Over the last few weeks we have been experiencing very wet weather with lower than average temperatures for this time of year, and so the ripening of the berries seemed to somehow creep up on us. The ducks let us know that the Mulberries were ready as they always enjoy the fallen fruit and start hanging around underneath the tree, although there's always much more than they can eat. We recently lifted the majestic old Mulberry - Morus sp. tree in the home garden, as it's lower boughs were making it tricky to walk around and the plants underneath weren't receiving enough light.
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| Morus alba, lifted and thinned |
Lifting involves removing the lower branches of the trees to above head height in order to access around the tree and provide more light and air flow under the canopy. All of the pruned material is chopped into smaller pieces and applied to the surface under the shrubs and surrounding plants.
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A young Pear tree framed by a Fig - Ficus carica on the right. Both trees seem quite happy in the understory of the Mulberry tree and you can see more details of this polyculture in the graphic below. |
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, 2022.
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 SUB2022 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, and 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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| 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 SUB2022 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, and 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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| Standard breakfast in June |
With the wet weather, the race is on to weed and mulch the areas around the trees and shrubs in all the gardens before the summer heat and dry weather begins. The size of some of the leaves this year has been remarkable, perhaps even rivaling the leaves of the Paulownia tree, and the first prize goes to Heracleum sphondylium - Hogweed.
Hogweed is a Biennial/perennial growing to 1.8 m high and in USDA hardiness zones 4 - 8. It's easily grown, and the leaves grow densely together. Once in flower the bees and other beneficial organisms start to arrive in high numbers, which is why we tend to leave some plants in the garden, unless they are impacting surrounding plants growth or productivity, and then they can be used as mulch in the garden.
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| Heracleum sphondylium - Hogweed in flower, an excellent plant for invertebrate diversity |
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| Adding the Hogweed leaves to Zeno, a productive annual polyculture |
Another native biennial plant, Greater Burdock - Arctium lappa growing in the home garden. A very useful mulch plant with gigantic leaves that grow back very quickly after a cut.
The ESC team have been away camping at Wake Up festival this week, where they planned to make a presentation of the project and the ESC initiative in general. Hopefully, they didn't get too wet and enjoyed the experience :)
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Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
If you would like to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes we'll be running our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course that starts on May 4th, 2022.
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 RLD2022 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!------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Support Our Project
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