Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby George Collins » Sun Apr 15, 2012 1:06 am

Image

There is an elderly lady in the community that needed a dead pine tree taken out of her yard. Just so happens that I can make use of dead standing timber so I volunteered for the job. This represents about two thirds of the tree. We have also felled two other similarly sized, dead water oaks which fell victim to lightning. They, as well as the rest of the pine, will be brought home and incorporated into the forest garden when time permits and/or the ground is dry enough to allow their retrieval. By the time the rest of the pine and the two oaks are brought home, there should be enough wood on hand to log-mulch every as-yet-un-log-mulched tree in the forest garden with enough left over to accomplish a few other ends such as lining a pathway and placing some on contour to slow down run off where needed.
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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby pa_friendly_guy » Thu Apr 19, 2012 10:56 pm

That is a very nice large mature pine George. There is alot of wood there. I am sure that it will go to Good use in the forest garden. The idea of mulching with Logs is very interesting. I really want to hear how it goes for you. When I go to all of the work to split a log I normally burn it in the wood stove. But pine doen't make all that good of a fire wood, so it might make sence to use it here as a mulch as well.
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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby George Collins » Sun Apr 22, 2012 2:37 am

The four different types of ground cover recently received from Burnt Ridge Nursery were planted today. One of those planted, wintergreen, came with three berries which were split among the three of us doing the actual planting. And the strangest thing about their taste - they tasted JUST LIKE wintergreen.

Who'd a'thunk?

We also brought up a load of cow manure and single dug it into seven areas of exceptionally poor soil. Each area dug was of ~ 3' x 3' dimensions and into each of these areas we transplanted 6 celebrity tomatoes and one pepper. Each area was then mulched one cow patty deep. Lastly, we buried a whole bunch of kitchen scraps including some chicken my wife let go bad and some fish my kids caught and never got around to cleaning. Since we don't have hogs anymore to dispose of such things, we used it to fertilize another area of poor soil in the forest garden. We dug a hole about ~ 3' x 3', put some 100 year old saw dust on the bottom, threw in about 3-4 gallons of scraps, topped it with a layer of saw dust, covered it with dirt and (to keep animals from digging it up) log-mulched the whole.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"

"If you can't beat them, bite them."
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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby matt walker » Sun Apr 22, 2012 4:26 pm

Sounds great George, I bury quite a bit of salmon each year and it makes really wonderful soil. Good way to put that stuff to use.
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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby George Collins » Thu May 03, 2012 1:44 am

Planted 14 tomatoes and 12 pepper plants today in the herbaceous layer.

The J.L. Hudsons order arrived yesterday, many of the seeds of which will soon find their way into the forest garden alongside everything else. I'm very excited about the prospect since many of the seeds will produce plants (assuming they live) that I've only read about and am anxious to experience.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"

"If you can't beat them, bite them."
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Location: South Central Mississippi, Zone 8a

Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby matt walker » Thu May 03, 2012 3:33 am

Very cool George, I'm in the same boat with seeds of stuff I know very little about.

So, will you direct sow the new seeds? I'm thinking I'm going to do a run of indoor starts of everything just so I know what it looks like.
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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby George Collins » Thu May 03, 2012 11:01 am

Matt,
The plan is to plant some in peat pots and to direct sow the rest which I hope to accomplish today if possible. The one hold up might be needing to plant some walnuts. I checked in on the seeds yesterday after we FINALLY got a rain and there were quite a few that are ready to go into the field so that may hold me off another day. Having said that though, I'm very anxious to pop'em in the ground.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"

"If you can't beat them, bite them."
George Collins
 
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Location: South Central Mississippi, Zone 8a

Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby George Collins » Fri May 04, 2012 2:08 am

While digging around in the pots today looking for germinated walnuts, my son accidentally started diggin around in one of the pots in which I have paw paw seeds in germination media. I didn't realize he had made this error until he caught my attention by saying, "Hey Dad, I just found a germinated chinquapin in this here pot full of walnuts."

"Chinquapin? Can't be. All of the chinquapins are over there next to the porch. You must've found a live oak . . . BOY! THEM'S M'PAW PAW SEEDS! GIVE IT . . . DON'T THROW IT! Wooooooooow! Y'all lookie here. We've got our first germinated paw paw! Cooooooool."

The paw paw seeds came out of the fridge on 3-21-12 so that is almost six weeks to the day it took for us to confirm germination.

Also today, my eldest daughter and I put 6 of every type of seed ordered from JL Hudson's into peat cups and we are now eagerly awaiting their germination.

This weekend, many/most/all of the rest will be direct seeded into either the annual garden or the forest garden.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"

"If you can't beat them, bite them."
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Location: South Central Mississippi, Zone 8a

Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby matt walker » Fri May 04, 2012 2:37 am

This is a wonderful project George. I just went back to the first post to see what you are sowing, and was again impressed at the variety and size of your planned plantings. It's really amazing, and I'm so glad you are bringing us along. Can't wait to watch it grow with you. So exciting, I mean that sincerely. Very cool stuff my friend.
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Re: Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

Postby George Collins » Tue May 08, 2012 6:20 pm

Matt,

Thanks, I just hope the weather proves to be more cooperative for the rest of the year than it has been so far. I have already lost a few of my trees. The recent two weeks of high wind coupled with a simultaneous lapse in rain fall played havoc with a few of the standards most recently planted. Therein lies a lesson for next year - if a tree can't be in the ground by the end of February, it ain't goin in a'tall. I'm still mad at Burnt Ridge Nurseries for delaying an order made in January (I think it was) until April over ONE little insignificant bush they didn't have in stock. True, they did ask my permission to do so but at a time when I was mentally preoccupied with work and was forced to make a hasty decision. Then there was my order of the low chill cherries from Willis Orchards - I ordered at almost the exact minute that my neighbor whom I helped with the forest garden and his arrived a week later and mine arrived a month later. All of his trees which I set out are living whereas I lost two of the four that went into my own yard.

Then there was the all but the complete absence of any cold weather this year. Some of the specimens that require anywhere close to the average chill hours we are supposed to receive leafing out sporadically or not at all.

So far, it looks as if I ill lose 3 out of 5 cherries, the only almond, the only Japanese persimmon and a May haw.

Live and learn.

Yesterday, after making the mad dash to the walnut grove, one of my sons and I planted some peppers, tomatoes, zucchinis and squash around or just inside the mulch perimeter of several trees in the forest garden. The goal is to use them as a living mulch that may, as a bonus, produce some edibles. Last year, one of the experiments ran was a three-sisters style garden. It didn't produce much but then that wasn't the goal (although it would have been nice), rather it was, in part, to evaluate using squash as a living mulch. Towards that end, the experiment was a resounding success. Squash are very easily grown, productive in the extreme and provide MUCH shade and organic matter and seem to only be plagued by squash vine borers which were a true nemesis. Where the borers left the squash plants alone, they filled the mulch function wonderfully.

As the hay deteriorates around the fruit trees, the hope is that (primarily) the squash plants will provide a seamless continuity to the principle of keeping the whole garden permanently mulched. I anticipate gearing up this play in the future until the time for canopy closure approaches or until they are replaced piecemeal with more system beneficial specimens or edible perennials.
"Solve world hunger, tell no one." "The, the, the . . . The Grinch!"

"If you can't beat them, bite them."
George Collins
 
Posts: 535
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2012 10:57 pm
Location: South Central Mississippi, Zone 8a

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