Diversity is key: an early June food forest walk-around.

[@rhondafinnerty8651]

God bless your Dad! You need to get a bat box to attract bats to eat all those mosquitoes. Love your food forest!!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Absolutely 💯

[@donnavorce8856]

No apologies needed for the wild look. I love the woodland appearance. My forest has wild zones in which I stand and feel so good because nature is doing what she wants to do without me interfering at all. Cheers

[@thehillsidegardener3961]

Same, I keep the immediate area around the house a bit neater but the rest is pretty wild, I think it drives the neighbors a bit crazy but I have wildlife, I have water retention, the neighbours have neatly snipped grass and no ecological succession, I know where I'd rather be.

[@donnavorce8856]

@@thehillsidegardener3961 Nice to hear from you. The day I moved onto this small acre I quit mowing except right around the house. Now it's a forest. It used to be short grass and 8 or 9 big trees. Like a municipal park. Just how people around here think is so great. Well they can keep it. As long as they leave me to keep mine. ; )

[@thehillsidegardener3961]

@@donnavorce8856 Yes! It's actually amazing what will pop up! The other day I found a mulberry tree at the end of my vineyard, it must be in its third year at least, I have no idea how it got there or when exactly but I'm loving it! Anything I don't want (like some common invasives we have), fine, I can chop and drop it, it's a win either way. Good thing we don't have HOAs around here though :D

[@peterroberts999]

Great update thank you. Hope your Dad's recovery continues well

[@PlantRelated]

Thank you for pointing out the herbs and flowers and running water to help with mosquito issue

[@wayleexu4857]

I just retired from Agriculture Canada. In our centre, we have life fruit tree gene bank. Lots of varieties of every fruit tree grow in the fields including Pawpaw. I suggest you don’t thin pawpaw fruits.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thank you 😊

[@BrianPellerin]

buying currants this year for my edible forest. Fruitful plants!

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

The key to getting the biggest harvest of any berry is to know when it is almost ripe but not quite. The other animals are waiting for it to get fully ripe. Wither it be birds, insects, slugs or snails. I'll be inoculating my landscape with edible mushroom mycelium this year.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

exactly!

[@rhondafinnerty8651]

I was really impressed when you walked up to the top of your land and had absolutely zero mosquitoes due to all the herbs and natural flowers and plants. What an amazing ecosystem! I have been planting herbs around my garden and the bugs have nearly disappeared. I planted leeks in between my green beans and it has been very helpful in keeping all those pesky insects away!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It really really works

[@hhwippedcream]

Thanks so much, Keith! Thanks so much for sharing your experience and love of the land.

[@hhwippedcream]

Let me know if you would like some triple crown blackberries. They are huge! We made Father's Day pies and they knocked socks right off. We have an inspected nursery in California and can shoot you starts with minimal red tape due to our already rigorous quarantine processes... Super important in an age where climate change opens invasive doors.

[@hhwippedcream]

Yes homegrown strawberries are another fruit!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Sure, I would love some, email me [e-mail] for info

[@Twotimepyro]

I don’t thin my pawpaws. Some will fall on their own. Terrific fruit 👍

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks!

[@Crina-LudmilaCristeaAuthor]

We had our first grown wine caps on Sunday last week. They are delicious!! I'm so glad I inoculated months ago. Thank you for sharing with us your food forest. I'm hoping to grow some paw paws as well in the years to come. Take care!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

❤️!!

[@nategrossman2539]

Thanks for another great video!

[@lrrerh8090]

Unedited is great. You could have a blooper reel too. You’ll have to do a pawpaw tasting video. I’m in Calgary and have never had one before.

[@PlantRelated]

I got some pawpaws and hackberry trees because of your videos

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

❤️

[@growinginportland]

Man, those berries sound delicious, sour is my cup of tea. I think I’ll have to plant some of those. party on my friend. Glad to hear your dad‘s feeling better. All my best.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

🍻

[@ninemoonplanet]

Mosquito repellent, lemon balm. I don't have a mosquito issue here because the lemon balm is like citronella, which makes lovely flowers, and is edible. Lemon verbena is a semi-tropical, so I have it outside in summer, cut it back pretty harshly, and bring it to where no frost will affect it. Both keep the blood suckers at bay.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Interesting, we have a bunch spread around the pond and main food forest areas, I wonder if that is having an impact Probably. Maybe I will spread some down near the pawpaws.

[@tigrlily]

Also Lemon grass. Can it grow up there?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Sadly no, Lemon grass is zone 10-12

[@littlehomesteadbythebeach]

As always, you get me dreaming of a wonderful food forest. It's coming. Not growing as fast as yours but coming. And yes, haskaps are really cold hardy. Zone 3b here and they are huge! Just later. They are in full bloom right now. We make rose hip juice and bbq sauce here. Very good!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Awesome, what varieties did you put in?

[@littlehomesteadbythebeach]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy No idea. A gift from a friend :)

[@redechelon37]

Very enjoyable watch as always. The mosquitos are insane here, so that topic especially caught my attention. As we clear and plant more natives, we're seeing more dragonflies. I've been thinking about bat houses..

[@judifarrington9461]

Dragon flies are amazing!! I used to not be able to garden in the cool of the day because of mosquitoes. I planted herbs and flowers and keep bowls of water around my garden for the beneficials and the Dragon flies eat all my mosquitoes now. 😊

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Bat houses are a great idea for sure 👌

[@Acts-1322]

​@@judifarrington9461just be sure the mosquitos don't breed in those bowls. They swarmed so bad when we moved to this house because of the plugged rainwater barrel, the muddy drainage ditch not draining, & a couple random pots collecting water.

[@judifarrington9461]

@Acts-1322 Thanks for the warning. So far I see the larva, but if they make it to the adult stage, they aren't surviving for very long. What the beneficial bugs don't get, the frogs, skinks, and snakes eat. 😊

[@Greentrees60]

You are the reasonI am growing Haskaps on my balcony! They haven't fruited (or maybe even flowered) for me, but I got a harvest last year and they were delicious! Thank you for the inspiration!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That is awesome!

[@Greentrees60]

The nice thing about the balcony is they are safe from birds so I can eat them when they are SUPER sweet

[@kayspitzmueller7544]

Yep, planted six because of him!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

❤️

[@debbiehenri345]

If I recall one mushroom expert's words correctly, you don't get the nutritional benefit of mushrooms unless you cook them. And I have heard it said that with at least 'some' mushrooms (Chicken-Of-The-Woods is one such species), the more you cook them the better they are for you. Eat them raw, and you get no worthwhile benefit (which is sad. I love the delicate flavour of raw mushrooms too, and used to slice them up into salads). I'm glad you mentioned that Haskaps are sour. I thought I was picking them too early. First one I tried, I spat straight out. Horrible. Then I moved all the plants I had because they were getting swamped by raspberries - and they hated me for it. Don't replant Haskaps. Sulky little beggars. It's quicker to take cuttings and place these in their new location. I had heard that Haskaps are like Blueberries in that they fruit better if you have more than one variety. I'm lucky in that I live on prime Blueberry friendly soil - Western Scottish acidic, which is made up of old, long worn-down volcanoes. So I have loads of Blueberries, all different hybrids, buying new hybrids every year, and they have lots of berries coming up this year. My peach tree (grown from a rescued seedling) is in its second year of fruiting. Last year saw it's first fruit and it tasted way better than any peach I've ever bought from a supermarket. Just wonderful. I never imagined that a fruit tree grown from its own pip would taste any good - but I have surprise myself with this peach and an apple tree (which turned into a perfect Cox's Orange Pippin. I also grew a miniature Braeburn from a pip - all the taste, crispiness and colouring of a Braeburn, but tiny enough to pickle lots in a jar). I don't mind the birds taking a few berries. In fact, over the years I have started to divide the garden into more or less 2 halves. One half has berries that birds really love, but I don't care for. Some early fruiting, fairly small and seedy raspberry canes I bought cheap. Rowans - Blackbirds will beat each other senseless to get to those. Hawthorns. Hollies. Pheasant Berry bush (that's a real bird-magnet that one. The birds will wait and watch each other enviously until they ripen). British native Elderberries and Wild strawberries. I don't pick and of these and leave that whole area pretty quiet and undisturbed (except for removing Brambles). If the birds have enough stuff going on in one corner of the garden, they tend to leave the main body of preferred fruit trees alone. They'd rather be left in peace and will feast in parts of the garden where I'm less likely to show up.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That's all fantastic info. I have no idea how I didn't know about cooking mushrooms increasing the health benefits. That's so good because for most things it's the opposite, cooking them reduces the nutrients. I LOVE sautéed mushrooms and now I can always Sautee them and know that it's actually the healthier method!

[@pattibando3104]

Nice tour of your food forest. Learned some things about mushrooms I didn't know. Glad to hear your Dad is on his road to recovery and doing well now. By the way nice hat ❤

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

haha 😄

[@gangofgreenhorns2672]

I'm sure it's been answered already but: KSU says you don't need to thin pawpaws, they're much better about self-thinning than other fruit trees, but you can thin if you want fewer, but larger fruit.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks!!

[@smueller12244]

vines (like your kiwi) are like a timer to show how long you haven't managed them haha. I have two grapes I'm just letting take over a chain link fence rn....not the original plan!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Indeed! This one is intentional. I've had a hard time getting kiwi to grow the past 7 years. Now that I'm in year 7 of site wide soil building, no till, deep mulch, the kiwi are growing like weeds. I've let them go nuts, because I want them to be very strong going forward. This winter they will be getting rather heavy pruning for management LOL

[@smueller12244]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy I'm on year 1 of a quad grape trellis for our purgula!! we've got 7 more on site

[@barbarasimoes9463]

I'm happy for you that your pawpaws are doing so well. I now have six trees...trees might be an overstatement, as some are only a foot or two tall, but others are going on five feet...maybe next year?! Here's a weird thing: I've planted a food forest all along the front of my property (@120') and in the middle of that I have an arbor where I've planted some pink climbing roses, so that people can enter easily, (It's a nearly thornless variety!) rather than walk all the way to the driveway. Anyway, I've planted strawberries on both sides as a groundcover. On the east side, I've been harvesting quite a few strawberries, about a quart each day, but on the west side, the ground is truly covered with strawberry plants, and while a few of the plants have little strawberries, none are ripening or producing. The garden faces south, so both sides get full day sun. The same thing happened last year. Any idea as to why this might be happening? I am baffled. I have not been good about separating mother and baby plants, but that is true for both sides. Last year, I did see a chipmunk on the west side enjoying a berry, but then again, I see mole holes all through the east side...

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Strawberries are a weird plant, the plants themselves really thrive in shady areas, but the strawberries want sunny to sweeten and produce well. On the west side it could be that they are getting too much hot sun. Maybe try to throw up some shade cloth over them.

[@ninemoonplanet]

Or plant a vertical flower on the sunniest side.

[@barbarasimoes9463]

@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy On the western border of the property, I have large trees and shrubs like a Leonard Messel magnolia, double file viburnum, Kousa dogwood, etc. My neighbor has a large oak that shades hot afternoon sun, too. The strawberries have southern exposure, but are protected from the west. If anything, that side gets less light because it's in shadow sooner than the other side because of the western border shrubs.

[@thehillsidegardener3961]

My honeyberries are in their second year and looking a bit feeble, maybe it was the very hot dry summer last year they didn't like, this spring has been super wet and lush, hoping they do much better, we can't really grow true blueberries either, whilst honeysuckle grows like crazy, you'd think this would too, them supposedly being related! It doesn't LOOK like there is any special secret to the way you grow them!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yeah they really don't like a lot of heat. I'm sure if honeysuckle does well these will too eventually, once they get firmly established roots.

[@Greentrees60]

An additional question- the wildflower hill looks beautiful and great for controlling mosquitos. But it also looks like habitat for ticks - how are you managing that?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Yep, that's the constant struggle. Promote an environment for insect diversity and that's exactly what you get. Ticks are probably our biggest problem. I'd love to get guineas like my sister did, she has a great video, you can search "Barn Boots and Country Roots guineas" to find it. We aren't quite rural enough for them, we would definitely get complaints from the neighbours (they are very loud). For us, we just do full body tick checks every night. Lyme disease is no joke.

[@BrianPellerin]

Do you have a video on planting bare root? I bought 150 bare root raspberry canes and apple trees last month and they all died; so now I just buy potted plants in leaf.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I do! Look up a video called "how to properly plant a tree". I talk about bare root in that video. It's very strange that bare root works worse for you than potted trees. I wonder if you watch that video if you find something you are doing differently, because it should be wildly more successful.

[@PlantRelated]

I don’t use gloves for mugwort. It’s a wonderful tea herb for digestion

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Thanks!

[@josephinerichardson543]

Did you sow the mushrooms or are they wild? Do you have a guide for what's edible mushroom in your food forest?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Indeed, we bought mushroom spawn (from a place now out of business 😞) and planted it under woodchips, then spread a little each year. We now have it all over the place. I only eat these mushrooms, and any oysters or morels that I find, because I know how to ID them. Oh and puffballs.

[@JW45174]

Southeast Michigan here. Can’t find where to purchase hascap.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Hopefully someone from Michigan can help out. One thing that I did was tell my local nursery that I was looking for some, and they then contacted their growers to get some in stock. Definitely worth a try. Sometimes the nursery just needs to know there's a demand for it.

[@darylpeterson2960]

I believe we have similar properties and I am in 4b climate zone in mid michigan. I have been working towards planting my food forest. I hope to build something as nice as your food forest! My land ranges from swamps to sand. A flowing well, small pond, and a small trout stream. I just had a couple of acres of dead trees and tag elders turned into wood chips. Doing this right is very important to me. (age 68) I have 50 aronia berry plants and 50 service berries to transplant this fall. I plan to replace those tag elders with these fruit bearing shrubs and trees along the river bank. If you can help me let me know what this would cost me.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

That sounds fantastic! Unfortunately I can't help, I just don't have the time at the moment. I would definitely recommend talking to Sean over at Edible Acres, and see if he is doing consultation right now. If you tell him I sent you he may give you a good price.

[@lynnmoss2127]

Prayers for your Dad. What was the tree over the mushrooms? I see comfrey. Do you buy loads of mulch every year? Thanks for the video!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

We get free mulch from the township. I called around to arborist and every municipality, and then our municipality said they have to pay to dispose of them when they do power line clearing. So I convinced them to dump them in a nearby lot, and the entire community can now get free chips! The tree was a dogwood

[@suebar5177]

The birdie’s ate all mine😢

[@brooksy1234]

My strawberries don’t seem to have survived. It looks like I have a lot of mint growing there instead. Does mint smother them out?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It can, if the strawberries didn't get strong enough quickly enough. Are there still weak strawberries there under the mint? You could try to chop the mint around them down, to get some light to the strawberries, and try to stay on top of it, mint will regrow quickly.

[@justinp7258]

Do you know if your mushrooms are growing ok in softwood mulch? I was reading on wine caps just this week because I really want to add some and they said that they should be grown in hardwood chips or straw. Just curious to know, as I am in New Brunswick and it is proving to be very difficult to find hardwood mulch/chips. Thanks for the great video as always! :)

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I'm honestly not sure. I think my chips are a mix of soft and hardwoods. I've never tried them in pure softwood chips.

[@harmanbrar6192]

Nice vid. I am starting a permaculture. Can you or any one tell where I can buy good hand tool. I looking for Roto tiller. To rent . Where I can buy bulk seeds in peel region ontrio.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

You probably don't want to roto till. You want to sheet mulch. Check out my sheet mulching guide. Also check out my soil microbiology guide for why not to till. Also look at "this will change how you garden forever" for more information on why not to till. All the best!

[@MsCaterific]

🤍

[@Kamaldhillon81]

1080p vidz please 👻

[@PaleGhost69]

I dont see it as wild. It's very much intentionally designed. I guess you just have to be in the know to know; ya know?

[@CatherineThériault-i8q]

What type of pawpaw do you have and where did you get them from? Great videos by the way :) Inspired me to slowly develop a food forest like place of my own :)

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

I have a bunch, NC Campbell numbered varieties, and lots of susquehanna varieties.

[@lwjenson]

​@@CanadianPermacultureLegacy How long did it take for your trees to fruit? I have been looking into those varieties as well.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

It depends. Some fruit (peaches, apples, pears) it's 4-6 years, some are 7-9 (plums, pawpaws), some nuts are 15+. Bush/cane fruit can fruit first or second year.

[@Paravetje]

while it is also a good forest, you probably meant food forest in your title :)

[@TheCrabappleCottage]

Is it just me or does this video have no sound?

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Uh oh really? I didn't double check it. That would SUCK

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Phew it seems fine for me.

[@TheCrabappleCottage]

Could just be the bad reception where I'm at.

[@TheCrabappleCottage]

Okay, looks like it's working now. Sorry for scaring you!

[@whereswendy8544]

I had no sound either but went back a fe minutes later and it was fixed.