Kevin Stanton

Does anyone know if I need to worry about feeding my wine cap bed more food after it stops fruiting, or will it survive on plant roots while looking for more food to grow on, and expand in that area? I'm asking, because I'm wondering if I should give it a wheelbarrow full, or just let it get by.

Marc Dube wrote:I took 30 crowns from an ancient plant growing on the edge of an abandoned orchard it was spread out and sprawling.

I put a border of them around my garden and they grow both upright and sprawling, I also put some out in the pasture with no prep or care given to them and they are doing well but not as good as the ones in the garden.

I'd love to see a picture, because I'm trying to get the grass killed off, and have the rhubarb take over.

I'm thinking about running 50-100 giants chickens for the summer in the area to kill off the grass, and thistle that's taking over where I raised the soil with wood chips.

Michael Cox wrote:My rhubarb is being encroached by grass in places. The rhubarb leaves do a pretty good job of shading out the grass.

Do you have a picture for reference?

The rhubarb plants I'm growing are growing almost with vertical stems. What does rhubarb look like when it returns to actual pasture grass?

John C Daley wrote:Do you need to mow the grass?
Why not have animals etc eat it?

Yes, it's our relaxation part of the yard.

We don't keep animals like that.


I'm combining the idea of how we mow with how we need to go between trees.

I'd put an edible plant around the "pond", so you don't need to mow it. Personally I'd do a hedge row of rhubarb so I can mow it, and not worry if some leaves get hit.

How do people feel about putting a rhubarb hedge on a "mowing keyline berm" in a yard design? I figure it would be a lot easier mowing than weaving in, and out of trees at a riding mower speed.

Jerry Ward wrote:FYI - They destroyed my rhubarb plants.  The plants were not doing that well this year but now they are gone down to the ground.  Hopefully there is enough root-stock left in the ground for them to come back next year.  I'm going to mulch them and of course the chickens fertilized the area

Did the rhubarb plants return, because I'm looking at getting chickens in an establishing food forest next year?

Would running Jerseys (thinking a flock of 25 [poultry crate] next year) in a 3 year old food forest be a great idea to kill off pasture grass, and Canadian Thistle while having them leave rhubarb, and trees alone?

They'll have plenty of wine caps and bugs to eat, so they won't go hungry.

The reason why I'm asking about the largest of chickens is because I need to worry about hawks, and wild dogs.

Leora Laforge wrote:I have a ton of it. Can anyone suggest good uses for it? Or techniques to get rid of it?

Bees love it, so honey.