Tag Archives: food forest

Layering Blackcurrants

Posted on March 11, 2012 by

Spent the day propagating plants.  Back in fall, I tried my hand at ground layering, a technique that involves burying part of a plant stem to encourage the plant to root in place.  Specifically, I bent a long blackcurrant stem … Continue reading →

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Signs of Spring

Posted on February 18, 2012 by

Plants seem uninterested in dates, instead using temperature and daylight hours and plant hormones to define “spring,” and many plants in my garden have decided that now’s the time.  Though there doesn’t seem to be consensus – the asparagus seems … Continue reading →

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Update – Elderberries on Acid

Posted on January 11, 2012 by

Not much going on in the garden, and no precip for months.  Strange weather… A couple of months ago, I wrote about scarifying elderberry seeds with strong acid.  I checked the seeds this morning – they’ve been sequestered in the … Continue reading →

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Volunteer Bay

Posted on December 2, 2011 by

Umbellularia californica, to be exact.  There isn’t a whole lot of it at my elevation (~3k), but it’s fairly common elsewhere in these parts, usually at lower elevations, in stream and river canyons, closer to water.  That being said, at … Continue reading →

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Creep Year

Posted on November 14, 2011 by

The first year they sleep The second year they creep The third year they leap So goes the old saying about perennials. This has been the creep year (year 2) for a number of perennials in my garden.  Two that … Continue reading →

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Critical Mass

Posted on November 11, 2011 by

I have sort of come to the conclusion – inasmuch as I can come to a conclusion this early in the process – that where I garden, building a food forest is about critical mass.  It’s a very different aesthetic … Continue reading →

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The Great Rhubarb Divide

Posted on October 27, 2011 by

I’m especially fond of plants that are easily propagated, either by seed or division or cuttings.  Rhubarb (Rheum x hybridum) is just such a plant, and one of my fall chores – not every fall, mind you, but every 3 … Continue reading →

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Plum Gone Wild

Posted on October 20, 2011 by

This fruit is from either from a wild plum tree (Prunus americana), or else from an ordinary plum tree gone feral. More likely the latter, since California doesn’t appear to be in the natural range for wild plum. In any … Continue reading →

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“How about not doing that?” A Lesson from Fukuoka

Posted on October 18, 2011 by

To the north of the garden proper and the food forest is a nearly pure stand of Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menzeisii)  Very little sunlight reaches the ground here, and the forest floor is piled high with generations of madrone leaves, … Continue reading →

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Gardening With Safety Goggles

Posted on October 6, 2011 by

I’ve been gardening for a number of years, but I can’t recall another time when I had to wear nitrile gloves to sow seeds. As mentioned in the prior post, I am interested in germinating a whole bunch of elderberry … Continue reading →

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