Radogast's Non-420 Garden Creation Thread

[Radogast]

Looks like a slice of paradise Radogast. I can feel the quiet. We live 1/2 block off a busy main street in a major urban town. Always traffic noise when the windows are open. You are one lucky man.

Slogro, you made me think of how proud your parents must have been to raise a man with ethics and a drive for doing the job to the best of his abilities. Well done.

I grew up in Oakland 5 blocks eat of interstate 880 and 8 blocks west of interstate 580.
I lived in San Francisco just off 19th ave (state highway 1)
I bought my first house 3 blocks from the interstate.
I bought my second house in Scottsdale, Az and they built an interstate 2 blocks away.
The last place we rented was I a road used during Paul Revere's Midnight Ride (and yes George Washington marched there too.)

Believe me, this is a welcome change in my life


It's not all that remote as it usually feels when the trees have leaves

We are 12 hours into 45 hours of rain .


This morning, freezing rain on the window, and the length of the shared driveway(200yds?)
School was cancelled and I worked from home (which is why I saw daylight at home today )

Freezing rain on the Holly bushes

The stream is normally about 2' wide, the width of the log walkway separating the pond from the stream.

The stream is also normally about 3' wide here. That sailboat beside it is 14' long

 

[SweetSue]

Wow. I'd forgotten about the Nor'Easterner. Be safe Radogast.

Reading that made me smile. My entire adult life beyond college has been spent living in places right next to highways and busy streets as well. Enjoy your quiet for both of us.

Susan

 

[Radogast]

Bluebird, cardinal, junco, titmouse, dove, yellowfinch, downy, wren, chickadee, bluejay, nuthatch - all in the last 10 minutes.
I love bird feeding on the porch in winter.

 

[Ranger275]

Howdy Radogast,
What a lovely place u have! It's always nice when u start w/something good and can add your own flavor to it. I'm an edible landscaper and one of my gardening/farming heroes is an Aussie named Bill Mollison. His book: Permaculture: Designer's Manual is one of the pillars of my design philosophy. I can't recommend it highly enough. Good luck and happy gardening be it veg, fruit, berry, flower or great big honking sticky, trichome-laden weed.

 

[Radogast]

I've listened to about 6 hours of Bill Mollison. He is definitely a hero.

I am just starting out in New England food forest / permaculture. It is rejuvenating to connect with the forest.

I'm short on sunlight, so am emphasizing bulbs and herbs until I discover more possibilities

Thanks for the kind words.

 

[Ranger275]

U may also want 2 check out an Australian named Sepp Holzer. He's a genius who uses topography better than anybody I know. Brilliant. One of my favorite trix for adding food 2 a shady area is planting grapes at the base of hardwood trees. In Nature, grapes live at the edge of forest and glade and climb trees 2 reach Sol. Plant them away from the afternoon (Dragon) sun as their roots don't like 2 b scorched. Taxe up no space in the yard, doesn't choke the trees and 4 some reason the grapes won't need spraying. Train the grapes the 1st year or so and then they'll catch on and u can harvest under shade! Worx great!
Happy holidays.

 

[Radogast]

U may also want 2 check out an Australian named Sepp Holzer. He's a genius who uses topography better than anybody I know. Brilliant. One of my favorite trix for adding food 2 a shady area is planting grapes at the base of hardwood trees. In Nature, grapes live at the edge of forest and glade and climb trees 2 reach Sol. Plant them away from the afternoon (Dragon) sun as their roots don't like 2 b scorched. Taxe up no space in the yard, doesn't choke the trees and 4 some reason the grapes won't need spraying. Train the grapes the 1st year or so and then they'll catch on and u can harvest under shade! Worx great!
Happy holidays.

Last year I watched ALL the video lessons at openpermaculture(dot)com and a few others at other sites _ so yes, Sepp Holzer is another good one, as is Larry Korn. Also downloaded the books of Masanobu Fukuoka .

My big challenges are: massive lawn care chemicals in the soil. Approximately 3 hours of direct sunlight.

Late this fall, I started construction on a second clearing about 100 yards on a side. I'll leave some trees. The soil there is about 100 years of leaf litter that may or may not have been sprayed in the last decade. I'm curious to find out what the lighting is when I finish. I'm going for 5 hours of direct Sun.

 

[SweetSue]

Hope your having a fine holiday celebration in your little slice of paradise Radogast. Our best to you and yours.

 

[Radogast]

Hope your having a fine holiday celebration in your little slice of paradise Radogast. Our best to you and yours.

Thank you! Our holiday celebrations this year consist of maybe putting out food for the animals on Christmas Eve, smoking up? For several days and maybe a bottle of Barefoot Bubbly on New Years Eve.

Wishing you and yours, and all our brothers and sisters here, a joyous holiday season.

I dressed in red flannel shirt and flannel pants and worked from home today.
With my full white/gray beard, I get way too many Santa Claus experience encounters at this time of year to go outside in red flannel.
My standard winter wear, gray top hat and gray and maroon wool Ulster coat, don't help

 

[SweetSue]

A good laugh Radogast. My hubby had to shave his beard for the open heart surgery. Only the second time in 40 years, so this year he doesn't look like Santa. And it's weird.

 

[Radogast]

The Grail Quest

Yule planting of False Unicorn ( Chamaelirium luteum,) or Fairy Wand plants.
With a grail of seeds, searching for those "what if" spots.


But first, adoration of the grail that has held the seeds for over a moon.

 

[Radogast]

The Grail Quest

Yule planting of False Unicorn ( Chamaelirium luteum,) or Fairy Wand plants.
With a grail of seeds, searching for those "what if" spots.

A low growing perennial formerly native to 11 states, False Unicorn has a medicinal history, and as the name Fairy Wand suggests, amagical history. A plain green rosette plant up to a foot in diameter, loving a bit like plantain, they throw a 2-4 ft flower stalk with a white spray of flowers. Mostly in Illinois and Ohio, they have only 8 known locations in Connecticut and 3 in Massachusetts (Berkshires)

So what if they grew and naturalized?

My quest includes planting several places imagining "what if they grew here?"


By the coral bells?

By the future waterfall stream along the face of a rock?

By the Newell Post near the Black Cohosh in the shade of the beech tree?

By the log dam path creating a pond?

How about another pair here by the first path I put in ?

 

[SweetSue]

That was good Radogast. How many seeds do you have? They would be a magical addition to all of those locations. It's also known as Angel's Fishing Rod,most by the pond is a natural choice. The flower spikes will make you smile every time they bloom. Your place has really come a long way in such a short time. I love the joy you take in subtle changes. Loving the grail as well. Another Monty Python fan. Lol!

The info says zones 8-10. You're just a tad north of that. I'd try for protected sites with plenty of humus and mulch liberally before the frosts. I hope you get them to grow. Many times I had luck with fragile plants from a warmer zone by simply loving them. I think yours are in good hands.

 

[Radogast]

I see zone 5-8 mostly, but it varies.
Zone 4 in Britain.
I planted more wet places than I showed, and I also started 6 indoors.

Their biggest threat is deer, and they don't like coming right up to the house.
The deer like paths I cut for them. The deer don't like the paths I walk each week.

 

[Ranger275]

I think that was wise, Radogast. They don't like dry feet. I did a garden for my sister called Midsummer's Nights Dream that included these. They've done ok, but I was careful to site them where they wouldn't get zapped by the Dragon Sun (afternoon W). She gave me such an awesome theme to wok w/: if I were Thumbelina, flitting around, where would I want to land?
Might I also suggest Moonflower (Ipomoeia)? Lovely vine w/heart-shaped leaves, snow-white blossoms and outrageous scent. Nice thing is, it waits for you to get home from work to bloom. One of my favorites that can also be underplanted w/flowering shrubs to double their bloom season. Happy gardening!

 

[SweetSue]

I can vouch for the moonflower. One year we planted them along the south side of our house with training wires to the front facade and they enclosed it like a room. And the perfume! A splendid summer indeed.

 

[Radogast]

I think that was wise, Radogast. They don't like dry feet. I did a garden for my sister called Midsummer's Nights Dream that included these. They've done ok, but I was careful to site them where they wouldn't get zapped by the Dragon Sun (afternoon W). She gave me such an awesome theme to wok w/: if I were Thumbelina, flitting around, where would I want to land?
Might I also suggest Moonflower (Ipomoeia)? Lovely vine w/heart-shaped leaves, snow-white blossoms and outrageous scent. Nice thing is, it waits for you to get home from work to bloom. One of my favorites that can also be underplanted w/flowering shrubs to double their bloom season. Happy gardening!

Thanks I tried direct planting several moonflower seeds last spring/summer with no obvious germination. I would like to have these, at least three specific places in the garden.

 

[Ranger275]

My great-aunt told me to always pre-soak large seeds like: beans, corn, squash and so I did that w/moonflower. I had the same problem you did w/germination, but this really helps.
I found the chalice symbolism in your pix to be very profound. Particularly appropriate in your circumstances of starting a new garden, sanctuary, living space, meditation zone. I have one in my GaiaGarden and the energy which it collects is vast. If you have the space, and the inclination, raised keyhole beds in a Gaia set-up can help heal a wounded heart/soul.
May we all drink from the Chalice of Plenty in the coming new year!

 

[Radogast]

I saw new life on a tree stump today.

 

[SweetSue]

Amazing and beautiful. Thanks for that.