We had Comfrey plants when we moved growing here. I don't use them internally, but I planted them all along one side of our garden outside the fence. They grow quite tall with their beautiful blooms and the bees, etc. love the flowers! The plants keep grass from growing into the garden and my chickens love the leaves for a treat! They grow very deep and take up many minerals, etc. I use some on my compost piles, also! They have many uses for poultices, etc.
Thank you very much for this. We just put some in last fall. I didn’t put any in the contour around the garden, but when they’re big enough to divide I’m going to follow your example to keep the grass out, attract the bees and have some ready green mulch. I talk about green mulch in part of this video if you’d like more details. ua-cam.com/video/n_lFxh3IbGk/v-deo.htmlsi=zX-hkDkr4GeL-Rgj
That’s great! And you can add prickly ash (North American Szechuan spice) (tree that can be pruned into shrub). I forgot to mention it. I have lots of it.
North American Szechuan spice is a native tree, called prickly ash, Zanthoxylum americanum. It is the northernmost species of citrus tree! It is a citrus species (same family as lemons and oranges!) and is native to Canada and the northern US. The small red fruit have a mildly spicy flavour and when eaten raw, have a mildly numbing effect on the tongue. They are also a beautiful tree, especially when in flower and fruit, and are easily prunable into a bonsai type shape. @@peterellis4262
I have a food forest in the embryonic stage. This tree sounds like it would do well in my northern Utah forest. Where you put wild rose, I think I'll put sea berry@@WillowsGreenPermaculture
That note about the animals eating the "fence" plants and moving along is an important idea. The fence doesn't have to be an impenetrable barrier - that's nearly impossible to achieve and expensive! ;) But it can be a very efficient deflector of incoming animals - Not easy to pass through, but tasty, so why try to pass through? Snack along the fenceline and keep on going toward some other browsing site.
Thank you! You got the idea. That's what I'm working on. It really seems to be working. Also, providing stuff they like to eat elsewhere, especially native plants, helps.
Why do i like this man so much?! Very personable, knowledgeable, and thoughtful. That's why Update Second watch because there's so much valuable information! I love all the ideas regarding contour planting/ food fencing/ deterrents/ perennials. Plus it's so enjoyable to get tips with such passion for growing and encouraging sustainable living that's just darn right good for you ❤
@@douglasgrant2190 If you have animals that would be on the pennyroyal lawn, I wouldn't use it. It's toxic, even deadly to dogs, so I wouldn't be surprised if other animals had the same reaction.
Thank you for the tip!!! I grow okra (3 or 4 kinds) and I find it’s one of the most beautiful plants in the vegetable garden. The leaves and especially the flower, and the okra! I definitely have to try the Chinese okra! I wonder where I can get some seeds before mid-June!
Thank you for your comment. It helps me to clarify. The fence has kept them out for 4 years, it’s buried a foot deep. The roses are to make the fence inaccessible to the deer and raccoons, and other climbing or jumping animals. Any one solution, like a fence alone, or roses alone, doesn’t work. It’s integrating how animals use the space and trying to steer them away from the garden. My first year I put up a deer fence, a type of mesh, 7 feet tall,. It kept everything out, but I took it down because it was killing the snakes and the birds and the frogs and the chipmunks. They were all getting caught it. I had to rescue a snake out of it once that was caught and still alive. I kept telling the snake not to bite me as I worked to clear it from the mesh. I managed, thankfully. After my second or third dead animal in that fence, I got rid of it. And I started to think of ways I could keep animals out of the garden while still letting them use the land as their home as they should be able to. Providing them with their food further from the garden. As in natural food from native plants. So far, it’s working like a charm.
The Wormwood I have here in New England just grows wild in stalks. Like golden rod. Interesting, wish mine grew in nice round bushes but they spread underground and put up shoots everywhere.
I think there are several kinds. I'm pretty sure I planted mine from seed, so I'm going to try to find out what kind it is. I might be able to do this with a search, just looking at varieties and their growth habits.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Yeah, this type does not branch, stays a single stalk no matter what. Will put up new shoots next to it though. I'm consistently chopping and dropping it for mulch since it grows so fast. Most people around here think its one of the worst weeds but I love it for all its uses! 😁
@@WillowsGreenPermaculturethe leaves are also good for the heart and veins arteries. But if you're on heart medication you have to be careful also the seeds are the highest in that medicinal qualities ao if you eat the berries with the seeds still inside one berry a day is enough !if you remove the seeds you can make good fruit roll up called haw flakes. The berries and leaves are milder than the seeds which are very strong and eating too many of the seeds is not advised. Also start small and work up to a bigger dose if you're not uses to taking them as with most things just in case you react to it.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture ah well theyre a bit hard to spit out cos they're very small. Usually you would make a haw syrup and then when the fruit is soft seive out the seeds ...they're a bit like rosehips so ya know that annoying fibre that kinda gets in your teeth and catches the seeds of the hips its a bit like that only smaller. And definitely a lot nice when you cook em with a bit of lemon and honey and then just mash em through a sieve and that gets the pesky seeds out. Or because im mostly far too lazy i just pick em dry am put em in a jar and swallow one like a tablet! Then at the end of the year the ones youve not eaten you can chuck in the compost and the seeds might grow! But theyre not yummy to just eat raw off the tree unless youre very peckish!
Thank you! I will try the syrup idea. It's what I do with other native fruit, like nannyberries and highbush cranberries and grapes. Can't wait to get the hawthorn fruit!@@Padraigp
It's such a joy to hear your words, and your wisdom with the care for the animals. Your character and opinions wonderfully seeps through to your video. You are right: let the plants teach you
@WillowsGreenPermaculture you know..I was thinking about the Aesofotedia I mentioned in a previous video comment. The India stores won't have that name. Its too formal botanical. And the workers will probably not either. So better to use the Indian Hindi name which us Hing or Heeng . They will know instantly. That's the one which ends flatulence immediately While you are there another very useful one is Ajwain It cuts heartburn or upset stomach instantly. It's fine seeds like caraway but smaller. And it's hard to eat straight..to stong. Best to add to warm water or a mild tea.
28:24 I love that take on permaculture! Never heard anyone else mentioning that. Really appreciate the different smells myself. Especially mint, coriander, parsley and even tomato leaves. It’s good for the soul!
I didn’t want to get too much into detail, but diverse aromas and flavours stimulate the memory centers in the brain which stimulate brain health. Just think of how an aroma can bring back a memory from decades prior.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculturewhen I planted the one foot tall nursery plant into my very poor compacted clay soil it literally exploded! Grew to 10 feet high, 6+ feet wide in just two seasons. I then cut it back radically and it really takes off in the spring. I can imagine the nasty thorns would even deter a bear from entering 😊
All of Ireland is warmer than where we are. We are Zone 5b, or 6a at best if they change the zone map for Ontario, Canada. So likely. You may even have a native variety.@@Padraigp
Thanks again for teaching about the "natural" fence to protect our garden! I want more privacy in our garden and food forest and this will be wonderful ! We have many deer, rabbits, racoons, etc. :) Actually, two weeks ago I heard and saw a pair of cougars in our backyard early in the morning! You are a wonderful teacher ! :)
Wow! Cougars! Thank you for your comment! Deer dislike yarrow, bleeding heart, purple coneflower and a bunch of other plants, plus of course all the prickly brambles.
Last 2 seasons I have taken some of the young, extra thorny branches off a honey locust and stuck them (upside down) next to my young celery, cabbage, chard, etc and I think it has helped keep rabbits at bay. Upside down cause it leaves the thorns angled downwards, which is less likely to hurt a kid who steps or falls on one
That's a good idea! Keep an eye on those branches, even upside down, they could root, I think! I love honey locust trees though. There is one close to this garden! I may do something like this to protect my young trees from winter foragers (my young oaks, redbuds, pawpaw and tulip trees always get nibbled). I don't mind so much, because I know they will keep growing. It just slows the process.
Wild grape, hm. I inherited one when I bought my house. I knew it was a grape, let it grow for shade for a few years, it never produced more than 5 grapes, dark, little balls, but definitely tasty. Then the lantern fly infestation came and they love it! So this year I'm cutting all fresh growth , dry the few young leaves to add to my greens blend. I also had a viney mostly ornamental plant (porcelain berry?) those nasty bugs just devoured. Stinging nettle it is now😂 good spot for it!
@@kleineroteHex It's a real pleasure! For the grapes, I suppose another idea would be to prune it the way grape growers prune it. I haven't attempted that yet, not even with my non-wild grapes.
I just found out today you can eat the whole of brambles from stem to root to berry. I picked the small light green top leaves and im going to eat them later or maybe dry them to make tea. Im gonna taste them in a while just soaking the aphids off them first. They say don't eat them if wilted and don't eat a lot cos they can cause tummy upsets. You can peel the soft stems and boil em like asparagus and you can also use the stripped long autumn new growth branches to make fibre like rope stuff. I can't be bothered what with all the prickles on there but if you ever need to quickly find fibre to tie something you can grab a bránch. With gloves!!! 😂
Yes, I collect raspberry leaves for tea sometimes. Good to know about the rope, because very often, we have more than we need. When it starts to get too close to the garden, I pull it up and place it in areas that require stabilizing the ground.@@Padraigp
This was a such a timely video Stefan. I was just thinking of how I need to plant things around the perimeter of my garden. The previous owner had several rows of wire around the perimeter which he electrified but I don't want to do that so I took off the electrical wires and still have a lower level of chicken wire and two rows of single wire but in total it's only about 3ft high. Thank you for all the plant suggestions. It's true that I will need patience in allowing things to grow. I planted a lot of seeds already so we'll see if the deer, raccoons and opossums ravage my garden this year.
Thank you so much. I originally put in a deer fence, but took it down when animals kept getting caught in it, and replaced it with the short fence I have. If you can, try planting stuff those animals are interested somewhere far from your garden while you wait for the plants to grow. Opossums are good to have around. They eat ticks. And to have the only marsupials to have survived the collision of north and South America millions of years ago is special. Deer are just beautiful, and though raccoons are really annoying they are also just fascinating. Thanks for your comment. 😊
Great video. I turn the key to my new place on June 13th. Can’t wait to build my garden and hopefully pull off a decent fall harvest. I’ll definitely be planting my raspberry, blackberry and grape on the boarder now.
Watched one of your videos yesterday for the first time, I am now a subscriber! Love the simple, get along with nature information, some is new and some reinforces what I know, which is awesome, you're honesty and enthusiasm is delightful! My property is surrounded on 3 sides by wild roses, wild blackberry and wild fox grapes, it can get out of control and needs to be kept in line, I curse the thorns and vines often when they get me, but love the privacy and flowers. Yarrow grows all over also, I am always transplanting it in different spots. I do the same with lavender, rosemary and basil...the smell is divine!
Thank you for sharing! Yes, the brambles do need to be kept in line. On wet days, and if the soil has lots of organic material in it, the roots are easy to pull, starting from where a sucker appears. That's how I keep them out of the garden for now. They are doing a great job protecting the garden I have to say. And feeding us.
Wonderful video! First one I’ve seen of yours. So informative and enchanting! I’ve subscribed! Moving to a new property and starting a garden. This is such a helpful and inspiring video! Thank you!
Good to know. I find many uses. The excess mint I get, I harvest and dry and put it on top of all of my potatoes in the garage to mask them from any intruders. .
That’s very common for it to be seen as untidy. Some municipalities are becoming more aware of supporting our native wildlife and are changing their bylaws. But it is a slow process. One reason why I do these videos. Public education.
I fell into permaculture because I was looking for lazy gardening. Something I could get started and not have to fuss with all the time. We got rid of our lawn a few years ago covering it with mulch and planting fruit trees, bushes, etc. It's been really nice but they are requiring us to submit all new planting for prior approval so we've kinda stepped back a bit. Now we are hoping to buy a house with some land from the lady my wife works for, and is we can get it, I'll be setting it up more syntropic style I think. Permaculture food forest, but in rows. My goal is to wrap the property in an English style hedgerow primarily of Hawthorne, with a mix of other fruiting trees to go out in nice and tight, then do the syntropic gardening within that protected area. Really hoping we can get the place because my mind has already filled it up 😄 If we get the whole property, probably at least half is protected in various ways so we can't remove it, which is fine. So I plan to add to those protected areas to fill them in for more wildlife and privacy. 🤞
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture we live in a mobile home park so are subject to the current management/owners whims. The most recent owners want everything approved up front. I'm not a fan of that but we don't own the land and it's always been in the contract, so it's time to move on if we can.
I learned to garden living in a mobile home many years ago. Prior to that experience, as a child, I thought I was just not a good gardener. I didn't understand as a child that I simply put the garden in the wrong place, and didn't think to ask for advice. At the mobile home, there was a garden plot and I decided to try my hand at it, and it worked so well. That's when I realized about setting up the right conditions (which happened to be already set up at that place. All the best with the house purchase!@@tracy419
It’s a pleasure. I’d like to try the grape leaf idea. You put fresh grape leaves in with the vegetables you are fermenting? I imagine you use young leaves?
Thank you for your question. 😊 Salads instead of balsamic vinegar, I will add it to different jams I am making instead of lemon juice/citric acid, I mix it with a little red wine to make something like a sangria, I will marinate meat with it instead of using cheap wine. That’s what I could think of off the top of my head.
THANK YOU 4 SHARING, so good to know about all these incredible plants and their uses & benefits, I am wondering if You consider in planting some hybrid Chestnuts for the deers and the family, they are full of protein and good fats, just a suggestion, I enjoyed watching your vídeo , Best regards & wishes.
Thank you for sharing your comment! What I would love to plant is the native chestnut that used to dominate in eastern North America but that is now almost completely gone. There are a few left though, very rare. In the meantime, I have planted many nut trees for the animals. Hickory, oak, hazelnut and more.
I ordered Joan J. from a catalog. Can't remember for sure but I think it was Gurney's. It's a nice thornless raspberry. Grows like crazy too, so you don't need too many plants to start.
I love your videos! So informative and passionate! New subscriber and shared videos with a friend who is setting up a new garden and wants to use natural ways to keep critters out. Thank you!
Thank you for your thorough video! I love all of your suggestions and can see the usefulness in such a thorny Hawthorne plant now! I live in Georgia, where are you?
I just pull them out and use them elsewhere where I need to stabilize the soil. I put a lot of organic material in the garden, so on a damp day, the runners are easy to pull out. Then I will simply take a spade, push it into the soil, push the root into the space created by the blade, kick the soil back in place, and let the raspberry do the rest. Takes no time.
Thank you! I'll add that to the beginning of new videos. We're in Zone 5b (maybe 6a with the new map coming out), in Ontario, north of Lake Ontario. Thanks for watching!
I just looked up where I bought it. It says they grow lemon-shaped fruit that make excellent preserves. I guess try boiling yours and then press the juice and pulp out of them.
It’s a pleasure! We’re in 5b, how about you? Knowing your zone and also your last spring frost date and first fall frost date, I could answer your question.
Hello sir! Do you have anything I can plant against snails? They are DECIMATING a big portion of our crop every spring becouse there is so much rain and they are roaming like crazy! They almost completely destroy our entire brassica crops, peppers, cucumbers, zucchinis and a bunch of others. I pray that you can help me friend 🙏
If you have long sticks, or long pieces of wood, make tripods or teepees or trellisses or any type of vertical structure inside your garden that birds can perch on and they will come and perch and they will see the snails and eat them. Do you have frogs close to your home? if you do put pieces of wood, or pieces ofbroken pottery, or dead logs, in your garden, they provide shelter to frogs, and the frogs will eat those snails. You can also put shallow dishes around the plants where the snails eat them and you can put a little bit of beer or some kind of sweet liquid in there and they will get trapped in there and then you can take them out of the garden.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture ah I haven't a clue what im doing. At the moment i have just cleared a lot of weeds with my wonderful eco frurindly and relaxing scythe and have gathered some nettles and bramble tops and sticky willy to eat... and I have an old polytunnel frame someone gave me 2 tomatoes outgrowing their pots and a few seedlings getting rather eviscerated by the slugs...when I can see some soil beneath the wilderness and pile up some straw or hay...impossible to find at the moment... then I might have a hope in hell of getting to digging at the small bits of black between. The mostly roots of the ground. It is just all roots roots everywhere. Bind weed nettle and bramble. Also have no money whatsoever and everything gardenish seems to cost quite a bit. I have polytunnel plastic and after 10 years having it finally came across a frame! Thought id manage to get one but never had the money. For the now ill collect the nettles and sticky willies and pretend I've been a very successful gardener. When i moved her my landlady did a round up and scraped off 2 foot of soil off the garden while my back was turned. And so 10 years has just been trying to let it recover and adding stupid things like manure whicb had herbicide in it and so I thought better just leave it alone till it gets back to natural and now at least there is some soil there and things look healthy ...so thats something. The minute I leave she will do it again. Shes a farmer so soil means nothing to her. It has been amaxing to watch everything come back bit by but every year something new. Bluebells daffodils all sorts ..anyway. if i can plant some peerenials ill be happy. My raspberries have done ok. And oregano and thyme. Anything delicate has not lasted. Like strawberries. Anything that need care and attention and for me not to go on holiday on the hottest two weeks of the year lol!
I can see it has been a real uphill battle. Any organic material you can get your hands on for free, arborists’ Woodchips for example, or the leaves people put on the curb in paper bags in the fall, get them and use them to rebuild your soil.
Im really sorry if this is a dumb question! But you mentioned planting things on the contour. Im from Scotland and dont understand what that means - do you just mean the boundary of your garden or is it something to do with designing/creating contours in a food forest?
Hi Margaret. There are no dumb questions. I guess it’s synonymous with border. I like the word contour, because it includes the idea of surrounding the whole garden. When I hear border, I often only visualize one side only. The contour surrounds the whole garden, along the fence that contours the garden as well. The word could be a Canadianism or maybe a Gallicism. I grew up with both French and English in the family.
For me contour is contour lines on a map showing where the hills and valleys are. And in dry areas, some people run ditches on contour to capture water. So I’m glad they asked this question, I was thinking you were meaning it that way.
Thank you very much for these questions. I get the confusion, having researched permaculture. Perimeter just seems so technical. Contour maybe isn’t so common in English. I actually just looked it up, thinking I’ve been mistakenly using a French word all this time in my English videos. Contour is more for irregular shapes (like our gardens), and maybe is more for artistic expression of an outline. Maybe that’s why this word has stuck for me. Because gardening is not only habitat restoration and food autonomy for me, it’s also artistic expression. I will be more clear in future videos.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thanks a bunch - I picked up seeds for some native roses in addition to rosa rugosa and caninia (non-native), but needs to stratify them (or might just sow outside in the fall for same effect). Thanks for your video and your kind response.
That's weird. You could always point it out to them through the help button. In any case, thank you for watching our videos! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture.
They can't jump over 7 feet. That's how high our roses are now. You prepare them like you would crabapples or nannyberries or hawthorne. Add some water, boil a little, and press the pulp out through a collander. The process into a jam, compote or jelly. Sometimes, I just eat it off the vine, and spit out the seeds.
The gooseberries we have here don't seem to have any thorns. The hawthorn is crataegus species, the Canada plum or black plum is prunus species. Our hawthorns are very young and have not yet bloomed. I hope they do this year!
Thanks for watching! If you have any questions, you can put them in the comments. It will be my pleasure to answer your questions!
can you write down the names of the plants? thanks
@@laijuzhang8287 Thank you for your request! Check out MG’s comment. One of the first ones for this video. The list of plants is in there.
We had Comfrey plants when we moved growing here. I don't use them internally, but I planted them all along one side of our garden outside the fence. They grow quite tall with their beautiful blooms and the bees, etc. love the
flowers! The plants keep grass from growing into the garden and my chickens love the leaves for a treat! They grow very deep and take up many minerals, etc. I use some on my compost piles, also! They have many uses for
poultices, etc.
Thank you very much for this. We just put some in last fall. I didn’t put any in the contour around the garden, but when they’re big enough to divide I’m going to follow your example to keep the grass out, attract the bees and have some ready green mulch. I talk about green mulch in part of this video if you’d like more details. ua-cam.com/video/n_lFxh3IbGk/v-deo.htmlsi=zX-hkDkr4GeL-Rgj
wild roses, raspberry, wild grapes, walking onion, lavender, sage, purple coneflower, thyme, yarrow, flowering quince, wormwood, hawthorn, peppermint, creeping charley, spearmint, lemon balm, catnip, hyssop, bee balm, blackberry, bleeding heart
That’s great! And you can add prickly ash (North American Szechuan spice) (tree that can be pruned into shrub). I forgot to mention it. I have lots of it.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture "North American Szechuan spice"? Please, tell me more ;)
North American Szechuan spice is a native tree, called prickly ash, Zanthoxylum americanum. It is the northernmost species of citrus tree! It is a citrus species (same family as lemons and oranges!) and is native to Canada and the northern US. The small red fruit have a mildly spicy flavour and when eaten raw, have a mildly numbing effect on the tongue. They are also a beautiful tree, especially when in flower and fruit, and are easily prunable into a bonsai type shape.
@@peterellis4262
I have a food forest in the embryonic stage. This tree sounds like it would do well in my northern Utah forest. Where you put wild rose, I think I'll put sea berry@@WillowsGreenPermaculture
That’s great! I don’t know sea berry. I’ll have to check it out!
That note about the animals eating the "fence" plants and moving along is an important idea. The fence doesn't have to be an impenetrable barrier - that's nearly impossible to achieve and expensive! ;) But it can be a very efficient deflector of incoming animals - Not easy to pass through, but tasty, so why try to pass through? Snack along the fenceline and keep on going toward some other browsing site.
Thank you! You got the idea. That's what I'm working on. It really seems to be working. Also, providing stuff they like to eat elsewhere, especially native plants, helps.
Thanks for the great visit!
You’re welcome!
Why do i like this man so much?! Very personable, knowledgeable, and thoughtful. That's why
Update
Second watch because there's so much valuable information! I love all the ideas regarding contour planting/ food fencing/ deterrents/ perennials. Plus it's so enjoyable to get tips with such passion for growing and encouraging sustainable living that's just darn right good for you ❤
Thank you! ❤️
💚
😊
Dried yarrow is good for cuts, sprinkle the herb, it will stop bleeding…
Thank you! It's so good for so many things, and a pretty flower too!
Wonderful information! Love the garden perimeter ideas. Can never have enough berries!
Thank you!❤️
I use mint for a mice replent in my chicken coups and mix it with the chicken feed(they love it).
A great use for the ton of mint that always grows when it’s established!
❤
😊
I think rose hips are heavy with vitamin C.
Yes, very healthy!
Love, love your videos, so informative. Thank you so much!
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoy them!
I plant mint in the lawn, hoping it will outcompete the grass! More mint!
I bet it would grow low and dense it if you cut it regularly as well!
Add pennyroyal instead of true mint. it's in themint family and tends to run low to the ground, so mowing it isn't an issue.
Great tip! Thank you!
@@douglasgrant2190 If you have animals that would be on the pennyroyal lawn, I wouldn't use it. It's toxic, even deadly to dogs, so I wouldn't be surprised if other animals had the same reaction.
Thank you Elizabeth. Very important to know.
Have you ever tried Chinese okra? It makes the Lofa sponge & privacy fences. Grows fast & is fun to grow. Fruit as big as watermelons.
Thank you for the tip!!! I grow okra (3 or 4 kinds) and I find it’s one of the most beautiful plants in the vegetable garden. The leaves and especially the flower, and the okra! I definitely have to try the Chinese okra! I wonder where I can get some seeds before mid-June!
bees love mint flowers
That's great! I have three types of mint practically surrounding the beehive!
My chickens love the mint
That just makes me smile! I’m sure you’ll always have lots of mint for them!
@@maryjane-vx4dd I was just about to say this. I can hardly even grow mint because my chickens eat it up as fast as the leaves sprout. Lol
Well you just described the solution to many peoples' challenges of having mint take over their garden! That's excellent!
Very useful information....I enjoyed the video.
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I love surrounding myself with clean food ❤your ideas
Thank you! ❤️
The wild roses do not keep the rabbits out. They make a home underneath.
Thank you for your comment. It helps me to clarify. The fence has kept them out for 4 years, it’s buried a foot deep. The roses are to make the fence inaccessible to the deer and raccoons, and other climbing or jumping animals. Any one solution, like a fence alone, or roses alone, doesn’t work. It’s integrating how animals use the space and trying to steer them away from the garden. My first year I put up a deer fence, a type of mesh, 7 feet tall,. It kept everything out, but I took it down because it was killing the snakes and the birds and the frogs and the chipmunks. They were all getting caught it. I had to rescue a snake out of it once that was caught and still alive. I kept telling the snake not to bite me as I worked to clear it from the mesh. I managed, thankfully. After my second or third dead animal in that fence, I got rid of it. And I started to think of ways I could keep animals out of the garden while still letting them use the land as their home as they should be able to. Providing them with their food further from the garden. As in natural food from native plants. So far, it’s working like a charm.
The Wormwood I have here in New England just grows wild in stalks. Like golden rod. Interesting, wish mine grew in nice round bushes but they spread underground and put up shoots everywhere.
I think there are several kinds. I'm pretty sure I planted mine from seed, so I'm going to try to find out what kind it is. I might be able to do this with a search, just looking at varieties and their growth habits.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture My "leafsnap" app identifies mine as just common wormwood a species of mugworts. If that helps.
Thank you. I will see what I can find out.
Have you tried trimming the top so it branches out? Most plants and trees do that.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Yeah, this type does not branch, stays a single stalk no matter what. Will put up new shoots next to it though. I'm consistently chopping and dropping it for mulch since it grows so fast. Most people around here think its one of the worst weeds but I love it for all its uses! 😁
That second mint you held up looks like apple mint, a favorite of mine.
Yes. Thank you. That’s what it is. A branch of it was given to us and I forgot the name.
Thank you! Super helpful how you share and show the plants and describe all that they are good for!
Thank you. I am very glad our videos are helpful!
Hawthorn flowers are good to eat also you can make a beautiful tincture from the flowers and berries good for the heart 🏴💜💜
Thank you! I didn’t know about the flowers! It’s good to know the berries are good for the heart. I hope to get some soon!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculturethe leaves are also good for the heart and veins arteries. But if you're on heart medication you have to be careful also the seeds are the highest in that medicinal qualities ao if you eat the berries with the seeds still inside one berry a day is enough !if you remove the seeds you can make good fruit roll up called haw flakes. The berries and leaves are milder than the seeds which are very strong and eating too many of the seeds is not advised. Also start small and work up to a bigger dose if you're not uses to taking them as with most things just in case you react to it.
Thank you! I look foreward to eating the berries. I would probably just not swallow the seeds and keep them to replant more hawthorn!@@Padraigp
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture ah well theyre a bit hard to spit out cos they're very small. Usually you would make a haw syrup and then when the fruit is soft seive out the seeds ...they're a bit like rosehips so ya know that annoying fibre that kinda gets in your teeth and catches the seeds of the hips its a bit like that only smaller. And definitely a lot nice when you cook em with a bit of lemon and honey and then just mash em through a sieve and that gets the pesky seeds out. Or because im mostly far too lazy i just pick em dry am put em in a jar and swallow one like a tablet! Then at the end of the year the ones youve not eaten you can chuck in the compost and the seeds might grow! But theyre not yummy to just eat raw off the tree unless youre very peckish!
Thank you! I will try the syrup idea. It's what I do with other native fruit, like nannyberries and highbush cranberries and grapes. Can't wait to get the hawthorn fruit!@@Padraigp
It's such a joy to hear your words, and your wisdom with the care for the animals. Your character and opinions wonderfully seeps through to your video. You are right: let the plants teach you
Thank you so much!
@WillowsGreenPermaculture you know..I was thinking about the Aesofotedia I mentioned in a previous video comment. The India stores won't have that name. Its too formal botanical. And the workers will probably not either.
So better to use the Indian Hindi name which us Hing or Heeng . They will know instantly.
That's the one which ends flatulence immediately
While you are there another very useful one is Ajwain
It cuts heartburn or upset stomach instantly. It's fine seeds like caraway but smaller. And it's hard to eat straight..to stong. Best to add to warm water or a mild tea.
Thank you!
28:24 I love that take on permaculture! Never heard anyone else mentioning that. Really appreciate the different smells myself. Especially mint, coriander, parsley and even tomato leaves. It’s good for the soul!
I didn’t want to get too much into detail, but diverse aromas and flavours stimulate the memory centers in the brain which stimulate brain health. Just think of how an aroma can bring back a memory from decades prior.
24:33 Szechuan pepper is also an excellent choice. It’s Winter Hardy, grows prolifically and gives you pepper for the kitchen
Thank you! I forgot to mention that one! We have a whole bunch of it. It’s a tree but can be pruned to grow like a shrub!
@@WillowsGreenPermaculturewhen I planted the one foot tall nursery plant into my very poor compacted clay soil it literally exploded! Grew to 10 feet high, 6+ feet wide in just two seasons. I then cut it back radically and it really takes off in the spring.
I can imagine the nasty thorns would even deter a bear from entering 😊
Yes they probably would😊
Will it grow in a coler climate like ireland do you think?
All of Ireland is warmer than where we are. We are Zone 5b, or 6a at best if they change the zone map for Ontario, Canada. So likely. You may even have a native variety.@@Padraigp
THANK YOU FOR THE GREAT INFO MANY BLESSINGS ❤❤❤❤
Thank you Patricia! Many blessings to you too! ❤
Thanks again for teaching about the "natural" fence to protect our garden! I want more privacy in our garden and food forest and this will be wonderful ! We have many deer, rabbits, racoons, etc. :) Actually, two weeks ago I heard and saw a pair of cougars in our backyard early in the morning! You are a wonderful teacher ! :)
Wow! Cougars! Thank you for your comment! Deer dislike yarrow, bleeding heart, purple coneflower and a bunch of other plants, plus of course all the prickly brambles.
Amazing, always something new to learn, thank you very much 🙂
It’s a pleasure! Thank you for sharing! 😊
Excellent video as always.
Your enthusiasm for gardening and nature is amazing. Best w
ishes Stefan & Magali.
Thank you Sharlene! Best wishes to you too!
In Texas we had Mustang Grapes as wild grapes.
They look like the ones here. Maybe a bit bigger. Wild grapes are the best!
Last 2 seasons I have taken some of the young, extra thorny branches off a honey locust and stuck them (upside down) next to my young celery, cabbage, chard, etc and I think it has helped keep rabbits at bay. Upside down cause it leaves the thorns angled downwards, which is less likely to hurt a kid who steps or falls on one
That's a good idea! Keep an eye on those branches, even upside down, they could root, I think! I love honey locust trees though. There is one close to this garden! I may do something like this to protect my young trees from winter foragers (my young oaks, redbuds, pawpaw and tulip trees always get nibbled). I don't mind so much, because I know they will keep growing. It just slows the process.
Wild grape, hm. I inherited one when I bought my house. I knew it was a grape, let it grow for shade for a few years, it never produced more than 5 grapes, dark, little balls, but definitely tasty. Then the lantern fly infestation came and they love it! So this year I'm cutting all fresh growth , dry the few young leaves to add to my greens blend. I also had a viney mostly ornamental plant (porcelain berry?) those nasty bugs just devoured. Stinging nettle it is now😂 good spot for it!
Sometimes you need to cut a vine right back to rejuvenate it so it gives more fruit. The process takes more than a year though.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture this is cut back year for sure. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience!
@@kleineroteHex It's a real pleasure! For the grapes, I suppose another idea would be to prune it the way grape growers prune it. I haven't attempted that yet, not even with my non-wild grapes.
@WillowsGreenPermaculture always appreciate your input!
@@kleineroteHex Thank you!
This is exciting! I have wild black berries on my property, it's good to know I can use them to create a fence around my garden ❤
Oh yes! And they are easy to propagate. Thanks for watching!
I just found out today you can eat the whole of brambles from stem to root to berry. I picked the small light green top leaves and im going to eat them later or maybe dry them to make tea. Im gonna taste them in a while just soaking the aphids off them first. They say don't eat them if wilted and don't eat a lot cos they can cause tummy upsets. You can peel the soft stems and boil em like asparagus and you can also use the stripped long autumn new growth branches to make fibre like rope stuff. I can't be bothered what with all the prickles on there but if you ever need to quickly find fibre to tie something you can grab a bránch. With gloves!!! 😂
Yes, I collect raspberry leaves for tea sometimes. Good to know about the rope, because very often, we have more than we need. When it starts to get too close to the garden, I pull it up and place it in areas that require stabilizing the ground.@@Padraigp
Thanks for this! We have a lot of these plants growing around the property, these are some great ideas to utilize them in new ways
It’s a pleasure! Thank you for sharing your comment!
Man I find it useful! I plan on doing a permaculture garden as well in the near future. Your videos are a huge inspiration!
Thank you so much!
This was a such a timely video Stefan. I was just thinking of how I need to plant things around the perimeter of my garden. The previous owner had several rows of wire around the perimeter which he electrified but I don't want to do that so I took off the electrical wires and still have a lower level of chicken wire and two rows of single wire but in total it's only about 3ft high. Thank you for all the plant suggestions. It's true that I will need patience in allowing things to grow. I planted a lot of seeds already so we'll see if the deer, raccoons and opossums ravage my garden this year.
Thank you so much. I originally put in a deer fence, but took it down when animals kept getting caught in it, and replaced it with the short fence I have. If you can, try planting stuff those animals are interested somewhere far from your garden while you wait for the plants to grow. Opossums are good to have around. They eat ticks. And to have the only marsupials to have survived the collision of north and South America millions of years ago is special. Deer are just beautiful, and though raccoons are really annoying they are also just fascinating. Thanks for your comment. 😊
Great video. I turn the key to my new place on June 13th. Can’t wait to build my garden and hopefully pull off a decent fall harvest.
I’ll definitely be planting my raspberry, blackberry and grape on the boarder now.
That's great! All the best!
Watched one of your videos yesterday for the first time, I am now a subscriber! Love the simple, get along with nature information, some is new and some reinforces what I know, which is awesome, you're honesty and enthusiasm is delightful! My property is surrounded on 3 sides by wild roses, wild blackberry and wild fox grapes, it can get out of control and needs to be kept in line, I curse the thorns and vines often when they get me, but love the privacy and flowers. Yarrow grows all over also, I am always transplanting it in different spots. I do the same with lavender, rosemary and basil...the smell is divine!
Thank you for sharing! Yes, the brambles do need to be kept in line. On wet days, and if the soil has lots of organic material in it, the roots are easy to pull, starting from where a sucker appears. That's how I keep them out of the garden for now. They are doing a great job protecting the garden I have to say. And feeding us.
Just found your channel. Love your outlook and your knowledge. Great content, thanks.
Thank you! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
Great idea, thanks
You’re welcome!
Wonderful video! First one I’ve seen of yours. So informative and enchanting! I’ve subscribed! Moving to a new property and starting a garden. This is such a helpful and inspiring video! Thank you!
Thank you Laurell! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
Cardboard killed the excessive mint in my yard. Mint is intrusive but makes good tea.
Good to know. I find many uses. The excess mint I get, I harvest and dry and put it on top of all of my potatoes in the garage to mask them from any intruders. .
Never thought of bundling the dead flowers. I live in town and leaving them for the birds looks wrong to the neighbors. Thanks
That’s very common for it to be seen as untidy. Some municipalities are becoming more aware of supporting our native wildlife and are changing their bylaws. But it is a slow process. One reason why I do these videos. Public education.
I fell into permaculture because I was looking for lazy gardening. Something I could get started and not have to fuss with all the time.
We got rid of our lawn a few years ago covering it with mulch and planting fruit trees, bushes, etc.
It's been really nice but they are requiring us to submit all new planting for prior approval so we've kinda stepped back a bit.
Now we are hoping to buy a house with some land from the lady my wife works for, and is we can get it, I'll be setting it up more syntropic style I think.
Permaculture food forest, but in rows.
My goal is to wrap the property in an English style hedgerow primarily of Hawthorne, with a mix of other fruiting trees to go out in nice and tight, then do the syntropic gardening within that protected area.
Really hoping we can get the place because my mind has already filled it up 😄
If we get the whole property, probably at least half is protected in various ways so we can't remove it, which is fine.
So I plan to add to those protected areas to fill them in for more wildlife and privacy.
🤞
When you say you have to submit new planting for approval, who is they? Is this limited to a specific municipality or a bigger region?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture we live in a mobile home park so are subject to the current management/owners whims.
The most recent owners want everything approved up front.
I'm not a fan of that but we don't own the land and it's always been in the contract, so it's time to move on if we can.
I learned to garden living in a mobile home many years ago. Prior to that experience, as a child, I thought I was just not a good gardener. I didn't understand as a child that I simply put the garden in the wrong place, and didn't think to ask for advice. At the mobile home, there was a garden plot and I decided to try my hand at it, and it worked so well. That's when I realized about setting up the right conditions (which happened to be already set up at that place. All the best with the house purchase!@@tracy419
Thnx for all the info. I use grape leaves to fermented veggies to keep them crisp. Another great use from the grapes! Thanks again for all the tips. 😁
It’s a pleasure. I’d like to try the grape leaf idea. You put fresh grape leaves in with the vegetables you are fermenting? I imagine you use young leaves?
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture as long as they look good any size. The larger ones help hold the ferment down better!
Thank you!
Great video!
Thank you!
What do you add the grape juice to when cooking? ❤️your life
Thank you for your question. 😊 Salads instead of balsamic vinegar, I will add it to different jams I am making instead of lemon juice/citric acid, I mix it with a little red wine to make something like a sangria, I will marinate meat with it instead of using cheap wine. That’s what I could think of off the top of my head.
THANK YOU 4 SHARING, so good to know about all these incredible plants and their uses & benefits, I am wondering if You consider in planting some hybrid Chestnuts for the deers and the family, they are full of protein and good fats, just a suggestion, I enjoyed watching your vídeo , Best regards & wishes.
Thank you for sharing your comment! What I would love to plant is the native chestnut that used to dominate in eastern North America but that is now almost completely gone. There are a few left though, very rare. In the meantime, I have planted many nut trees for the animals. Hickory, oak, hazelnut and more.
I live in the city so not worried about deers but would love to find one or two thornless raspberries to plant.
I think you can get those in nurseries. You don’t have raccoons in the city?
I ordered Joan J. from a catalog. Can't remember for sure but I think it was Gurney's. It's a nice thornless raspberry. Grows like crazy too, so you don't need too many plants to start.
It probably makes a real web too, so you can probably still use it as a hedge.@@varred1680
My 2nd video of yours. You're an awesome guy dude! Keep on keepin on! ❤️
Thank you! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture!
I love your videos! So informative and passionate! New subscriber and shared videos with a friend who is setting up a new garden and wants to use natural ways to keep critters out. Thank you!
Thank you! 🙏 Welcome to you and to your friend to Willows Green Permaculture!
Thank you for your thorough video! I love all of your suggestions and can see the usefulness in such a thorny Hawthorne plant now! I live in Georgia, where are you?
Thank you for sharing! We're in Ontario.
31:23 how do you handle the raspberry runners? Mine really took off in year two and I need to contain them somewhat from taking over the whole yard
I just pull them out and use them elsewhere where I need to stabilize the soil. I put a lot of organic material in the garden, so on a damp day, the runners are easy to pull out. Then I will simply take a spade, push it into the soil, push the root into the space created by the blade, kick the soil back in place, and let the raspberry do the rest. Takes no time.
Salutari❤
Grazie mille
Great video! What state or zone are you in? It's helpful when you are talking about native plants.
Thank you! I'll add that to the beginning of new videos. We're in Zone 5b (maybe 6a with the new map coming out), in Ontario, north of Lake Ontario. Thanks for watching!
That quince, if its like mine, will give you hard small fruit. If you figure out how to eat it i would love to know.
Ok. Will do! I can’t remember when I got it in 2020 what it said about the plant. I’ll have to go back in my records to see where I got it from.
I just looked up where I bought it. It says they grow lemon-shaped fruit that make excellent preserves. I guess try boiling yours and then press the juice and pulp out of them.
Thank you for sharing, in what gardening zone do you live? I live in Wisconsin. Do you think I could have the same plants here?
It’s a pleasure! We’re in 5b, how about you? Knowing your zone and also your last spring frost date and first fall frost date, I could answer your question.
Hello sir! Do you have anything I can plant against snails? They are DECIMATING a big portion of our crop every spring becouse there is so much rain and they are roaming like crazy! They almost completely destroy our entire brassica crops, peppers, cucumbers, zucchinis and a bunch of others. I pray that you can help me friend 🙏
If you have long sticks, or long pieces of wood, make tripods or teepees or trellisses or any type of vertical structure inside your garden that birds can perch on and they will come and perch and they will see the snails and eat them. Do you have frogs close to your home? if you do put pieces of wood, or pieces ofbroken pottery, or dead logs, in your garden, they provide shelter to frogs, and the frogs will eat those snails. You can also put shallow dishes around the plants where the snails eat them and you can put a little bit of beer or some kind of sweet liquid in there and they will get trapped in there and then you can take them out of the garden.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thank you 🙂
You’re very welcome! 😊
How come my garden can make huge crops of nettles dandilions and brambles but not huge crops of kale and potatoes and turnips?
I’ll be doing a video on cabbage and kale within a week I think. It’s a question of spacing and starting kale ahead of time.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture ah I haven't a clue what im doing. At the moment i have just cleared a lot of weeds with my wonderful eco frurindly and relaxing scythe and have gathered some nettles and bramble tops and sticky willy to eat... and I have an old polytunnel frame someone gave me 2 tomatoes outgrowing their pots and a few seedlings getting rather eviscerated by the slugs...when I can see some soil beneath the wilderness and pile up some straw or hay...impossible to find at the moment... then I might have a hope in hell of getting to digging at the small bits of black between. The mostly roots of the ground. It is just all roots roots everywhere. Bind weed nettle and bramble. Also have no money whatsoever and everything gardenish seems to cost quite a bit. I have polytunnel plastic and after 10 years having it finally came across a frame! Thought id manage to get one but never had the money. For the now ill collect the nettles and sticky willies and pretend I've been a very successful gardener. When i moved her my landlady did a round up and scraped off 2 foot of soil off the garden while my back was turned. And so 10 years has just been trying to let it recover and adding stupid things like manure whicb had herbicide in it and so I thought better just leave it alone till it gets back to natural and now at least there is some soil there and things look healthy ...so thats something. The minute I leave she will do it again. Shes a farmer so soil means nothing to her. It has been amaxing to watch everything come back bit by but every year something new. Bluebells daffodils all sorts ..anyway. if i can plant some peerenials ill be happy. My raspberries have done ok. And oregano and thyme. Anything delicate has not lasted. Like strawberries. Anything that need care and attention and for me not to go on holiday on the hottest two weeks of the year lol!
I can see it has been a real uphill battle. Any organic material you can get your hands on for free, arborists’ Woodchips for example, or the leaves people put on the curb in paper bags in the fall, get them and use them to rebuild your soil.
Im really sorry if this is a dumb question! But you mentioned planting things on the contour. Im from Scotland and dont understand what that means - do you just mean the boundary of your garden or is it something to do with designing/creating contours in a food forest?
Hi Margaret. There are no dumb questions. I guess it’s synonymous with border. I like the word contour, because it includes the idea of surrounding the whole garden. When I hear border, I often only visualize one side only. The contour surrounds the whole garden, along the fence that contours the garden as well. The word could be a Canadianism or maybe a Gallicism. I grew up with both French and English in the family.
For me contour is contour lines on a map showing where the hills and valleys are. And in dry areas, some people run ditches on contour to capture water. So I’m glad they asked this question, I was thinking you were meaning it that way.
Thank you very much for these questions. I get the confusion, having researched permaculture. Perimeter just seems so technical. Contour maybe isn’t so common in English. I actually just looked it up, thinking I’ve been mistakenly using a French word all this time in my English videos. Contour is more for irregular shapes (like our gardens), and maybe is more for artistic expression of an outline. Maybe that’s why this word has stuck for me. Because gardening is not only habitat restoration and food autonomy for me, it’s also artistic expression. I will be more clear in future videos.
Which species of wild rose is that? I know there a a bunch of native roses here in the US, curious which one that is.
I can't remember where I got this one. I grew it from seed. I will get it identified, however, and I'll get back.
@@WillowsGreenPermaculture Thanks a bunch - I picked up seeds for some native roses in addition to rosa rugosa and caninia (non-native), but needs to stratify them (or might just sow outside in the fall for same effect). Thanks for your video and your kind response.
Fall sowing will take care of the stratifying!
UA-cam keeps unsubscribing me from your channel. I have to re-subscribe everytime I click on one of your videos.
That's weird. You could always point it out to them through the help button. In any case, thank you for watching our videos! Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture.
The wild roses are covered with mean thorns
I can’t get rid of them, you mean the white flower roses
That’s why I use them. They keep the animals out. And you can eat the hips.
How do you prepare the wild rose hips ? The deer around here just jump over bushes
They can't jump over 7 feet. That's how high our roses are now. You prepare them like you would crabapples or nannyberries or hawthorne. Add some water, boil a little, and press the pulp out through a collander. The process into a jam, compote or jelly. Sometimes, I just eat it off the vine, and spit out the seeds.
Gooseberries. Lots of thorns. What you called hawthorn I think is really Canadian plum. White blooms?
The gooseberries we have here don't seem to have any thorns. The hawthorn is crataegus species, the Canada plum or black plum is prunus species. Our hawthorns are very young and have not yet bloomed. I hope they do this year!