Thank you for the garden tour. The possibilities are endless. Beautiful layout. I am learning a great deal from your videos, interplanting, pruning, future possibilities & so much more. I am still so thrilled the work day was uber successful, a huge thanks to you, Holly and all the Foodscaping volunteers! The seeds are germinating and beginning to flourish. Can hardly wait for future morph possibilities. I am looking forward to the garden tour and hoping to ride along. Blessings to all, 🙏🏼 for success.
Thank you! It has been a tough spring but things are coming along. The drought will continue to make it tough but we are mulching like crazy so hopefully that’ll help.
Would love to see you shift away from raised beds to level or sunken beds. Would go a long way to reduce water consumption in the desert climate of Utah.
Our backyard vegetable gardens are mostly ground level or only slightly raised from being built by adding compost on top of the ground. Comparing raised beds to level beds I would agree that raised beds do tend to require more water overall but in our experience they also tend to be more productive per square foot. Also I think when they are really well planned and designed to be fully packed with vegetables that shade the surface and with drip irrigation and mulch, they can make very efficient use of water. And, of course, raised bed vegetables are a 100% increase in production over grass while using less water. All that said, if we managed a vegetable farm I agree that we would likely grow at surface level with compost on top. The main reason we do raised beds for our volunteer foodscaping program is that they are the quickest and surest way for homeowners to go from lawn, weeds and/or poor soil to perfect growing conditions. Good soil that is close to weed free and beds that are easy to maintain are so important for new gardeners to be successful. We’re putting together some numbers on our water savings since we foodscaped our frontyard and there have been some tremendous savings. Huge savings in all the areas we’ve planted perennials but also some savings where we grow annual vegetables.
Hi Zell. It won’t grow back next season but it might grow some more leaves this year depending on how low you cut it. Also, we try to keep roots in the soil which, given the right conditions, might help maintain beneficial fungal activity. Of course we pull all weeds and other roots if they are in the way.
I planted honeyberries last year and nearly killed them by letting them dry out in the pots before getting them planted. they came back this year (yay!) but didn't fruit. I have two bushes - each id a different variety for cross-pollination - but neither produced any fruit. Was that normal? How long should I have to wait before seeing fruit? Also, your really tall almond tree seems to have been pruned but you say you don't try to get up to the top - are you hiring out the pruning or does it just not need to be done? Why do almonds in particular require so much mulch?
We had fewer honeyberries this year than last year surprisingly but still quite a few. It may be a year early yet to expect a harvest. Fruiting year for many perennial fruits is the third year. I have pruned the almond to an open center shape and I do do some regular maintenance pruning on it in the late winter but we haven't summer pruned it for size control the way we do other trees. I don't know that the almonds in particular require extra mulch but in our case we have put a lot on them. Some people assume that almonds are water hogs (because of reports from California almonds orchards) but I think you are right to wonder if they really require more mulch. I certainly wouldn't skimp on the mulch for almonds or any other stone fruit because I think the benefit tremendously from having protected soil and more consistent soil temperature and moisture levels.
Here in Ogden coddling moth have been active for quite a few weeks now so there is a good chance eggs have already been laid depending on how prevalent they are in your area. Are they usually really wormy? -if not, you could try a some bags on the best looking fruit to see if you have some luck. We don’t bag our peaches. Coddling moth leave them alone. The fruit sometimes get peach twig borer but I don’t think the bags would be very effective for them.
Thank you. We are in Holladay, Utah so I am assuming we are about the same... they are pretty bad on the apples, but hit and miss on the pears. What month do you typically get the bags on the apples and pears? We will have to try getting that done next year.
It’s typically mid May for us. We try to get them on as soon as the fruit is big enough to support the bag when it’s windy which is about quarter size. You can sign up for email notification for pest advisories from USU Extension. It’s pretty great because they will tell you down to the day that fruit needs to be protected: pestadvisories.usu.edu
We are lucky enough to not have ground hogs in our area. You might try lining the bottom underneath raised beds with wire mesh or rodent fencing? As for slugs, our number one tip is switching to drip irrigation. How are you watering? Slugs need a moist habitat so if everything is dry they usually disappear. We used to have them especially in the spring but with drip irrigation and dry woodchip mulch or pea gravel around our vegetable beds, we haven’t seen any slugs or snails in a few years.
That might help. The earlier in the day the better. If you are hand watering, try to only water where the plants root zone is. If you are using sprinklers, I’d definitely consider switching to drip irrigation if you can.
Oh wow! I just found your channel this is amazing!!! This is everything I am working to do in my yard!
Thank you for the garden tour. The possibilities are endless. Beautiful layout. I am learning a great deal from your videos, interplanting, pruning, future possibilities & so much more. I am still so thrilled the work day was uber successful, a huge thanks to you, Holly and all the Foodscaping volunteers! The seeds are germinating and beginning to flourish. Can hardly wait for future morph possibilities. I am looking forward to the garden tour and hoping to ride along. Blessings to all, 🙏🏼 for success.
Thank you for your comment! So glad you enjoy our videos! Your foodscape is so fantastic. You’ve already done a fantastic job with it!
Awesome video! You've been having great success despite our terrible drought. Always love to see the garden progress.
Thank you! It has been a tough spring but things are coming along. The drought will continue to make it tough but we are mulching like crazy so hopefully that’ll help.
Thank you for great videos !!
Our pleasure!
Awesome!
Thank you!
maybe u should plant 1 grape on that arch? looks nice and sunny spot
Would love to know when your next event/tour is. Where do you publish your schedule?
We haven’t finalized any events for the summer yet, but here is our event/classes page so you can keep tabs: foodscapingutah.org/events-classes/
Hi..bro...thanks dor sharing your vidio..i am very excited to make grape fram..learn from you👍👍👍🤝🤝
Would love to see you shift away from raised beds to level or sunken beds. Would go a long way to reduce water consumption in the desert climate of Utah.
Our backyard vegetable gardens are mostly ground level or only slightly raised from being built by adding compost on top of the ground.
Comparing raised beds to level beds I would agree that raised beds do tend to require more water overall but in our experience they also tend to be more productive per square foot. Also I think when they are really well planned and designed to be fully packed with vegetables that shade the surface and with drip irrigation and mulch, they can make very efficient use of water. And, of course, raised bed vegetables are a 100% increase in production over grass while using less water.
All that said, if we managed a vegetable farm I agree that we would likely grow at surface level with compost on top. The main reason we do raised beds for our volunteer foodscaping program is that they are the quickest and surest way for homeowners to go from lawn, weeds and/or poor soil to perfect growing conditions. Good soil that is close to weed free and beds that are easy to maintain are so important for new gardeners to be successful.
We’re putting together some numbers on our water savings since we foodscaped our frontyard and there have been some tremendous savings. Huge savings in all the areas we’ve planted perennials but also some savings where we grow annual vegetables.
I see you just cut the spinach (instead of pulling the roots out), does that mean it will grow back next season?
Hi Zell. It won’t grow back next season but it might grow some more leaves this year depending on how low you cut it. Also, we try to keep roots in the soil which, given the right conditions, might help maintain beneficial fungal activity. Of course we pull all weeds and other roots if they are in the way.
I planted honeyberries last year and nearly killed them by letting them dry out in the pots before getting them planted. they came back this year (yay!) but didn't fruit. I have two bushes - each id a different variety for cross-pollination - but neither produced any fruit. Was that normal? How long should I have to wait before seeing fruit?
Also, your really tall almond tree seems to have been pruned but you say you don't try to get up to the top - are you hiring out the pruning or does it just not need to be done?
Why do almonds in particular require so much mulch?
We had fewer honeyberries this year than last year surprisingly but still quite a few. It may be a year early yet to expect a harvest. Fruiting year for many perennial fruits is the third year.
I have pruned the almond to an open center shape and I do do some regular maintenance pruning on it in the late winter but we haven't summer pruned it for size control the way we do other trees.
I don't know that the almonds in particular require extra mulch but in our case we have put a lot on them. Some people assume that almonds are water hogs (because of reports from California almonds orchards) but I think you are right to wonder if they really require more mulch. I certainly wouldn't skimp on the mulch for almonds or any other stone fruit because I think the benefit tremendously from having protected soil and more consistent soil temperature and moisture levels.
Is it too late in the season to put those organza bags on pears and apples? Would you put them on peaches too?
Here in Ogden coddling moth have been active for quite a few weeks now so there is a good chance eggs have already been laid depending on how prevalent they are in your area. Are they usually really wormy?
-if not, you could try a some bags on the best looking fruit to see if you have some luck.
We don’t bag our peaches. Coddling moth leave them alone. The fruit sometimes get peach twig borer but I don’t think the bags would be very effective for them.
Thank you. We are in Holladay, Utah so I am assuming we are about the same... they are pretty bad on the apples, but hit and miss on the pears. What month do you typically get the bags on the apples and pears? We will have to try getting that done next year.
It’s typically mid May for us. We try to get them on as soon as the fruit is big enough to support the bag when it’s windy which is about quarter size.
You can sign up for email notification for pest advisories from USU Extension. It’s pretty great because they will tell you down to the day that fruit needs to be protected: pestadvisories.usu.edu
@@foodscapingutah5239 thank you so much, I just subscribed to the newsletters. And thank you for being so responsive.
How do you keep groundhogs and slugs out?
We are lucky enough to not have ground hogs in our area. You might try lining the bottom underneath raised beds with wire mesh or rodent fencing?
As for slugs, our number one tip is switching to drip irrigation. How are you watering? Slugs need a moist habitat so if everything is dry they usually disappear. We used to have them especially in the spring but with drip irrigation and dry woodchip mulch or pea gravel around our vegetable beds, we haven’t seen any slugs or snails in a few years.
@@foodscapingutah5239 I've been watering mostly in the afternoon. Maybe I should switch to morning?
That might help. The earlier in the day the better. If you are hand watering, try to only water where the plants root zone is. If you are using sprinklers, I’d definitely consider switching to drip irrigation if you can.