[RayFromFranceMember]

Dear Eileen. I also tried Tall Green Utah last summer. Very easy to grow and SO GOOD TO EAT !!! all sweet, even my grandchild asked for it every time he came to us. This year I am planting 30 Tall Green Utah, it is so good to eat Raymond

[RayFromFranceMember]

what is a 3b pensil ?

[RayFromFranceMember]

all the other weeds grow, why would not grass grow
I will tell you all about it !

[RayFromFranceMember]

And what you say about small trees and more variety, THANKS ! I never thought about that and although 3 acres is a lot more than most people have, were I to plant only big trees grown from seeds, there won’t be many trees growing so perhaps a few big ones from seeds and lots of small grafted ones is a good way to go. I am now reading about forest gardens and that is real inspiring. But I also see that most people that get into these permacultures and who ALSO want to have plenty to eat, also grow a more classic garden for annual veggies since a forest garden takes many years to get going and never will give as many asparagus and artichokes that I like to eat. What is your garden like ?

[RayFromFranceMember]

Thank you for your input. It all makes sense. Fukuoka also says that if you sow white clover and let it grow as a permanent sort of grass to keep weeds low, then create clay pellets to sow a mixture of veggies, berries and trees, and let nature have its way, surprising things happens. Certainly worth trying on a small area of my 3 acres, just for the fun of it, to see what happens during five years. For the rest of my land, I will plant lots of artichokes and asparagus and lots of berries and BIG trees, not the minature ones but the big big trees simply because they are so beautiful. I know, takes a long time to get the fruits going, but I love beautiful big trees and will eat berries until I get fruits

[RayFromFranceMember]

So lucky I am yes, 3 acres.
My soil is so dry now that I cannot even test the drainage.
My spade broke when I tried to make a hole. But people say it is normal
because no rain at all for almost two months.

I did some testing of the soil last spring and it seems to me that it is
between clay and sand because I can make sausages that hold together almost.
They somehow fall apart but not totally.

I tested the ph to be about 6.5 which should be fine for all the berries I want to plant this fall.

Yes I did put all this plastic one week ago to avoid any week this spring but it is not clear to me whether Charles recommends plastic with holes or not. I will put green compost under the plastic in about two or three weeks.

I do not know yet what kind of weeds I have because not much growing now without the rain.

I also want to set aside about one acre where I will grow according the permaculture traditions of Fukuoka. No compost, only sowing white clover and planting by throwing seeds from vegetables and fruit trees all over the area.

But for the rest of the land, yes, I thought that I should test the soil for deficiencies, don’t you do this ? Or is this just another business strategy from labs offering such things

What do I want to grow ? First of all everything that is expensive ! Artichokes, Asparagus, Pumkins, Salads (the previous owner gave me an old variety that has an awesome taste, I will send you some when I get the grains) and then all kinds of vegetables I fancy to eat, which is everything according to seasons. Are there in season vegetables that are no good to eat ? And lots and lots of berries that I will plant this fall. 30 plants of blueberries, 50 plants of strawberries, and so on…

I also want to try Pistachios and Pomegranates. It is more of Mediterrean fruits but I am somewhat in between the Atlantic and the Mediterrean, closer to th eMediterrean actually, close to the city of Albi, northest of Toulouse.

Fresh Pistachios are so good ! and fresh Pomegranates are awesome !
Okey, I will try not to get carries away now.

Charles said that soon we will be able to post photos on this forum. That will be great, then we can share, not tastes but at least the beauties of it all.

Thanks to both of you for your input.

Raymond

[RayFromFranceMember]

If you refer to my posts where I find no disease in my plants,
it is true but I am moving. Today I have 30 square yards !
Next year 3 acres !!! I am trying to to get to carried away

Is it not a good idea to test the soil so as to see how to start
and with what ?

[RayFromFranceMember]

Thank you so much for your reply. I will put green city compost this first year. I shall have to wait with the manure until next year since I have no one year old manure available. Please, where did you find 6 variaties of Asparagus ?

[RayFromFranceMember]

If I understand right,
I should pole many many holes through my plastic mulch sheet
so that the rains get through…

[RayFromFranceMember]

I understand but only one thing ? It does not rain under the plastic ?

[RayFromFranceMember]

Yes but I wonder. Perhaps it is because I have so little space ? Next year I will have 3 acres, that is a different story, but I TRY to stay calm !

[RayFromFranceMember]

I actually built my first two years soil with tons of woodchips and leaves in the fall in 2010. So there must be lots of fungi. I can jump on my soil, it is so compact. Last fall I only added green city compost. And lots of EM. Lxast fall I had lots of mushrooms growing all winter. On my new land I will use less wood for my veggies.

[RayFromFranceMember]

Thank you Charles for sharing this. If you say that you only use one year old manure, that all makes sense to me. Two years is obvously overdoing it. But here in France some growers use fresh manure that makes BIG veggies but no taste. You say that the green compost makes smaller ognions but what about the taste ? I am only interested in strong taste and nutrient dense foods. As far as fungi is concerned, would not simply adding woodchips and sawdust be fine ? Grass and greens developpe bacteria and wood and sawdust fungi from what I read. But I agree, manure thats one year old must be fine.

[RayFromFranceMember]

I translated this on google. Not perfect, but understandable.
An interesting note here is that they say that the green and white is all one plant, at least for this variety.

VARIETY OF ASPARAGUS

There are many varieties of asparagus in Europe. In the South of France, we grow mainly three varieties: ACR, Argenteuil and PREBELLE. The first two have been replaced in recent years by the Dutch hybrids or clones as Grolim GIMLIM and which represent more than half of cultivation at present. Most of the varieties produce either white or green asparagus, only the mode of culture define the color of spears. It suffices to butter (covering a mound of earth 30 cm) the asparagus crowns to produce white spears and instead let it grow in the open air and sunlight to produce asparagus nice and green.

In Provence, particularly in the Vaucluse, we select and preserved an old French variety, PREBELLE. Its performance is quite low, but the caliber of shoots is very important (22 + representing more than 50% of asparagus, I recall that the caliber of the asparagus is 12-16, 16-22, 22 +, 24 + … expresses the diameter in millimeters of the base of the stalk). The growth of this variety is very fast and gives very little fibrous stalks. She is also very sweet and postharvest has the advantage not to twist.

All these qualities have earned him to be on the card as many different names as asparagus Lauris Villelaure, Perth, Pernes fountains restaurants … In the end, that’s add more asparagus is fresher, it is soft and very very fibrous.

In recent years, we grow a variety of asparagus old Italian native Liguria, whence comes its name, asparagus purple lilac. Much softer than the green asparagus is a garnet purple color. She unfortunately the disadvantage to green when cooked.

Here is the original website in french :

http://galistruffe.over-blog.com/pages/VARIETES_DASPERGES-2704517.html

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