ArbequinaOlive and Camellia Sinensis

Unboxing my order for Arbequina Olive and Camellia Sinesis.

The Arbequina Olive should fair well in our orchard and hopefully provide us with some good nutritious olives. Camellia Sinensis should also fair well on the border of our orchard providing winter and early spring color as well as amazing leaves for all the tea we can imagine.

Landscape Master Plan

Landscape Master Plan

1. To govern the overall maximum benefit to the health of all inhabitants (Humans, Bear, Deer, Rabbits, Mt. Beaver, Birds, bats, bees, etc…)

2. To protect and enhance the watershed

3. To act as a potential Wetland Mitigation Plan in anticipation of any additions, alterations or renovations

4. To provide food, shelter, harvestable materials and beauty.

5. To follow the basic principles of permaculture with an emphasis on native species where appropriate.

6. To include management of soil erosion caused by storm water runoff and bioremediation through phytoremediation and myco remediation.

7. To remove and eradicate invasive species including ivy, knotweed, something and something and something else????

Plant Purpose Abbreviations

PNW

Native Species

M

Medicinal

FB

Fruit Bearing

PA

Pollinator Attractor

N

Nitrogen fixer

EG

Evergreen

BA

Bioaccumlator

T

Edible tube

BR

Bioremediation

Plant List

Plants on this list are to be introduced in addition to the existing landscape of canopy trees, understory fruit and nut trees, shrubs, flowers and herbs, groundcover, and mushroom patches.

Native Species are labled PNW (Those listed shall be used in any mitigation plans)

Code

Red Flowering Currant   Ribes Sanguineum

FB

PNW

SnowBrush  Ceanothus Veluntinus

PA

PNW

N

EG

Cascade Pentsemon    Pentsemon Serrulatus

PA

PNW

Service Berry   Amelanchier Alnifolia

FB

PNW

Wild Ginger   Asarum caudatum

M

PNW

Kinnikinick  Arctostaphylos uva ursi

M

PNW

FB

EG

Arrowhead   Sagittaria Latifolia

T

PNW

BR

Great Camas Camassia Leichtlinii

T

PNW

PA

Yarrow   Achillea Millefolium

M

PNW

BA

Elderberry   Sambucus Caerulea & Nigra

M

PNW

FB

Agricultural Plants

Camellia Sinensis

Tea

PA

EG

Goumi Elangus multiflora

FB

N

Seaberry

FB

N

Comfrey

BA

Hibiscus

Tea/wine

PA

Jujube

FB

Olive (Arborquina)

FB

Passion Flower

FB

PA

Kiwi

FB

Moringa tree  Moringa oleifera

M

Saffron Crocus    Crocus sativas

Spice

PA

Pineapple Broom   Cytisus Battendieri

N

Permaculture Adding a Hop Trellis

Had a chance to put in our hop poles for the trellis. It's been a wet year so far so I didn't want to transplant them and have them rot in the ground. It looks like they are happy and getting ready to take off like a hop rocket!! Check out the video and subscribe for more updates. The permaculture project is coming along. We're entering Year 3 so there should be some harvest of the fruit trees, asparagus and more!!!








 

Hugle Lasagne Garten Kultur (Raised Garden Beds)

We finally got around to processing down last years storm debris, landscape compost, bonfire and bbq ashes and charcoal, and our kitchen compost. I added some logs and branches on the bottom to decay and absorb water and nutrients for the summer months. I'm not sure what I want to plant yet but most likely it will be something that loves sun and heat and will provide some shade to the middle beds for those less heat tolerant plants.

I'm calling Winter Over

I set out this past winter to be more active with writing. Nope, I really don't get that many views so I tried to keep up with making videos of past projects and use the dreary winter weather as an excuse to be inside editing all the video I shot while the weather is good. I figure that's when people will be trying to waste some of the dark days hours anyway.

Well, I'm calling it. I'm going to say that spring has sprung. I'm going to go back and recap on some of the projects I was able to accomplish and see if I can get this blog back on track, views or no views damn it. I don't do much writing these days so I have to keep up my typing skills somehow!

I have a good backlog of photographs to go through and I should put them to use. Since launching Spatial Recognition last year most of my time has been directed to getting that off the ground. We are attempting to focus on Historic, Natural and Cultural Resources in an area that is more about demolition and Mondrianesque painted vertical shipping container looking buildings.

So, sticking with the post and a notion to be succinct I'll turn my attention to the excitement in the landscape. The Ivy War continues and there will be another chapter coming soon but it has led to a more ambitious plan of permaculture. We intend to create a Master Plan (which I will outline later) that provides us and the animals some of our daily requirements. One of these initiatives is what I call indicators, indicators are plants that are typically consistent in their cycle. I plant them, or they plant themselves, in areas where I need certain functions. First, color! I need to see something that is not white, grey, or brown. While the evergreens are helpful I want some pink, red, purple, yellow, you know a bright garden billboard that says IT'S SPRING.

Flowering Quince- The humming birds are already VERY happy to see this starting to bloom. Although this is not the giant sweet quince fruit producing variety, we do get small tart quince that are loaded with pectin that go wonderfully with rhubarb and blackberry the the wife makes in to a jam. Keep these trimmed up and it'll flower almost all summer.

Hyacinth!!! One of my favs. What more is there to say? Both of these are perfect wake up calls to get your beans and greens started. They are also extremely important for the first food source for early bees. This is vital in the event the fruit trees blossom early as you want to keep the bees around. A couple of these planted strategically near the fruits and veggies will boost your yield.

The Ivy War

The Great war started like all others before it. After a few initial contacts the differences between the two sides were slowly magnified, like a scientist zooming in with a microscope so close that the resemblances of what was and what is became vastly different. A small grievance that evolved into contempt, pitched battles, proxy wars and ultimately direct open conflict. The slippery slope and the fog of war compounded the decent.

As I looked across the landscape I was annoyed by an incursion into our territory. After scouting and an investigation I had found the enemy had penetrated deep into our area and was establishing a foothold. What I thought was an establishment of agreed upon lines was actually the launching pad for their offensive. Having spotted this just in time I was able to beat back the incursions and reestablish the front lines.

This is how these things start and slowly unravel. I went to battle at first with light weapons and now it has become a series of pitched battles, tactical warfare with strategic purpose. Having taken out my first salvo, I descended into the woods. The Ivy had worked its tendrils into every garden bed and taken over the hill. They had taken the high ground and were choking us out with a patient siege and war of attrition that we could not sustain. I broke the siege by cutting them off at the base.



Jason Kotarski

 

Thus the battle begun. The small hatchet and machete struck the first blows. The ivy fought back, grabbing ahold of my foot and tripping me causing a tumble. I didn't even notice the Ivy had allied with the Blackberries causing a mess to my fingers, hands, arms, and face. I ratcheted it up a notch and invoked fire to burn through the root mass that had strangled the landscape to death. I hacked and piled and torched small circles to the earth and tilled the ashes and tinder to the soil. I was moving the frontlines of the war and in these circles I planted our counter offensive. The ivy had strangled the native species and specimen plants leaving behind a green carpet of landslide danger. The counter offensive was to reinforce our position and entrench the battle lines.

 

Jason Kotarski

 

The enemy had infiltrated our transportation corridor necessary for supply lines and reinforcements. The rocks were to be our foothold and we had to press the advance.

 

Jason Kotarski

 

We spotted the enemy position and plotted our attack. We would wait for a Saturday when the enemy would be vulnerable and waited for the sun to set to mask our movements before we sprung our trap. We had flanked the enemy and were advancing on two fronts in a pincer movement to divert the attention of this infiltrator. They were deeply entrenched in their position and we invoked Sun Zhu as we planned to hold our ground. It was hand to hand combat, grappling and twisting, pulling and wrestling to yank them from the trenches. 

 

Jason Kotarski

  

 The southern flank had succeeded but we knew we would be tested on this side again. By only attacking the exposed positions we left the main forces to regroup later. We need to establish an observation post to monitor the situation.

 

Jason Kotarski

The initial pitched battles are showing signs of stabilization with new habitation in the controlled sectors. These are becoming excellent rear guards to sustain our Forward Operating Bases (FOB).

Oh adversary Ivy and your proxy Blackberry, we will defeat you and on the fourth day of the month of July we will declare our independence and watch you burn in the flames of our success!