guildfordcycads

Prunning leftovers


Salutations.

For context , I recently bought land in the region of Mafra , Portugal.
Climate is Mediterranean temperate, the land is in a valley so the soil has a big concentration of clay resulting from the deposits coming from uphill over the years.
The slope is gentle and the southern boundary ends in a creek that runs in the winter and dries out in the summer.

Now for my question …

I bought a chipper shredder to take care of all the pruning leftovers and all the scraps that can’t be used for firewood. Mostly pear , apple , plum, bay leaf and quince wood.
Quince and bay leaf wood are rather hard and used to make tools.

Needless to say the machine broke after a couple uses , even when i only fed it branches of the recommended 4mm thickness.

My question is, what do I do with rest of the leftovers from last year , and also this years pruning ?

Options I considered are:

– Make gentle swales and bury them. Lots of digging by hand since i don’t own or plan on having a tractor.
– Pile them up somewhere and wait for decomposition. Grass will grow in between and make it a nightmare to deal with in the future.
– Burn them … easy and fast , but quite inefficient in terms of resource management and regeneration of the land , which is the ultimate goal.
– Eventually rent a proper shredder and take care of it all … currently not a real option since money is scarce!

Any suggestion is welcome , appreciate it !

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Companion planting ideas


As the season winds down, I’m starting to plan my crazy ideas for next year, going into my second season of the food forest. I’m hoping to integrate some annuals directly into the food forest rather than keeping them all in a separate, traditional annuals garden.

1) Fava beans around fruit/nut trees

Goal: add an easy annual nitrogen fixer around my trees that can grow along the tree cages

2) Potatoes between shrubs in my berry hedge

Goal: deep mulch/ruth stout potatoes worked well to kill grass, so by planting these between young shrubs (each about 5’ spacing) I can help remove turf and soften up the ground a bit as the shrubs grow up and expand.

3) Sunchokes and hopniss

Goal: Neither of these are annuals but the goal is to have hopniss vining up sunchokes as a support plant in a system comprised of two root plants that can be harvested at the same time.

4) Sunflowers as shade for young pawpaws

Goal: young pawpaws need shade, this can help provide additional shade especially in the hottest months of the year

5) winter squash along asparagus bed

Goal: provide ground cover for asparagus with sprawling squash leaves, from squash plants that are far enough away to not compete directly with asparagus roots.

Thoughts? Any ideas for onion or pepper companions in the food forest?

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Hog peanut seeds and seed pods


amphicarpaea bracteata. A plant native to the southeast United States. It’s edible tubers were eaten raw and cooked by the Native Americans. I’m wanting to do some experiments with it to see if I could be domesticated. It may be a project that outlives me but it will be interesting to produce a new food crop. I’m also going to do similar experiments with Ipomea Pandurata.

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Should I fix this loquat tree’s roots and dig further? Or leave him alone?


So this Oliver loquat is about three feet tall right now. He was in a pot for a year and a half and was root bound. I planted him. in a hole about 4 months ago. I was afraid to disturb the roots because I”d heard loquats were finicky but planned to come back in and move him and work more with him, but never got back to it.

He’s started to get little fruit buds and some leaves but has not really grown in size. Not thriving. I decided to dig down with my hands around the root ball to see if I could check him to see if roots were in a good position. The picture is about 3″ down. I’m hesitant to disturb him any more, but also concerned that if he is not properly positioned he might grow wrong. It does look like some of the roots are pointing up.

Should I go further or let him be? I’ve already disturbed the roots quite a bit by digging and snapped some tiny ones.

Also, I”m going to plant some non-edible ginger along side him. How far out should that be?

If it matters, zone 9a Florida. This hole isn’t very big, maybe three feet across.

Thank you.

https://preview.redd.it/q0s2jpm15cxf1.jpg?width=3060&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=951275f1cd89565b1555cf1a550f9da47ca0ac17

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Coleton Fishacre – Inside the House

Coleton Fishacre has been described as “the perfect combination of the simple architecture and high standards of craftmanship of the nineteenth century Arts and Crafts movement with the modernity of the Jazz Age.”
I was told that there are not that many Art Deco style houses in the UK and this is one of the few private residences that are open to the public. Among the furnishings are Lalique wall lights, an eighteenth century Venetian chandelier and a carpet designed by Marion Dorn. Most of the furniture was designed by the architect of the house, Oswald Milne.  
After Rowland and Freda Smith bought the house in 1949, they did not make many changes and the furnishings that they didn’t use were stored. After the National Trust took over the property, they meticulously recreated the furnishings based on photographs that had appeared in Country Life magazine. 
The library, pictured above and below, features a celebrated wind-dial map that was created by noted mapmaker George Spencer Hoffman. The compass was connected to a weather vane on the roof and was used to indicate wind direction. Rupert D’Oyly Carte used it for his sailing ventures.
Lady Dorothy’s Saloon

In Lady Dorothy’s bedroom

The kitchen
Butler’s Pantry

A collection of old cameras – I’m not sure who these belonged to.

The son Michael’s room (1911-1932)
This book was available for purchase but I decided to wait until I returned home. However, it was not available here in the U.S. until just recently. I have just started reading it. 

(Visited May 12, 2025)

Text and photos by Phillip Oliver, Dirt Therapy

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