Jim East @ wolfyvegan @slrpnk.net

I am not Jim West.

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4 mo. ago

Agreed. There is no need for even more microplastic in everything from deep-sea sediment to rain clouds. But I suspect that as people accumulate more and more microplastic in their brains, they will become less and less capable of making rational and ecologically-responsible decisions. A vicious cycle.

And the tree doesn't get too big and out of control?

Good to know. Different plants probably have different sensitivities to it also.

Okay, that's enough out of you.

Ah. I didn't want to assume anything about your level of knowledge/experience. Apple trees and most nut trees can take a long time regardless, so time will tell how they perform...

Just so you know, being planted near black walnut trees also makes things grow slower. But yeah, I imagine that Maine would depress just about any tree...

Amen brother hallelujah!

Continuous harvest is the best! We can't just stop eating when the plants stop fruiting, so having successive fruiting seasons in a year is really helpful. If durian fruited year-round... monoculture would be tempting.

Do you trellis the blackberries or just let them sprawl everywhere?

Yes, that is a bush. What do you like about it?

Diversification is key to any successful investment strategy.

...Close enough.

You don't. Bamboo is not your friend. Bamboo is not anyone's friend.

Kill it before it can escape and consume everything that you hold dear. Fire helps. Dynamite is better.

Yeah, give saskatoons a try! You'd be surprised what's possible even in your climate.

put out a sucker below the graft

We tell the trees to grow, and they do grow, but just to spite us. (That's called "malicious compliance.")

(non-native) purslane species

I don't think that it matters at this point. Native or not, it really is a useful plant, not only for the garden, but also for those sidewalk cracks where nothing else seems to grow.

I’d be worried about runoff.

You'd only need to prevent the water from spreading it around until it breaks down. If you compost it on a small raised platform with a roof over it, you shouldn't have much issue. For any minor spillage, you can plant something around the compost platform to absorb it. Once the compost breaks down, runoff would be a concern only due to the loss of hard-earned nutrients, which you could also reduce with vegetation and mulch.

I’d also like to do some cover crops and chop-and-drop this fall for mulch.

I've heard that buckwheat can work as a winter cover crop, though I've never actually seen it done. Do you have any Acer negundo popping up? That would probably be choppable and droppable, though more suitable as mulch for the fruit trees than the garden beds. If you have any Elaeagnus umbellata in your area, you could cut it down for woody mulch as well, but I don't recommend planting it. For mulching the garden beds, some large herbaceous plant probably makes more sense, but I don't know the cold-climate equivalent of banana, and the closest things to Tithonia diversifolia probably wouldn't grow back very well. I do NOT recommend grass.

As an honourable mention... Robinia pseudoacacia is another potential source of woody mulch, but it's probably the nuclear option. I don't know if there are any cow pastures or old copper mines near you, but if so, then this could probably reforest them if you let it grow up to produce seeds. The neighbour's lawn wouldn't stand a chance. If it isn't already growing in your area, exercise extreme caution. This plant is not a toy.

Good doggies. Now plant trees.

Kill it before it can reproduce.

What about your greenhouse-grown tomatoes? Are you really going to let the neighbour win?

Sure thing. Lindsay has all the info about where to go and when.

I've only eaten them out of hand, unadulterated. That's how I eat almost everything. It's like cherimoya: rip it open and have oral-sex-at-a-distance with the tree, but don't eat the outside green part or the seeds. Sometimes they don't ripen perfectly, so they can be a bit dry or bland, but a good lúcuma has a texture between canistel and mamey sapote and a flavour almost like caramel. (I've never actually eaten caramel, but I can imagine.)