Dave Miller

This sounds like a pretty good model. Is anyone familiar with it?

http://www.lyttletonstores.com.au/farmitforward

My half acre suburban food forest produces a lot of surplus that I would love to trade, but I haven't been able to figure out a way to do trades that doesn't suck up tons of my time (of which I do not have a surplus )  Perhaps something like this could work?

I would be up for some kind of connection, to compare notes with others in the area and maybe swap some plants or surplus now and then.  I am in SW Camas.

I have a 1/2 acre food forest/forest garden that is and will forever be a work in process.  I started it about 10 years ago.  I have about 250 varieties of food plants, and 40 species of natives.

My biggest issue is surplus.  There is no way I can eat all of it, even with preservation.  I would be happy to share or sell extras, but I don't have time to harvest all of it.  So I pick what I want and the creatures get the rest.

Galadriel Freden wrote:

Dave Miller wrote:Most people would say that the cure is worse than the disease, but rubbing stinging nettle on my arms every day during allergy season helped me a lot.  Obviously you need to have a patch of it in your yard in order to try this.

I believe the theory is the histamine reaction to the nettle distracts your body from the allergic reaction to allergens.  It definitely feels like that is what is happening.

Dave, it works for me too.  I have a patch of nettles and I generally brush up against them with my legs, and the relief is within a minute.  I may have to sting myself a few times a day if my symptoms are very bad, but to be honest, a bit of stinging on my legs is far preferable to being unable to breathe.  

I definitely reacted less to the sting over time.  Now I don’t mind it at all, it just feels tingly for a day.  The only downsides for me were 1) explaining the occasional welts on my arms to my coworkers (I will use your idea to rub it on my legs) and 2) occasionally there were aphids on the nettles which I inadvertently transferred to my arms.

Most people would say that the cure is worse than the disease, but rubbing stinging nettle on my arms every day during allergy season helped me a lot.  Obviously you need to have a patch of it in your yard in order to try this.

I believe the theory is the histamine reaction to the nettle distracts your body from the allergic reaction to allergens.  It definitely feels like that is what is happening.

I'm sure I could spare some for your Camas project  (I live in Camas).  I have all kinds of edibles.

In my yard their favorites are (in calendar order):
- salmon berry
- trailing blackberry (the native one)
- evergreen huckleberry
- cascara
- blueberries, plums, apples, raspberries, etc.
- snowberry (late spring through fall)
- spirea
- ceanothus
- lavender
- himalayan blackberry
- teasel
- goldenrod
- viburnum "pink dawn" - flowers through late fall and winter

Thus I have year round bee forage. And yes they do forage a bit on warm days in the winter.

I am in SW washington. Our church has a lot of open space and I have discussed the concept of a forest garden with a number of people in the church, including the pastors and the landscaper.  With their blessing I planted an apple tree guild as kind of a proof of concept (the guild is doing great).

Several people were interested in growing and harvesting food for our local food bank. So I reached out to the food bank, explained the concept, and asked what types of food would be best to grow for them.  Their answer was "anything!".

However nothing else has happened, because some of the most interested people moved, the landscaper found a better job, etc. My wife won't let me drive it, she thinks I spend too much time on our own food forest (she is right ).  I would still be willing to help with the design and provide plants and advice though.

The property next door is a small, upscale senior living facility (formerly a B&B). I envisioned an herb and vegetable garden next to them, to entice their chef to visit frequently and take what they want, and in return the chef would report any issues they saw in the forest garden.

If you have a forest garden, you should invite people from the church for a visit so they can see it and quiz you about it.  If not, see if you can find one nearby that you can bring them to.

To make it happen, you will need to do most of the work IMHO.  Recruit volunteers, organize work parties, do the design, find the plants, etc.  It might be good to figure out what goals you have in common with the people in the church.  E.g. the food bank idea was of interest to a lot of people in the church.  The ideas in the previous posts are also good.

Please keep us posted on your progress!

That is a good list James.

My bees like goldenrod and teasel in late summer.  I know teasel is a non-native invasive,  but I cut the seed heads off immediately after it flowers which seems to slow it down. The stems are a favorite of mason bees.

They also use snowberry from March - September.  I think snowberry is my longest blooming plant.

On unusually warm days in winter, they will use Viburnum 'Pink Dawn' which blooms all winter.

Another favorite through much of spring is my Cascara tree.  The flowers are really tiny but the bees go crazy for it.

You might find what you are looking for here: http://xerces.org/pollinator-resource-center/

Here are some of my stone projects.  I gathered most of these from properties in town, with permission of course.  There is an old rock quarry nearby so a lot of the stones have been shaped and came from old house foundations etc.