Monthly Archives: October 2008

Forest Garden Update

IMG_2131This is the second food forest which is just 60 feet from my front door. Trees and bushes planted thus far: 1 peach, 2 plums, 2 red currants, 2 black currants, and 2 gooseberries. Also planted a few native bee balm. Next spring I’ll be expanding it with an apple and a couple paw paws as well as perennial and annuals such as Good King Henry, chives, and nasturtiums.

I’ve just about finished putting in a path using various half rotted logs and branches for the border. For the bottom of the path I’m using big chunks and strips of bark that I’ve been gathering from downed trees as well as the wood I’m chopping up for firewood. Bark does not burn too well so I think using it as a pathway is a much better use. Not only will it decay and add organic matter to the soil but the lizards and frogs love to eat the insects that the bark attracts… you can never have too many lizards and frogs!!

The outdoor shower you see in the back right corner will be moved soon and we’ll be putting in an arbor with hardy kiwi, grapes, and wisteria, possibly a few other vines as well.

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Autumn Olive Update

Autumn BerriesBack in early September I discovered that we had Autumn Olives on the land and wrote about it. Since then they have ripened up a good bit so I’ve been eating several handfuls a day for the past couple weeks. I harvested about 1.5 pints of Autumn Olive berries in about 5 minutes from one bush, the largest I’ve found, which still has at least another 50 pints of berries on it. I’ll be experimenting with different uses. They taste great and are highly nutritious.

Plants for a Future, an excellent plant database, has an entry for Autumn Olive.

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