Suzy Krone

Thanks everyone, nature is the only place I feel like I fit in. You know?

I was lucky to live only 2 hours south of the totality zone, so I took my daughter out of school and we made a little trip. Traffic up was OK but going home was kinda tedious! I took these with my Canon 70D and a telephoto lens. I wasn't planning on trying to take pictures, so I didn't do much research or planning. But decided to bring my camera because capturing moments is part of who I am. I'm glad I got a couple of good shots :0)

Wow so much great advice! Thanks everyone! I get hung up on the Bradford pears, but permaculture is about working with what's there. Anyway. I did notice that since this year I had a lot of Zinnias and sunflowers that there where lots of birds coming and that I didn't have as bad of a horn worm situation. I still have other bugs. I'll just need to plan for next year and really focus on amending, and mulching. I might try some winter stuff out there this year. And definitely growing radishes. I planted some this summer too, because I heard they draw sulfur up into the soil?

Thank for replying to me. This is helpful! I'm going to make a new spot off the back of the garage, it does get hot there, but I successfully grew kale and broccoli there over the winter with no effort. I literally chucked some seeds after clearing the periwinkle. The dirt there is black from the plastic they put down years ago. I doesn't get much sun until mid day, so I'm not sure how it will work. Something to try. Gotta keep trying. I've got tones of downed pecan limbs and some hard wood I could use for Huglekulture.

These trees came about as a result of the USDA trying to create a fire blight resistant pear tree.
Interesting, my property is infested with them. They grow real aggressive here. 10 per square foot. They are impossible to get rid of. They grow a 5" cork screw tap root before it makes a sprout so when you try to pull it out you just top it and it comes back. It sprouts from stumps and root systems too.
If I could do grafting, that would atlas give me an option. They are hard to deal with, pruning can be painful and dangerous, and if you don't deal with the limbs right away, you basically have sharp thorny limbs you could step on (and I have) lying on the ground.
Oh god do I hate them.
It's amazing how readily they sprout. They sprout in my yard and garden and my fields of course. Atleast privet can be pulled up relatively easily. I'm guessing bradford will be seen as more of an issue pretty soon, since it can displace entire acres and become 99% bradfords with a few native plants struggling inside to out grow them.
My own observations on my land is that Sweetgum, pine, and persimmon seem to grow fast enough to out pace them, so if you can keep them down or in check and let the native trees grow, they should hopefully establish a forrest where the bradford can't take over. Like in the older forests on my land, no bradford or invasive plants. It's only in disturbed cleared areas does this invasive plant stuff become an issue.
I'm so nerdy.

Hi,
I'm in Georgia, north middle, because that is important info, the piedmont region. I struggle with gardening in general here. I live on severely eroded cecil sandy loam, but in places it's just super cement hard clay. Like it's been kiln fired. So I've made raised up beds. I compost, I add manure. I don't want to buy bags of lime and stuff, if possible. My current garden location does not get much morning sun but is full sin from 10-11am until 8pm in summer.
I currently run drip irrigation and an occilating sprinkler from my well (I don't like doing this). it doesn't seem to matter how much I water, it still gets dried out. And the field grass is so voracious! my garden spot is all grass again. It's the tall johnson grass type.
The other thing is the bugs that come in droves from some where. Stink bugs, some squash bug looking this with leaf legs, squash bugs, pickle worms, squash vine borers, tomato horn worms, and moles. There are so many I can't manage them organically, so I just leave them to it. I didn't get any tomatoes this year. It just really takes any enjoyment out of it.
My garden is set up in rows, and isn't really permaculture. I'm just now learning about permaculture.
Other issues here are invasive plants like privet, bradford pears, and kudzu. I particularly struggle with Bradford pears, they sprout back from topped sprouts and root systems. You can cut down a tree, treat the stump and they will sprout from the root system. If you try cutting down small sprouts or saplings they come back even more aggressively and thornier than ever. It's the 2" thorns that are what makes this difficult to deal with. Thank you USDA for this tree. But will they come clean up the mess it's made? No.
Anyway, how do you permie in GA? I've revised my goals from dreaming of growing enough to sell, to just wanting healthy fresh food for my family.

I'm in Georgia and the July and August heat and humidity seems to take it's toll along with the many different bugs that like to eat what ever I grow. I do use drip irrigation, and sprinkler and I've dug trenches to hold water. But my garden gets more afternoon sun than morning and I think that's not a good scenario. I really struggle. The zinnias and marigolds and potatoes seem to love the set up and attract lots of butterflies. So do tomatillos. And grass! LOL. There was no grass in there as of march, now it's lush, meanwhile my yard can't seem to support grass.
I don't have advice, I just can't seem to figure out how to grow organically and permaculturally here in GA. But I want to figure it out. I'm kind of obsessed.

I did card board sheet mulching for my big garden and it worked, but the parts I used for a path ended up attracting fire ant, either because they like the cellulose or the termites that card board attracts. I think for the parts where I put dirt over top, it was fine. But as far as using it to make a weed free path it made my garden fire ant town.

Few people are truly trapped, so true.
This is making me think. There is an old farm down the road, part for sale and at risk to me. Maybe the owners would allow me to rent the land in exchange for a permaculture farm. Hmmmm.
Are those Hugulkulture beds by the way? So glorious!

Did you hugulkulture with all that wood?