Lisa Paulson

I was delighted when I experimented saving my own rhubarb seed and it germinated and produced new plants . Definitely worth giving it a try . I have grown asparagus from purchased seed too, and I was much happier with the result than paying a dear price for some dried out corm from the nursery which failed about 90 percent of the time , however all the first year or two the plants are very delicate and cannot be harvested from till about the third year in my own experience .

I happened to get a load of green tree chips and mulched about 40 mostly young fruit and nut trees in fall with the chippings over top cardboard surrounding the fruit trees . Around that I wired pallets together to keep my horses off the sapling trees . What a disaster, that winter I lost 90 percent of my young trees to voles being protected while eating the bark and roots . After that I pulled up the cardboard and I limed the fields which seemed to deter the voles a bit. I also got a solar sound deterent that works well emitting a buzzing sound about every ten seconds, it seems to work. This year I cut holes in the bottom of a few pallets and in the day I rotate through the orchard tossing duck food inside the tree protection pallets so they eat the feed, any weeds are eaten or stomped and manured . That kept any cover from forming around the sapling and about 90 percent survival rate this winter . Note the ducks are locked away at night and those holes cut for the ducks to access the protected area around each sapling is accessible better to coyote hunting the voles . If you live more urban I recommend those solar mole and vole sound emitters to drive them away , i am not sure how they work by sound or vibration but I think they seem to make a difference . I also plan to plant daffodils , no such thing as too much deterent to vermin . Something else I noticed concerning vermin be they voles or rats , my 50 foot on hugelkulture bed is now two years old and hosting healthy growth of herbage and fungi , it also is magnetic for our cats as the rats or voles apparently think it is architecture put in place for them to breed .

I germinated goji berries from the dried berries in the organic section of a local grocery store . Very cheap as each dried berry has many seeds .

I doubt I am bucking any traditions here in coastal British Columbia but it is Canada and people here are trying things. Personally I grow the fuzzy kiwi and oriental kiwi and have a lime I haul in and out of the house . I and others here are successful with figs but mostly I grow a lot of stuff that is not really pushing any new boundaries in regard to fruit and nut trees . Here you see a few microclimates getting good fruit on passion fruit vines and the odd bananas get small fruit without a greenhouse but they are not amounting to much . But pockets here are commercially growing olives , tea , and the Duncans in Saanich on Vancouver Island are famous for being successful with a number or citrus both outside but usually in a poly house . An exciting trial to me, here, is they have located high elevation avocado from around the globe and trialing to see if we might be successful producing fruit . So there are some bucking the trends for sure. Our grape growing regions are pushing new varieties as a lot of speculation is taking place , even the USDA say California will lose 70 % of their production capability before 2040 so it seems BC is all in to produce wine and champagnes . Hops have made a comeback commercially here as well. So people are definitely pushing to grow things in BC that may be more common in more southern regions . Once I get relatively successful growing our own food , I will get a little braver.

That is so sweet, I love my muscovies : )

This video has an idea I am going to try. Placing concrete blocks such that the hollow middles make attractive areas to naturally cache for the squirrels .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8vs5Et9c2s

andrew curr wrote:IM having trouble with th full video!
I would Love to see MY cows!
I seent them to Zatuna Loaded with honey locust!

Andrew, the cows shown arriving in the video clip looked in beautiful shape, but you might want to see the video . I can see the benefits of rotational grazing but in our climate and geography I still see noxious plants like buttercup not being grazed can build up as the competing grass is eaten . Also diversity in the way I have been trying to add with purple clover is singled out and eaten and I cannot get it established as our animals selectively graze it till it dies out . Any permaculture solutions to this that work with the rotational cell grazing system or do you have to begin with pasture where buttercup has been erradicated with poisons?

Done in secret and no one thought to have their lawyer read the contract ? The journalist aunt never thought to investigate why this free trip and free seed storage had to be done in secret and never followed the money ? You should ask your aunt if one clause in the contract to submit seeds is granting the right of accession to Monsanto and Syngenta as it certainly use to be last time I read the contract , meaning they could access and manipulate the public domain genetics altering them and patenting the genetics of the new product .

I truly question why this clause was in there when Cary Fowler submitted the bulk of genetics Seed Savers Exchange had and how it was not slyly for the benefit of Syngenta and Monsanto along with other parties such as the Norwegian crown government funding the 'free' seed depository . When you read the article words “The seeds inside here are the very foundations of agriculture, past, present and future,” knowing the right of accession might be written into the contract gives it a whole new twist don't you think?

Some interesting comment on biopiracy related to this subject :

http://bifurcatedcarrots.eu/blogpics//Whealy_Oct2010.pdf

Article 7 of the depositors agreement deals with the rights to accession :

http://www.nordgen.org/sgsv/files/sgsv/SGSV_Standard_Depositor_Agreement.pdf

So this may seem innocent enough but puts massive seed collections worldwide into the hands of the likes of Monsanto ( as one of the funding contributors to the seed vault) granting them rights to modify public domain genetic materials and patent the resulting new biological organisms genetics . At this time we are foreseeing dwindling biodiversity and i have a hard time imagining Monsantos involvement being for the greater good .

Well I derive my income from breeding horses . At one time my veterinarian was advised the insurance industry would not cover him because of his work handling breeding stallions , I guess he shared that with me for a laugh because that is what I did too. I have had friends die handling horses, more than a few brain injuries mostly due to momentary lapses of inattention answering a cell phone, engaging in some conversation while handling a horse ( in our cases very athletic big horses bred to be very reactive for showjumping ) , and a lack of judgement reading the behaviour or attempting to deal with an animal that is behaving dangerously . A couple died from riding accidents . Things you don't expect can happen, I had a young 16.2 colt trample me vacating the cross ties when a woofer out of my line of sight pulled an aerasol can of sun block out and sprayed her arm and I was very lucky but it took a year for some of the wounds to fill in with flesh.
I have a healthy fear/respect of tractors and chainsaws but more experience dealing with animals . As I age I no longer want to engage in handling horses or other big animals , other than my own stallions whom I have known a long time . Rabbits and chickens are more in my comfort zone and shovel , rake and wheelbarrow are more my speed than a tractor.

I can see planted veggies growing in it , are you sure that is not the end product or are you making an assumption ? Point is this will not be a welcome addition in most urban areas where you actually want good community and to encourage urban local food production . And my second point is it could have been implemented much better , even if it is a tenanted property , with a little effort . Does it look like these people really made that effort ?
Bylaws for yard maintenance have been used to attack people trying hard to make lovely productive gardens where the norm is mowed grass and the more better examples out there, the more it might become accepted and standard practice.