Is the first one columbine? It has volunteered at the base of a lilac tree from somewhere. Second one starts with an "e" I think but I can remember any more than that and have been unsuccessful googling and searching.
Will the cuttings from a manual reel mower be just as good as the mulched cuttings from a gas mower? Will they break down and feed the lawn the same as finer mulched cuttings. I would be afraid that unless you mowed really often the grass clippings could smother or make brown spots on the grass. Nice thing with mulching gas or electric mower is that you can cut less frequently and they have the power to still mulch the grass. I would love to get a reel mower but don't want to have to mow more frequently. Any thoughts?
Will the cuttings from a manual reel mower be just as good as the mulched cuttings from a gas mower? Will they break down and feed the lawn the same as finer mulched cuttings. I would be afraid that unless you mowed really often the grass clippings could smother or make brown spots on the grass. Nice thing with mulching gas or electric mower is that you can cut less frequently and they have the power to still mulch the grass. I would love to get a reel mower but don't want to have to mow more frequently. Any thoughts?
I have ten or so butterfly bushes that I started from seed three years ago. They have been awesome the last two years and grow so much during the summer I have to trim one from blocking a fence gate. I trimmed them back pretty hard last fall, only left 6" or so above the soil, and this year some of them are getting new growth yet. Did I trim them at the right time? I could have sworn I read to do it in the fall but now I see spring when I google it. I live in zone 6 (central ky) and we have a cold winter for us, are they just being slow or could they have gotten killed? They were really hardy last season and never get watered. Appreciate the help in advance.
Thanks Leila! I have a couple heavily mulched areas in the yard where I have transplanted so many things that when they all die back for the winter and I mulch I get afraid they wont come back!! Also chickens and dogs traffic'ed these area heavy until I fenced them off...the dogs were ok but I worried that the chickens would scratch up all the perenials. I put some perennial maximillion sunflower and blackeyed susan crowns in early march and I'm just holding my breath to see if they come up...but we got our first asparagus yesterday so hopefully the warmer days will coax everything up.
Is there any danger with heavy mulching over herbacious perenials? I have lots of perenial sunflowers, black eyed susans, bee balm, lavender and other perenials that lose all their above ground vegetation in the winter and I am worried that if I put to much mulch on them I could kill them. Is 3-6"s of wood chip, grass cutting, shredded leaf mix ok? When planting new plants, should I put them shallower in the soil to accomodate for the thicker mulch?
I think we figured it out...the birds were just smarter than us. Since they had taken to sleeping in their egg box they were also pooping in thier egg box. We started mucking out the poop just out of the boxes in the morning when we opened the coop and now they are back to laying eggs in the boxes. I wouldn't want to lay an egg while sitting on poop either!
Thanks John...would I plant the trees on top of the hugel bed or down slope of it? All of my hugel beds have settled ~25% the first year...will that effect the new tree if planted on top of the hugel?
Even if just renting making the garden soil/ raised bed better for yourself and future renters is a pretty cool thing to do...and it is good practice for you before you have your own property...I know every time I do a new bed I learn something or see a way to do the next bed different and/or better! Plus I love and take any chance to dig a hole and play in the dirt!!
Thanks John...will 30-40 days and heavy mulch be sufficient to overwinter? Can I completely cover with the mulch? How deep can I mulch and not kill it? It will be leaf mulch as that is what will be plentiful in the fall.
Thanks Jordan...I think I'll try both also. They will ship anytime but if I root cuttings should I wait until spring? This week and next is supposed to be in 100's and 90's...not good time to be planting. If I wait until September would they have enough time to get established before winter...first frost is usually in mid to late October?
Shawn...what is under the beds...concrete, plywood, soil? One option that you could do in addition to all the top dressing/mulching suggested in the other replies would be to remove all the soil from the raised beds and incorporate some hugelkulture. How high is the raised bed above ground surface? You could either remove to ground surface if you have 3-4 foot high raised beds or dig 1 ft or so below ground surface if they are shorter. Then you could fill the hole with any and all organic material you have on hand using the following bottom to top stratification: firewood sized logs, branches/twigs/smaller woody, leaves, weedy green debris/grass cuttings, kitchen scraps and then put the materials referenced in other posts. You could mix in the removed soil into each layer to minimize open space, i.e., mix leaves and grass cuttings into soil in a wheelbarrow with a hoe/shovel. The woody material would hold water and also add nutrients as it decomposes. All the other organic matter would continue to breakdown and make the soil better. This is a lot more work upfront but it could pay off with great soil for years to come.
Below are pics of my digging out a raised garden and adding organic material...but in the future I would have put the leaves on top of the woody material instead of beneath.
We got two buff orpington hens (about 1 year old) a little over a month ago. Right from the beginning the started laying their eggs in the egg box but we have noticed that they also sleep everynight in the egg box...one in each box. Every once in a while we would find an egg in the coop outside the egg box. Even found one outside in their paddock. The last couple of days they have now consistently been laying eggs outside the egg box. My wife put a golf ball in each egg box two days ago (we read this might help) but still yesterday they laid outside. Any advice/help? Thanks!
I am have been unsuccessful in trying to find a local source for comfrey and thanks to Jeanine on permies forum I got the link to horizon herbs (http://www.horizonherbs.com/). They offer two different varieties, Bocking 14 Russian Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) and true comfrey (Symphytum officinalis). The following paragraph from horizon herbs tells the differences between the two:
"What's the difference between this plant and true comfrey (Symphytum officinalis)? The Bocking 14 cultivar of Russian Comfrey (Symphytum x uplandicum) is a sterile hybrid that will not self-seed and is extremely robust and vigorous. The true comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) is a bit less vigorous of a grower, has more elongated leaves and (I think) prettier flowers, and does indeed make seed. Although both types of comfrey (Russian and True) are useful for making medicine and making compost, in an ideal world one would use the bocking cultivar for producing large amounts of biomass for permaculture gardens, composting, and animal feed, and one would use the true comfrey (Symphytum officinalis) for medicinal purposes. Again, both types (and other species as well) are used interchangeably in agriculture and in medicine."
My questions for people who might have experience with one or both are:
1) for the sterile hybrid Russian how would I propogate/multiply this?
2) for the true...how easily does it reseed/spread?
3) Is one variety hardier/more drought tolerant than the other?
Any other considerations when deciding which variety to purchase? Intended purpose would be to use as dynamic accumulator and for mulch/compost tea...maybe eventually as herb/medicine.
Your property is beautiful! I imagine it most be amazing to stroll around the yard and through the forests on a nice Michigan summer day...and sit and relax around the pond during the evening. Brenda...you are producing an environment that is equally productive and beautiful!
Thanks Jeanine...I love your pics of your place...especially all the garlic! Is the major difference the common spreads easy and the bocking is non-spreading? What are other major differences?
Thanks Brenda, John and Tyler Brenda...I know you have lots of comfrey...what is the best kind the common Symphytum officinale or the Russian Bocking? Is the best way to get some to buy 1 plant off the net and then divide it to make more? I tried all the landscape/nurseries in central Kentucky and nobody carries it.
Back hugelkulture annual bed construction winter 2012...dug out 4-6" of topsoil, added leaves, one layer of logs, woody brush, then soil back on
I found Paul's hugelkulture article and discovered permaculture on this day. I was so in awe of what I found in the article that I immediately went out to the backyard and made this bed!
I love seeing everybodies projects and reading their ideas and being able to then venture from the computer to my backyard and go at it.
Permies, Pauls work, and the community has turned my gardening hobby into a passion and dream that is going to change the way my wife and I live. So thanks to all of you from us!
Hugel bed somewhat accidently on contour (at least part of it) in front yard. Huge pumpkin is about to invade/cross sidewalk!
Kale and volunteer tomatoes along fence by annual beds...had great radish crop before kale...seeded both at same time in March
Annual beds (dug out 6"s of topsoil, buried 1.5' of wood and woody debris, added horse poop and clover and replaced topsoil) tomatoes, peppers, beans, marigolds, basil...thriving with little watering even in heat
Our buff orp girls Missy and Doc Clucky who live in my winter project...the only thing I paid for to build coop was plywood and 2x4's...all else was found or donated
New small bed to put in gifts from elderly awesome neighbor...5 different heirloom tomatoes, loafas (sp? sponges), beans, forgetmenots also seeded in this tiny bed
Rasberries and blackberry transplants with azaleas and blueberries to right out of picture. 4-6 inch wood much over 2-3 inches pine needles. What else would be good to put with this stuff?
Wild flowers with pumpkin and gourd patch by creek...deeply mulched with horse manure in winter. Pumpkin/gourds reseeded themselves from fruit left to rot.
4 tomatoes, peppers, basil, marigolds, zucchini on 4-6" of mixed woodchips and horse manure
Dwaft peach guilds, one with swale on contour...with lemon balm, strawberries, thyme and beans
Pic of driveway bed with grapes on trellis we got married under, bee balm, butterfly bush, ice plants, spinach, flox, clementis, thyme, day and oriental lilies, salvyia, wild flowers
Pictures of what my wife and I have done in the two years since moving into this ~1/3 acre city lot in Lexington Ky, Zone 6. When we moved all that existed was a crappy/dying turf grass lawn, mature oak, maple, and sycamore trees and some ugly evergreen bushes up front. We try to start everything from seed where we can with flourescent lights in the basements. First step was a fence to keep in our two doggies and a deck on back of house. For edibles outside annual veggies we have blackberries, blueberries, rasberries, dwarf peaches, dwarf apples, strawberries, horseradish, garlic, wild garlic and onions, rhubard (may not survive our sweltering summer) thyme, oregno, asparagas, pumpkin patch that reseeds itself, bee balm, lemon balm. Next steps to plant for fall will be more dwarf fruit and nut trees, jerusalem artichoke, comfrey and lot of other berries/wild flowers. Also need to keep getting rid of lots of the grass in the backyard...I'm going to make two Sepp height hugel beds on contour with swales. They will probably be around 10-15' in length. All of the raised annual beds have ~1/5-2 ft of firewood, leaves, horse manure buried ~1 ft deep. I have had local tree trimmers drop off ~ 50 cyds of trimmings/mulch. Also, we have a local soil/mulch place where I can get a composted leaf/soil blend for $10/yard and I have brought in ~6 yards of this to put on mounds/garden beds over last couple of years. There is a hugel-ish bed in the front yard that is exploding right now with pumpkins, carrots, corn, wildflowers, dianthus, yarrow. Another hugel bed in front yard has red clover, onions, garlic, tomatoes and horseradish. We have overseeded white dutch clover all over the yards and have raked in the clover in the dry, clayey areas where perenial grasses don't like to grow. Even with the low to mid 90's heat wave in the midwest the last couple of weeks and negligible precipitation the clover is holding strong. We still have a long long way to go and much to learn but our eyes are open and we have taken some baby steps.
Bed by house with tomatoes, peppers, basil, marigolds, jasimine on arbor by house, lilies, spinach, broccoli, kale, garlic, onions, white clover
Melanie really wanted a jasimine so we I built the trellis and put it in and it is doing great but needs to hurry up some and get above the out of control tomatoes!
When using swale and hugelkulture like I've heard Jack Spirko talk about (swale on contour with hugel immediatly downhill and parallel to the swale) would it be best to plant trees (dwarf apple, dwarf peach) on the hugel mounds or immediately down contour of the hugelkulture beds?
Also...I made 3 or 4 hugel beds in Jan/Feb this year and made them before I read about the benefits of building them on contour...how important is this? The ones I built perpendicular to contour seem to be awfully dry right now...would it be a good idea to re-build them in fall winter and incorporate a swale on contour? In Lexington we have good precipitation in spring/winter/fall but get really dry from mid-may until late august/early september. When we get rain in summer it usually is associated with thunderstorms and falls fast and hard but is over quick. I was thinking swales might be a way to capture these storm events and put them into the hugels.
On another note...i second Paul, Tyler and everbody else on permies who is more interested in application/trials/expirements of permaculture concepts/ideas than debating semantics. Thanks for doing a great job keeping your site above water and "nice" Paul...much appreciated!!
Edit: I got carried away and forgot this was about Sepp...I should have posted this into the hugelkulture section...sorry!
awesome...thanks...but the pdf link didn't work. This might be ignorant but...how do I tell if the bees in my yard are honey bees? I think they look more like bigger bumble bees than the smaller honey bees I saw online.
Thanks Tel! I live inside Lexington, KY. I found another older conversation on here about growing bee crops...will be the next growing adventure on our property! I only discovered permaculture back in Jan of this year after stumbling across Pauls huegelkulture info page. Since then we now have 8 small hugel beds, peach and apple guilds started, two laying hens, perennial veggies to add to our established asparagas and loads more enthusiasm geared towards self-sufficiency and respecting nature. And now that loads of stuff is in full bloom my wife and I are amazed at all the bees which we hadn't seen in previous years! Which led me to this post and the thought of...why can't we have bees too!! After serving our country in the Marine Corps my attitude towards local codes/rules is not exactly the best...my standard half joking line about people who question if I am allowed to do something is "This is America and I'm gonna do what I want"
I watched a bunch of videos about tranferring swarms today...crazy! Unfortunately I have never seen one myself. I will follow advice given in post about getting more info on starting our own...once the wife is on board of course!! We are already the crazy neighbors with "burial" mounds in our front yard and chickens in the back! But now that those mounds are exploding with clover, wild flower, horseradish, rhubarb, onions, garlic, thyme, squash, carrots, and 20' long pumpkin vines almost reaching the side walk people are looking in awe instead of being critical!
Tel or anybody...how much space do you need to have to start a small hive? We have a .40 acre urban lot with a creek at the rear of the property. I have a bunch of lilies, bee balm, blanket flower, clover and annual veggie gardens that draw tons of bees. Plus just planted dwarf peach and apple trees, blueberries, rasberries near the rear of the propery. I think I would want the hive in the rear near a huge beebalm/wild flower patch bordered by peach tree guilds. It would be ~100 from the house and ~120 from neighbors house. Is that doable or would I be inviting trouble?
Also chicken coop would be ~20 ft away and dogs would be near it. Neither my wife or I are allergic to bees.
I'm getting a little confused in this thread with other stuff i've been reading...I live in Zone 6 and have clayey/gravelly soils. I am going to be putting in dwarf apple and possibly peach trees this fall/winter and want to incorporate a guild with some sort of water retainage system, i.e., hugelkulture, swales, swales/mounds. I thought trees should be planted down contour of the swales to recieve the slowed down infiltrated water created from the swales. Can you plant the trees on the mounds (hugel or just earthen) down contour of the swales or plant just down contour from the mounds? Is there advantage or any reason to ever plant tree up contour of the swales? THanks!!
John that dog LOVED her chicken friends. From day we first brought them home she was fascinated. She was extremely gentle with them...never would even flinch when pecked on her nose or anyplace. For the first month my wife always had a hand on her collar just to make sure she would behave. When we finally slowly trusted her loose with the sHe would just follow them around the yard and watch them. Our lab never paid them any attention at all. Lesson we learned is to buy older pulleys that are sexed and definitely hens. I'm going this weekend to pick up 6 more 5 week olds. Hopefully dogs won't require to much retraining to know the hens are their friends!Y
I think I'm going to try more natural wood and natural string structures. I know cages, fences, and welded wire fabric will work but I really don't like having to invest more money. Anybody think of some low shrubs that I could interplay tomatoes with for support?
Another problem I'm having is that I only have a little more than a foot of soil in the hugelkulture beds which makes pounding cages and stakes a challenge. Im going to try some more a-frame type structures, teepees, or two h-frames supporting each other (think saw horse). My wife and I aren't a fan of beans but ill grow some next to tomatoes to try and have them attach the tomatoes to the structures. Squash and cucumbers would work too...right? What other vining plants might work?
Paul, thanks so much for he Alexia chicken harvesting video. My wife and I got baby chicks as a result of my having stumbled upon your "empire" this past winter. The forums and info you have facilitated and created have changed the way my mind, heart and soul see the world around me. Unfortunately and improbably my wife managed to pick 6 out of 6 roosters from the lady we got the chics from (I believe we were picking from a tainted pool ) We live in Lexington KY and are allowed to have poultry but can get fined for noise, ie cock-a-doodling. Saturday morning of Easter weekend we got up before they started cook-a-doodling and let them into the yard. We still weren't sure if all the chics were roosters so as we followed them around my wife put a green stripe of food coloring on the chicks as they cock-a-doodled. Within 15 minutes all six chics were green-striped! Having never harvested a chicken before but having seen Alexia's video I had a good example of how to harvest them in a very respectful way. I was a Marine and have been in combat but as I sat down with the first chicken supported between my legs and while I was stroking/calming the chic with knife in my other hand I had to gather my emotions and pray before I could kill one. We had the chicks from days old for three months and we were both very grateful to the chicks for the enjoyment we got from nuturing and raising them. They had survived a dog and hawk attack and had definitly captured a part of our hearts. Alexia's heart and respect for the animals gave me the confidence and know-how to kill our chicks in a way that felt good in my heart.
Thanks Brenda...good suggestions. I found examples of tomatos growing up strings on a wood support. Will the tomatos "grab" and climb ropes/supports or will I need to be constantly tying or putting them on the supports? How will the tomatos be supported by your stakes?
I need some help. I discovered Paul's web-empire this past January and was exposed to permaculture for the first time. These forums and the great info and advice held within have fundamentaly changed the way I see the world, big and small. I am in year three of my gardening journey and have loved trying to incorporate permaculture principles into what I am doing. This past winter I dug out all my gardens and converted them into hugelkulture beds...and much to my neighbors' dismay and wonderment I have three medium-sized hugelkulture beds in my from yard.
In the attached picture is one if the beds in front yard. The side looking at is the northside, the southside has lots of garlic, onions, 3 horseradish and two rhubarb all started this winter. On top are two cherry tomato plants and a freaky-looking a-frame tomato support I made with jute string and sticks.
My question is in the permaculture-sphere what are options for supporting tomato plants? Make trellis's/supports from natural, found material; leave alone with no support; plant in guilds with plants that will support them? I have ~ thirty tomatos all around the yard and about half are supported with round metal cages that were purchased pre-permaculture. I still need to do something with the rest...what are my best options?
John...you are correct...when asphalt is being laid it is off-gassing...but the asphalt comes from the plant at ~ 300 deg F and the crews are compacting it and adding water (that's where the steam and off-gassing comes from) to get the final product. From a quick internet search I found that the surface temperature of asphalt is usually only 1.1 x hotter than air temp in direct sunlight...so even on a 120 deg F day with no wind the asphalt shouldn't get hotter than ~ 130 deg F...and the SVOCs/VOCs in the asphalt won't volatilize until at least > 200 deg F.
Patrick...if the concrete is newer and gets soft and tarry in hot weather I would probably not put soils directly on, would lay down plastic sheeting. Actually I would lay down plastci sheeting anyways just to keep it cleaner.
The asphalt won't "off-gas". Asphalt is mainly made up of heavier petroleum products that aren't especially volatile which is why as previous threads have stated that asphalt has a low leaching potential. The asphalt would be a great surface to sterilize soil and you could always lay down some poly (plastic) sheeting beneath the soil if you are still concerned.
THis winter (December) I placed approximately 3" of fresh horse manure and then topped with ~2" of wood chips/mulch (coarse to fine from tree-trimmer). Last week I put 4" spinach transplants in these areas and something at all the leaves within 2 days. I have had gardens all around my yard the last three years and have never had a bug problem. It is possible that ants or something else came in with the wood chips? SHould I turn the chickens loose into this area? Unfortunately I have other beds within the fenced area shared with the chipped beds that had sugar snap peas, kale, beats, and spinach seedlings shooting up like crazy...would I need to protect these from the chickens?
Brenda...I know you have lots of comfrey...what is the best kind the common Symphytum officinale or the Russian Bocking? Is the best way to get some to buy 1 plant off the net and then divide it to make more? I tried all the landscape/nurseries in central Kentucky and nobody carries it.