In this week's newsletter from Joe Lamp'l (Joe the Gardener).

https://joegardener.com/podcas...

Interesting link, thank you!

Bad case of Cabin Fever , so to alleviate some of the symptoms, I just ordered 13 more trees and vines for the food forest.
I just hope my wallet outlasts my cabin fever!

2 Theta Filbert Hazelnut Trees



1 Jefferson Filbert Hazelnut Tree (we already have 1)



1 Methley Plum Tree



1 Santa Rosa Plum Tree



1 All-in-One Almond Tree



1 Bing Cherry Tree



1 Black Tartarian Cherry Tree



1 Concord Grape



4 Five Flavor Fruit- Magnolia Vine (1 for each post of our pergola which will grow up over it)



This will bring us up to 33 trees, berry bushes, and vines. They will be delivered the beginning of April. As soon as the ground thaws we will start putting up the perimeter fence so we can get rid of the individual plant cages.

Great choices, Jim.

Even if it wasn't clock-watchingly close to lunch, this would make me hungry! Those are definitely things worth growing!

A beautiful 64-degree day here. I arranged the 10 new raised garden beds down in the food forest and marked out where the 13 new trees and bushes will go when they arrive in early April. Yesterday, I set up the charger for the electric fence in the tool shed and ran the two wires down into the field.

Just noticed this in the "recent threads" list... what an awesome project, Jim!

Jim - what brand of vitamins do you take? I need some.

pirl said: Jim - what brand of vitamins do you take? I need some.

We started driving posts into the ground today for our food forest. We did the 85 foot stretch closest to the house. The corners require 5 posts since the fence will "pull in" in at the corners. We bought special hardware for the corners to attach the diagonal posts. The diagonal braces keep the corner posts from being pulled in. Along the 85 foot stretch we alternated 2 – 6' posts (driven 1.5' into the ground) and 1 – 8' post (driven 1.5' into the ground). The fence will be 4.5 feet high and have electric fence attached to it, but we will run wires between the 8-foot posts (6.5' high) to keep deer out. Hope that makes sense. BTW…the compressor-driven tool we bought to drive the posts in was worth every penny we paid for it. Only 285 more feet of stakes to put in, and then we can run the fencing.

Wow, what a fantastic view of your food forest! Your vegetables look so healthy and nice! I don't have a food forest but I have been growing some fruits and vegetables in my yard. It is more like a garden than a forest. THough I have only 10 fruit trees and some raspberries, over the years I have so much trouble with bugs and diseases ruining them. Is the food forest advantageous somehow in controlling diseases and pests?

I've got to get something like that going as well, Jim. You've done a great job.

kousa said: Wow, what a fantastic view of your food forest! Your vegetables look so healthy and nice! I don't have a food forest but I have been growing some fruits and vegetables in my yard. It is more like a garden than a forest. THough I have only 10 fruit trees and some raspberries, over the years I have so much trouble with bugs and diseases ruining them. Is the food forest advantageous somehow in controlling diseases and pests?

If done properly, and it takes years to fully develop, it mimics a natural forest ecosystem where everything stays in balance.

Here is an outline of the total area. The dimensions have been adjusted a couple of times since I started this thread but are now finalized to an area of 100' x 85' for a total area of 8500 square feet.

Our 12 new trees/vines came in on Saturday, a few days early. We unpacked them and put them in the greenhouse until we can get them planted. Last night it dipped down to 16 degrees, so I'm glad we put them in there.

Just placed an order for a few more plants

Adams Elderberry


Hinnonmaki Red Gooseberry


Pixwell Gooseberry


Niagara Grape


10 Jersey Knight Giant Asparagus


Purple Passion Asparagus

MoonShadows said: The fence will be 4.5 feet high and have electric fence attached to it, but we will run wires between the 8-foot posts (6.5' high) to keep deer out.

Good luck... I don't think that is high enough to stop the deer in my area...
I saw a fence that looked to be like 10 feet tall at a CSA farm... That looked impressive... I still would rather just have a ton of shrubs and thicket next to the fence... Doesn't require as much work to maintain... compared with a fence that is kept cleared and mowed and whatever...

Good luck with the fruit trees... maybe you will have less issues with diseases than we do here in the high humidity.

Over here we need at least 8' tall fences. Unless it's really close to the house. Then they usually won't come near.

stone said: Good luck... I don't think that is high enough to stop the deer in my area...
I saw a fence that looked to be like 10 feet tall at a CSA farm... That looked impressive... I still would rather just have a ton of shrubs and thicket next to the fence... Doesn't require as much work to maintain... compared with a fence that is kept cleared and mowed and whatever...

Good luck with the fruit trees... maybe you will have less issues with diseases than we do here in the high humidity.

Johannian said: Over here we need at least 8' tall fences. Unless it's really close to the house. Then they usually won't come near.

I am hoping 6.5 feet will be high enough. We have deer, but not a lot of them. I have a 4-foot fence now around our backyard protecting my vegetable gardens, and I have never seen a deer or deer damage in our backyard. Although, about twice a year, a black bear will just come right through the 4-foot fence, ripping it off the t-posts. That's why I want to have the electric fence around the food forest.

As far as humidity, July and August can be brutal. I'm sure I will have quite a learning curve as far as pests and disease.

I think with the deer there are a lot of variables... for years, when we had dogs (not "outside" dogs) a 2-1/2-foot-high rabbit fence kept the deer out (actually, it turned out to apparently be the dogs, but we thought it was the fence at the time). Once the last 2 dogs died, the deer moved in almost immediately and we built a not-quite-8-feet-tall fence, which has successfully kept them out; but I have a lot of "structures" in the garden and the garden itself is only about 20 feet wide at the widest, and I think all of that is a bit confusing for them.