Bill Ramsey

I also have persimmon trees and have been trying to work pears, rabbit-eye blueberries, peaches, mulberries, chestnuts and other things into a very mixed setting. Not as a commercial orchard, but as a personal homestead on about five acres. The wax myrtles that I have all grow wild as understory growth, mostly around pines. I've chopped and dropped branches from them often but usually try to not chop them back too severely. I've often wondered if they were nitrogen fixers but only recently did any research, not knowing what they were called, for sure. My mulberries are mostly for feeding the rabbits and are very young trees that I intend to keep cut back.  I like the sound of what you're doing but the mulberry trees do get big and spread out. I can see where they could get overly greedy about canopy space.  (Maybe my wax myrtles are only understory plants because a mower didn't get them, being amongst bigger trees, come to think of it.) I like the idea of interplanting both wm and mulberries with orchard trees, with the idea of chopping them back frequently since my attempts to get mimosa trees going haven't had time to work. I'm between Albany and Moultrie. I can't offer advice, just liked your post and wanted to respond. None of my trees are really productive yet. Few pears and fewer persimmons from young trees.

And a happy Christmas to you too. I enjoyed it.

That's interesting. I guess I'd better stop referring to my "holding pond" on facebook and just talk about my clay pit instead.

Personally, I love blackberries and would probably enjoy cobblers from them but if not I'd be tempted to try pinestraw mulch with blueberries at the base of it. You say a half acre with a narrow strip of slope so I'm guessing it isn't a large area. If pinestraw is available for free, all the better.

Carpenter bees love my rabbit hutches for some reason. I mean MUCH more than any other wooden structures such as my porch. I've been thinking of building some sort of structure near the hutches with more of the features that seem to say "prime boring spot" to them, since so many of my fruit trees and other food crops are also nearby. I've never had them being aggressive toward me or, as far as I can tell, to my rabbits. It's interesting to see that they can behave that way. I guess I should do a bit of research before putting very much into it.

dang it, I love you people!

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuweeeeee! I've never done any grafting but I LIKE those "fancy pliers". I might need to save my pennies for some new toys.

Probably putting a pyramid shaped "lid" that wil cause anything placed on it to slide off and hit the ground. Human nature gets in the way of cooperation when they think you are not watching. If it takes more effort to remove the lid, they will set their stuff on the ground. Sorry for the cynicism but that is my experience.

Looking forward to being able to work in the garden again. Summer is TOUGH!

A coppiced tree also rapidly regrows it's removed biomass to regain that balance so I wonder how much available material would be left for anything else. My guess is that the tree would reabsorb whatever was lost to the soil and that removed biomass (from the coppicing) would be lost to the system. Unless it is added back, of course, in some form. That's where being a nitrogen fixer might help. It comes from the air with the carbon dioxide so there is gain to the system there. I'm just thinking through my keyboard. My answer is I don't know but it's interesting to consider. My produced biochar gets mixed with compost, rabbit manure and other inputs and added back to the soil.