Our plan with the trees and bushes we planted this fall and spring has 4 elements
co-plant with comfrey
use metal tag with a plant number, type and variety
protect the tender trunk with a plastic cage or tube
placing wood chips around the trees and bushes
Metal tags everywhere
We have used the metal tag system from the beginning of our farm. This has been a great way to track trees and bushes on the farm. We also have maps where the individual plant locations are noted.
Spreadsheet where we track planted trees and bushes
One of the tasks for today was installing metal tags on trees that were planted last fall and this spring. The plastic tag that came with the tree is removed and a metal tag is put in place. This gives us a permanent way to identify a plant and know its history.
Using lots of wood chips
We are still in the process of putting woodchips around all the new trees and bushes. The woodchips helps regulate the moisture of the soil, while keep summer temperatures down at the root ball. They also amend the soil with nutrients and organic matter as the wood chips break down. All of these items help to build healthy soil, which greatly improves the conditions for the tree as it grows. The goal is to put at least woods in a circular pattern around the tree to depth of 8-12 inches.
Metal tag with a number, tree type and variety plus a plastic guard against critters
Tree with tree protector, tag and comfrey
Metal tag with unique identifier and tree type and variety
Comfrey at the base of young tree, growing through the mulch
Here are some pictures from today on the farm
The view from above – young tree, tree protector, mulch
The “cushaw patch” is changing over to a small orchard with medlar, quince, plumcot and plums
Nice to see the trees growing
Amazing how quicky things change and grow this time of year
The variety of flowers and leaves is nice
Flowers are finishing up their job and the fruiting begins
It is really nice to spend the day surrounded by all of the springtime explosion of blooms and new growth. The weather this time of year is spectacular and it makes the hard work on the farm seem much easier. Being outside and having the privilege of managing this property is wonderful. Watching everything grow is nice. Sometimes things don’t grow and there is a lesson to be learned. Sometimes that lesson is a technical one. Other times, it becomes obvious, once again, that I can’t impose my will on the farm.
Working on the farm also gives me time to think. It is humbling to know that I’m just a caretaker of the farm. There are trees that we have planted that will still be growing and thriving long after our season has passed.
A great feeling comes as standing in the middle of a growing ecosystem. The goal is to build abundance. Part of that abundance goes back to the land as a way to build better soil and strong plants and trees for future abundance. The rest leaves the farm as food.
Standing there and looking at the trees and plants at the end of the day with sun getting lower, there is a peaceful feeling. What is happening in a crazy world, is still important but is in perspective. That is such a blessing. You can’t buy peace. Sure having a farm is a lot of work and expense but having peace in our lives is priceless.
Orchard with young pears, nectarines, peaches and plums
Hugelkultur mound with blueberries, raspberries and goji berries
Driving back across the field at the end of the day, tired but relaxed
The asian pears are blooming
Just wonderful to see
Lots of blooms
Bee on a comfrey flower
Raspberries are growing like mad on the HugelKultur mound
Everything is warming up. We have been busy. We have also been using the nice weather to work on cleaning up fallen trees. The bees are loving their new home.
Our garlic is doing well. Garlic is one of the easier crops to grow because it requires so little maintenance until the last few weeks. We sold out of garlic last year, so when it is available in early summer, make sure to get your orders in. We don’t use pesticides or insecticides on the farm.
Sometimes details are important, a toad hopped on my chainsaw box while we were cutting up a tree that fell down in the storm. Connie noticed the small toad and snapped the pic
The bees are moving to the back field and more bees should arrive in a few weeks. The plan is to have 10 hives total. We currently have 4 hives. We keep selling out of honey from the farm so additional honey capacity will be good as the farm grows.
Good Family Times
One of our yearly traditions has been to prune the grape vines, blueberries and fruit trees at my mom’s house. We did that this week and had a good time. What a beautiful day. We had a good time as a family and accomplished a lot.
It is wonderful that the orchard, berries and vines produce an abundance that my mom can share with the community.
Blueberries after pruning
Cut down and removed trees that were shading the blueberries and fruit bearing trees
We removed a lot of excess vegetation in the blueberries
What a beautiful. The snow has melted and it was a wonderful day to work on the farm. We planted fruit and nut trees in November. Now we are planting the second wave of trees and bushes.
The american beautyberry bushes have edible berries that have a different taste. They are harvested in the fall. The beautyberries were Connie’s idea. The brought one home a few years ago and it has really grown and produced lots of berries. The berries are a metallic purple color. The beautyberries are also a native plant. We shouldn’t need anti-deer cages around the beautyberries (at least until the berries are ripe).
The black locust trees are going into areas where we are working to improve the soil. The plan is to let them grow for a few years and terminate them. Then we can come back with fruit trees.
The pomegranate trees needed anti-deer cages. Those are built and installed.
A great day to work on the farm
Flowers!
Nice seeing flowers blooming
Planting American Beautyberries and building more anti-deer cages
Planting American Beautyberry
Putting up anti deer fencing around the pomegranate trees
Garlic is growing!
Don’t forget about our elderberry pruning class in 2 weeks.
Happy to see that the berries are here
This umbral is weighing the branch down
Loaded
This bush is loaded with elderberries
Nice to see them again
Elderberries are ripe in places
It is that time. Join us as we prune our elderberries. We’ll have a great morning learning to prune elderberries and also learning to plant the cuttings. The cost of the class includes a 1/2 lb of honey from the farm and cuttings so you can plant your own elderberries. Please sign up below so we know how many people to expect.
Event Schedule on Saturday, March 8th
Take Aways from the Event
You’ll learn how to
prune elderberries and make cuttings to plant
plant elderberries
Experience
pruning elderberry plants
planting elderberry cuttings
Bring home (included in the ticket cost)
enough elderberry cuttings to start your own elderberry patch
1 lb of honey from the farm
Agenda on Saturday
9:00 AM – Welcome
9:15-Noon Demonstration – how to prune elderberry bushesPractical – prune elderberries and take home elderberry cuttings so you can grown your own elderberry plants.
Demonstration – how to plant elderberries Practical – plant elderberries and comfrey
We hope you have enjoyed the news and pictures from the farm in 2024. We’re going to take a break from the blog for few weeks.
Expect to see more pictures when it is time to prune the elderberries, mulberry trees, fig trees and goji berries. If you want to learn to prune your berries and fruit trees, let me know and we’ll set up a class for late February or early March.
It is that time of year. Time to make elderberry syrup! FoxNews just did a story talking about the benfits of elderberries (click on the image below to read the story)
How we make the syrup
The first step is to put the elderberries in a steam juicer. The steam juicer creates a juice extract from the elderberrries. The extract from the steam juicer is reduced (over heat) to approximately half the volume that came from the steam juicer. Once the juice has cooled to less than 120 degrees, it is ready for the honey. The reduced juice is mixed with an equal part of honey from our place in the mountains. The goal is to keep the majority of the honey below a temperature of 105 degrees. The honey and juice mixes best at warmer temperatures but we don’t want to get the honey too warm and lose the natural properties of the raw honey. We measure the temperature of the juice as it is cooling and then mix the honey and liquid together once the reduced liquid reach a temperature of 120 degrees.
Frozen elderberries going in the steam juicer
Elderberry syrup in a squeeze bottle
First time we have put elderberry syrup in a squeeze bottle
This time of year is fairly busy on the farm. Activities for this week included:
planting pomegranate trees, prickly pear cactus and the last of the goji berries
putting out more woodchips (semi composted mulch) around the fruit trees we planted in November
clearing a dead tree off the bridge so I could get to the back field
moving brush and wood that had been cut a few years ago
cutting down more the invasive trifoliate citrus bushes
The weather was spectacular. It was nice to be outside.
Foggy on the way to the farm. Fog adds such a beautiful element to the view
Putting mulch around the chestnut trees
The orchard in the back field is slowly coming together
Pomegranate tree planted
Daikon radish used as a natural fertilizer
Wood for campfire from tree that feel across the bridge
Spinless (sorta) prickly pear cactus planted and mulched
Goji berry planted and mulched in back field
Tree mulched and anti-deer cage replaced
Natural Fertilizers for Trees and Bushes
One of the things we have on the farm this time of year is diakon radish (also called field radish). We use it as a cover crop. One of the methods I used when planting trees and bushes was to harvest some of the daikon tuber and put it in the bottom of the hole where the trees and bushes went. The daikon tuber breaks down over time and adds nutrients to the soil near the tree and bush roots. It is especially easy to do when the daikon radish is just a few feet away.
Daikon radish in bottom of hole for tree or bush, a natural fertilizer
We purchased the land for the farm in 2021. Since then it has been forward plunge into the turbulent waters of agriculture.
The Beginning
Standing at the gate looking across the farm as it looked in the beginning of the journey
Property when we first bought it, mainly fields and forest
Planning and Getting Started
Using GPS data to build CAD models to plan the plantings in field #2
Putting in the deer fence and putting down plastic to solarize the grass in field #2
Putting down plastic to solarize the hugelkultur mound, note the driveway that just went in
State of the Farm Today
Connie and a happy fig tree
Enjoying opportunity to share about our farm
Connie and JonnyLee planting a chestnut tree
I’m proud of the fact that we have planted and tagged over 200 fruit and nut bearing trees and bushes . We have also grown several seasons of row crops.
Trees (Fruit bearing) Apricot Mulberry Nectarine PawPaw Peach Asian Pear Kieffer Pear Pecan Plum Plumcot American Persimmon Figs Yaupon Holly
Trees (Nut bearing) Black Walnut Chestnut Hazel nut
Medicinal Comfrey Motherwort Witch Hazel St. Johns Wort Burdock
Row Crops Garlic
Plan to plant in the spring Jujube trees Quince trees Pomegranate tree Goumi berry bushes
Who is We?
Thanks to everyone that has helped in many different ways. Friendships have formed and deepened. We have so enjoyed teaching hands on classes and giving tours. Thanks so much!
Having the oppotunity to pass down skills and share has been great
Yes, I know it sounds crazy, but we have a lot of trees that need mulch around them so they thrive this summer. The mulch is a great example of function stacking (a permaculture term). Function stacking means to accomplish multiple functions with one element . The element in this case is the woodchips that we are putting around the trees.
After being in the ground for 3 weeks, the trees look like this
Tree with bare soil around the roots
Bare soil is not desireable because
erosion when there is no root structure and plants above ground to help keep the soil in place
lack of roots and organic activity feeding the organisms in the soil and keep the soil robust
encourages “weeds” and grasses that will colonize the bare soil and compete with the tree and will need to be mechanically removed
Mulch Materials
Which materials used for mulch are really driven by econonmics and availability. The most available materials that are local to the farm are:
a. hay – we have pulled hay from our fields and purchased from our neighbors. Hay is easily available in round bales in our local area. As the hay breaks down it adds nutrients to the soil while providing helping to regulate moisture under the soil. This is especially important in the summer. Moist soil is much easier for the tree roots to penetrate which allows for a faster growing and healthier tree. Hay has 2 downsides. One downside is that it composts fairly quickly (which addes nutrients and organic matter to the soil) and this quick composting means we have to reapply it sooner than woodchips. One thing to consider is that hay is easy to move and apply. Much easier than woodchips when it comes to moving and applying it. The other downside is that it has to be fairly thick (thickness of the applied layer) to create enough shade to suppress grass weeds and grass. We use hay around our garlic beds very successfully. We’ve also had good success using hay around young trees as a much
Important note: Many hay fields are sprayed with a broadleaf herbicide to suppress weeds. This chemical application is so common that many farmers don’t mention that these chemicals were sprayed on the hay. Before using any hay in your garden or around plants on your farm, triple check with the farmer managing the field that they sprayed no chemicals on the field. The broadleaf herbicides can be transferred to your garden or farm via the hay and kill your crops.
b. wood chips – Our wood chip piles is about 4 months old (i.e. the trees were chipped at a another location and brought to the farm). It takes a pile of unturned wood chips around a year to compost. This means that they woodchips we just put around the trees are not anywhere near fully composted. As the wood chips compost they will have effects on the soil. The first effect is that they will raise the ph and they will deplete nitrogen from the soil at the interface layer between the wood chips and the soil. Because our farm soil ph is fairly low the effect of the ph going up slightly isn’t a problem. The nitrogen depletion (as the chips compost) isn’t a big deal either because the tree roots are 6 inches to 2 feet from that depleted layer. However, it is important to consider these two items if you used wood chips in your garden. We use a lot of wood chips very successfully in our garden at home.
Most of the time your supply of wood chips is a local company cutting trees for homeowners or clearing power lines. I keep an eye out for arborists working in the area. When I see a tree cutting crew, I usually stop and let them know I would really like to take their chips on our farm. Often we can get them for free. In some locations, you can use www.chipdrop.com and get free wood chips. It is important to note that if you get compost from a municipal or county source that it can contain broadleaf herbicides from grass clippings (where homeowners spray their yards). So be very careful with the source of your compost.
The wood chips do a great job retaining moisture under the wood chips. Over time they will add nitrogen and organic matter to the soil. The composting process for wood chips takes a while so the wood chips we are applying now should stay in place throughout the summer. The wood chips also help suppress weeds and grasses that would otherwise compete with the tree as it is getting established. If you want to suppress weeds and grass with wood chips they need to be a minimum of 8 inches thick.
c. comfrey – when we plant a tree or bush we generally plant comfrey root cuttings as well. The comfrey grows through the hay or woodchips and acts a living mulch (helping regulate moisture at the base of the tree or bush) with also add orgranic matter in the fall when the plant dies back in the fall. We usually use comfrey as a companion to wood chips or hay. The comfrey does even more function stacking as a medicinal plant and as a root that we can dig up and sell as a starter plant to homesteads and other farms that want to establish comfrey on their farms.
Notes about comfrey – when you purchase comfrey you want to purchase sterile comfrey like the Bokcing #4 Russian comfrey. This of comfrey spreads underground and is very manageable. Varieties of comfrey that aren’t sterile can spread by seeds and become invasive on your property, showing up places that you don’t want it. It is also important to note that comfrey doesn’t thrive in some areas. It is a great plant but it just won’t do well in some areas. Another great source of comfrey cuttings is Perma Pastures Farm in WNC. All of our comfrey plants originally came from them in the form of cuttings that we planted.
Tree with mulch added
Equipment Needed
We have a lot of trees to mulch, so the tractor is a game changer. In your garden, a hand cart is often a great solution.
Peach trees, aronia / chokeberry and goji berry plants with wood chip mulch around them
Next Steps
We still have more trees to mulch, but we are about 1/2 way through. We also have trees I hope to cut this winter. So lots to do.
In March we hope to plant
– jujube trees – quince trees – pomegranete trees – goumi berry bushes (nitrogen fixer)
Other planned activities
– cut trees shading the fruit trees in field #2 – extend the anti-deer fences in field #2 and the cushaw patch to accomodate the new fruit trees as a they grow and allow for room to mow around them – mulch the latest trees – put up a trellis for the goji berries we planted in November – amend the soil in the garlic beds – extend the water lines in the food forest and field 2 to allow first year irrigation of the fruit trees and bushes
My wife and I love spending time outdoors. Having a farm and garden is a great way to do that. It also means we have more nutritious foods. Many of the people we have met on this journey like similar things and that makes it even better. I’m a mechanical engineer turned weekend farmer, so I’m just smart enough to know that there is a lot that I don’t know especially when it comes to farming, permaculture and food forests. Come on the learning journey with us!
We would love to share what we are learning so that you can grow at least part of your own food. It is within your grasp to grow part of the food that you eat. You can improve your food security and enjoy higher quality food in the process.
We also have limited opportunities for you to camp out on our farm, enjoying the serious peace and quiet. Sometimes we hold classes, usually on Food Preservation. Join us for those too.
Meet the Farmers
I’m a mechanical engineer turned weekend farmer, so I’m just smart enough to know that there is a lot that I don’t know especially when it comes to farming, permaculture and food forests. I’ve been heavily influenced in my love of farming and permaculture by my Mom and Dad and also by people like Jack Spirko (TSP) and Dan (Plant Abundance)
Connie has her certificate in Sustainable Agriculture from CCCC. She really enjoyed the classes at the community college and learned a lot. The program was a mixture of classes and work on the school farm. What she learned has really added to our technical proficiency on the farm.