https://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g473/purecajn/ This is right after moving into the family home. I was cleaning up and trying to get the place in order. This is prior to ever known of permaculture.
https://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g473/purecajn/October 2010/ This is from around Oct last year, right after I discovered permaculture. Started using tires to catch and slow down water washout from the neighbors yard which is about 2-3 foot higher than mine. I made a swale effect on the back side and am throwing extra leaves in it to decompose and to hopefully wash some of the liniment (or whatever it is caused) out. Also recycled some old tin and made a 4 x 20+ foot raised bed. It is currently filled halfway with oak and pine leaves/2 wheel barrels full of yard dirt mixed in/ and a little oak ash all mixed with straw. Planing on letting that set till summer then grow potatoes and keep adding compost etc as it grows until it reaches the top of the bed.
https://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g473/purecajn/October 2010/ This is from around Oct last year. It was right after winds took the top out of an oak tree in the front yard. I had just discovered Permaculture and am using recycled tires as a border to stop water washout from the neighbors yard. Stacking the tires allowed for a swale effect so water accumulates behind the tires and is slowly released now. I also recycled some scrap tin and made a 4'x20' raised bed. It has is halfway filled with yard leaves, 2 wheel barrels of yard dirt, 2 bales of straw and about a gallon of oak ash mixed within. Was planning on planting potatoes within and filling it the rest of the was with compost as the potatoes grew. Is this advisable? or would this be harmful to the bed?
https://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g473/purecajn/Jan 2011/ This is today Jan 2011. As you can see I've added a number of 1ft high swale mounds. Dad could baeely get grass to grow way back there so we'll see how we fare. The mounds are mulched with pine and oak leaves. While decomposing thru the winter I've started planting kitchen scraps: a rotten clove ball, potatoes going bad, onions, and as you can see there are garlic sprouting already, 7 above ground now. I've begun putting the large branches which fall from the trees back along there trunk at an angle. This allows the local squirrels and their babies that much more protection from predatory birds which are raking up now that most of the trees were ripped out of the yard by Hurricane Rita. I'll also plant some kind of edible climber to run up them in the spring. Anyone have suggestions of edible climbers that do well with heave oak mulch? I've also used sandstone to wrap around 3 sides of a baby fig tree on the side of the house to help hold heat and protest it from the north wind and place a bucket over it on nights when below freezing. I've put cabbage in 2 of the tires and since a nest of ants have adopted a tire the plant within is almost double the size of the cabbage in the next tire. Thig in the tire on the right is lettuce and I guess it is protesting the conditions. There are wild muscadine grapes growing up a few of the trees along with wild blackberry's on the back corner of the property. I have satsuma and apple seeds germinating, and a blueberry bush and a purchased blackberry vine in pots just waiting for spring. Oh and I've planted Kumquat seeds along the property line in the front yard for a future privacy hedge. Any recommendations as to what you think would go well in a 9b temp zone {hope that is the correct way of saying that] which is humid and hot normally for chop and drop I'd like to hear. Also and edible ....
Pigeon pea. You can make dhal from the seed (if the birds don't get it all first like they do at my place). Comfrey, lemongrass, arrowroot, sugar cane.
Ah sugar cane. I'm surprised it's not in the yard already. It's very widely grown by farmers down here. The lemongrass is going to be a definite addition. And I think I have a place for the comfrey.. Now do you recommend I bunch all the comfrey in one contained area and harvest the leave regularly or to plant in multiple areas and do a literal chop and drop? Now w=e have some type of tuber that looks like a potato but sends out a single green vine with stickers on it. The leaves are oval and shineyon top. there all over the place and if I can identify it.... I'll try and post a pick tomorrow for your thoughts. any experience with sorghum? i'm told the seed makes a pleasant popcorn. And do you know of a site where I can find a Listing of all nitro fixing edibles which are shrubs and trees?
Whatever you decide for the comfrey be prepared to live with it forever! Being lazy I'd put it where you intend to use it. No point having to harvest it and walk all over the place with it! Not sure what your other plant is. Photos will help. I haven't grown sorghum (yet). I don't know the answer to the last one, but you'll probably find something on a Google search.
https://s1103.photobucket.com/albums/g473/purecajn/unknown yard species/ Ok I'm probable referring to it incorrectly as a tuber, noob, but is is a climber with thorns. I've pulled root balls out of the ground as big around as an americain football (those look more like a potato). The picks are of the plant both while growing and the root is from one that hadn't reached the surface
