I know I have heard how he did some marvelous things with his gardening. I can surely learn alot from him. And what better way to spend a rainy day, when all I can do is quick weeding between showers! And dream of what might be! And bug everyone here... I bet they will be glad I go read awhile! ha ha
Oh and look what is growing if I face the opposite direction from the above photo:
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/000_0239_phixr.jpg[/img]
Woodland soil smothered with leaves...gonna be WAY fungal, maybe TOO fungal...
Use lots of straw and bedding and manures as mulch, urine, fish, whatever higher nitrogen stuff you can get on here. I am concerned about nutrient locking with all that carbon...
Mary you have sure been busy, that looks very promising, and the Mayapples are gorgeous, I kinda love the mottling even if it is some sort of defect (I guess most variegations are considered defects anyway)
I will choose colored or variegated foliage whenever I buy something if there is a choice, I just ordered two variegated elderberries from that site I sent you a link for. ONe has a golden variegation and the other white.
I already have one black elderberry.
I am a sucker for foliage colors. Oh and shapes too.
I cut one open to show the inside, the seeds are not ripe yet as you can see. And I tasted one, it has the texture of an apple, but is very bitter, now I remember why I don't like them to eat! And I do like green apples.
Yeah, eating them before they are fully ripe is [url=https://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1464860/wild_edibles_are_mayapples_toxic.html]not recommended[/url]...
Anyone wonder what ever happened with my forest garden?
Well, there are now two!
I love it, I haven't fed, nor sprayed, no mulch, have weeded a couple times and watered it twice due to drought. I have weeded, sprayed, and watered the main garden continuously. The forest is 1,000% better garden!
But, I am impressed! I will definitely do this again. Just dig a hole plant and go... no upkeep, well, a bit of weeding and watering, but how hard is that. 2 times in over 2 months?
No aphids underneath either:
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/100_2711_phixr.jpg[/img]
The plants are now large enough to plant cantaloupe and watermelons under them.
In case you don't recognize these, they are tobacco, a member of the nightshade family, so if they do this well here, I bet tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and potatoes will do likewise.
Thank you.
I kept meaning to fertilize, manure, mulch, all the "necessary" stuff, and just had to keep putting in so much time in the main garden, that, I would look at both and decide on priorities, and the forest never needed much.
To be honest the main garden would have needed less if I had not put in alot of containers that need constant attention. The beds aren't the main thing keeping me in that garden.
I got hit by bugs but the Bt spraying is working, and they are no longer munching, however the holes remain.
This shows what the tobacco in the forest garden is now looking like, it is up to my nose, so roughly 5' + which is about average for properly grown burley, which this is burley, but not raised "properly" with all the fertilizers and chemicals that are normally put on tobacco. It will grow about another month. And then be ready to harvest, I am really impressed! The Turkish growing here is in bloom, I thought I got a photo of it, but didn't find one when I downloaded the camera...
The bag garden didn't do so well, the tobacco there is only up to my shoulder, but it is blooming, so I will soon have a nice flower show and lots of fragrance, this is an oriental/burley cross.
Drought has hit hard.
We went checking out yard sales and farmers markets yesterday, and lots of gardens are totally dried up, even in town.
I asked one farmer at the market his secret of a good garden, even in drought... his answer: prayer. He does not mulch, fertilize, nor even water... He said he just has good dirt, and it just produces. Wow!
The forest garden has survived, I am sure it would have done much better with adequate water.
This photo was at noon, and it was after almost a week of not watering it at all. Yes, it will get watered, as soon as, the temps drop just a little bit.
[img]https://i728.photobucket.com/albums/ww281/Ozark_Lady/100_2815_phixr.jpg[/img]
I saw new holes in leaves and was looking for the culprit...grasshoppers!
we are on our second year of a pretty serious drought in our area too..I'm managing to get some crops from my gardens though..picked beans, tomatos, peppers, onions, squash..
the grapes are really heavy this year,
but we really need rain..we did get a TS early morning hours with some heavy rain, but then the sun came out and it got in the high 80's really fast which evaporates a lot of the rain
