Finally we received a welcome rainfall this week, and although not enough to soak the soil it did certainly provide some relief. We said goodbye to Rowan last week and welcomed back Ben to the project and Joanna who will be joining us for the remainder of the season.
So here's what we've been up to this week
But first just to let you know we've revamped our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture Plants, Seeds, Cuttings, Bulbs, Rhizomes and Polyculture Multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy and finally we've added a Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree order form for Farms, Orchards, Nurseries, and Large Regenerative Landscape Projects. If there is anything in the store you would like to see but is not there, please let us know. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. Thank you. Enter Our Store Here
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| Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes. |
Robinia pseudocacaia Hedging
About 6 years ago I planted some 1 year old Robinia pseudoacacia - Black Locust saplings in a row to form a hedge boundary on the southern border of our garden Aponia. Although not typically used for hedging, I liked the idea of using these plants as they grow fast, are extremely drought tolerant, provide excellent forage for bees via the nectar rich blossoms and, being capable of fixing nitrogen, they could be regularly pruned and used to fertilise the productive plants in the forest garden. Six years on and the hedge has developed reasonably well and certainly has over exceeded my expectations for biomass production in addition to producing flowers for the bees for the last 3 years. Last week we pruned the hedge for the second time this year as seen in the below photo
Robinia pseudoacacia - Black Locust is not ideal for hedging as the plants tend to branch around 1 m off the ground leaving a gap in the lower section of the hedge. It does form a decent screen above this and can be trimmed and reduced at least twice a year producing high quantities of biomass. I'm going to try planting some shade tolerant shrubs in the under story to fill the gap. Mahonia aquifolium - Oregon Grape should work well , although quite slow to get going, Mahonia aquifolium - Oregon Grape can grow well in full shade, is evergreen, flowers early in the season providing a great early source of forage for bees and produces tasty little fruits in the Autumn.
Here's an illustration of single row of Robinia pseudoacacia - Black Locust and Mahonia aquifolium - Oregon hedge planting that should work well together.
The long straight pole wood pruned out of the Robinia pseudoacacia - Black Locust is stored for staking tomatoes and all of the other branches and leaves are piled onto raised beds we are preparing for planting next season. This rough mulch can be cut into smaller pieces with a chainsaw or shredded for faster decomposition. Here you can see the freshly cut branches stacked on the raised bed.
It was interesting to observe that even though we have been cutting this hedge twice a year, birds are still nesting in the canopy. Here you can see what I think is a blackbird or thrush nest. We leave the height just over 2 m high which seems suitable for nesting birds. By timing the cutting to late June and late September we should be able to not disturb the birds breeding cycle .
Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
|
| Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course |
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
Paulownia Trials
So its almost the end of the growing season here for Paulownia tomentosa - Foxglove Tree. The trees are now hardening their wood in preparation for the winter and just one night of below 0 temperatures will kill off the leaves and herbaceous growth. Here is a photo of Martin standing next to the tallest of the trees we are growing for shading the annual vegetable beds. You may recall from previous posts that all of these trees were cut to ground level in mid April of this year and the growth you can see in the below photo is the coppice regrowth within 5 months.
We've been thinning the coppice regrowth to one main stem and removing the lower leaves and axillary growth at regular intervals throughout the growing season. All of this biomass is applied to the vegetable beds as a mulch. Next season we have the option to cut them back to ground level and repeat the process or to allow them grow and cut them back the year after for pole wood. The below image shows the stool a week after cutting on the left. You can just see the emerging bud that eventually becomes the main stem from the picture on the right.
Live Webinar Coming up this Autumn
It's that time of year to start planning your garden plantings for this coming Autumn or the Spring. If you would like some guidance and advice on how to choose your plants we'll be running a live webinar this November. How to Select Fruit and Nut Trees for your Forest Garden/Polyculture Orchard - Webinar - 2nd November 2019 - 18.00 -20.00 UTC. (starting time suitable for US partcipation)
The session will overview what you need to know when selecting Fruit and Nut trees for your Forest Garden/Polyculture Orchard and how to plan the layout of the garden. It will be around 2 hours long and will include:
Selecting trees that suit your climate and location
Choosing the right root stock and cultivar
Selecting trees with pollination compatibility
Pest and Disease Resistance
Choosing the right location and spacing for your trees
Buying Fruit and Nut Trees
Planting out and aftercare
Software for Planning Garden layout
Closing Questions and Answers
Access to design spreadsheets including a Selection Check List and Pollination Requirements for Common Fruit and Nut Trees
You can register here . The fee is €30 or €40 if you register as a group of three or €100 as a group of 10. If you would like to register as a group please send an email to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com and we'll take it from there.
Forest Garden Plants
Still plenty of harvest to process this is the time of year in the forest garden and gathering seed from many of the perennial herbs, shrubs and trees we grow in the nursery. It's great to see the first fruit on our 2 year old Apple - Malus sp. 'Karastoyanka' This is a Bulgarian cultivar suitable for organic growing. The fruits ripen from late Sep - early Oct and are excellent for storing over the winter.
The solo fruit on the tree planted two springs ago
The Mespilus germanica - Medlar tree is always a reliable producer in the forest garden. These fruits will ripen in late November through to December and along with Diospyros kaki - Japanese Persimmon are one of a few late winter fruit trees. The blossoms of these plants are exceptionally beautiful.
The young Ficus carica cv. - Fig trees I've been planting around the gardens the last few years are starting to fruit. Below you can see one of the hardiest figs on the planet, 'Michurinska 10' grown from a hardwood cutting 3 years . The picture on the right is a Cornus mas - Cornellian Cherry tree grown from seed 7 years ago and fruiting from the first time in the forest garden.
Another reliable producer is Chaenomeles speciosa - Jap. Quince. The fruits are best harvested for juicing after a frost when they soften and can be squeezed like lemons. You can also prepare them as you would Cydonia oblonga - Quince . For more info on this wonderful plant check out our article - The Quincessential Guide to Japanese Quince - Chaenomeles speciosa
Archie has been collecting Elaeagnus angustifolia - Russian Olive seeds from the shrubs in our garden for seed orders. Elaeagnus angustifolia - Russian Olive is great drought tolerant nitrogen fixing shrub best planted in hedges and boundary plantings. It grows very fast and is great for chop and drop, although the branches are quite thorny.
I love walking the gardens before sundown this time of year. The light reveals the beauty of the wilting plants and the intricate design of their seed heads.
Wild Boar Disruptions in the Gardens
I've been aware of Wild boar - Sus scrofa - around the area for many years but until last week, have never directly experienced any disruptions in the gardens. It seems at least one Boar (perhaps more) has been venturing in from the dry woodlands in search for moist soil to rummage around in. The first place I noticed them was around the water channels where the boar/s ploughed through the soil in search for grubs and worms. We noticed this damage when trying to divert water from the river into the gardens and found the water channels had been turned over.
Our new garden beds were also hit by the Boar foraging under the relatively moist deep mulch presumably to eat the worms and grubs that accumulate in the decomposing material.
On the way back from the woods, a day before we discovered the Boar disturbances in the gardens, Dylan and I came across a body of a Boar, probably 2 or 3 days old judging by the quantity of maggots in the corpse orifices. I'm not sure what happened to the animal but there were clear signs that some carnivore had been at the meat, probably the European jackal - Canis aureus moreoticus. Boars are hunted here to control the populations in the residential areas but the carcass is usually butchered for meat. Perhaps the boar was shot, injured ran away and died a later or perhaps it just died of natural causes.
!Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023.
We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.
Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course
You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount.
We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!
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If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay
If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.
- Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store
- Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses
- Comment, like, and share our content on social media.
- Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay
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| You can also register for our online training, services, and products directly here. |
Do you think I can manage to plant some pawpaw (asimina triloba) under paulownia. I heard that pawpaw need shade the first year witch can be provided by paulownia. Maybe after I can cut them down for letting the sun reaching the pawpaw. I don't know...
ReplyDeleteProbably I will try in row.
Thx