I’ve grown food for a few years, but this is the first season that we’ve dedicated enough space to sow and reap a crop large enough to feed us more than a snack! It definitely feels more important than ever, not only because of food insecurity, but because of how isolated our culture’s way of life is becoming. I’ve so appreciated the skills I’m acquiring for self sufficiency, but then also the community building skills I’m gathering as well. When you successfully grow starts, you want to share them. When you grow an abundant crop, you want to feed others with it. When you become skilled in preparing these things you grow, you are able to bring people into your home and show them hospitality through a good home cooked meal. The more our family does this, the more we realize how we need to prioritize it! I would absolutely be interested in purchasing some Edible Acres garlic for the fall. I planted all that you and Sasha sent me last year, and just harvested it yesterday. It grew brilliantly, and so easily! My cooking beliefs align with when a recipe calls for one garlic clove, it actually means five 😉 So I’d love to triple next year’s crop. Cheers!
Regarding food security, I moved to an area particularly full of small organic farmers and my sustainability plan has been to support the heck out of all of them.
I'd love to hear more about medicinal plants and how they're used. The cooking videos with Sasha have been awesome so maybe something similar with harvest and prep of medicine crops? Thanks as always!
This is food for the soul for all of us waiting for the chance to start our gardens. Please keep posting and know that even though you are tired and can only give 10% of yourself right now it really does help us tremendously and we appreciate it!!!
We offered up a piece of land for people in the community to grow here. We had one interested person, but the drive was too far. This year I have been trying to establish a larger diversity of mother plants, to get some serious propagation going. But we are suffering a terrible drought so efforts are a bit hindered. We did get some rain yesterday, but it was the first real rain since April.
Definitely a good year to aim for more food production in the face of droughts and shortages. Love your channel. It's always a joy to get a tour of your "gnarly and feral" land.
Growing food where you live is definitely a good idea. I wish I had more space to grow more food. My main garden area is about 1000 sq feet. I have strawberry in as a ground under all the other layers, covering maybe 600 sq feet of it. Harvested about 90 lbs in 30 days mid-May to mid-June. It's an ever-bearing strawberry, so now there is still a trickle of fruit. I ate so many strawberries! I also made a years supply of strawberry jam, a couple strawberry pies, about 5 gallons of strawberry wine, gave away dozens of pounds to friends, family, and neighbors, and still had many pounds to freeze for later. Raspberries and currants are producing now, but in much smaller quantities. It's been a good start to the growing season. I am growing shelling beans for the first time this year, because I wanted to produce more of the food I eat over winter. I am not sure what to expect though. The first time I grow something I typically runs into a lot of problems.
I like meandering! I’m with you on the food security. I only have a little over an acre but my goal is to produce at least 80 percent of our and our chicken’s produce and herbal medicine. We’re doing amaranths too but it followed us from a pot from our old property. All volunteers and it’s a bumper crop haha. Wish I had some of your Valerian! Great job!
We're on an 1.34 acre out in the country, so not big. It's just my husband & I, enough room for us to grow & raise chickens & ducks & a few goats (possibly share some eggs/veg's, etc. with neighbors/work colleagues). That's our goal. We're newish on the property & need to do so much! Just encountered black bears & a few other things have popped up. Husband built 1 large garden bed (we have red, red clay soil here so we have to grow in beds) but need cages to protect against the wildlife. We want to grow vertically where we can, plant fruit trees & nitrogen trees/plants. My husband is a strong supporter of neatness/order so I expect that to continue here on our new property...🤭🤭
We have lots of wild crabapple trees perfectly adapted to our site conditions. I've been grafting high value apple scions onto them. Doing the same with some volunteer pear trees.
I laid some cardboard down on a patch of lawn last fall and built a compost pile on top using whatever I could get - lawn clippings, old mulch, leaves from neighbors, etc. Stuck our bird feeder on top of the pile to feed the locals in return for their droppings. In the spring I built a “fence” around it (still in progress) and spread the pile into some raised mounds. The compost is definitely rough but the veggies don’t seem to mind at all! I’m now transitioning my former raised beds in a partly shady area into propagation space for various plants I got from you folks! Very excited to see this all evolve. Thank you so much for the continuing inspiration and affordable plant materials!
We live in the Netherlands on 1/3 acre (land is scarce and very expensive here) and we produce all of our fruit and vegetables. This year I feel the need to produce and preserve as much as I can, more so than other years. We also have chickens and ducks for eggs and some meat, but have to buy in food, besides what they find in their small field. I really love watching your videos and how you manage the gardens. I always learn something new, So thanks for sharing!
Wow, this is amazing. I’m trying to build a similar vision on my own property in my spare time. Your situation gives me motivation and reminds me that it is very much possible.
I get the impression your layout is a mix of nature, wild visions, compromise and hard work - perfect! I'm slopey and having fun figuring out the "wheres and hows" but planting bushes and trees around the annual areas and letting more come up with experinental/less mowing is exciting! My whole place is directly inspired by the small farm I work at, Geoff Lawton, Mark Shepard, Twisted Tree and Edible Acres!! I can't thank enuf you people doing these things and making it available for us to follow and learn!
These videos are so inspiring, thanks so much for sharing your rough sketch process with us. I’m working on a recent clear cut, trying to set a food forest/permaculture orchard up. Your methods make it seem possible 🌻
Great video! In spring I cut down a few 60ft pine trees so that I can plant fruit trees when available in bare root. In the mean time I planed Kabocha pumpkin and Butternut squash plants in their place.
Yes we are thinking seriously about growing enough food to become mostly self- sufficient and perhaps barter as well. I'm growing many of the same crops as you are, minus some of the medicinal herbs. Plantain is a very useful wild plant growing here, I learned more about its ability to reduce cysts and ulcerations this year. It helped reduce my puppy's hernia, which then healed, and that was amazing! Nature has been blessing us. I have a 3 sisters garden growing (corn, beans, squash) and the beans look even better this year than last. Surprising how much better organically grown, home grown food tastes.
Love your gardens. Your voice is so soft and gentle. My kids love it. They really like watching your vids. And I hope your upcoming winter isn't harsh.
First video I've watched :D Amazing and inspiring. I'm 30 and my goal is to try get some land and grow food to sustain myself. I really love the fact that left you some water for the life around you. I love how you provide for both yourself and the land! I look forward to learning more :)
I have been expanding the garden during the lockdowns, but this makes me feel like I need to do a whole lot more. On 5 acres, but the land is clay and rock, so turning an area into a growing space is not so easy. Once we are through the Portuguese summer, I will be back into digging swales and ponds. Most folk look at me confused when I talk about the upcoming food problems, but your channel really is what I need to spur me on. Cheers.
I am on heavy clay soil and have had great success with cover crops, leaf mulch, and chicken manure (harvested from their run and coop, mixed with carbons like leaves and wood chips). It takes time but it works! And it is so rewarding to plunge my hand into dark soft soil up to my wrist without a spade.
@@winjoda The growing beds we have totavated and put the soil through a trommel to destone. We mulch and grow clover and mustard on these. I have startes to put hay onto some other areas and will have to try cover crops. Cheers
I really focused on winter squash, carrots, parsnips and potatoes, too, this year! Interesting the weeds helping keep the deer from your nursery plants
I am fortunate enough that I am able to harvest something each day, but the artic freeze then the early high temperatures haveset me back it (growing in Texas in a city lot). I just built a station for starting seedlings today, so I will see how that goes. Good luck with your forest.
I have had a recurring thought about my gardening w/o knowing why. Hold the light! I hang in there and keep learning and growing. Thank you for the validation that I may not just be the village crazy person. I so appreciate your teaching.
Jerusalem Artichoke - another gardening channel says it cooks like potatoes. Some say it’s invasive, I say it’s prolific. They also last the winter in the ground. They may do well in less than ideal soil, i haven’t tried to get this plant out of a garden bed before but I suspect it might help repair soils if left to grow for a few seasons. Might be a way to think long term and yet produce a viable food crop in otherwise less than ideal soil
Growing it in chesapeake clay/river rock with nearly zero topsoil. Chefs in the DC area are starting to turn on to it, as its a local/fresh harvest in the middle of winter
Thank you - this is the next best thing to actually visiting your farm. Shouldn't it be called Juan-dering though? :) I couldn't agree more about the need to grow as much food as possible - especially food that can be stored in one way or another. Our garden is much fuller than it has been in previous years, and that's exciting. I'm also noticing a lot more interest by the birds - they just about wiped out my Ashwagandha seedlings before I got netting put over them. Maybe they know that it's smart to store more food and medicine too?
I just had the good fortune of acquiring a couple of acres in NM. I won't be able to afford a well any time soon, so gardening with rain water reserves, as you are here, is inspirational as a proof of concept, and something I'd like to do. Even though the climate will be a little different : )
Would be great to see a video on how you make some of the air prune beds or just the upper caged part that protects the young tree saplings. Looked as though some of them had no wooden structure and was only (bent?) metal mesh
Looks great! Having similar problems here in pa with not enough rain, but overall not to bad. Anyone looking to put a garden try to diversity areas where you intend to plant. Sunny spots help out early on in the season, while partly shady areas will help some plants make it through the hottest days of summer. Just enjoy the outdoors and have a good time.
Invaluable tip. The trend here is to put the garden in the sunniest, windiest place on the property, often way further than the House than makes sense.
How are the fig cuttings and pond plants doing? Curculio hit my apples and pears hard this year, even damaging fruit through nylon bags, and the brood X cicadas are flagging everything (multiple female cicadas laying eggs in cuts in the same spot on branches, causing the branch to break) except for my pawpaws and figs. Both of those look like they will produce more this year than ever before and are completely pest free, so you win some and you lose some. I just hope that the cicadas don't kill off any young apple grafts. They have caused at least one graft to flag right at the graft union so it will have to grow back completely from a single bud.
Thanks for all the videos really have been following for a few years now. Thanks for the info and reference to wine caps from silver tree got comfrey and spores from them this spring. My wife and our two children grow on about 3000 sqft of our 1.2 acre lot here in WNY. A mix of raised bed gardens, permanent raised beds (market garden style) and are forming a guild with two apples that were here on the property and forming a elder guild with cuttings we have propagated from several bare root stock plants we started with a few years ago. Really inspired by your work and hope to source our nanking cherry and currants from you and Sasha in the future. Thanks again for all you do. Might make some videos one of these days
What is the red currant variety? I replayed the video several times and all I can discern is “young care bear red currant variety which sounds like I’m making up lyrics to songs again! Also, I’d love to see step by step how you deal with ribes pruning and when. My jostaberry is getting a tad too big with not enough berries to make up for all that mass. The gooseberries are super productive and a thicket that I’m sure I need to just chin up and prune this year. I’ve seen different approaches from all over the world. Everything from prune right after harvest to fall after frost to early spring while still dormant/just out of dormancy. There are pros and cons to each method. I’m curious which method has found itself into your farming lifestyle. I have been enjoying watching videos about ribes from Russia in Russian. My people love them their currants! Also, of course, the Brits, big currant fans. I’m excited to have multiple varieties in various stages of life in my tiny garden.
Garlic benefits from drought for the last three weeks before digging up, so I've read. Makes sense since the plant would be encouraged to put its energy in the clove. Your elephant garlic is stupefying. Looking forward to seeing the harvest video. :)
That elephant garlic got A LOT bigger in the last little bit. It'll be amazing to harvest. Makes sense to have dry conditions before garlic harvest to have the plant focus on storage.
Had no idea u were growing that much just subbed in winter past wow impressive love what you r doing i have 2 raised beds only 1 1/4 acres to work with but weve been here 2 yrs still learning sun patterns dont have nearly as many chickens for making compost like u do but just getting started cause of the move👍👍👍😁😁😁do love your work and info
I know you're both extremely busy however you have access to a large variety of perennial plants and your climate & property is sufficient to grow a large variety of said perennial plants with minimal inputs (besides a cage when they're small) and you have the permaculture expertise; seems like an obvious thing is to pack your ENTIRE property full of edible, medicinal and useful perennial plants. Plus you have enough rainfall to do the Masanobu Fukuoka method of tossing seeds of annuals wherever your microclimates seem to best suite each of the plants.
As it seems pretty much every year, I plant a large volume of seeds, see a low percentage of germination, followed by stagnation of most things. One example, fenugreek, got perhaps seven that germinated, they produced spindly seedlings that have fallen over and I think two are not dead. Kale and the other brassicas - germination was better this year than typical in the past, but when other people are showing off their rich green massive kale, I have something that looks like an anemic oversize microgreen. Beans and squash seem to do relatively well here, and we got some sunchokes growing again this year, but roughly half a dozen plants when I have planted over fifty pounds of tubers over the past three years. This spring I made a serious start on perennial installations and there seems to be some hope that many of those will take and make it into future years - but everything here seems to lag behind other sites local to us. It's difficult sometimes to keep making the effort when the returns seem so minimal. Our radishes are bolting without ever having formed their root crop - just long thin red stems running into the ground. And I frankly have no idea why so many of these things are doing so poorly. :( We did have a relatively dry spring, but this latter half of June is making up for it. I watered consistently during the dry spell, but even with that - failure to thrive.
Just went to check out the upper pond we made last year (still have tadpoles), and noticed that the Osage Orange we got from you folks this spring is doing well; we had lost hope for it when it didn't produce leaves (until now). Thank you kindly. p.s. would love a video from Sasha on processing sumac.
It is surprising how resilient potatoes are. I have dug tubers that have been feral a couple of years. They are not sized like a pampered plant, but quite edible.
I appreciate your observation that leaving things unweeded will protect the ones you want from deer. Having had two newly planted fruit trees chomped right down by deer this summer was discouraging. I'm hoping I don't need to put in a giant fence around everything; I'd rather find ways to encourage the deer to eat other things instead. I also like the idea of using potatoes as a way to define and defend the edges of the growing beds!
The potatoes as bed development tool is super effective. I'd say on protecting trees that offcuts of 2x4" wire fencing cut to make 3' diameter rings can be low-ish cost and pretty effective. We find offcuts from folks and work with that.
I've observed Good King Henry (13:25) plants struggling when transplanted as larger plants; background reading generally confirms this. The roots of established plants run pretty deep.
The bird song in the background is bomb diggity. Love and appreciate your videos! Sasha, more cooking videos please? Maybe a video on your fermented hot sauce???!
i just moved onto some land and have been going back and forth about whether or not to start a big veggie garden this season but this really inspired me to just do it. i for sure won't get anything if i don't try!
Grateful for everything you share re deer. Little gems like leaving things a bit wild. We’re dealing with them too, in Scotland, and avoiding serious fencing. Trying experiments like dead hedges, cages, piles of spiky brash, CDs dangling on string. Last night’s experiment is a zig-zag pattern line of paracord. Just trying to make it annoying for them. Finding myself dreaming “what would really irritate a deer?”. Hopefully works a bit.
Interesting expansion of near wild crafting garden foods...we have to think that way too about the future as this deflation goes on...good to be reminded...Amazing the things that grow wild can be like Eden...Think I had thermal problems with the carbon (weed stalks and wood) getting warm as the microbes decide to start working harder to compost the uncompleted in my hugel mound drying it out ...but more bacterial weeds ..straw and compost will make it ready in the spring by just piling them on top now..3rd year hugel is pretty amazing..going to try covering with wet brown paper bags in spring ..so many things to try..where's the chickens..lol
Perennial proteins and fats are what I really want for my little patch. The big nut trees take a long time to produce, so I'm trying yellow horn, and I'm planning to try dwarf chinquapin oaks. The more novel the better, because they will command more in the market place. I'm also looking at bean foliage, dehydrated, as a way to maximize annual protein yield.
Seems important to still plant the very long term trees, too, and focus on foraging and collecting from wild spaces in the mean time. THats what we've been up to and it's felt very functional
@@edibleacres My spaces are tiny and urban, which affects my thinking on long term trees. True overstory trees would mess with the native habitat -houses. I won't be around to mitigate that outcome or to reap the benefits, so I avoid planting them. Similarly, my foraging is freegan, and as such, sure to dry up in truly hard times. My chickens also depend largely on what I forage, so my planning focuses on growing sources of fat and protein in the short and midterm. If I had more space, sunflowers would be a good fit, and if I were in a warmer climate, peanuts would be excellent. What are your experiences with hazelnuts to fill this need?
Thanks so much for the tour! Right now I am very curious about developing new landrace varieties of all sorts of edibles. Do you now or do you have plans to plant out areas with different selected varieties in order to replant "unknown hybrid" seedlings, and select and repeat? Seems like you may be doing this with potatoes from seed? Any insight or thoughts appreciated! Thanks for growing and sharing!
Greenhouse is working nicely, Ineed to do an update there. Garlic is sizing up really well for this year. ua-cam.com/video/21uC4xSzHiI/v-deo.html - Recent update video if you are interested... :)
@@edibleacres Thanks Sean! I saw that video and really impressed with garlics size. I am working on getting some round bales that have been sitting in field for 2 years after seeing what you've done. Great teamwork ......💚😁🌱
Amazing bro looks beautiful and full of abundance :) do you have jerusalem artichoke? if you dont will be a nice addition to the food resilience, very strong plant and abundant yields. One question, do you till some of the beds right? and the other ones like hugel mounds? sorry because english is not my home lenguage and i didnt hear well Bless and Love from Uruguay :)
I somehow scored a job ‘teaching’ gardening at a summer camp. I say teaching in quotes because I will mostly be learning as I lead the kids. I’m a long time watcher of your channel and I really appreciate how you learn from the land snd follow the example of what is already happening there. Curious if you have any suggestions for things to plant (in NY area in July with access to watering and good compost) that will really wow kids and perhaps inspire them to become plant growers in future.
Super exciting that you are 'teaching' this summer. I think this channel offers a lot of 'teaching' in the same way, we learn as we share... Beans come up SUPER fast and are beautiful, cilantro, lettuce, kales, all come up pretty darn quick and are tasty, basil would be real fun too :)
Great video, as always. Curious what you might suggest Nikki and I add to the thriving hazelnut and black walnuts that would get large quickly. We feel like our landscape is such a prairie that it needs shade.
I think Alders, Poplars and Willows are all super fast and establish well, they can always be pruned back as needed. I also like Elderberry and currants for a very fast shrub layer.
Great video...thank you. I was wondering if some day you could talk about how you store all your over winter veg. I struggle with root veg and squash storage. I put lots of food (kale, celery, tomatoes, roasted peppers) in our freezers and jar lots of other things. Thanks again
Search on our channel for 'root cellar' to see at least a few ideas. Squash you want to store close to 50F, so we put them in an infrequently used upstairs bedroom, other veg we store in the root cellar.
I have open water containers and because of the consistent rain in Vermont this spring - so far, looks like the dry is in the forecast and the only rain will be thunderstorms - I haven’t kept up with emptying them and am propagating quite the mozzie farm. What do you use in your open containers to mitigate mosquito spawning? Are mosquito dunks safe for other critters? Hopefully the birds and bats appreciate my area ....
I am in my 1st year food forest and I have so much to learn. Some things are doing well and others not so much. My Chestnut trees that I bought from you are doing great, My hazelnuts are struggling. I seem to either over water or under water. Hopefully, I will be able to get more plants from you in the fall.
@@edibleacres This feels so encouraging to hear, this year the drought has doubled (and I am being very generous here ) our "failures" but I guess there's no better teacher than failure, so bring it on! Amazing in dept nursery tour, thank you so much for the effort. Cleavers are an amazing medicinal be it in tea or tincture form. It always helps with mouth ulcers, swollen lymph nodes, thyroid cysts and so much more, such a treasure! and the seeds can be collected and roasted to be used as coffee so I guess it's a part of the "food security" perspective.
Love this tour! Do you have any detailed videos on the covers for your air pruning beds shown at 7:33? The covers just made from hardware cloth with a base of wood. I am interested in building some of those. Are they working well for you?
Wonderful wonderful stuff!! Thank you so much for showing us around! I'm pondering whether the sea kale i got from you would be herbavore resistant... what have been your observations on that one?
Awesome Video! Thanks for all the insights. Couple of questions- Do you sow any dill or herbs along your potatoes and all the beds you've shown? Could you add beets to this or would deer attack them? What kind of winter squash are you planting out at summer solstice? Thanks....PS looking forward to the next cooking / recipe video with SASHA already :)
We have dill growing but would do well to have a lot more. We just sowed a bunch of beets and carrots so hopefully that will work. Winter squash right now we're doing butternut and some others, should hopefully work out...
I've watched some video on successional planting. I am often amazed at how long some people keep putting out plants. they go ahead and plant onions, but just harvest smaller onions. Beets, short season potatoes, sweet corn and even later the cool crops can go in again like peas and lettuces. I'm not good at this side of garden management but I am trying to get a handle on it. I'm wondering if your hugel mound would maintain moisture a little better in this dry weather if you dimple the top of it. I have also been wondering about the possibility of constructing a cistern since I'm not sure a pond is feasible for us now. Right now we are having excessive rain, but we have just gone through an excessive dry spell, so it would be nice to build in a little water security.
Sounds like some large water storage tanks would be super useful. Ferrocement is a technique I've read about that seems promising, although you may want to look for low cost IBC tanks (275 gallon) since they really hold well for the cost. I'm interested to see how the hugels, now that they are capped thoroughly with soil, will perform in holding water. The logs inside are definitely really hydrated from the winter snow we had. Time will tell...
@@edibleacres We did have a local source of IBC tanks that offered some that held chemicals and also ones that held liquids safe for consumption, but apparently the factory that had those are no longer making them available to the employees that sold them to the public. I will check into the ferrocement. thank you for the thought.
Have you found the osage orange can grow from seed without deer eating them down? I hope to plant a living fence/hedge using it from seed and have a lot to plant, nearly 1000 feet. But if deer are all over it that would be a lot of lost planting time.
We have massive deer pressure here and for the most part these plants are left alone. I've learned to not say that is proof of anything, though! Think about at least 2-3 plant 'ingredients' for your living fence to be on the safe side. Miscanthus is a great deer resistant plant, black currants are also pretty darn tough.
I was not able to put as much effort into my garden at the beginning of the season but I'm hoping to ramp up a bit more for the fall harvest. What other crops can I plant now? Or start indoors for planting out later? I'm always interested to hear what others are up to
What do you do with Osage oranges anyways? I found one once, fruit all over the ground, the fruit had a white latex kind of liquid when you scratched it. Why do people like them or what can you do with them?
when you build your permanent raised beds on contour, do you dig down in the walkways to create a swale like effect or do you find that building soil up on flat ground accomplishes the purpose of passive rainwater harvesting? I'm in heavy clay and have been considering this as an alternative to swales, since I don't necessarily want a small river to form in my crawlspace
I like to dig down a bit, to both give more breathing room for the soil/better drainage and also to hold onto more intense rains for a bit to let the beds 'sip' from them for a bit. If they are too too deep they can hold water for too long, but you can always adjust by back filling with wood chips or other mulch.
Is neglecting to remove the scapes from the elephant garlic something that's particular to you, or to elephant garlic? I've never grown elephant garlic so I'm not sure how it's usually done.
Follow up question: That small irrigation pond you have; that's unlined, right? Do you have clay soil, or did you do anything specific to make sure it holds water?
I have a current finally from a cutting It has fruit this year but tiny because its so dry We dug a few mystery current family but don't know what they are its a surprise
@@edibleacres theres just a few the bush is a few years old now It was covered in motherwort hiding in the mountain ash that i think has been attacked but still living hunched over These bushes i think are protecting it this year sun protection I plucked some motherwort away from it but its still nestled in without being suffocated Lol Im learning to use my "weeds" I used to regret planting sunchokes in the garden area but i swear that tuber holds lots of water that in my area would run off or be absorbed and drained away (all sand) So trying to pull them after having shading seedlings but before they start choking out and absorbing all the water from the bed I pull them after they grow a feet or two that way all the water is really in the shoot I drop this or feed to the animals ( rabbits, chickens) or in a weed brew to add back to the garden But chop and drop works to put moisture back on really hot dry days also taking the hot sun of the soil Make sense:) thats why i love your tours its a living cycle of permaculture not just lines and rows but they are there when needed too
I am in the process of creating a few swales on my property, in the area which will be my food forest. I am also considering digging some irrigation ponds as well, but I am concerned about them being a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Any thoughts or suggestions about this? I live in N.C.. The mosquito population here is not extreme, but they do exist. I totally agree that the more people that become involved in growing their own food sustainably, the better off society and the environment will be. It is my hope, once I get my permaculture homestead established, that I will be able to encourage others to do the same. I have lived in the city my entire life, but upon retirement, I bought acreage in the country; in order to establish a homestead. I settled in a somewhat economically depressed area, and I think this community would benefit greatly by utilizing permaculture principles. I am creating this farm as a hobby, an experiment, and hopefully a benefit to the community. Of course, it is always nice to have natural, healthy food growing right outside one’s door,
Mosquitoes are dealt with effectively when there is good frog and wildlife habitat, which generally comes more with nice little bodies of water that are available for them to live in. Wishing you abundance for you, your landscape and your community!
@@edibleacres thanks for the reply. I live in Vermont and just bought a house in the woods that was constructed just a few years ago. I am in the process of trying to revitalize the earth that was excavated for the building site as well as utilize a clear cut section of forest to grow lots of food. This being my first summer here, I tried a few garden spots in untilled native soil with grass clippings as mulch. This is working fine but I am looking forward to adding some composted horse manure next year. I like your integration of the logs… I will be experimenting with those since I have a seemingly infinite supply of rotten logs from the forest.
If your serious about food security you'll want to prioritize slow-burning carbs (starchy root vegetables/ winter squash) and fats. Not to mention animal foods
What are potatoes onions? I’d love to help you with the deer ground hogs I have no advice about the ovules except cut back on the cat food and maybe some jack russel terriers
Question: when you start something like Osage Orange, do you separate them & replant in the same bed. I've sprouted 40 in 1 spot, but wondered if they could go into my fence row or should I separate them & wait 1 more year for permanent location. I'm in zone 4.
Red currants taste tart to sweetish, white and pink currants taste sweet, black currants taste complex umami tart sweet all the above. There’s gooseberry that taste tart to sweet depending on cultivar and jostaberry which is a black currant and gooseberry hybrid and tastes sweet.
Has anyone been dealing with june beetles? I hit them hard last year by going out at night and picking them off and putting them in a jar but they're still around and giving my sweet potato leaves a beating. Any better methods of control? Id like to try to have predators like frogs and snakes around but i think theres too many cats (including my own) around for them to not be hunted. I do have bacillius thuringiensis dunks for mosquitos, maybe i can use that somehow?
I would love to know how to keep rabbits at bay. They are cleaning out my garden faster than I can get the seeds/plants in the soil. I've tried fences. Anyone have any advice?
I don’t know if it is luck or just the local rabbits, but I’ve let about 1/4 acre of clover grow thick to help support our bees and the rabbits never seem to get through that and into our garden. I didn’t intend it as a sacrificial crop but if it keeps the rabbits busy (and full) outside of my garden, then I’ll keep the clover!
i have acquired some asimina triloba seeds but am unable to find any information about growing these wonderful trees in a coastal position can any one help i m in zone 9
If the seeds are dry they are 100% not going to germinate, just to save you any sadness there. Zone 9 you may really want to find places that are nice and shaded/mellow in the peak heat of the day.
@@edibleacres when i soaked the seeds for 24 hours they were still floating on the surface of the water does that mean the are already too dry even though they arrived in a small amount of slightly moist seed mix
I’ve grown food for a few years, but this is the first season that we’ve dedicated enough space to sow and reap a crop large enough to feed us more than a snack! It definitely feels more important than ever, not only because of food insecurity, but because of how isolated our culture’s way of life is becoming. I’ve so appreciated the skills I’m acquiring for self sufficiency, but then also the community building skills I’m gathering as well. When you successfully grow starts, you want to share them. When you grow an abundant crop, you want to feed others with it. When you become skilled in preparing these things you grow, you are able to bring people into your home and show them hospitality through a good home cooked meal. The more our family does this, the more we realize how we need to prioritize it!
I would absolutely be interested in purchasing some Edible Acres garlic for the fall. I planted all that you and Sasha sent me last year, and just harvested it yesterday. It grew brilliantly, and so easily! My cooking beliefs align with when a recipe calls for one garlic clove, it actually means five 😉 So I’d love to triple next year’s crop. Cheers!
If a recipe calls for a clove of garlic they definitely mean head, right?!
So glad we're on the same page with all this :)
Most of those recipes were written during the Great Garlic Shortage, and they really do require much more than is written. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Regarding food security, I moved to an area particularly full of small organic farmers and my sustainability plan has been to support the heck out of all of them.
I can’t tell you how much I have learned from your channel! I look forward to every video you post. Thank you so much :)
I would love to see a valerian harvest and processing video in the future.
I'd love to hear more about medicinal plants and how they're used. The cooking videos with Sasha have been awesome so maybe something similar with harvest and prep of medicine crops? Thanks as always!
This is food for the soul for all of us waiting for the chance to start our gardens. Please keep posting and know that even though you are tired and can only give 10% of yourself right now it really does help us tremendously and we appreciate it!!!
We offered up a piece of land for people in the community to grow here. We had one interested person, but the drive was too far. This year I have been trying to establish a larger diversity of mother plants, to get some serious propagation going. But we are suffering a terrible drought so efforts are a bit hindered. We did get some rain yesterday, but it was the first real rain since April.
Definitely a good year to aim for more food production in the face of droughts and shortages. Love your channel. It's always a joy to get a tour of your "gnarly and feral" land.
We're having a tough time getting some of our medicinal herbs started, but we won't give up, great job!
Growing food where you live is definitely a good idea. I wish I had more space to grow more food. My main garden area is about 1000 sq feet. I have strawberry in as a ground under all the other layers, covering maybe 600 sq feet of it. Harvested about 90 lbs in 30 days mid-May to mid-June. It's an ever-bearing strawberry, so now there is still a trickle of fruit. I ate so many strawberries! I also made a years supply of strawberry jam, a couple strawberry pies, about 5 gallons of strawberry wine, gave away dozens of pounds to friends, family, and neighbors, and still had many pounds to freeze for later. Raspberries and currants are producing now, but in much smaller quantities. It's been a good start to the growing season. I am growing shelling beans for the first time this year, because I wanted to produce more of the food I eat over winter. I am not sure what to expect though. The first time I grow something I typically runs into a lot of problems.
I like meandering! I’m with you on the food security. I only have a little over an acre but my goal is to produce at least 80 percent of our and our chicken’s produce and herbal medicine. We’re doing amaranths too but it followed us from a pot from our old property. All volunteers and it’s a bumper crop haha. Wish I had some of your Valerian! Great job!
We're on an 1.34 acre out in the country, so not big. It's just my husband & I, enough room for us to grow & raise chickens & ducks & a few goats (possibly share some eggs/veg's, etc. with neighbors/work colleagues). That's our goal. We're newish on the property & need to do so much! Just encountered black bears & a few other things have popped up. Husband built 1 large garden bed (we have red, red clay soil here so we have to grow in beds) but need cages to protect against the wildlife. We want to grow vertically where we can, plant fruit trees & nitrogen trees/plants. My husband is a strong supporter of neatness/order so I expect that to continue here on our new property...🤭🤭
We have lots of wild crabapple trees perfectly adapted to our site conditions. I've been grafting high value apple scions onto them. Doing the same with some volunteer pear trees.
I laid some cardboard down on a patch of lawn last fall and built a compost pile on top using whatever I could get - lawn clippings, old mulch, leaves from neighbors, etc. Stuck our bird feeder on top of the pile to feed the locals in return for their droppings. In the spring I built a “fence” around it (still in progress) and spread the pile into some raised mounds. The compost is definitely rough but the veggies don’t seem to mind at all! I’m now transitioning my former raised beds in a partly shady area into propagation space for various plants I got from you folks! Very excited to see this all evolve. Thank you so much for the continuing inspiration and affordable plant materials!
We live in the Netherlands on 1/3 acre (land is scarce and very expensive here) and we produce all of our fruit and vegetables. This year I feel the need to produce and preserve as much as I can, more so than other years. We also have chickens and ducks for eggs and some meat, but have to buy in food, besides what they find in their small field. I really love watching your videos and how you manage the gardens. I always learn something new, So thanks for sharing!
Sounds super packed and productive, wow!
Wow, this is amazing. I’m trying to build a similar vision on my own property in my spare time. Your situation gives me motivation and reminds me that it is very much possible.
I get the impression your layout is a mix of nature, wild visions, compromise and hard work - perfect!
I'm slopey and having fun figuring out the "wheres and hows" but planting bushes and trees around the annual areas and letting more come up with experinental/less mowing is exciting!
My whole place is directly inspired by the small farm I work at, Geoff Lawton, Mark Shepard, Twisted Tree and Edible Acres!!
I can't thank enuf you people doing these things and making it available for us to follow and learn!
These videos are so inspiring, thanks so much for sharing your rough sketch process with us. I’m working on a recent clear cut, trying to set a food forest/permaculture orchard up. Your methods make it seem possible 🌻
Awesome video thanks for posting... Here in Texas we’ve harvested our spring gardens and are working on our hot weather plants ....
Oh if I was 40 years younger!
We do a garden but your place is a dream.
Keep up the good work.
Love your videos.
Great video!
In spring I cut down a few 60ft pine trees so that I can plant fruit trees when available in bare root. In the mean time I planed Kabocha pumpkin and Butternut squash plants in their place.
Yes we are thinking seriously about growing enough food to become mostly self- sufficient and perhaps barter as well. I'm growing many of the same crops as you are, minus some of the medicinal herbs. Plantain is a very useful wild plant growing here, I learned more about its ability to reduce cysts and ulcerations this year. It helped reduce my puppy's hernia, which then healed, and that was amazing! Nature has been blessing us. I have a 3 sisters garden growing (corn, beans, squash) and the beans look even better this year than last. Surprising how much better organically grown, home grown food tastes.
Wow wow wow!
Such an inspiration! Our 0.2 acres is slowly evolving into a micro food forest because of your channel.
You really seem to be making great progress at ramping up production on all fronts. I tip my hat! 🤠
Love your gardens. Your voice is so soft and gentle. My kids love it. They really like watching your vids. And I hope your upcoming winter isn't harsh.
First video I've watched :D Amazing and inspiring. I'm 30 and my goal is to try get some land and grow food to sustain myself. I really love the fact that left you some water for the life around you. I love how you provide for both yourself and the land! I look forward to learning more :)
Welcome to our community.
Keep watching! Sean and Sasha have some amazing projects going on!
I have been expanding the garden during the lockdowns, but this makes me feel like I need to do a whole lot more. On 5 acres, but the land is clay and rock, so turning an area into a growing space is not so easy. Once we are through the Portuguese summer, I will be back into digging swales and ponds. Most folk look at me confused when I talk about the upcoming food problems, but your channel really is what I need to spur me on. Cheers.
I am on heavy clay soil and have had great success with cover crops, leaf mulch, and chicken manure (harvested from their run and coop, mixed with carbons like leaves and wood chips). It takes time but it works! And it is so rewarding to plunge my hand into dark soft soil up to my wrist without a spade.
@@winjoda The growing beds we have totavated and put the soil through a trommel to destone. We mulch and grow clover and mustard on these. I have startes to put hay onto some other areas and will have to try cover crops. Cheers
I really focused on winter squash, carrots, parsnips and potatoes, too, this year! Interesting the weeds helping keep the deer from your nursery plants
Another pond planned! Excellent. I'm hoping to get another one dug this year.
We're trying to chip away at at least starting a pond a year.
@@edibleacres that's a good idea, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by large earthworks projects.
I am fortunate enough that I am able to harvest something each day, but the artic freeze then the early high temperatures haveset me back it (growing in Texas in a city lot). I just built a station for starting seedlings today, so I will see how that goes. Good luck with your forest.
I have had a recurring thought about my gardening w/o knowing why. Hold the light! I hang in there and keep learning and growing. Thank you for the validation that I may not just be the village crazy person. I so appreciate your teaching.
Thank you for being part of our extended community. We appreciate you being here :)
Thank you for all your time and effort! Great channel!
Jerusalem Artichoke - another gardening channel says it cooks like potatoes. Some say it’s invasive, I say it’s prolific. They also last the winter in the ground. They may do well in less than ideal soil, i haven’t tried to get this plant out of a garden bed before but I suspect it might help repair soils if left to grow for a few seasons. Might be a way to think long term and yet produce a viable food crop in otherwise less than ideal soil
Growing it in chesapeake clay/river rock with nearly zero topsoil. Chefs in the DC area are starting to turn on to it, as its a local/fresh harvest in the middle of winter
Wish I had me one of them Juans in my life. ❤️
Thank you - this is the next best thing to actually visiting your farm. Shouldn't it be called Juan-dering though? :)
I couldn't agree more about the need to grow as much food as possible - especially food that can be stored in one way or another. Our garden is much fuller than it has been in previous years, and that's exciting. I'm also noticing a lot more interest by the birds - they just about wiped out my Ashwagandha seedlings before I got netting put over them. Maybe they know that it's smart to store more food and medicine too?
I just had the good fortune of acquiring a couple of acres in NM. I won't be able to afford a well any time soon, so gardening with rain water reserves, as you are here, is inspirational as a proof of concept, and something I'd like to do. Even though the climate will be a little different : )
Would be great to see a video on how you make some of the air prune beds or just the upper caged part that protects the young tree saplings. Looked as though some of them had no wooden structure and was only (bent?) metal mesh
😊 Thank you for your informative, exciting videos !!
Looks great! Having similar problems here in pa with not enough rain, but overall not to bad. Anyone looking to put a garden try to diversity areas where you intend to plant. Sunny spots help out early on in the season, while partly shady areas will help some plants make it through the hottest days of summer. Just enjoy the outdoors and have a good time.
Invaluable tip. The trend here is to put the garden in the sunniest, windiest place on the property, often way further than the House than makes sense.
How are the fig cuttings and pond plants doing? Curculio hit my apples and pears hard this year, even damaging fruit through nylon bags, and the brood X cicadas are flagging everything (multiple female cicadas laying eggs in cuts in the same spot on branches, causing the branch to break) except for my pawpaws and figs. Both of those look like they will produce more this year than ever before and are completely pest free, so you win some and you lose some. I just hope that the cicadas don't kill off any young apple grafts. They have caused at least one graft to flag right at the graft union so it will have to grow back completely from a single bud.
Thanks for all the videos really have been following for a few years now. Thanks for the info and reference to wine caps from silver tree got comfrey and spores from them this spring. My wife and our two children grow on about 3000 sqft of our 1.2 acre lot here in WNY. A mix of raised bed gardens, permanent raised beds (market garden style) and are forming a guild with two apples that were here on the property and forming a elder guild with cuttings we have propagated from several bare root stock plants we started with a few years ago. Really inspired by your work and hope to source our nanking cherry and currants from you and Sasha in the future. Thanks again for all you do. Might make some videos one of these days
Hope you make some videos, seems like a great project you are all up to!
Looks good Sean !!!
What is the red currant variety? I replayed the video several times and all I can discern is “young care bear red currant variety which sounds like I’m making up lyrics to songs again! Also, I’d love to see step by step how you deal with ribes pruning and when. My jostaberry is getting a tad too big with not enough berries to make up for all that mass. The gooseberries are super productive and a thicket that I’m sure I need to just chin up and prune this year. I’ve seen different approaches from all over the world. Everything from prune right after harvest to fall after frost to early spring while still dormant/just out of dormancy. There are pros and cons to each method. I’m curious which method has found itself into your farming lifestyle. I have been enjoying watching videos about ribes from Russia in Russian. My people love them their currants! Also, of course, the Brits, big currant fans. I’m excited to have multiple varieties in various stages of life in my tiny garden.
I think I heard that it's a Jonkheer van Tets variety!
Garlic benefits from drought for the last three weeks before digging up, so I've read. Makes sense since the plant would be encouraged to put its energy in the clove. Your elephant garlic is stupefying. Looking forward to seeing the harvest video. :)
That elephant garlic got A LOT bigger in the last little bit. It'll be amazing to harvest.
Makes sense to have dry conditions before garlic harvest to have the plant focus on storage.
Had no idea u were growing that much just subbed in winter past wow impressive love what you r doing i have 2 raised beds only 1 1/4 acres to work with but weve been here 2 yrs still learning sun patterns dont have nearly as many chickens for making compost like u do but just getting started cause of the move👍👍👍😁😁😁do love your work and info
Do you have poison ivy on your property? If so I'd be interested to know how you deal/dealt with it.
I’d love to know too.
I know you're both extremely busy however you have access to a large variety of perennial plants and your climate & property is sufficient to grow a large variety of said perennial plants with minimal inputs (besides a cage when they're small) and you have the permaculture expertise; seems like an obvious thing is to pack your ENTIRE property full of edible, medicinal and useful perennial plants. Plus you have enough rainfall to do the Masanobu Fukuoka method of tossing seeds of annuals wherever your microclimates seem to best suite each of the plants.
As it seems pretty much every year, I plant a large volume of seeds, see a low percentage of germination, followed by stagnation of most things. One example, fenugreek, got perhaps seven that germinated, they produced spindly seedlings that have fallen over and I think two are not dead. Kale and the other brassicas - germination was better this year than typical in the past, but when other people are showing off their rich green massive kale, I have something that looks like an anemic oversize microgreen. Beans and squash seem to do relatively well here, and we got some sunchokes growing again this year, but roughly half a dozen plants when I have planted over fifty pounds of tubers over the past three years. This spring I made a serious start on perennial installations and there seems to be some hope that many of those will take and make it into future years - but everything here seems to lag behind other sites local to us. It's difficult sometimes to keep making the effort when the returns seem so minimal. Our radishes are bolting without ever having formed their root crop - just long thin red stems running into the ground. And I frankly have no idea why so many of these things are doing so poorly. :( We did have a relatively dry spring, but this latter half of June is making up for it. I watered consistently during the dry spell, but even with that - failure to thrive.
Just went to check out the upper pond we made last year (still have tadpoles), and noticed that the Osage Orange we got from you folks this spring is doing well; we had lost hope for it when it didn't produce leaves (until now). Thank you kindly.
p.s. would love a video from Sasha on processing sumac.
That's a great amount of food, very good job
It is surprising how resilient potatoes are. I have dug tubers that have been feral a couple of years. They are not sized like a pampered plant, but quite edible.
We have a few patches that are nearly perennial at this point. THey are amazing.
I appreciate your observation that leaving things unweeded will protect the ones you want from deer. Having had two newly planted fruit trees chomped right down by deer this summer was discouraging. I'm hoping I don't need to put in a giant fence around everything; I'd rather find ways to encourage the deer to eat other things instead.
I also like the idea of using potatoes as a way to define and defend the edges of the growing beds!
The potatoes as bed development tool is super effective. I'd say on protecting trees that offcuts of 2x4" wire fencing cut to make 3' diameter rings can be low-ish cost and pretty effective. We find offcuts from folks and work with that.
gorgeous! thank you so much for sharing. Ashwagandha!!!
I've observed Good King Henry (13:25) plants struggling when transplanted as larger plants; background reading generally confirms this. The roots of established plants run pretty deep.
They don't want to move once they are established after year 2... Possible but rough.
Beautiful.
The bird song in the background is bomb diggity. Love and appreciate your videos! Sasha, more cooking videos please? Maybe a video on your fermented hot sauce???!
3:43 genius idea!
i just moved onto some land and have been going back and forth about whether or not to start a big veggie garden this season but this really inspired me to just do it. i for sure won't get anything if i don't try!
So glad to read this. It is very very important we all try to grow more food where we live!
Grateful for everything you share re deer. Little gems like leaving things a bit wild. We’re dealing with them too, in Scotland, and avoiding serious fencing. Trying experiments like dead hedges, cages, piles of spiky brash, CDs dangling on string. Last night’s experiment is a zig-zag pattern line of paracord. Just trying to make it annoying for them. Finding myself dreaming “what would really irritate a deer?”. Hopefully works a bit.
Ha! Maybe figure out some music they don't like and play it just loud enough.
@@edibleacres yes I was wondering about sensor speakers that screech... might ruin the ambience though 😆
Interesting expansion of near wild crafting garden foods...we have to think that way too about the future as this deflation goes on...good to be reminded...Amazing the things that grow wild can be like Eden...Think I had thermal problems with the carbon (weed stalks and wood) getting warm as the microbes decide to start working harder to compost the uncompleted in my hugel mound drying it out ...but more bacterial weeds ..straw and compost will make it ready in the spring by just piling them on top now..3rd year hugel is pretty amazing..going to try covering with wet brown paper bags in spring ..so many things to try..where's the chickens..lol
Man, a few goats would love those wild areas 😍
I’m doing it!
Perennial proteins and fats are what I really want for my little patch.
The big nut trees take a long time to produce, so I'm trying yellow horn, and I'm planning to try dwarf chinquapin oaks.
The more novel the better, because they will command more in the market place.
I'm also looking at bean foliage, dehydrated, as a way to maximize annual protein yield.
Seems important to still plant the very long term trees, too, and focus on foraging and collecting from wild spaces in the mean time. THats what we've been up to and it's felt very functional
@@edibleacres My spaces are tiny and urban, which affects my thinking on long term trees.
True overstory trees would mess with the native habitat -houses.
I won't be around to mitigate that outcome or to reap the benefits, so I avoid planting them.
Similarly, my foraging is freegan, and as such, sure to dry up in truly hard times.
My chickens also depend largely on what I forage, so my planning focuses on growing sources of fat and protein in the short and midterm.
If I had more space, sunflowers would be a good fit, and if I were in a warmer climate, peanuts would be excellent.
What are your experiences with hazelnuts to fill this need?
Thanks so much for the tour!
Right now I am very curious about developing new landrace varieties of all sorts of edibles. Do you now or do you have plans to plant out areas with different selected varieties in order to replant "unknown hybrid" seedlings, and select and repeat? Seems like you may be doing this with potatoes from seed? Any insight or thoughts appreciated! Thanks for growing and sharing!
Sean how is your new greenhouse doing? Your garlic looks fabulous as does all of your work!!!! Won't be long before garlic harvest time. 👍🌱
Greenhouse is working nicely, Ineed to do an update there. Garlic is sizing up really well for this year. ua-cam.com/video/21uC4xSzHiI/v-deo.html - Recent update video if you are interested... :)
@@edibleacres Thanks Sean! I saw that video and really impressed with garlics size. I am working on getting some round bales that have been sitting in field for 2 years after seeing what you've done. Great teamwork ......💚😁🌱
I love squash! What varieties of winter squash did you plant?
Amazing bro looks beautiful and full of abundance :) do you have jerusalem artichoke? if you dont will be a nice addition to the food resilience, very strong plant and abundant yields. One question, do you till some of the beds right? and the other ones like hugel mounds? sorry because english is not my home lenguage and i didnt hear well
Bless and Love from Uruguay :)
I somehow scored a job ‘teaching’ gardening at a summer camp. I say teaching in quotes because I will mostly be learning as I lead the kids.
I’m a long time watcher of your channel and I really appreciate how you learn from the land snd follow the example of what is already happening there.
Curious if you have any suggestions for things to plant (in NY area in July with access to watering and good compost) that will really wow kids and perhaps inspire them to become plant growers in future.
Super exciting that you are 'teaching' this summer. I think this channel offers a lot of 'teaching' in the same way, we learn as we share...
Beans come up SUPER fast and are beautiful, cilantro, lettuce, kales, all come up pretty darn quick and are tasty, basil would be real fun too :)
Frist, nice videos and channel mate love your content, all the best from UK
Great video, as always. Curious what you might suggest Nikki and I add to the thriving hazelnut and black walnuts that would get large quickly. We feel like our landscape is such a prairie that it needs shade.
I think Alders, Poplars and Willows are all super fast and establish well, they can always be pruned back as needed. I also like Elderberry and currants for a very fast shrub layer.
Inspiring, thanks
I’d love to see video on how you made those cages. Really like them better then netting. Chipmunks causing havoc.
ua-cam.com/video/OjN2pJQE0vo/v-deo.html more details on them
Great video...thank you. I was wondering if some day you could talk about how you store all your over winter veg. I struggle with root veg and squash storage. I put lots of food (kale, celery, tomatoes, roasted peppers) in our freezers and jar lots of other things. Thanks again
Search on our channel for 'root cellar' to see at least a few ideas. Squash you want to store close to 50F, so we put them in an infrequently used upstairs bedroom, other veg we store in the root cellar.
@@edibleacres Thank you. I will
I have open water containers and because of the consistent rain in Vermont this spring - so far, looks like the dry is in the forecast and the only rain will be thunderstorms - I haven’t kept up with emptying them and am propagating quite the mozzie farm. What do you use in your open containers to mitigate mosquito spawning? Are mosquito dunks safe for other critters? Hopefully the birds and bats appreciate my area ....
I am in my 1st year food forest and I have so much to learn. Some things are doing well and others not so much. My Chestnut trees that I bought from you are doing great, My hazelnuts are struggling. I seem to either over water or under water. Hopefully, I will be able to get more plants from you in the fall.
It took many years to get to a point where success was happening at a slightly higher rate than failure for us :)
@@edibleacres This feels so encouraging to hear, this year the drought has doubled (and I am being very generous here ) our "failures" but I guess there's no better teacher than failure, so bring it on! Amazing in dept nursery tour, thank you so much for the effort. Cleavers are an amazing medicinal be it in tea or tincture form. It always helps with mouth ulcers, swollen lymph nodes, thyroid cysts and so much more, such a treasure! and the seeds can be collected and roasted to be used as coffee so I guess it's a part of the "food security" perspective.
Love this tour! Do you have any detailed videos on the covers for your air pruning beds shown at 7:33? The covers just made from hardware cloth with a base of wood. I am interested in building some of those. Are they working well for you?
We love the air prune beds. Search 'air prune' on our video list and you can see a few where we talk about them.
Wonderful wonderful stuff!! Thank you so much for showing us around!
I'm pondering whether the sea kale i got from you would be herbavore resistant... what have been your observations on that one?
Deer and rabbits definitely nibble on my sea kale!
Awesome Video! Thanks for all the insights. Couple of questions- Do you sow any dill or herbs along your potatoes and all the beds you've shown? Could you add beets to this or would deer attack them? What kind of winter squash are you planting out at summer solstice? Thanks....PS looking forward to the next cooking / recipe video with SASHA already :)
We have dill growing but would do well to have a lot more. We just sowed a bunch of beets and carrots so hopefully that will work. Winter squash right now we're doing butternut and some others, should hopefully work out...
I've watched some video on successional planting. I am often amazed at how long some people keep putting out plants. they go ahead and plant onions, but just harvest smaller onions. Beets, short season potatoes, sweet corn and even later the cool crops can go in again like peas and lettuces. I'm not good at this side of garden management but I am trying to get a handle on it. I'm wondering if your hugel mound would maintain moisture a little better in this dry weather if you dimple the top of it. I have also been wondering about the possibility of constructing a cistern since I'm not sure a pond is feasible for us now. Right now we are having excessive rain, but we have just gone through an excessive dry spell, so it would be nice to build in a little water security.
Sounds like some large water storage tanks would be super useful. Ferrocement is a technique I've read about that seems promising, although you may want to look for low cost IBC tanks (275 gallon) since they really hold well for the cost.
I'm interested to see how the hugels, now that they are capped thoroughly with soil, will perform in holding water. The logs inside are definitely really hydrated from the winter snow we had. Time will tell...
@@edibleacres We did have a local source of IBC tanks that offered some that held chemicals and also ones that held liquids safe for consumption, but apparently the factory that had those are no longer making them available to the employees that sold them to the public. I will check into the ferrocement. thank you for the thought.
omg those elephant garlics :D. In about 1 month I will harvest my first ever garlics!
Have you found the osage orange can grow from seed without deer eating them down? I hope to plant a living fence/hedge using it from seed and have a lot to plant, nearly 1000 feet. But if deer are all over it that would be a lot of lost planting time.
We have massive deer pressure here and for the most part these plants are left alone. I've learned to not say that is proof of anything, though! Think about at least 2-3 plant 'ingredients' for your living fence to be on the safe side. Miscanthus is a great deer resistant plant, black currants are also pretty darn tough.
I was not able to put as much effort into my garden at the beginning of the season but I'm hoping to ramp up a bit more for the fall harvest. What other crops can I plant now? Or start indoors for planting out later? I'm always interested to hear what others are up to
So much more can be done... Root crops, fall greens, much more is possible. www.fruitionseeds.com/ - friends of ours that have great planting charts.
@@edibleacres thank you! This is extremely helpful!
What do you do with Osage oranges anyways? I found one once, fruit all over the ground, the fruit had a white latex kind of liquid when you scratched it. Why do people like them or what can you do with them?
when you build your permanent raised beds on contour, do you dig down in the walkways to create a swale like effect or do you find that building soil up on flat ground accomplishes the purpose of passive rainwater harvesting? I'm in heavy clay and have been considering this as an alternative to swales, since I don't necessarily want a small river to form in my crawlspace
I like to dig down a bit, to both give more breathing room for the soil/better drainage and also to hold onto more intense rains for a bit to let the beds 'sip' from them for a bit. If they are too too deep they can hold water for too long, but you can always adjust by back filling with wood chips or other mulch.
Love the camo lol
Is neglecting to remove the scapes from the elephant garlic something that's particular to you, or to elephant garlic? I've never grown elephant garlic so I'm not sure how it's usually done.
Follow up question: That small irrigation pond you have; that's unlined, right? Do you have clay soil, or did you do anything specific to make sure it holds water?
@@walrusiam6233 Yes, No, and No. He has a video on it from last year.
Yes please! Do a proper introduction he seems like a nice guy :D
Also would love to get my hands on some elephant garlic
are you able to export seeds to other countries i am in new zealand and know we have very stringent rules about bio security for very good reason
I have a current finally from a cutting
It has fruit this year but tiny because its so dry
We dug a few mystery current family but don't know what they are its a surprise
If they are young and freshly rooted you would be smart to pluck the fruits off so they can focus on establishing.
@@edibleacres theres just a few the bush is a few years old now
It was covered in motherwort hiding in the mountain ash that i think has been attacked but still living hunched over
These bushes i think are protecting it this year sun protection
I plucked some motherwort away from it but its still nestled in without being suffocated
Lol
Im learning to use my "weeds"
I used to regret planting sunchokes in the garden area but i swear that tuber holds lots of water that in my area would run off or be absorbed and drained away (all sand)
So trying to pull them after having shading seedlings but before they start choking out and absorbing all the water from the bed
I pull them after they grow a feet or two that way all the water is really in the shoot
I drop this or feed to the animals ( rabbits, chickens) or in a weed brew to add back to the garden
But chop and drop works to put moisture back on really hot dry days also taking the hot sun of the soil
Make sense:) thats why i love your tours its a living cycle of permaculture not just lines and rows but they are there when needed too
So close to 100k,
Really in the home stretch now,
I am in the process of creating a few swales on my property, in the area which will be my food forest. I am also considering digging some irrigation ponds as well, but I am concerned about them being a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Any thoughts or suggestions about this? I live in N.C.. The mosquito population here is not extreme, but they do exist.
I totally agree that the more people that become involved in growing their own food sustainably, the better off society and the environment will be. It is my hope, once I get my permaculture homestead established, that I will be able to encourage others to do the same. I have lived in the city my entire life, but upon retirement, I bought acreage in the country; in order to establish a homestead. I settled in a somewhat economically depressed area, and I think this community would benefit greatly by utilizing permaculture principles.
I am creating this farm as a hobby, an experiment, and hopefully a benefit to the community. Of course, it is always nice to have natural, healthy food growing right outside one’s door,
Mosquitoes are dealt with effectively when there is good frog and wildlife habitat, which generally comes more with nice little bodies of water that are available for them to live in.
Wishing you abundance for you, your landscape and your community!
@@edibleacres thanks for the reply.
Do you have Colorado potato beetle there?
I have challenges with it on my taters in KY.
They haven't hit this site yet this year, we'll have to see. MANY small birds around and I think they help a huge amount.
Are you using the native soil there or did you bring in a bunch of compost or manure?
A mix, but certainly we add compost often since our front yard generates a huge amount with our chicken system.
@@edibleacres thanks for the reply. I live in Vermont and just bought a house in the woods that was constructed just a few years ago. I am in the process of trying to revitalize the earth that was excavated for the building site as well as utilize a clear cut section of forest to grow lots of food. This being my first summer here, I tried a few garden spots in untilled native soil with grass clippings as mulch. This is working fine but I am looking forward to adding some composted horse manure next year. I like your integration of the logs… I will be experimenting with those since I have a seemingly infinite supply of rotten logs from the forest.
If your serious about food security you'll want to prioritize slow-burning carbs (starchy root vegetables/ winter squash) and fats. Not to mention animal foods
What are potatoes onions? I’d love to help you with the deer ground hogs I have no advice about the ovules except cut back on the cat food and maybe some jack russel terriers
Potato onions are a perennial onion that multiplies each year. THey are pretty neat!
Question: when you start something like Osage Orange, do you separate them & replant in the same bed. I've sprouted 40 in 1 spot, but wondered if they could go into my fence row or should I separate them & wait 1 more year for permanent location. I'm in zone 4.
What do currants taste like? Are they tart/sour like a cranberry?
Red currants taste tart to sweetish, white and pink currants taste sweet, black currants taste complex umami tart sweet all the above. There’s gooseberry that taste tart to sweet depending on cultivar and jostaberry which is a black currant and gooseberry hybrid and tastes sweet.
Has anyone been dealing with june beetles? I hit them hard last year by going out at night and picking them off and putting them in a jar but they're still around and giving my sweet potato leaves a beating. Any better methods of control? Id like to try to have predators like frogs and snakes around but i think theres too many cats (including my own) around for them to not be hunted. I do have bacillius thuringiensis dunks for mosquitos, maybe i can use that somehow?
I would love to know how to keep rabbits at bay. They are cleaning out my garden faster than I can get the seeds/plants in the soil. I've tried fences. Anyone have any advice?
We certainly haven't figured it out!
I don’t know if it is luck or just the local rabbits, but I’ve let about 1/4 acre of clover grow thick to help support our bees and the rabbits never seem to get through that and into our garden. I didn’t intend it as a sacrificial crop but if it keeps the rabbits busy (and full) outside of my garden, then I’ll keep the clover!
i have acquired some asimina triloba seeds but am unable to find any information about growing these wonderful trees in a coastal position can any one help i m in zone 9
If the seeds are dry they are 100% not going to germinate, just to save you any sadness there.
Zone 9 you may really want to find places that are nice and shaded/mellow in the peak heat of the day.
@@edibleacres when i soaked the seeds for 24 hours they were still floating on the surface of the water does that mean the are already too dry even though they arrived in a small amount of slightly moist seed mix
production/use should be local as possable