The Walden Effect: Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Which plants to take with us

Front of trailer

While Mark is laboriously picking through his tools and hardware, trying to decide what to leave and what to take, I'm poring over my plantings to see what can be transplanted or rerooted in a new location. Of course, the varieties that grow well here might not grow well there. But it's worth a shot to take my favorites along since we'll only be half a zone colder there than here (depending on what kind of microclimate we settle into).

Grape flowers

What's on my to-take list? In the next week, I plan to pot up a lot of my perennial herbs along with a few annual vegetables (like the brussels sprouts who are growing so gamely indoors). Among the woody perennials, I'm going to try to summer-root my favorite grape --- Reliance --- even though winter rooting is much easier. I'm much more confident of my ability to dig up and pot a young raspberry of each variety, and I'll probably do the same with my favorite strawberries --- Honeyoye and Sparkle.

Roasting asparagus

Fruit trees I may just have to begin again from scratch, unless the new owners let me come take cuttings during the dormant season. But, to be honest, what I think I'll miss the most is our mature plantings of asparagus. I guess that's what I'll have to prioritize putting in first in our new place!



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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.



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Will you take your asparagus crowns? What about flower bulbs? Is there any concern or issue about it taking plant materials into Ohio? Any quarantines to concern yourself with?

We're in escrow on a place in Oregon right now. I've dug up probably hundreds (too many) of narcissus bulbs, freesia corms, and muscari bulbs. I've also collected dill, coriander, and chives seeds. I'll save tomato seeds as the tomatoes ripen this next month, and I'll take some pumpkins with me too. I don't intend to do much food gardening this fall at the new place. Instead I want to take the time to develop a good garden layout and learn a bit about the weather and soil, the grade of the land during heavy rains, etc. I've never lived in this area before, and will be in school full time anyway.

Comment by Jennifer Fri Jul 14 11:00:55 2017





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