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Category: Ecological Enrichment
Strength in Numbers: The Edible Forest Revisited
It is not a surprise that people have strong opinions about how plants grow and what plant belongs where. Everyone wants to rule the plant world. Plants are giving and flexible. It is good to be a ruler of your plant kingdom however you individually define it. Gardening is such a joy to do. You …
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Category: Ecological Enrichment
Ecological Enrichment: The Integration of Opposites
Along the shoreline of my family’s farm pond grew an apple tree. Sticking straight out of the water, it’s a kind of biological integration you do not normally see. Being an apple tree while submerged in water year-round makes this an improbable event. This seedling tree retains its health and vigor while producing wonderful flowers …
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Category: Ecological Enrichment
Finding Treasures in Nature
I am an expert in digging holes. That I can do. There is no shovel Olympics but if there was I could at least bring home the silver. Every hole I dug began with a certain anticipation of what I would find. There would be dirt and rocks and sometimes a few …
Category: Ecological Enrichment
Cultivating a Wild Plant the Thimbleberry Way
The thimbleberry represents one of those fruit plants with a certain mystique around it. Many people throughout the world know this plant in its northern arboreal habitats including many mountainous regions within the United States. It is one of many circumpolar plants found on several continents. Yet, no one cultivates it. Why would you? There are …
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Category: Ecological Enrichment
One Farmer-One Mission-One Goal-Oaks
When I started my farm after college in the early 80’s I soon found out that my limited resources was not going to allow me to plant a typical orchard of grafted fruit cultivars let alone a barn to work in or irrigation. (That took me another decade to accomplish.) I began to look for …
Category: Ecological Enrichment
Dreams, Pillows and Curiosity
The Milkweed Forest On one of my family’s Christmas tree farms a great expanse of milkweed existed. This was due to an over application of Simazine herbicide which sterilized the soil for several years. This not only wiped out all existing vegetation, it prevented everything else from germinating. Apparently milkweed was immune to this. The …
Category: Ecological Enrichment
Dude, what happened to your corn?
It all started with jury duty. In this case, it was purgatory with magazines. The waiting room was stacked with magazines as it was the era before cell phones. A Smithsonian article on corn and its possible origins caught my attention. I dove in. Apparently a scientist discovered a species of grass unrelated to corn …
Category: Ecological Enrichment
The Thicket Bean Makes a Return to Michigan
Last seen on Belle Isle, Michigan in 1896, the thicket bean established itself in the thickets of this island in the middle of the Detroit River. It was never seen again. “If native, this was surely at the northern edge of the range for this species” wrote Edward G. Voss in Michigan Flora Part 2 …
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Category: Ecological Enrichment
The Last Great Hur-rye
Not too far from this wonderful slippery elm tree on my family’s farm was a great field of rye my father and I created. Like this tree, the rye field idea was latent and was not discovered until later in life. Who knew it was there all along? The field was the last thing we …
Category: Ecological Enrichment
The Musical Fruit Tree
To grow a pear tree as a source of wood for musical instruments seemed like a long shot when I first started. I got the idea initially from a Hohner pear wood recorder I purchased in high school. I had quit playing trumpet and needed another avenue. Please note I was not aware of Miles …