish. I have water hyacinths that are annual in this area. I just remove them and toss them into the compost pile. Any of the tall perennials also get trimmed back to about three inches high and the cuttings also get tossed into the compost pile.
Fish Pond Winterization
The Fish
The lower pond has koi and gold fish in it. They stay out over the winter. They will go into a kind of semi-hibernation state during the winter. I will stop feeding them when the temperature gets down to about 55 degrees. If these fish eat food below 50 degrees, the food will sit in their gut and rot them from the inside out, killing them. This is because their gut needs bacteria to help break the food down and the bacteria does not work below 50 degrees. I can’t say as I blame them as I don’t like working below 50 degrees either.
Predator Protection Removed
I have fake alligator heads and rubber snakes around the pond to keep predators away. It actually works quite well. I have not had any raccoons or blue herons visiting and eating my fish since I started doing this eleven years ago. It also helps having the top of the water covered with water lilies and water hyacinth.
Put a Lid on it
The last step to winterizing the lower pond is to cover it with a net. Don’t just throw a net across the top of the water because all of the leaves, sticks, acorns and other debris would just sit on top of the net and make a mess. I built an A-frame out of PVC that goes into the pond. Then put the net over the A-Frame. The A-frame shape causes all of the debris to fall off to the side and not sit on the net or in the pond.
Fish Pond Winterization – Net on A-Frame
More on Predators
After the snakes and alligator heads are put away for winter and the vegetation is cut back, the fish are easy prey. I generally have a blue heron visiting about two or three weeks after I winterize. So now I need some kind of winter protection for the fish. Well, the net over the top not only keeps leaves out, but also keeps the predators out. I have never lost any fish to predators with the net on top.
The A-Frame
Fish Pond Winterization – A-Frame Disassembled
Check out pictures and the video of the A-frame design. I came up with this the first year I winterized the pond and it has worked quite well ever since. The key for me was to NOT glue any of the joints. That allows the A-frame to fill with water and sink to the bottom vs. float. It also allows me to easily dismantle it every spring and put it away in the spring.
Fish Pond Winterization – Assembled
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the video below titled Fish Pond Winterization.
Thanks for visiting the Fish Pond Winterization post.
Give us you feedback on Fish Pond Winterization by commenting below.
This post goes over the Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures from the PDC I took this past summer. The course was given by Charm City Farms of Baltimore, MD. The course was great and had a lot of hands on activities.
The Class
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – The Classroom
The class was held in Bryans Road, Maryland. It ran for three 3-day weekends. It was the first full weekend in August, September, and October. During the August class the temperature was pushing upper 90s and in the October class we only hit 60 degrees one day. Quite the contrast.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Part of the Class
Busy Days
Our days were quite busy. We actually started our days with a little downtime and went to sitting spots where we just observed what was around us. This was done to get us to sit and observe without taking immediate action. It falls back to a permaculture principle of observe and interact. But that was it for the down time. The rest of our days were busy. We did a good bit of lecture, but also did a huge amount of hands on activities.
Mushrooms
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Mushrooms
We learned about mushrooms in the class room, then we went out to some mushroom logs that were previously planted. We harvested some shitake mushrooms and cooked them up. This is the first time in my life I’ve had a mushroom that I liked.
The next day we went to a local park to look for wild mushrooms. We came back with a couple of dozen different types. Some were poisonous and some may have been edible, but we didn’t eat any of the wild ones. Better safe than sorry.
We also made some mushroom logs ourselves by drilling holes in logs and putting spore soaked plugs in the logs.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Mushroom Logs
Designs
We interviewed the property owner where the class was held to figure out what she wanted done with the property. Based on that interview we did a permaculture design on her property. We come up with about ten different projects that could be done.
From those ten projects, we chose three projects that we were actually going to implement. These we needed to come up with a detailed design for. The three project that we were going to implement were; compost toilet, perennial garden, and cheap mobile green house. One of the other groups also did some research on cover crops and presented that to the customer on the last day. Cover crops were needed, but the timing wasn’t right.
Compost Toilet
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Compost Toilet
The compost toilets were for human waste. Solids go in one and are mixed with sawdust to keep the odor down. The compost will be “baked” in a year or so. There was a separate toilet for the liquid so that you don’t get too much ammonia in the solid compost bin.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Compost Toilet
Perennial Plantings
The original plan was to put in a key-hole design and do some other perennial plantings. There was not enough time and materials to complete this project so the key-hole project was dropped. There were several brambles that were planted in a new perennial bed.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Perennial Bramble Bed
Green House
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Greenhouse
A portable cheap greenhouse was built from lumber, cattle panel and greenhouse film. The total cost of the project came in just under $200.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures
Miscellaneous
Some of the miscellaneous items that we worked on include making bio-char, soil cubes, compost tea, and grafting. We also used a couple different types of levels to mark contour.
Bio-char is wood that is heated up and burned in a low oxygen environment. This is done so it stays as charcoal and doesn’t do a complete burn and turn to ash. The bio-char provides a lot of living space for soil microbes.
Soil cubes is soil that is pressed into cubes when it is moist so it stays together. Then when the plants grow, they will air-prune their roots. This is more environmentally friendly then plastic trays.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Compost Tea
We made compost tea, which involves putting compost in a bucket of water along with other nutrients. The brew was aerated with a bubbler system for a day or so and then it was ready to use.
The grafting and pruning sessions were cool. We learned how to prune fruit trees and took our trimmings back and learned how to do some grafting. We did a cleft graft, tongue and groove graft, bark graft and a bud graft.
Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures – Grafting
Our Designs
In order to complete the course, we had to do our PDC projects which was a complete PDC design of our place. We presented these to the class to get feedback. We had to include a section on our perfect kitchen. I think this was done to get us out of our comfort zone and to show that permaculture as a design science can be used for other things besides agriculture.
There was also a talent show that we had to do on the last weekend. We had people pair up and make a band, people show some of their previous designs, show crafts and music that they do. It was rather interesting.
My Thoughts
This was an awesome class because of all of the hands on. This is the third PDC that I have taken and they have all been quite different from one another. I’m happy that I have taken all of them and have learned a lot from each.
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the video below titled Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures
Thanks for visiting the Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures post.
Please give us your thoughts on Permaculture Design Course Videos and Pictures by commenting below.
This post covers Epi062 Great Escape Farms Podcast – The Week in Review, Harvesting Cornus Kousa Dogwood Fruit, Propagating Sweet Scarlet Goumi, and A Stroll through the Michael Judd Food Forest.
Great Escape Farms Podcast
Great Escape Podcast is an audio version of the blog posts from Great Escape Farms, Specializing in Unique Edible Plants, Permaculture Gardens, and Homesteading. The blog posts can be viewed at GreatEscapeFarms.com.
If you would like to subscribe to this podcast on iTunes, you can do so by clicking on Great Escape Podcast.
Click on the icon below for other RSS feed options.
Please help us by going to iTunes or whatever podcast feed you use and rate our program. We are a new small company and the ratings will help us become more popular on the podcast feeds.
Want to Help our Small Business Out?
Any time you are going to buy something from Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
We value your feedback and want to hear from you. Tell us what you think about Epi062 Great Escape Farms Podcast.
This post is written about A Stroll through the Michael Judd Food Forest I took when I was at his paw paw festival back in September.
Michael is the author of “Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist”, a very good book if you have not read it yet.
The post below can’t do this food forest or forest garden justice, so please check out the video at the bottom of this post.
Michael Judd Food Forest
The Food Forest
In the front part of the food forest he has some Jerusalem artichoke and hardy kiwi. He has rosa rugosa, which is a rose bush that has very large rose hips high in vitamin C.
Next on the walk I found a Flying Dragon Citrus tree. It is a cross between an orange and a lemon. This is one of the few citrus trees that will grow in USDA hardiness zones 6 and 7. It has some huge thorns on it and a branch from this tree could almost be used as a weapon or hunting too 🙂
There is some European elderberry that looks a little scraggly. It appears that the European varieties just don’t thrive as well as the American named varieties that I have.
Elaeagnus
I then wandered over to two large goumi bushes. One was sweet scarlet goumi and I didn’t quite catch the name of the second one. Goumi is a nitrogen fixing shrub in the elaeagnus family, the same family as autumn olive, but the goumi does not propagate like autumn olive and is therefore not considered an invasive.
Michael Judd Food Forest
More Food!
Just past the goumis is a che tree. This is a tree that is seven foot right now and has large berries on it. The berries look somewhat like raspberries.
Being as this is a paw paw festival, as you would expect there were a half dozen or more paw paw trees in the food forest. Paw Paw trees are native to this are and is one of North Americas largest native fruits.
Michael Judd Food Forest
Bamboo?
There is clumping bamboo used as a living fence. This was planted to block the view to a neighbor’s house. They say if you keep the area around it mowed and well-trimmed, it will not get away from you and take over.
Miscellaneous
A small mint patch is next to a couple of small figs. Figs in our area didn’t do that well this year because we had a very warm spring early on and then had an unusual late freeze that went down into the teens. That freeze killed all of my peach and pear blossoms and killed most of the above ground growth on my figs.
The Book
Michael’s Book, “Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist”, can be ordered at the below link if you are interested.
?Want to Help our Small Business Out?
If you shop at Amazon, please go through our site. All you have to do is click the Amazon button on the menu bar at the top of every page on our web site. That link will take you to Amazon and you then shop as you normally do. It does NOT cost you one penny more, but it does help us out! Thank you very much for helping to support our small business!
The Video
Check out the video below titled The Michael Judd Food Forest
Thanks for visiting A Stroll through the Michael Judd Food Forest post.
Recent Comments