after daily walks to the mailbox, i noticed the creek banging into the side of the driveway instead of going into the culvert and on the exit side the water was being forced back into the driveway instead flowing away. so today i straightened out the respective doglegs in the creek to make the water flow straight into the culvert and straight out. click'm to enlarge the cattle man came and weed-ate along the fence line for two days.
he used a blade weed whacker and approached with a clear cut mentality. two springs and summers of selectively weeding out the un useful weeds to help the useful ones establish themselves-- down the drain. gone is the black raspberry, the yarrow, the jewel weed, the mullen... so avid was he, he lopped the top of the healthiest habenero peppers. gone are the precious white blooms, soon to have been peppers. the lot looks "fantastic" and our garden now looks forlorn. things planted in the shade along the fence line now have full sun, and the well tended, much loved wildness looks SO misplaced, but oh so tempting to the deer who paid a visit last night, sampling the peas from the back side and eating down my two healthiest artichokes to nubs. i picked all the ripest pea pods i could find and i've strung up cans in the artichoke bed to clank when they come munching again, as there's still one good sized healthy artichoke left, as well as a smaller, meeker one who was a bit squeezed by my two green giants. the deer will have to amble up through the creek to get to the front side of that bed, which is probably much easier now that no thickets block their way. i've decided creating perma culture gardens is much like making a painting... placing plants to work together, selectively cutting back growth to encourage other useful cultivars to thrive, all to seek a balance in beauty and productivity. last year i pulled a literal ton of himalayan knotweed, one strand at a time, making sure to get down to the root. even when i weed-eat, i do it selectively. it is possible. the blackberry thicket down by the apple tree where sunflowers and beans were planted was weed-eated by us twice this summer, and it retained a wild beauty to it. because h and i both left what we wanted to encourage. it looks like a waste field now... nothing left standing but a lone cranberry bush for the deer to discover and forage upon. it makes me sad, to have our once beautiful garden look as if it is the only thing not reduced to a tabla rasa, a clear cut field, ready for the speculators and the excavators to pull in, to create a development to sell cookie cutter homes to the jones. it'll take a few days, and quite a few adjustments, i imagine, to have our creation achieve it's previous balance in the landscape... i hope it's possible to achieve, but it feels like a herculean task at the moment. The blackberry pickin' starts this coming week. We've tested the best spots a few times and picked enough to eat with our ice cream. Picking will likely last through much of August. If you would like to come and pick we can currently offer a bottle of wine for every 4 pounds of berries you bring in... Unless you prefer to keep them. For before images of the meadow look at last years clean up effort. The teepee got started about a month too late for the plants to get big enough to shade the teepee but... there were several scarlet runner beans, some Malabar spinach, some peas and a tomato tree planted to climb up and cover the teepee. The pallets surrounding the teepee are to act as a cattle grate and deer deterrent, so far that seems to be working; but something smaller appears to like our food. the scarlet runners have been eatin'. Some of the Malabar spinach and peas have been tasted. the tomato tree was only slightly tasted and already has tomatoes coming in on it. If these results hold for the summer then next year we'll just cover the teepee in tomato trees. Hover over the images for captions and click to enlarge. Here's some stuff about the benefits and profitability of Paulownia Trees. PAULOWNIAS & THE ENVIRONMENT It is estimated that for each acre of Paulownia trees planted an average yield of 30,000 board feet of lumber can be expected every 7-10 years. With an average price of $3.00 per board foot, the estimated return on 1 acre of Paulownia trees is $90,000 every 7-10 years. I believe this wood crop could play a valuable role in monetizing unused land. Make Millions Growing Empress Tree Empress trees are incredibly easy to grow. Of course, if you’re going to grow them for money, like this, you’ll want to give them fertile, well-drained and conscientious pruning. But like catalpa, mulberry, and tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima), it belongs to the garbage can class of trees. Not only does it seed all over creation, but it will grow in absolutely terrible soil where few other trees will. World Tree Technologies Acquires 832-Acre Empress Tree Plantation For $890,000 With Projected Value Over $23 Million in 5 Years Empress Trees are a fast growth, deciduous hardwood tree that can be harvested every 7-10 years for extremely high value timber. The 257 acres of 3 year old Empress Trees on the property are expected to be harvested in 5 years. At standard expected yield of 30,000 board feet per acre, and nominal pricing of $3 per board foot, the return would be equal to over $23 million in timber value on 257 acres alone. |
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December 2015
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