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RE: Why you should be growing Chaya, aka Chayamansa, aka Tree Spinach, and more, for your health, and for profit!
Well then you and I are definitely two of a kind. ;-) I've love unusual edibles for decades, and I've both gardened and been into natural remedies for as long as I can remember.
And the one time I was in Seattle I loved it. We were only there for a few days, and spent most of that time in a class, but we'd love to go back sometime and get to know the area better.
How can we get more into gardening?
I'm doing it mostly with perennials, though we are having serious issues with our local deer, and need to fence them out more effectively. We'll be growing more annual crops this year than we have in the past, but again, much depends on how quickly we can get effective fences up.
I'll also be posting more on the varieties that have worked for me, and those I'm intending to try, based on what I've heard and read. Ultimately, I'll be including more audios and videos as well, for those who prefer those formats, as one of my goals for years has been to teach others how to grow their own food easily and inexpensively, even without a lot of space.
I've been saving seed for a couple of decades, and swapping with people around here for different heirloom seeds, so that I am growing more and more things that are perfect for our climate and growing conditions.
For example, while cherries have yet to work for us, because nurseries typically stock cherry trees grafted to rootstock that won't do well here; pears, blackberries and horseradish are no-brainer crops that anyone around here can grow easily.
Our thornless blackberries have produced bumper crops for the past two years, in large part because the deer don't bother with them, because we have literally massive patches of wild blackberries throughout our woods.
At this point, what I need above all is a greenhouse, which would solve the deer issue while providing protection against frost and freezes. Wish us luck.
My mom has a greenhouse and it helps. Love berries.
Me too.
One of our big unexpected scores was, about three years ago, a native black raspberry sprouted and started growing from under our covered front porch. My guess is that it was planted by a mouse or squirrel.
It doesn't root well from cuttings, but if a branch reaches the soil, it will burrow down and sprout, creating a new plant. Blackberries spread this way as well.
Anyway, this is on the northwest corner of the house, and shaded by the porch and a couple of big bushes, but it has still given us fruit every year.
I've now got half a dozen more plants that we've started from this one, ready to go into the ground, with which I want to create a living fence around our orchard.
Hopefully this will help to deter the deer from breaking the branches of our fruit trees. In any case, they should give us some yummy fruit, so it's all good.
Sounds like fun and like a constant war with Bambi hhehe.
Yeah, they're a pain in the *ss, but they're so pretty and sweet I can't stay mad at them. But I AM going to get them out of our orchard.
They can have the woods - there's plenty for them to eat there without messing with our fruit trees. ;-)
I had an apple and pear tree.