Permaculture

Two Years Ago
Leo and I decided that we had better start adding permaculture to the farm produce mix. We started with artichokes, which finally started to produce this year. There are 2 varieties, Violetta and Globe. The Globe is big and green and the Violetta was a little smaller and very thorny. If anyone has a comment about either of these, I'd love to hear it.

We started a small patch of Rhubarb, which is producing enough for one week. I'm thinking about expanding it. Which will mean in 2 years, we'll have enough for about 3 weeks.

This year we put in strawberries and asparagus, which you should begin to get next year. We've planted Purple Passion Asparagus. They are looking very healthy and are quite pretty with their ferny nature. The Mare de Bois Strawberries are up and looking good. We may even see some berries this fall. The blackberries are also up (ouch) and by August we should see them.

We have been working on a blueberry trial for a couple of years. We have finally gotten a handle on what we are going to grow. Here's Leo, picking no blueberry before it's time. That still leaves what I think is a hole in the production.

My list for this fall looks a little like this:

Tangelos for February
Nectarines for June
Apricots & Apples for July
French Prunes and Limes for August
Pears & Peaches for September
Pears and Persimmons for October
and finally Apples for November.

I know that you receive some plums and pears from the garden, but I'm thinking about planting 8 more fruit trees, so that there's a little more to go around, plus jam, pie filling, and fruit leather. Let me know what you think. Of course it will be 2 to 3 years before you get to eat all of these.