My big plan

[ceara]

We have 100 acres of land, but most of the land is hilly and forested, riddled with rocks and really isn't easy to cultivate. However, back in the 1800s this property was home to a dairy farm. Sadly none of the barns or fencing remain though. Which is a shame because I'd really like to have a milk cow and maybe a horse.

I'm interested in a permaculture type plan. We are bringing in some Jerusalem Artichoke to plant here and there as emergency food, plus the wildlife might also enjoy it. I hear they make really good fries, although I've never eaten Sunchokes. Chinese Artichokes look great too, especially cooked in a bit of butter. Yum! But the funny thing about the Chinese Artichokes is that they look like white grubs. I can imagine all sorts of scenarios to pull a joke on people and say those are actually grubs. lol

Also would like to get a colony of Wild Leek/Ramps going on the property. Finding someone willing to mail us a live clump seems next to impossible. Tried seeds by alternating cold stratification in the fridge and setting out in warm multiple times as the directions said but none germinated. The only other open besides a live clump would be to chance nature and set a container outside to let nature take care of the cold stratification for at least three seasons to germinate. And then another few years to be able to harvest. Frankly I don't want to wait that long to be able to taste ever-so-yummy wild leeks again. lol Wild Garlic would be cool too but I hear the patches are over picked in Quebec and it's now declared endangered so we're not likely to be able to get those.

We have woodland, semi-bog conditions and dry sandy soil on open ground that gets sun all day long. So I'd like to fill each of the different areas with sustainable food plants that would be happy in each area. Parts of the open areas I want to stick in some local wild flowers, like the Lupins. Wild Lupins grow everywhere around here, even in the road ditches.

In the woods I plan on inoculating logs and stumps with a few types of edible mushrooms. Hopefully they will take off out there and colonize all around. But just in case we want to bring out some logs and grow mushrooms close to the house. And also get a patch going of Shaggy Manes.

For the rest of the veg I'm shooting for not the Victorian organization of planting everything in rows, but more of a cottage garden feel, dotted around with various flowering plants to confuse critters that would otherwise zone in to eat the veg out from under us. A few things would be planted in rows like potatoes. But greens, cabbage, lettuces will be dotted around the flower beds. I think Bright Lights Swiss Chard would look lovely with flowers.

Going to make several wigwam structures to grow the new seeds of tall pole beans and tall climbing peas. This will create some height structure in the front which I think will be really pretty and productive also. Front lawn is south facing and sun beats down on it all day in summer.

We really need to overhaul the strawberry patch this year. Four years ago we started out with 100 roots. You can imagine how many plants there probably is now after not having the runners removed. I sort of like having more plants than we need because then if slugs have a feast we still have a lot for people to enjoy. lol Surprisingly the birds don't seem to go after them for some reason.

Hmmmm, what else... Oh yeah. We have a 12 ft x 24 ft homemade greenhouse made with a wood frame and usually we have it covered in roll plastic. But the snow blower that comes to clear our driveway destroyed the plastic it so not going to do the plastic at all this year and just use the frame to allow beans, peas and cukes to climb. Sort of a glorified climbing plant frame. lol In the middle will have some carrots, herbs, tomatoes and greens.

Digging new beds outside the greenhouse because it faces south and gets tons of sun in the summer so it's ideal for yet another veg patch.

One day I'd like to get a hold of a bunch of fruit trees like apples and crab apples and plant them in the back field. It's really kind of desolate out there and needs something nice planted along with the wildflowers I want to sow there. Turn it into a sort of wild flower meadow dotted with fruit trees.

In the front yard we have a funky maple tree. It's like two trees in one! One is a green maple and the other a red. Might be kind of fun to take a bunch of self seeded tree seedlings from my front flower beds and transplant them back in the field as well. It would be so pretty in the fall. Those baby trees gotta come out anyway or they will overrun my Lilies.

Have one black currant bush but need to figure out if I can take cuttings of it to multiply the plants. I really don't know how to propagate via cuttings unless it's a simple houseplant that just gets stuck in a glass of water. lol

Growing wild on the property is a bunch of alpine strawberries and low bush blueberries. There's also a standing water area that has wild Blue Flag Iris and Marsh Marigolds which are always pretty.

Well I think that about covers the overall plans, just need to put it in action. No need to have a gym membership when you have a garden! lol

We're making the move to all heirloom veg slowly but surely. Here's a list of what we have to grow this year. Not all are heirlooms though, but don't want to waste precious seed!

French Breakfast Radish - Heirloom
Rainbow Mix Swiss Chard - Heirloom
Silverado Swiss Chard
Perpetual Swiss Chard
Bianco di Trieste summer squash - Heirloom
Plain green summer squash we got at the $1 store
Straight Neck yellow squash - organic on seed pack
Mignonette bronze lettuce - Heirloom
Tom Thumb lettuce - Heirloom
Little Gem lettuce - Heirloom
Parris Island Cos Romaine
Grand Rapids leaf lettuce
Corn Salad
Mizuna
Two types Mesclun mixes - spicy and baby leaf blend
Calypso cuke - pickling cuke
Muncher cuke - claims organic on seed pack
Ambition shallots
Early Dividend Broccoli
Parel Cabbage - early and tiny, very tasty
Two types of Kale - Blue Curled Scotch and Winterbor
Classica tomato
Roma VF tomato
Blanche du Quebec tomato - Heirloom
Italian Gold tomato - Heirloom
Purple Prince tomato - Heirloom
San Marzano tomato
Some unk type of cherry tomato
Golden Detroit yellow beet
Connecticut Field pumpkin
New Rocket pumpkin
Early Butternut Winter Squash
Some Hot Wax peppers
Unk hot tiny chili peppers
Sweetness II early nantes type Carrot
Baby pak choi
Kasumi Chinese Cabbage
Tall Telephone Pea - Heirloom
Blue Lake Pole Bean - I think it's Heirloom but not sure
Brita's Foot Long Bean - Heirloom
Ricci’s pole bean - Heirloom
Don Collis’ pole bean - Heirloom

Only things I'm missing are potatoes and maybe nice heirloom onions. lol

One thing I'd really really like to make this year is Rainbow Salsa. It will have red, orange, yellow tomatoes, purple onions and green hot peppers. I think it will be really pretty! And tasty.

Can't wait for winter to be over. I'm tired of being cold and looking at deep snow out there.

Here are a couple of pics for fun

View of the marsh taken from halfway up the hill behind our house. Almost 1 hour walk to get there, mostly uphill.



Part of the back field. This is where the wild iris and marsh marigolds are located.



Some of my Lilies



Partial view of the front lawn - south facing



Funky duo Maple tree



One of 4 flower island beds in front



For some reason I don't have any veg pics. Will have to hunt through all the CDs and hard drive.

[Alan]

Beautiful property and pics my friend! Great ideas as well.

Can I make one suggestion. You live in a good area to grow Ginseng and with the decidious trees in your area and hilly property, you have ideal conditions. There is a lot of money in ginseng and it's a great plant to be propogating and preserving. Look into it, it can definitely up the value of the products produced on your farm my friend.

[ceara]

Oh really? In Zone 4?

*goes to do some research*

Thanks for the info!

We don't have a farm really. The property used to be a farm. All our neighbors have barns and stuff but they were torn down on this property about 20 years ago, or so we were told. All that's left is some broken down rusty wire fences.

The thing is.... who would we sell ginseng to?

We're supposed to be meeting with a forest product guy that knows about mushrooms and stuff in the spring and he's going to be helping us with shroom IDing so that we can pick and he'll put in the gourmet market with his other products. He has pickers for everything from choke cherries (which we have tons of, growing wild), blueberries, edible fiddlehead ferns and of course mushrooms. I wonder if he'd know who would be interested in ginseng.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

[macmex]

Looks like a very nice property, and those sound like great ideas!

George

[canadamike]

I will send you live wild leeks in the spring, and seeds of many wild alliums, . Start them indoors. Most of them don't have a very long lifespan, so you might have sown old seeds...

Let's say you are now the North America HG wild allium northern research station

And believe me, these wild leeks are tastebuds'l wonders..

[ceara]

Oh I know they are.

I used to live in Pennsylvania and every spring people would head out and shovel up some baby leeks for what seemed like leek week.

Everyone reeked of leek, but it didn't matter 'cause it was always so darn tasty.

I would like to get a nice colony going for sure. I sure do miss the leeks.

Wow everyone here is so nice. I feel the love!

[flowerpower]

I have yet to find a wild leek in upstate NY.

[Penny]

Your lillies are gorgeous!!
Nice space you have there too,

[ceara]

Feb 1, 2009 3:52:03 GMT -5 flowerpower said:

I have yet to find a wild leek in upstate NY.

Allium tricoccum

Here's a little info page, with a distribution map. Maybe that can help you find some. If you do, try a few. They are amazing!

web.syr.edu/~mhough/A/Allium_tricoccum.html

[canadamike]

what I am taliking about is allium ampeloprasum, real leeks, but the wild ancestors.....

[jason]

Is that what is sold as 'elephant garlic' Michel? It is perennial and hardy? Think you can just buy some from the store and plant them?..

[ceara]

Well that sounds interesting too! Never heard of it before.

I think it's differentiated, into a couple of different things. Sort of like in the situation with celery. Basically the same plant but some were bred to have a heavier root, into celeriac, and others into more of a stalk form. Just as an example.

I wanted a perennial wild Allium that would colonize and pretty much take care of itself once it was in the right environment.

The variety of A. ampeloprasum does look tasty as well though. Are they planted annually like regular leeks?

Another thing I forgot that I would like to try is Sea Kale. That looks so tasty when blanched.

[canadamike]

They are perennials, and yes, some are similar to elephant garlic, which is a perennial, but smaller

[ceara]

That sounds great then!

We eat so many onion family plants here. Seems like its an ingredient in almost every meal.

[Alan]

Your forester should be able to give you some good information on the Ginseng growing and selling thereof, I presume in Canada you guys can dig and sell ginseng in season like we do here in the U.S. When we sell it locally it is usually via hunting/shooting ranges or places that also buy furs, few and far between anymore. These days I sale to a major exporter in Louisville Kentucky and get a much higher price.