It was 50 degrees today, and I saw two bees buzz by my face—one was a bumble bee and one was a smaller one, but not a honeybee. I had just put up a mason bee house (picture one). It’s for our native bees who lay their eggs in tubes. You place it 5 ft from the ground facing East and hopefully some bees make their home with you. It helps to provide nectar flowers for them. Picture two is a birdbath for insects as well. It has atheneum steps for bugs to drink without drowning! Behind it is a recycling bin I use to grow vegetables. I’m noticing its bulging sides—the soil seems to have frozen and I hope it doesn’t crack! Picture three is the sugar water I ran inside to make when I saw the two bees. I just mixed some sugar into hot water and added some cold water to temper it. I certainly have no nectar flowers blooming, so this is the next best thing I can offer. The only thing I can think of that is blooming now is the spring-blooming witch hazel. Hamamelis...something. Not virginiana, because that’s our native one that blooms in November (great for late pollinators). The spring blooming one is not native, but might be worth including in your yard for these early insects. It can grow into a small tree but will stay a large shrub if you cut it often. In other news, something has made its home under our shed, and another something dug tunnels in our compost pile. The last thing that made a home under our shed was promptly eaten by a fox. I saw the fox walk away chewing something. Unfortunately, two foxes have been killed in the road near us.
And a bird excreted a favor for me on the impromptu birdbath I made. (The bowl of it was frozen to the ground—whoops.) I genuinely think there are more birds visiting our yard this year. Last year I remember lamenting that no birds stopped, save for the pair that nests in the spruce out front each year.
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I’ve seen five kinds of birds in the yard in the past two days!
-the big fat grey and white bird -little grey and white winter birds (at least four at once ruffling through the leaves and dead plants) -a woodpecker -a mourning dove -a hawk Why am I so excited about birds? They signal the health of an ecosystem, since they’re relatively far up the food chain. More birds means more diversity below them on the food chain (insect and plant) and a more resilient ecosystem. A big fat grey and white bird with a long tail just landed in my yard! He was checking out my froze birdbath, which I should pour some warm water into, so he can have a drink.
I’ve been lamenting the barren wasteland that no birds come to, so it’s delightful to see one. Of course the cat got out a few minutes later. So far the only casualty has been a chipmunk, but even that is too much. When wildlife returns to the yard, I am going to have to keep the cats inside all the time. No short jaunts in the great outdoors. Growing cat grass and playing with them regularly should help. I've lain awake the last few nights listening to the wind howl. It howled a lot in the fall as well. I went out to determine the direction and found that it was whipping from the South and Southwest, right through the front yard. Willy Weather confirmed it. They have a great feature that tracks current wind speed and direction, and they have records for the past few months. Seems like the wind generally blows anywhere from Northwest to West to South in our yard, with the strongest wind coming from the West. Why does wind matter to a garden? It warps trees or places undue stress on them, and can inhibit all plant growth. Livestock exposed to strong wind are about 1/3 lighter than sheltered livestock because they use so much energy to stay up! It’s our front yard that catches wind the hardest; it’s on a busy street, which acts as a wind tunnel. I thought it was protected enough by the surrounding houses and trees, but I was wrong. So I redesigned the gardens. (I honestly don’t know why some streets create faster than others. It probably has something to do with building height. Our old house was amongst tall city buildings and the gusts were huge. If you’re wondering whether you need to redesign your food forest to include wind protection, listen to the wind at night, or go out in a wind event to see what the wind is doing in your little yard.) My new design includes a windbreak hedge, which creates a warm and calm microclimate within. I was somewhat dismayed when I realized that I had to include a windbreak; I wanted my garden on display, and I wanted to fit the maximum number of trees in the front yard. But a hedge provides other benefits, such as nesting locations for birds and a sensical way to include shrubs I wanted but didn’t include in the original design. To choose the shrubs to include, I went to Martin Crawford’s handy dandy book. Not great options. I wanted my hedge to be entirely native plants (Read the book Bringing Nature Home to find out why) and Crawford has no problem with planting plants from other continents. Some ground rules for windbreaks:
So, I decided on:
When I told the previous owners of the house that I intended to plant vegetables in the yard, they looked panic-stricken and said I shouldn’t do that because they had used a lot of pesticides. Cue lots of research on my part and a conversation with a soil scientist, and the conclusion was that pesticides weren’t as dangerous to human health as lead or arsenic in the soil. When we got the place, the soil was devoid of any life that wasn’t microscopic, so we decided to add organic matter to the soil in the form of wood chips and leaves, and then wait for life to return. And it has! I found at least a dozen worms today as I dug some paths. It’s reassuring to see them. Worms found in the winter are going to be the European nightcrawler, which came to North America with the colonists and fit in well with the local ecosystems. There is another worm, the Asian Jumping Worm, that has recently arrived and poses a threat to our ecosystems, due to its voracious eating habits. This is a jumping worm. And yes it is a picture of a photo on my phone because good lord I am going to switch away from Weebly as a website host very soon. These worms are like a sleek muscle, and the white band around their neck is even with their body, not raised. I had to look at a lot of pictures and videos to be able to determine which was a nightcrawler and which was a jumping worm, but I’ve learned to distinguish the difference easily and so can you! I had them last fall and I will keep an eye out for them in the spring (they cannot survive our winters as adults but their eggs can). Unfortunately, at this time, they should be killed when they are found; they pose a huge threat to our environment. My question, to which I haven’t found an answer, is: What do they eat in their native Japan? How can we use their natural tendencies to lessen their impact here? I will write more about them in the spring. I found this video to be very informative when I was looking for more information last fall, in case your interest is piqued: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JvxrcYbIKk Now I will go do a little celebratory dance to welcome the worms.
The herbaceous layer of a food forest is not just grass, though gardeners can leave the grass while they install the forest over a period of time. (Just don't allow grass within a two-foot circle of newly planted trees). The ground layer consists of carefully chosen plants that serve seven different functions, ideally with each plant serving two or more functions, for efficiency. In general gardening theory, maintenance is easier and appearances are cleaner when the garden contains fewer species planted in clumps and drifts, as opposed to a collector's garden with one of everything. The plants in a food forest help the system take care of itself without needing to add fertilizers or pesticides. Some may still be necessary for the fussier fruit trees, but they should be considerably limited. The seven functions are as follows: 1) Nitrogen fixing. Nitrogen promotes green growth, and it is the limiting factor in all forests; the system can only grow as the available Nitrogen allows. Some plants capture Nitrogen from the air and store it in their roots, diffusing it to neighboring plants. Creating a Forest Garden by Martin Crawford contains excellent resources for all of these functions. Here I will just tell you my plant choices. Lupine Lupinus perennis. This is our native blue Lupine, host to the Karner Blue butterfly, which has been driven nearly to extinction and is no longer found in CT. New Jersey Tea Ceanothus americanus. This is a native shrub, whose leaves can be used for tea, or rubbed to make a foamy soap. Bayberry Myrica pensylvanica. Another Latin name that indicates that it's native to this continent. You can use the leaves as a substitute for bay leaves. 2) Other nutrient fixers. Fruit trees need other nutrients in addition to Nitrogen, such as Phosphorus, Calcium, etc. Deep-rooted plants mine the soil for nutrients and bring it up to the surface for other plants to use. The nutrients become even more available when the leafy part of the plant is cut off and lain around the garden to decompose into the soil. I will be using: Comfrey. Chop down once or twice a year and lay around fruit trees. A powerful nutrient accumulator. Only plant it where you're certain you want it, because it can become a nuisance. Typically I'm wary of plants like this, but I've grown it before and it's so useful. Yarrow Achillea millefolium. I'm a little nervous about this one. Supposedly it's very aggressive, but it's native, so I'm a little more comfortable with that. And it serves so many functions. Watch how often it appears on this list. 3) Differing root zones. Trees have shallow roots that reside within the top two feet of soil, extending out as far as twice the width of the canopy. But there's so much space in the soil! You might as well plan to use it by planting things with differing root depths. This allows for maximum nutrient absorption and water capture which benefits the whole system. New Jersey Tea. Deep roots. Yarrow. Deep roots. Comfrey. Deep roots. Wild Strawberry Fragaria virginiana. Shallow roots. Viola. Shallow roots. This is the only food source of the Fritillary butterfly, so I'm including it in the plan. It's always good to plant for specialist species like this, to ensure their survival. 4) Ground cover. When the soil is covered by plants you want, you'll have less appearance of plants you don't want, i.e. weeds. Ground covers also retain moisture in the soil and prevent erosion. In annual vegetable gardens, mulch serves this function, but in perennial gardens it can be accomplished with plants for reduced maintenance. Wild Strawberry Fragaria virginiana. A very aggressive ground cover. Good lawn alternative. I may regret planting it if it takes over everything, but it's also a great wildlife plant. Nasturtium. This is an annual, so I'll seed it each spring, until the ground is so covered that there's no space for it. 5) Bee attractant. You want your fruit pollinated and you want to feed these lovely creatures. There are a million bee plants out there, so the main challenge will be choosing which ones to use! Garlic chives Lupine Nasturtium Viola 6) Beneficial insect attractant. These fall into a separate category from bees because they do different things. The most common ones are predatory wasps and flies, who lay their eggs in caterpillars, which in turn kills the caterpillar. Hopefully they mostly target fruit pest caterpillars and not our lovely native moths and butterflies, but you can't control it. The only thing you can do is provide lots of different native plants to attract a variety of insects and birds, and they'll balance each other out somehow. Yarrow Achillea millefolium. Anything with an umbrella-like flower consisting of clusters of tiny flowers will attract beneficial insects. Golden Alexander Zizia aurea. the original, native food of swallowtail butterflies. A somewhat traitorous plant, I suppose, as it also attracts the wasps who kill them. 7) Aromatic plants. Another layer of defense against fruit pests, these plants deter them from ripening fruit by confusing their senses. Oregano Chives Lemon balm Yarrow Daffodil I would argue that any garden, ornamental, vegetable, or food forest, would benefit from plants that serve these functions. Your typical nursery may not have all of these plants; Natureworks does, or it can order them if they're not in stock when you visit. You can also try your hand at growing them from seed, as I am doing with many of them, but a potted plant will give you quicker and more guaranteed results. From early November to Early January I didn’t really do anything with the yard. Wasn’t even interested in it, really. My energy really tanked after moving the final bits of the wood chip pile on Halloween, and I just went inside. It was good to take a break from the project, until doubts crept in. As I huddled on the couch, my brain berated me: “this project is ugly and stupid and what do you know about growing a food forest anyway, and you can’t make a decision about anything”. Well, the whole point of this is that I don’t know that much about growing an integrated vegetable and tree garden. I’ve learned by reading books this year. Anyone can do that. This entire project is meant to prove that an ordinary person can grow food for themselves and for wildlife. It’s designed to inspire you to read the books yourself, or just plant some things and see what happens. So...enough from you, Doubt Brain. (Actually I think doubts are helpful as long as you don’t succumb to them; they make you justify your actions and it feels good to make decisive choices having faced your fears.) I arose from my indifference around the New Year, when my friends were over and asked about my project. I explained my planting plan to them, and showed them what I call my Paper Dolls, which I’ve been using to decide what goes where. They were very excited, and their encouragement got me excited again about my project. I finished my plan, and I want to share it with you. There are my paper dolls! Regular landscape designers create a base map with dark lines and draw shapes for plants on tracing paper over it. I would have used a million sheets of tracing paper; I have moved these darn things around so many times trying to figure out the best arrangement. Sometimes it felt like I was spending too much time on it, but I figure if I'm going to spend a long time on something, it might as well be the planning process. To create the base map, I measured my yard and drew a scale drawing on graph paper. I then cut to-scale squares of the trees and shrubs I was considering including. I colored them to make them beautiful and easy to identify. Oh, and fun to play with. Scale-size trees and shrubs are a low-risk way to see what might fit in your yard. I had a 100 foot Chestnut tree paper doll. Guess who got cut up into smaller trees when she took up the entire yard? I included limitations on my base map: -Septic leaching field in the backyard: no trees or shrubs can go on here, since their roots will potentially damage the system. Raised vegetable beds or a meadow could possibly go on here, but that's another task for another day. -Underground gas line in front: no shrubs within 6 feet, no trees within 25 feet. Once again, this is so that their roots don't damage the line. Paw Paw roots are less aggressive, so I chose to plant those nearest the line. Vegetable and meadow roots are delicate and would not damage the line. -It's not really a limitation, but I sought to include as many native plants as possible. They provide food and habitat for insects and birds. (Read more about this is Doug Tallamy's Bringing Nature Home). It's easy to get carried away with wanting different kinds of fruit trees, but reminding myself to include native plants helped create a final product that's really for everybody. The backyard came together first. Along the back slope will be berries. "Blub" means blueberry, "Elderb" means elderberry. Berries can be unruly, and can spread over the years, especially raspberries and blackberries, so I put them way in back. Currently there is a lilac bush where the elderberry will go, so replacing that is a long-term project. All of these berries are native. I wanted an elderberry a) because they make immune-boosting syrup b) because they feed wildlife and c) because in the Middle Ages, people planted elderberries at the head of their gardens to watch over everything, and I think that’s a lovely idea. Three tiny apple trees and an apricot tree are down the slope near the deck. These are not dwarf trees, which have weak root systems and are generally unhealthy, they are standard fruit trees that will be raring to reach 30 feet tall but I'm going to use a pruning technique to keep them 6 feet tall. None of these types of trees are native. When planning trees, you should plan how they will be watered. Admittedly, I don't have a tight scheme for this right now. These trees will hopefully be watered by a ditch dug next to the sidewalk to harvest the water running down from the rest of the street. I’m at the bottom of a slope, and an incredible amount of water runs by my house to the sewer, and I’m going to try and grab some of it to water my trees. If that doesn't work, I will run drip irrigation. The plum cluster is three trees planted so close together that their branches intermingle. This is the pollination technique recommended by Fedco Tree Catalog. (Pollinating plums is apparently notoriously difficult). I will have two American Plums that I will grow from seed, and one hybrid plum (Santa Rosa) which is bred for larger fruit size and better flavor. The two American Plums will also produce fruit, but it will be smaller, with a flavor determined by the genetic lottery. American plums are host to hundreds and hundreds of insect larvae, which in turn will be excellent food for baby birds. If I lose fruit because of that, fine. "No food" written by the house is a reminder that no food should be grown within three feet of old foundations, due to lead concerns. In the front yard, I have two Paw Paws and a persimmon. All native, all standard-size trees that I will prune to be 6 feet tall. Paw Paws need two individuals for pollination. Typical persimmons need three or more, but I will get a self-fertile one. A grapevine will climb the existing dogwood tree, and a 6-7 foot bush cherry and tiny-pruned peach tree will be in front of that. I drew a faint path just to give myself an idea of how I would move through the yard.
There are still a few unplanned spaces--the side of the house, the back yard in front of the shed. I'll leave those smothered in cardboard and leaves for now, since I've got my work cut out for me. This whole plan will be implemented in Spring and Fall 2020. This plan has come about through copious reading. The absolute best book I read was Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops by Martin Crawford. I've heard that Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier is very good too. I'll be getting the trees mostly from Fedco Trees mail order. Some will come from Cricket Hill Garden in Thomaston CT, and some will come from Cummins Nursery in upstate New York. All good sources to check for fruit trees. Click here to go to Part II: Understory Plants “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” -Anne Marie Bonneau
It happened as I stepped on the garbage can pedal to throw out a clementine bag. All of a sudden, I thought “Why am I doing this?” I had just bought an orange mesh bag with a big blue plastic label whose only purpose was to hold some fruit until it got thrown away. This plastic was made out of materials mined from the earth, shipped to wherever the clementines were packaged, then shipped to my grocery store. The amount of pollution involved in its creation is incredible, and its destination is a landfill where it will wallow for centuries leaching its decomposition into the groundwater. I’ve bought many of these clementine bags and other garbage packaging, knowing that it was wrong but thinking I had no choice. But this bag brought me to a realization—I do have a choice. It maybe involve no more clementines. We have control over our consumer spending, and over what we pressure manufacturers and lawmakers into doing. We vote with our dollars, and the step beyond that is directly agitating lawmakers and manufacturers. I know we are all pressed for time. I deeply desire to slow down and I’m sure other people do as well. Much of our garbage is produced in our haste: you have to buy a gift and there’s no time to shop so you grab a weirdly packaged thing, or you have no time to make dinner so you grab takeout. I’ve done both—and recently, too. Thinking back in time, people used to eat out of their gardens. No plastic was used, and no refrigeration. Food simply waited on the plant for people to eat it, and after that it was stored in a root cellar. Protein needs were met by meat stored in barrels and beans stored in cloth sacks. People didn’t take out the garbage because there wasn’t any. Yes it took a lot of time and know-how, but it may be healthy for us to incorporate some of that into our lives, as much as we are able in our fast-paced world. Our waste-filled lifestyle is a new thing, not the way it’s always been. We can take cues from the past when envisioning the future. When I saw an infographic about how our refrigerator uses more energy than entire households in some countries, I realized that I wanted to get rid of my refrigerator altogether. There, I said it. It will take a lot of time and will be done in stages. Before I saw that infographic, using a refrigerator was just a fact of life, like having eyeballs. I’m human, so therefore I have eyeballs and a refrigerator. What else am I not seeing until I slow down enough to really look? We are already making positive changes; the world after the plastic bag ban feels fresher to me, it feels like the world I want to live in. Can you imagine how good it would feel if our cars no longer produced greenhouse gases? If chemicals used in warfare weren’t used on lawns? What if we could live our lives without the guilt of burdening the planet? Start noticing your garbage. Look past the film over your eyes that says “this is how it has to be” and question whether it’s true. If someone (maybe you) gets another genius idea for what to ban, pressure lawmakers and manufacturers to comply. The world is big, but our choices shape it. We start in our own personal lives, and the effects ripple outwards, they have to. Let’s make a world we want to live in. I am starting some of my plants from seed. A lot of them are trees and shrubs, which is a new world for me. Clockwise from top are Hazelnut, Echinacea augustifolia, Bayberry, Viburnum cassinoides, and in the center are persimmon. I have more, but they weren’t as photogenic.
I chose to grow some of my plants from seed out of sheer curiousity, and a desire to save money. Fall is an excellent time to start many seeds, as they can naturally get the cold treatment needed to break their dormancy, and sowing in spring will mimic their natural growing habit. My seeds are outside in pots getting their cold treatment (called stratification) right now. Here are some reasons to grow from seed: 1. You want something that’s hard to find. I wanted stinging nettle. There is no way you will find that for sale at a nursery, because, well, it stings! Something uncommon like this may only be found in seed form. But if you want something like a Shasta daisy, just save yourself the time and buy a plant. 2. You want to save money. A pack of seeds averages $3. The perennial seeds I got were more, around $6. A potted plant at a nursery is several times the cost of a pack of seeds. If you are willing to spend the time and energy to grow from seed, you will save money. Keep in mind, though, that when all is said and done, your plants from seed could be more expensive than a potted plant if you factor in the time and energy you invested. 3. You want to experiment and are ok with some failure. I’m so curious about my seeds. I can’t wait to see how they germinate and grow, especially since I’ve never grown perennials (and certainly not shrubs) before. I have already accepted that many of my tiny plants will not make it, and I’m ok with that. For the ones that do, it will be worth it. Oh, and each plant from seed is its own genetically unique individual! How special is that?? 4. You want to make sure your plant is organically grown. Many plants available for sale are grown with chemicals, for one reason or another. The cheaper the plant, the dirtier the growing practices probably were. Don’t be tempted by cheap plants at big box stores. Shop with local nurseries and ask how the plants were grown. They’ll be able to give you an answer. Spoiler alert: it’s extremely hard to find purely organic sources for perennials, so you may be disappointed. Native plants are more likely to be grown with fewer chemicals, since they’re used to our climate. But, if you grow your own plants from seed, you know exactly what went into them. 5. You can reduce transplant shock by growing in place. I have this dream of setting my newly germinated seeds in their spots in the ground as soon that little root tendril peeks out. If I plan my yard out entirely, maybe I can even place the seeds in the right spots without having to transplant. Most plant roots don’t like being disturbed, but most can handle a little disruption at transplant time. The reason most seeds are started in pots is that they may get lost in the ground. 5 reasons NOT to grow from seed: 1. You want a specific type of plant. Take fruit, for example. Apples, pears, plums, etc. are all selected for flavor. This means that if you plant an apple seed, you will most likely not get a delicious Macintosh. You’ll get some random fruit that probably won’t taste too good. Yes, some fruit varieties are born from chance seedlings. But do you have space to take that chance in your 60x20 foot suburban lot? I don’t, that’s why I’m buying grafted trees from specialty nurseries 1. Failure would discourage you and cause anxiety. The goal is to have a gardening experience that will bring joy and a sense of accomplishment. If babying pesky seeds only to have some of them die sounds like it would ruin your desire to garden, don’t do it! Go support your local nursery and buy potted plants! 3. You don’t have time to wait. Perennials started from seed usually take two years to flower. Trees and shrubs may take even longer to produce. Potted plants at nurseries are ready to flower and give the quickest results. A tray of plugs (tiny plants) could be an option if you’re looking to save money but get ready-grown material. Plugs will usually take a year to flower and can be mail ordered or ordered from a local nursery. Where to get seeds Sheffields—Trees, shrubs, weird stuff Prairie Moon Nursery—native perennials (plugs too, I believe) Seed Saver’s—Wildflowers Sources for grafted fruit trees Fedco Cricket Hill Gardens Cummins Nursery (upstate NY) Adams county Nursery (PA) Twisted Tree Trees of antiquity Arbor Day Stark Bros Sources for herbaceous perennials and shrubs Natureworks Broken Arrow (trees, too) Earth Tones There are two powerhouse native plants that hide in gardens and meadows across the Northeast all spring and summer, only to emerge in the fall. They are Asters and Goldenrod! The first two pictures above were taken on September 23rd, and the last one on October 15th. These plants undoubtedly seeded themselves in the yard, and have probably done so in your yard too. The reason most people don’t get to enjoy them is because they look like weedy little nothings all spring and summer, leading people to pull them out or weed whack them.
If the fall show and bee buffet isn't enough to lure you to preserve these plants, Asters and Goldenrod (not to be confused with ragweed with actually causes allergies) are also hosts for dozens of moth and butterfly larvae. These caterpillars in turn feed birds, creating a healthy ecosystem. I will update in spring with images of these plants before they flower. |
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