Small biome area
I like to think of my garden, the 1/5 acre around my suburban home as a biome. I wonder, after reading about Glycosal, the spread of same, to what degree it is possible to separate from my neighbors. I do not have the lab space or the time to find the answer to that question. My dogs walk on sidewalks that have visible calcium chloride and in summer balls of some sort of lawn enhancement product. I have no control over what my neighbors do with their patches of the earth.
On my little patch of earth, there is some amount of control and that I will take and grow what I can. So far this has meant talking out invasive plants (the buckthorn was making it's own biome, nothing grew in the buckthorn understory).
I have begun replacing Buckthorn with Catalpa trees. Also up the hill, there are Hazelnut and pear and apple and greengage plum. The blueberries have not had enough water in their first year, but the raspberries (red and black) like it fine in the clay soil, that 50 years ago was fill. Raspberries grow no matter what, but grow bigger berries when there is lots of water.
There are grapes growing up the pergola going on their second year. The Pergola used to be a clubhouse, now fenced in attempt to keep out ground hogs. Last summer I went back to the pergola/old clubhouse and witnessed the GH climb 6 feet of fence, even with a full belly of my squash plants.
The only way I bother growing broccoli and lettuce is in pots near the house, where the GH is not interested in going. I have yet to find a good way to grow cucurbits of any sort. I purchase these at the farmer's market. I will keep trying to grow cukes and squash in pots, will order special seeds of cucumbers and squash hybrids for pots in 2011.
I had been using only open pollinated varieties. I guess I have to let the idea of only open pollenated varieties go. Bye Bye idea.
I can feel another seed catalog search coming on, gotta go.
On my little patch of earth, there is some amount of control and that I will take and grow what I can. So far this has meant talking out invasive plants (the buckthorn was making it's own biome, nothing grew in the buckthorn understory).
I have begun replacing Buckthorn with Catalpa trees. Also up the hill, there are Hazelnut and pear and apple and greengage plum. The blueberries have not had enough water in their first year, but the raspberries (red and black) like it fine in the clay soil, that 50 years ago was fill. Raspberries grow no matter what, but grow bigger berries when there is lots of water.
There are grapes growing up the pergola going on their second year. The Pergola used to be a clubhouse, now fenced in attempt to keep out ground hogs. Last summer I went back to the pergola/old clubhouse and witnessed the GH climb 6 feet of fence, even with a full belly of my squash plants.
The only way I bother growing broccoli and lettuce is in pots near the house, where the GH is not interested in going. I have yet to find a good way to grow cucurbits of any sort. I purchase these at the farmer's market. I will keep trying to grow cukes and squash in pots, will order special seeds of cucumbers and squash hybrids for pots in 2011.
I had been using only open pollinated varieties. I guess I have to let the idea of only open pollenated varieties go. Bye Bye idea.
I can feel another seed catalog search coming on, gotta go.
