Years ago, a hillside was tidied up. An apple tree growing there was pruned, grass around it ripped up. At the roots of the tree, clear plastic was laid; a layer of black plastic was laid over this, on top of this was laid colored woodchips Alone, surrounded by short, browning grass in the heat of […]
I’ve been working with Sarah Shailes, the curator, and writer of the prestigious Plant Scientist blog, to feature The rules of spacing, which was such a hit here a couple weeks ago, on her site. She published it today. Thanks to Carolee, a follower of Mortal Tree, for already liking the guest posting. Find the […]
Is the space around your trees still empty? Try these plants: 10 Companion Plants for Orchards (~4min read) This article provides a pretty neat survey of plants that, together, make a diverse, healthy, productive orchard. Any of the listed plants of especial interest?
Sunchokes is number ten in the Top 10 ground covers for food forests series I started a while ago. To help put everything into perspective, I made an infographic. The ground cover branch on the visual archive has links to all the original posts if you would like to find out more. In general, the […]
I posted on Instagram lately that I was after the best image of PASSIVE Gardening. I was so touched when I saw the response: Elora L. sent this among a couple other images she’d taken with her astoundingly high quality camera and artistic eye. I responded: Elora, I don’t know quite what to say. Thank […]
I’m always writing about perennials and no till, but I actually do a lot of annual gardening. My family’s farm has a CSA for about 20 shares that uses about 3 acres of tilled gardens. Mortal Tree is my exposition on alternative methods, so of course I wanted to try growing annuals in a passive, […]
I look forward to the food forest being more grown up at this time of year -meaning that the the food forest will have more shrubs and trees, making shade, mulch, and cycling more water. I wish I had more of these things right now. But besides being patient, there are several things I am […]
A crumb of hurricane made its way through our small valley, throwing Mortal Tree to the ground. I mean the dead apple tree in the center of Mortal Tree, which gave the food forest, and this blog, its name. It’s been over 7 years since the cruel pruning of the former owners killed the poor […]
How deep do comfrey roots grow? I needed to find out. I excavated several down to their fine roots and thought I would share the documentation. The trowel measures 8 inches on the blade.
