Misc/Chat Pics of my start of a "Back to Eden" garden

[changed]

Here is a pic of my compost pile, in the corner of my garden. All leaves and grass from around the neighborhood. The fence is about six feet tall. The pile started about four and a half feet tall and is shrinking.

Calfisher, have you thought about putting those leaves directly on the garden?

 

[Calfisher]

That spot in our garden is where we grew green beans last year and the soil was pretty weak. I will let it compost down until early March and then spread it out and turn it into the whole garden area.

 

[changed]

I just finished planting two black mulberry trees and two asian chestnuts (I bought the nuts from a grocery story and grew the trees from the nuts).

 

[Yarnball]

I just finished planting two black mulberry trees and two asian chestnuts (I bought the nuts from a grocery story and grew the trees from the nuts).

Well, I don't know about anyone else but THAT impresses the hell out of me! I have enough challenge getting seeds from a packet to grow much less buying nuts at the store. Rock on!

 

[BadMedicine]

I jsut bought a few chesnuts... was gonna roast them on an open fire.. honestly ...but how long did it take to sprout them? How large were /are they before you plant?

 

[changed]

I jsut bought a few chesnuts... was gonna roast them on an open fire.. honestly ...but how long did it take to sprout them? How large were /are they before you plant?

The chestnuts were purchased at a Super H Mart in Atlanta. The nuts were huge. Before I planted them in pots, I took a razor knife and removed the tough outer hull. They germinated quickly and grew 3 feet over the summer. I waited until the leaves dropped off before I considered transferring them to the ground.

 

[changed]

Photos following addition of wood chips. I will add more wood chips.

 

[changed]

More

 

[changed]

Like I said, lot of work.

 

[Lei]

I just dug up one hill of Yacon today. Twenty five pounds of tubers and they store for 8 months .

 

[changed]

Today I planted two shellbark hickory trees. Also, I have a bunch of asian chestnuts that I am going to prepare for planting in pots (removing the tough outer covering).

 

[changed]

If you are going to buy chestnuts to plant don't leave them sitting around for any amount of time. They develop mold on the shell and then get squishy and go bad. After you buy them you have to dehull them and plant them right away.

 

[changed]

bump for the night shift.

 

[changed]

Is it time to let this thread fade to the back pages for good?

 

[Loretta Van Riet]

changed... thank you for documenting all your efforts to share with us!

Loretta V.

 

[BadMedicine]

If you are going to buy chestnuts to plant don't leave them sitting around for any amount of time. They develop mold on the shell and then get squishy and go bad. After you buy them you have to dehull them and plant them right away.

so I read that these will take 40 years to fruit!! :-( it says ones from grafts can bear nuts in 5 years but.... I don't have my retirement property yet:-/ ... If I lived in a more temperate clime I would definitely plant as many fruit and nut trees as I could afford!! Why don't more people plant fruit and nut trees?!? I Love winter, but this spring/ summer is going to be perma-culture to the max. I hope we dont have Armageddon before that! thanks for the info and pics changed... this thread will get resurrected often, we wont consider it spamming as long as you keep the pics and info coming

 

[changed]

BM, you are right. I probably won't live long enough to enjoy nuts from my pecan and chestnut trees. We do it for the next generation though don't we? Until then, they will provide shade, leaf mulch in the fall, and some firewood.

 

[imaginative]

I saw some guys taking down a few trees today. I offered to buy them lunch if they would dump their chippings in my driveway. I got them a large pizza, 8 pc chicken dinner with jo-jos from my piasans restaurant and they dumped 10 yards of maple wood chips. Then we drank all the beer that we could. A win-win for all

 

[Kathy in FL]

I saw some guys taking down a few trees today. I offered to buy them lunch if they would dump their chippings in my driveway. I got them a large pizza, 8 pc chicken dinner with jo-jos from my piasans restaurant and they dumped 10 yards of maple wood chips. Then we drank all the beer that we could. A win-win for all

Now that's using those imaginative juices. LOL!

Didn't get the wood chips going that I had hoped to up here at the BOL, mowing was the priority as was grading some of our mile long "driveway." It has been so dry the last couple of years that a fire break was necessary around our 40 acres of woods plus we've been cleaning out some of the underbrush in areas too close to the house ... didn't like the cover it might give any baddies.

Hubby and 12 yo daughter is out plinking with the .22 as I watch from the window in front of a desk I made from a converted sofa table. I truly wish we could have gotten some of that chipping done. Definitely going on next month's to-do list for the BOL. Next month we will also bring home said chipper so I can fill the raised beds that I'm rebuilding at our primary. So many flaming things I want to get done and so few large blocks of time to get them done in.

Changed, I want to thank you again for getting this thread started.

 

[bev]

We finally got our first delivery of wood chips today. We did have to pay $75 since the company is almost 45 minutes away. DH thinks the wood chips look perfect, and said there is already steam coming from the pile. Cooking away ;-)

Lots of work to do this weekend to lay out the newsprint and then the chips. Hopefully it's not too late to use in the spring.

 

[imaginative]

Now that's using those imaginative juices. LOL!

Grin. It would have been handy to have those 'imaginative juices' do the actual moving of the chips also. I got up way before the sun- had a cup and then moved all 10 yards (it was a mountain)into the raised beds and then spread the chips all out. In the rain.

Anyway- its nice to have it all done and cleaned up.

 

[Vicki]

If you are going to buy chestnuts to plant don't leave them sitting around for any amount of time. They develop mold on the shell and then get squishy and go bad. After you buy them you have to dehull them and plant them right away.

Change, I have a dozen or more chestnuts in the bottom of my fridge right now. A dear friend of 80 some years young has been trying to educate me on the American chestnut that was all but wiped out. He had me go with him late this summer to take pictures of one that is still standing not far from where we live. A beautiful tree for sure and he's got a friend involved in Cornell Cooperative Extentions that deals with this tree. They are working very hard at bringing it back.

Anyway, my whole point is he is guiding me on how to get them sprouted and up and growing and that's why I have a dozen or more in the bottom of my fridge. They are in a baggy full of moss and must stay dampened according to him. They need a dormant time of maybe three months and then they will sprout. When they sprout, that is the tap root so I'm to plant them with the sprout facing down. lol.. no kidding! lol

The reason he points this out so freely is he was working with his daughter doing the same things and she planted what they had sprouted going up and of course they died. He gave up on her. Guess he picked me to get these going instead.

Glad you've had success peeling them and planting them like that. It makes sense to me. Maybe the way he's got me doing it is too much work but then again, it isn't really any work at all. Just having patience.

Vicki

 

[changed]

Vicki, the Asian chestnuts are resistant to the blight that wiped out the American chestnut. Are your nuts American chestnut from the tree you wrote about? If so, cool. There are only a handful of American trees left in the US that haven't been killed by the fungus. Youtube has some great videos on the history of the American chestnut and on planting the nuts.


This website has info on all kinds of fruit and nut plants. It is awesome:

http://fruit-crops.com/

 

[Vicki]

Vicki, the Asian chestnuts are resistant to the blight that wiped out the American chestnut. Are your nuts American chestnut from the tree you wrote about? If so, cool. There are only a handful of American trees left in the US that haven't been killed by the fungus. Youtube has some great videos on the history of the American chestnut and on planting the nuts.

lol... that sounded funny. "my nuts"... lol

You're right about a handful left and I know of two real American Chestnuts about 5 miles from me. A very large one and a smaller one right next to it. That's where we went to get the pictures. The trees are secluded somewhat and right next to the shallow end of a big bay. Glad they haven't succumbed to the blight being that close to all that water.

Are mine the real deal you ask. I'm not sure. They could be. I'll have to ask him once again.

The way it was explained to me was to save the American Chestnut, they had to splice the American with the Asian and they became basically 50/50 and greatly strengthened the American strain. They then took that strain and again spliced it back with the American so the offspring became basically 75% American and 25% Asian. So on and so forth as it goes with this breeding. I believe I have something in the 50/50 range or possibly the 75/25 range. I sure hope I explained that well enough. I may have screwed up what he told me though. I haven't researched it yet.

Thanks for the tip on the youtubes!

 

[changed]

Vicki, you are exactly right about the cross breeding of American with Asian. They keep doing the crosses until it is 99% American and 1% Asian.


If you are interested in growing citrus from seed I have a technique the helps in germination. I learned it from an asian kid on youtube. In the pics below, I am preparing pummelo seeds for planting. Pummelo is like a huge grapefruit, but it is sweeter. What you do is you peel off the outer leathery covering and remove the seeds and then plant them. I have been able to get the pummelo to grow but they do not survive winter outside, even in Georgia. This technique works on orange seed and should work on lemon, lime, and grapefruit.

 

[Vicki]

I have a good size lemon tree Changed. I may like to try that with lime or tangerine maybe. Do you dry the seeds first or just peel them right out of the fruit? Thanks!

 

[changed]

I have a good size lemon tree Changed. I may like to try that with lime or tangerine maybe. Do you dry the seeds first or just peel them right out of the fruit? Thanks!

Let the seeds dry first or it will be too difficult to peel the covering off.

 

[Vicki]

Let the seeds dry first or it will be too difficult to peel the covering off.

Well I talked to my friend tonight and he told me the nuts I have are 100% American. Rare at this point if I can get them started. I'm so excited now thanks! I have some beautiful rare plants here now and they are just taking off on their own. I planted many things when I first started my herb beds. Some things all but disappeared and others flourished. Lucky for me the rare and endangered ones thrived. I just plant things and let nature take over. If a problem comes up, I try to tackle it but other than that, I just admire and spend time with my plants and they do well as do I.

 

[changed]

Well I talked to my friend tonight and he told me the nuts I have are 100% American. Rare at this point if I can get them started. I'm so excited now thanks! I have some beautiful rare plants here now and they are just taking off on their own. I planted many things when I first started my herb beds. Some things all but disappeared and others flourished. Lucky for me the rare and endangered ones thrived. I just plant things and let nature take over. If a problem comes up, I try to tackle it but other than that, I just admire and spend time with my plants and they do well as do I.

That is awesome! Plant them somewhere in your yard where they have plenty of space. They get big. It will take a long time though.

 

[bev]

Here are the first pictures of our garden. We had a load of wood chips delivered, and I picked up a bunch of end rolls of newsprint at our local newspaper office.

We started by laying out four of the rolls of paper, and then slowly unrolling them and securing them with wood chips as we rolled out more paper. It turned out to be an easy way to work with the paper.

This "little bit" took us just over 2 hours - kind of intensive for two old folks! But we'll be adding to it every weekend until we've used up this load of wood chips, as long as the weather cooperates.

The goal is a garden of 25' x 50'. This portion ended up at about 25' x 8' so you can see how far we have to go!

 

[1eagle]

That's an interesting approach bev. May I ask why not just till the ground?

 

[Rabbit]

Strawberries weren't the only things to suffer. About the only thing I could get to grow in the garden was okra (I ended up with okra trees, lol) That's why I am hoping the Back to Eden method will help.

You must be in Ga. near me somewhere. This past summer was brutal. My okra ended up looking like bamboo. I'm hoping the back to eden method will do better.

 

[bev]

That's an interesting approach bev. May I ask why not just till the ground?

We are using the technique from the film "Back to Eden." There is another thread here with links to the film. That technique eliminates the need for tilling.

 

[bev]

Here's a link to the thread about the film "Back to Eden."

http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/show...o-Eden-quot-Awesome!!!&highlight=back+to+eden

 

[changed]

bev, keep the pics coming. Looks great!

Monday I went to pull the cord on the chipper and it snapped. Oh snap! I took it to a guy that fixes lawnmowers and he fixed it for $15. score.

 

[BadMedicine]

...so about the news print lay down... is all this accomplishes is keep weeds and sprouts from coming up through, but eventually decmpose? I dunno why dumping all the chips/ compost right on the grass or whereever would hurt? Mine is all gravelly and not great soil, but I didn't have any paper down before they started dumping chips... but next year we will be having YARDS of chips and clippings, so maybe I want to get with and stick to the paper-lay down program?

 

[changed]

bev, do you have anymore pics?

Rabbit, are you out there? Do you have pics yet?

 

[Sherrynboo]

Changed I took some pictures of mine but for some reason I can't get them to upload to TB2K. I am working on the onion patch right now and it is looking great! I have planted about 100 so far and am heading back out to plant some more. BTW, do you need any onion sets? I have a few bundles extra if you are interested.

Sherry in GA

 

[changed]

Changed I took some pictures of mine but for some reason I can't get them to upload to TB2K. I am working on the onion patch right now and it is looking great! I have planted about 100 so far and am heading back out to plant some more. BTW, do you need any onion sets? I have a few bundles extra if you are interested.

Sherry in GA

Sherry, the pics may be too large in file size. You might have to crop them to make the file size smaller so they can upload.

 

[Vicki]

Hey Change, went with my friends again yesterday for lunch and had to drive by "our" chestnut tree again. lol The reason I giggle is that while we were driving by I said to the Hubby, "Hey, there's OUR tree" and his wife laughed so hard as if it was his and mine. It was really cute. Anyway, that tree is 100% American and it is the only one left they know of in NYS. It's crucial for me to get these to sprout. I love the challenge.

It's almost 50 degrees here today and I keep thinking instead of sitting here typing, I should be outside doing something! Anything outside!

Thanks for the pictures and the thread!

Vicki