Category Archives: Permaculture

Pear, Pawpaw, Cherry, Persimmon, Pluerry, Pomegranate Trees Planted

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Over the past 2 days, I’ve planted 8 more fruit trees.

13) Asian Pear w/ grafts of:  Hosui (12), 20th Century (3), Chojuro (6), Shenseiki (9)
14) Fuyu Japanese Persimmon
15) Sweet Treat Pluerry
16) Wonderful Pomegranate
17) Cherry w/ grafts of: Stella (2), Black Tartarian (4), Bing (7), Rainier (10) *
18) empty space
19) Pennsylvania Golden PawPaw (Grafted)
20) Sunflower Pawpaw (Grafted)
21) Mango Pawpaw (Grafted)
(graft positions given w/ North = 12 o’clock)
* = yes, I realize cherry trees won’t set fruit here because of our lack of cooling hours, but I wanted to try it anyway   Continue reading →

Results and Observations of Solar Sterilization to Kill Unwanted Vegetation

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My observations of a 3 weeks of using a clear plastic sheet of plastic to kill off vegetation.

  1. The plastic was placed in the area of a storm shelter door and left for 3 days.  Much of the area was killed, but some was not, likely due to the edges of the plastic not being sealed against the ground very well, allowing fresh, cooler air to get it and killing the oven affect.
  2. The plastic was moved to a second area that only receives full sun about half of the day.  The ground was flatter, and the edges were easier to seal with lumber.  This resulted in all the vegetation (grass mostly) being killed.
  3. The plasti was moved to a third area next to the driveway.  This area is also shaded half the day, and the weather has been rainy and overcast.  I’ve left the plastic in place for over a week in this area.  The pictures below were taken 21 days after the plastic was moved from location 1.  You can clearly see where area 2 was killed, but already has a lot of growth returning after about 1 week.  The growth in area 1 is back to almost normal now.

Notes / Comments:

  • Sealing up the edges of the plastic is important.  Any air movement disrupts the process.
  • Only the top bit of soil seems to be affected, plants with deeper roots will come back pretty quickly.

Comfrey Slips and Crowns Planted 8/6/2018

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I ordered 12 slips and 3 crowns of Russian Comfrey – Bocking 14 from Marsh Creek Farmstead.  They arrived today so I put them in the ground.  I placed the crowns in my raised beds, and the slips in between my new fruit trees.  The bocking 14 variety doesn’t go to seed so it doesn’t spread and take over like the normal variety does.  This plant is known as a mineral miner: the roots go very deep in the soil and the leaves are packed with lots of nutrients.  It is a good plant to use for composting material, as those valuable nutrients will be in the compost.

Mulch Added to Trees

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I brought in about 25 cu-yds of local tree mulch and spread it out in the area where my trees are planted. I have at least 6 inches of depth in most areas.  This should help cut down the number weeds that are competing with the fruit trees for water and nutrients, absorb water when it rains, build good soil over time, and help increase the soil health.

 

Fruit Tree Pruning Guidelines

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  1. Make a Chimney – trim every spur or small branch that is within 6 inches of the main trunk
  2. Keep only 12 to 14 main branches.  Prune the following:
    1. Low branches that will touch the ground (less than 40″ from ground)
    2. Big branches – 50% of main trunk size or larger
    3. In the Line – growing with the line of trees or directly toward the path
  3. remaining branch trimming – trim smaller branches underneath main branch – maintain branches that look like a hand, with a fan on the end of the branch
  • Trim a small kerf on underside of branch before cutting to avoid peeling off bark when branch is cut off.
  • avoid branches growing directly above another branch in same direction

 

Peach, Apricot, and Plum Trees – Planted 1/23/2018

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My order of bare root fruit trees came in today, and I immediately put them in the ground.  I planted them in a pattern I learned about in a the film “The Permaculture Orchard“:  2 fruit trees, followed by a nitrogen fixing tree and prevent two fruit trees of the same type from being close to each other.  The idea is the nitrogen fixing tree will provide for the fruit trees on each side of it, and if one tree gets attacked by pests or diseased, the problem doesn’t easily just jump next door and take out another tree.  I planted at 12 foot intervals, and about half of the trees will be shaded for the first half of the day.  The fruit trees and redbuds came from Womack Nursery in De Leon Texas and the 3 nitrogen fixer trees are on order from Cold Stream Farms in Freesoil, Michigan.

Key to above picture: Continue reading →

16 Blackberrys Planted 11/11/2016

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A few weeks ago, I planted 16 blackberry plants along the west side of the shop building.  I got these from a group buy from some members of the North Texas Vegetable Gardeners facebook group.  I had to drive to Denton to pick them up, but they only cost me $3 each.  I have 4 each of the following varieties:

  • Ouchita – Thornless
  • Navaho – Thornless
  • Apache – Thornless
  • Triple Crown – Thornless

I’ll plant fruit trees right next to them later this winter.

Free Tree Triming Mulch

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We received 8 cu-yds of tree trimming waste from ArborDocs through the getchipdrop.com service. He dumped the material in our front yard. It was mostly finely ground limbs, branches, and leaves, with lots of larger material in it too, including logs.  We used to the mulch to create walkways through the area where a future vegetable garden will be.  We put down double layers of cardboard to help block weeds for the first year, and piled the mulch on thick (4-6 inches).  In about 5 years, we should be able to rake the wood chips back and harvest compost, then apply more wood mulch.

Leaf Storage Bins

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I collect tree leaves in bins made out of welded wire fencing.  The bins of leaves will just sit for a few years and break down over time into nice compost.  When I need to mulch the vegetable beds, I get leaves from the bins and create several inches of covering over the soil of the vegetable beds to keep the moisture and heat regulated.  Here is a picture of the bins storing leaves.

I advertise on local social media that I’ll pick up bagged leaves:  http://gallistead.com/free-leaf-pick-up-service-in-princeton-texas/

This is a good recycle / reuse program, since my city doesn’t pickup leaves.  Citizens have to resort to burning them, hauling them to the dump themselves, or wait for every-other-month bulk pickup service, which just takes them to the dump.