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Fruit Chaos Is Coming
Climate change is threatening to turn sublime summer stone fruits disgusting, or rob us of their pleasures entirely.
Summer, to me, is all about stone fruit: dark-purple plums, peaches you can smell from three feet away. But last summer, I struggled to find peaches at the farmers’ markets in New York City. A freak deep freeze in February had taken them out across New York State and other parts of the Northeast, buds shriveling on the branch as temperatures plummeted below zero and a brutally cold, dry wind swept through the region.
The loss was severe. One farmer estimated that the Hudson Valley lost 90 percent of its stone fruit. Evan Lentz, a faculty member in the plant-science department at the University of Connecticut, told me his state lost 50 to 75 percent. Another freeze in the second half of May damaged lots of other crops, including strawberries and blueberries. In New Hampshire, apple growers who went to bed with orchards full of pink blossoms awoke to petals turning brown. Georgia, the iconic peach state, lost some 90 percent of last year’s crop—a Georgia summer without peaches, an unfathomable thing. An unusually warm winter robbed the trees of the period of cold they need to bloom in the spring. The buds that did emerge were, like the ones in the Northeast, killed by a cold snap in the early spring.
Fruit trees evolved to live in more stable conditions; they’re exquisitely well adapted to the rhythm of a usual year. But instead of reliable seasons, they’re getting weather chaos: Springtime, already somewhat of a wild-card season, “is getting more and more erratic,” Theodore DeJong, a fruit-tree physiologist at UC Davis, told me. As a result, trees’ sense of seasonality is scrambled. And instead of reliable peaches and plums, we’re getting fruit chaos. It may not happen every year, but it’s happening more frequently.
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The best ideas to turn your homestead into the ultimate edible landscape
The best ideas to turn your homestead into the ultimate edible landscape
(Natural News) Homesteaders prioritize self-reliance and the cultivation of organic produce, but this doesn’t mean you can’t make your home garden look pretty. If you want to beautify your property, start a practice called edible landscaping. (h/t to RockinWHomestead.com)
What is edible landscaping?
Edible landscaping represents a different take on how to design and interact with yards and urban green spaces. The practice prioritizes the cultivation of food-producing plants and native perennials, and it helps home gardeners create green space and provide healthy, fresh food to their family.
Replacing even just a fraction of traditional lawns with edible landscapes designed around locally appropriate plants offers various benefits.
These benefits require little to no irrigation or fertilizer and can increase food production potential in cities, as well as attract pollinators and improve ecological diversity.
Flowers for your edible landscape
Edible flowers are a common feature of edible landscapes. But flowering plants aren’t just pretty, they also attract pollinators that can help your fruit-bearing plants thrive. (Related: Edible Landscaping Ideas For Small Spaces.)
Popular options include daisies, lilacs, pansies, and sunflowers.
Edible flowers can also be used for food decorating and subtle flavoring.
Herbs for your edible landscape
Herbs are another staple in edible landscapes. You can plant the following herbs in your yard:
- Basil and thyme – Basil and thyme are beautiful additions to any garden. Both herbs are fairly easy to grow, and you can use them both as nutritious ingredients in different dishes.
- Chives – Chives bear beautiful flowers that can add to the aesthetic appeal of your garden. This delicious herb is also the perfect addition to baked potatoes and other savory side dishes.
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Propagation Techniques
PROPAGATION TECHNIQUES
Establishing a tree-based perennial agriculture system can cost a lot of money, especially if you´re planning on buying $30 dollar bagged fruit trees at your local orchard. Luckily, you can propagate many of the trees you are planning to plant by yourself. One of the easiest and best known ways to propagate many different trees, bushes, and other perennial plants is through planting seeds. Many nitrogen-fixing trees and bushes can easily be grown from seed, but other species are best propagated through other vegetative techniques that we will introduce below.
GRAFTING, LAYERING, AND AIR GRAFTING
Grafting is a horticultural technique whereby tissues of plants are joined so as to continue their growth together. The upper part of the combined plant is called the scion while the lower part is called the rootstock. Since most fruit and nut trees won´t grow true to seed (meaning that the seed from the Gala apple you grow will produce fruit that doesn´t resemble Gala apples at all), the way to reproduce a certain type of fruit or nut that you like is through grafting.
Let´s say that you have an old crab apple tree on your land that produces small, sour fruits that no one but the birds enjoys. You can graft a bud or a small branch from a delicious, heirloom apple tree on your grandma´s old farm onto that Crab Apple tree. If done correctly and the cambium layer (or green layer inside the bark) of the two species are touching, that bud or branch will grow into an heirloom apple bearing tree. There are several different types of grafting methods you can use including cleft grafts, bud grafts, whip and tongue, etc. While it does take practice for a graft to be successful, the good news is that once you master the art of grafting, you can reproduce all the fruit and nut trees you need for your land.
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