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[Beekissed]

I'm not a real big fan of how he keeps his chickens but his gardening and orchard seem right on the money.

 

[journey11]

Here's a follow up vid of an interview with this Paul guy and I was so impressed with this vid as he goes from one place to another in his gardens and shows some of the things that have happened there and how things grow...completely impressed! Never saw fruit trees that look like that, though....kinda weird.

I had wondered about that too. I prune mine aggressively to keep an open and low shape and still mine want to go UP every year and never look like that. Here's what they say on the L2Survive.com webpage FAQ:

Trees

Q: How does Paul get his trees to sag down that way?

A: It is not by choice. His ground is so fertile that fruit starts growing before the saplings can develop enough to hold their weight. I have seen a few of his two year old trees that had to be propped up with sticks because they had too many apples.

For most apple varieties, it is unusual for them to set more than an apple or so in the first couple of years, with the first harvest not expected for anywhere from 4 to 7 years. I would expect too, with as many trees as he has, he gets really good pollination. He prunes out all of the vertical growth too.

 

[bobm]

I was able to watch only about a 1/3 of the film ( too many interuptions) from what I could see his trees have a wee bit of age on them as well as they haven't been pruned properly all of their life not to mention that he has never removed exess fruit at set (so that the rest grow bigger) which eventually breaks branches. New top growth are water sprouts, and the open branches are exposed to sun scold. On my other ranch in Cal. I had a tree service bring their loads of wood chips ( from all types of trees and bushes from city lots ) in a large dump truck daily for a month and spread the chips out ( about 4"-8" deep) onto an acre of ground. Big mistake ! 3 years later nothing would grow other than a few street tree saplings as well as several sparce milk weed plants that grew about 5 ft. tall. I chopped them down which took just over an hour, but they regrow from their stumps. I sold that property and 10 years later when I drove by the wood chips still haven't decomposed and that acre was still mostly bare of pasture grass. On my ranch in C. Cal. high desert that was open range land populated by native grasses and tumble weeds 6" - 10" of rain fall only in the winter and no irrigation. I spread 6" of horse manure ( on 20' x 50' of garden and around all trees ) till in , then more horse manure again, till in water add 6" more horse manure, till and water ... kill. maim and destroy all weeds, wait for weed regrowth and kill those, then plant garden and trees. Huge yields. On the rest of the land I deep ripped the land, leveled it, disced it, got rid of the tumble weeds as they sprouted, planted endofite free fescue grass , wheat and 3 types of clovers. Got great pastures.

 

[so lucky]

After I watched this video, and another one...at least most of it, I think what he is not emphasizing enough is that the mulch has to be varying sizes of particles, so that the tiny stuff will decompose fast, and will filter down to the soil surface. Also, he uses a lot of chicken manure compost, fine screened, and that would be down at soil level too. So the wood chips would simply cover the rich compost/soil. But I still don't get how the fresh wood chips would not leach the nitrogen out of the soil. I guess that's the "faith" part.
If I don't use wood chips this spring, I will at least definitely use lots of straw, chicken manure, newspaper and faith that it will work.

 

[Beekissed]

In his original film he explains that part about the chips binding nitrogen where they contact the soil and advises to side dress with manure the first year specifically for that but that one wouldn't have to side dress after that unless they wanted to.

I do think they underplayed the chicken manure thing a little but I can't see that he manufactures enough with just 30 chickens in that large of an area for that to be his sole key to success in his growing. It helps....but I've added chicken manure for years and didn't get the results he has.

I'm also not a fan of how he raises his chickens but that's neither here nor there about his gardening methods...they seem pretty sound.

The trees are a bit odd but he gets results, so who am I to argue with the Tim Burtonesque looking orchard.

 

[journey11]

I put hardwood bark mulch on my perennial flowerbed, roses and blueberry patch. It is a byproduct of the lumber yard and is not treated with anything. After the first year it was mostly broken down to black dirt with just the larger pieces hanging around on top. This second year it is all completely broken down and I will have to add more mulch this year. My perennials, rhubarb and some walking onions I have in there are very happy and healthy, but I am curious about the pH and nitrogen too, @so lucky , so I will get it soil tested and let you all know what I find out. We've been adding all of the bark from our woodpile to the compost for years as well. I would think that any woodchips that were from the core would take a lot longer than bark to break down and may have a different composition possibly.

@Beekissed , I noticed on the video that he has a really bad limp. I image those low hanging trees are much easier for him to keep up with. I did not notice his limp on the movie itself. He takes care of a very large garden with just a rake, for someone who would be slowed down with such a health problem. It certainly does appear to be working quite well for him!

Something else I just thought of... You know how we usually start seedings in a peat based potting mix or coconut fibers which are acidic and have little nutrient value. I would imagine that just starting out the seedlings aren't worried about what's in the mulch. They probably get all of the nutrients they need and better pH once they've worked down into the subsoil. That may explain how healthy and green the plants are.

 

[Beekissed]

I'm getting more and more excited about my garden plans with this permanent garden/BTE garden method I want to use this spring. I've been planning on where I will put my perennial veggies and fruits vs. my annuals, where I will place trellising, what I will use to make the perimeter fencing and also to edge the chips to keep them contained in the garden and the rest of the lawn out.

I plan to stop down the road a ways and ask some folks who have a huge stand of bamboo next to the road if they mind if I were to thin it out for them some. If they mind, I know of another stand owned by a friend of mine further away that I can cut and use. I'd like to use the bamboo for making a wattle type fence around the garden and also for trellising.

I've got some very tall, very slender pines here in the yard that need cut, so I'm going to use them for my garden edging. Then I will start the fence at the level of the top of the logs. That way I can mow around the garden or trim around it without hitting any fencing material.

I want to plant some things I've never planted before, such as asparagus and strawberries, some garlic varieties and chives. I want to plant some herbs in the perennial beds as well. Rhubarb has never done well in my soil here but I'm betting it will do very well in this type of gardening.

I'd like to plant some perennial vines around the garden fence, such as honeysuckle, clematis, and others so that bees will be more attracted to my garden. I'm also going to place a bird bath for the bees to drink from. I'm also going to plant flowers, especially wild flowers, throughout the garden and among the veggies so that they attract bees and also can be used as sacrifice plants for more pesky bugs.

I'll be trying a little companion planting as well, to glean nutrients and shade for some plants with the use of others.

Having a permanent garden plot is going to open up so many possibilities here for me, with winter crops, perennial crops, small tunnels for winter things, etc.

 

[thistlebloom]

It sounds like a beautiful plan Beekissed. I can see it in my mind.

I have several wild willow thickets and have thought about making some wattle fences. I just have to time it right and weave them soon after they're cut in the spring or they get too brittle.

I hope you'll keep us updated on your gardens progress.

 

[Beekissed]

If you could soak them awhile I'm betting you could still bend them later on. I've heard of folks doing that to make willow furniture, baskets and fencing.

I'll most definitely be taking pics of before, during and after, as I want to document the progress of this gardening method. If I can get them, I'll also be placing deep wood chips around Mom's orchard. I've pruned it for the first time it's ever been pruned in almost 20 yrs. I'm taking out tops and middles and seeing what happens with that.

This should all be kind of fun, as I've never had a garden like this before and a good experiment is right down my alley!

 

[ninnymary]

I have started watching the video and am 1/3 of the way through. It is very fascinating and seems to make sense. I am going to look for some chips. I know there are several tree removal companies and my neighbor has had trees trimmed and chips taken away.

My neighbor has planted numerous fruit trees on his yard and he says he only waters them once, when he makes the hole and plants them. All of his trees look and produce better than mine. Yet, I'm the one that babies hers. I also get fire blight and he doesn't get any type of disease.

I don't understand how he is mistreating his chickens. What is he doing?

Mary