Guerrilla forest gardening

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Lucky C
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Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Lucky C »

I am fortunate to live near woodlands that are not privately owned, which are only used a bit for recreation by a handful of neighbors. Technically we aren't supposed to use the land for anything, but there is really no risk of getting into trouble if we don't cause any harm. Any worthwhile ways of making this land a bit more useful to humans, perhaps trying to grow a few wild edibles?

This is a large area (>50 acres) of mature mostly deciduous forest in USDA Zone 6. So there's some light getting to the forest floor but I can't exactly start growing big vegetables and fruit trees, nor would I want to try something like that. Going in and out with a backpack would be fine, but hauling anything bigger in and out would not be wise, and I wouldn't want to do anything that would clearly look unnatural in the forest.

What would you try growing, or would you just leave the land alone?

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Sclass
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Sclass »

Whatever you grow you’ll have to protect. Woodland creatures love gardens.

Sounds like a nice area. I’d love to have some public woodland behind my house.

George the original one
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by George the original one »

These will do well in the forest undercanopy:
Thimbleberries
Lady fern fiddleheads
Mushrooms

These, unless the mature trees already exist, can be started in the fringes:
Acorns
Hazelnuts/Filberts
Walnuts
Apples/crabapple
Maple syrup

The cane berries need an open spot of sunshine to be fruitful. They also require maintenance to keep them from overrunning an area. Huckleberries & blueberries need sunshine and aren't happy in the undercanopy of the forest.

chenda
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by chenda »

Herbs ?

daylen
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by daylen »

I second mushrooms. Find a fallen tree/branch or stump, then drill a hole and fill with a spawn plug. You can buy spawn plugs online or you can make your own from liquid culture. Common varieties include oyster and shiitake.
Last edited by daylen on Sun Jan 21, 2018 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

George the original one
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by George the original one »

Rhubarb might be a possibility, too.

On the west coast, thimbleberry occurs as far south as San Diego. Worth taking a look at https://www.fs.fed.us/database/feis/pla ... r/all.html
"Thimbleberry's distribution is thought to be driven by avoidance of aridity. When site conditions were compared in areas with thimbleberry, without thimbleberry, and where thimbleberry was exceptionally abundant, thimbleberry was most common at cool moist sites."

Lucky C
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Lucky C »

If there's enough of a sunny spot I could try apples and blueberries. Apples are grown extensively around here and they could even be found in the wild if introduced via animals, and wild blueberries have been known to grow around here though I haven't looked for them yet. It would be a neat experiment to see if chestnut trees could be introduced.

A lot of these might be eaten by the woodland critters, but likely some would remain for human foragers. Or if not, at least they should benefit the forest life overall.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

GTOO wrote:These, unless the mature trees already exist, can be started in the fringes:

I would suggest that you designate the acreage as primarily Zone 5 towards Zone 4, or rough designation as Human Foraging Zone.

https://permaculturenews.org/2015/12/11 ... -a-primer/

The first step in the permaculture process is observation. Because I am an advocate of applying high-tech modern tools to the permaculture process, the method I will recommend towards observation of the Foraging Zone would go something like this:

1) Take digital photos of examples of all obviously highly represented species in the ecosystem at a variety of scales; close ups on leaves or insects; full body shot of entire tree associated with leaf close-up; landscape view of varied growth in particular ravine . Use app to mark each photo with exact location. ( I do not recommend the use of direct plant identification apps for this purpose, until/unless you already have a pretty solid base of knowledge, because it has been my experience that they can be pretty inaccurate in some wildly varying ways.)

2) Make use of your visual/brain system as interface between the photos you took and some more or less friendly and searchable databases such as:

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nr ... ials/home/

https://gobotany.newenglandwild.org/

3) Supplement (2) with resources such as relevant Audobon Society Guidebooks, books and pamphlets focusing on your unique region, and books that offer more in depth descriptions of the sort of eco-system you are roughly working within. For instance: Beech-Maple Climax. Generate a list of species you might likely find in such an environment.

4) Wash-Rinse-Repeat. Continue this process of gathering data in the field, and identifying/verifying with use of knowledge bases, and applying generalized model to specific situation and vice-versa. The RINSE step in which you give yourself "fresh eyes" before once again entering the field is critical. The Beech-Maple Climax model of an eco-system is only about as accurate as the plastic model of an atom on your high-school physics teacher's desk. Also, the system of classification into unique species and varieties is just something made up by the Victorians and sometimes you have to just let it go in the face of the fact that sometimes trying to force greater accuracy is just stupid, because nature changes more quickly than human ability to create and pin name-tags. For instance, huckleberry can be differentiated from other quite similar berries that will likely occupy similar niche, due to the presence of 10 small hard seeds, and the species of huckleberry that most often grows in Michigan is different in structure and from the species of huckleberry that most often grows in the PNW, but trying to nail down much more than that becomes ridiculous. Also, the sunny clearing found near heart of forest, which was due to action of lightening on an old tree, will represent an area of much greater chaos, variety, and rapid change than the system average. Different species will be found flourishing, for a time, in this locale, and these species may also vary a good deal from the species found in similar range of solar radiation, but closer to exposure to other human activity; for instance the hard-machinery maintained edge between forest and a farm field.

Okay, the next part gets even funner!!! But, first a brief note on ethics.

At the far other end of the realm of permaculture from the Foraged Wilderness, within the Zone where you would feel comfortable working in barefeet and pajamas on occasion, would be something like the House-Attached Greenhouse Nursery or Conservatory. This is where human stewardship of plants is manifested like love for a fragile premature infant placed in an incubator, and gardeners become as kooky as cat-ladies. High-tech applications relevant to this Zone might be intelligent systems that automatically sense and adjust temperature and humidity, so the human gardener can sleep well at night without fretting about likelihood that tender seedling in a teacup will suffer or succumb in a manner similar to a human orphan infant developing the black-finger.

At the scale of 50 acre realm, where you must bundle up in sturdy boots to take seasonal hike, your level of stewardship will similarly scale. The appropriate level will likely be something like Do No Harm/Help a Bit If-When You Can. The Do No Harm will largely amount to understanding the species you are foraging to the extent that you do not over-forage or forage in a manner that will harmful to longer cycle within context. For instance, if diversity is a quality to be stewarded, there are situations in which removing an entire edible plant could actually be helpful because that plant is a vigorous resource hogging invasive species, whereas in other situations removing just the fruit of a plant might disrupt an important cycle towards diversity. One of the easy ways in which you can Help A Bit would be by eventually adding information to the databases you have been accessing in your education. For instance, I was able to make a fairly good recording of the call of a rare species of bird at the current Southern edge of its winter range.

OBTAIN A YIELD- this is a critical, often-neglected, principle of permaculture. Some member(s) of the species Homo Sapiens must derive ongoing benefit from a permaculture system in order for it to be sustainable. Here is a very partial list of benefits you might derive from engagement with your Zone 4/5 Wilderness Foraging Zone:

1) Clean air and exercise.
2) The thrills inherent and instinctual when humans engage in any activity resembling hunt/scavenge/forage/gather.
3) The refreshment of parts of the brain/nervous system derived from (2)
4) An expanded knowledge base that may improve your resilience towards survival in a number of situations
5) The opportunity to share such activities with your social circle and create bonding experiences and/or seasonal traditions. This social sharing can be both in the role of novice seeking advise from older resident of area on likelihood of encountering rogue human with rifle in realm or as "expert" showing a 6 year old the difference between a wild blueberry and a wild huckleberry.
6) Foodstuffs for home use or trade; mushrooms for your omelette, huckleberries to preserve and sell at farmer's market
7) Craft supplies for home use or trade:wild flower bouquet for your table, twigs to fashion bent-wood racks to sell on Etsy.
8) Energy supply ( a bit more iffy and marginal depending on context, due to volume necessary to serve purpose. for instance, removal of dead wood can be beneficial/neutral/detrimental
9) Serene environment helpful to meditation
10) Emergency resources such as clean water supply, cave in which to take temporary shelter during SHTF scenario, etc.

Bibliography:

1) "The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs"- Gooley
2) "Midwest Foraging"- Rose (or the book in this series relevant to your region)
3) "Botany, Ballet, and Dinner from Scratch"- Meredith (more inspirational than practical)
4) Any of the multitude of classics on foraging such as the works of Gibbons.
5) Many specific books on using natural materials towards crafts such as basketry or dye-production.

cmonkey
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by cmonkey »

You might try this book. Try to find any of the edibles described and work toward increasing the population of each.

Riggerjack
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Riggerjack »

"This social sharing can be both in the role of novice seeking advise from older resident of area on likelihood of encountering rogue human with rifle in realm or as "expert" showing a 6 year old the difference between a wild blueberry and a wild huckleberry. "

As someone who was about to recommend planting a salt lick and harvesting a deer, I have to ask why you would portray a human with a rifle as a rogue? I understand that in the finely polished streets of Detroit, firearms bear a certain stigma. But we are talking about an area that has traditions and a population that embrace both firearms and hunting, or so I assume.

While I don't hunt myself, the hunters I know put far more time in, off the beaten path than the environmentally enthusiastic gatherers and gleaners, who seem to only rarely go further afield than required to pick dandilion greens on their way to Starbucks. But then, I live in the PNW, where localvores and such outnumber the hunters in anyplace with suburban or greater density. It's a good thing dandilion grows so prolifically, so they have something to Instagram about.

The mushroom thing seems most effective, but why cultivate mushrooms off-site? Is there no place convenient on your own property? My mushroom hunting is decades back, but packing mushrooms out is likely to result in a huge surplus at the time, and no mushrooms most of the time, whereas growing them in the backyard means fresh mushrooms whenever desired (until winter). All you need is a chunk of untreated wood and water, and spores.

All the Huckleberry I've ever seen was in the woods. It grows where trees fall, increasing sunlight, or at borders of forests. Certainly worth the effort to find and map. Huckleberry is my preferred snack on trails.

OP, how much water falls in your woods? Here, we can eat fiddleheads (yuk, but good for bragging rights, I guess.) Blackberry, Huckleberry, salmonberry, and elderberry. The rest seems to be food to avoid starvation, ie nettles, etc.

While it's good to know where and when to harvest the woods, I wouldn't plant anything on property that is not my own. Yields are low, and you have no way to protect them, making them lower. Then the issues of property rights and public ownership come up. But to each his own. Good luck.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Riggerjack wrote:As someone who was about to recommend planting a salt lick and harvesting a deer, I have to ask why you would portray a human with a rifle as a rogue? I understand that in the finely polished streets of Detroit, firearms bear a certain stigma. But we are talking about an area that has traditions and a population that embrace both firearms and hunting, or so I assume.
Right. I was thinking about 3 actual conversations my BF and I had with 3 older men (70s) local to the area where he recently purchased property. What I specifically meant by "rogue" would have been something more like "trespassing poachers or jackass types who choose to engage in target practice with a semi-machine gun way too close to the area where my dear wife has her garden." The old militia guys and the old traditional hunter guys don't like the young rural trailer dwelling addict types. So, the conversation might have gone something like:

BF: No. I won't be hunting myself. I did hear some shots this morning?

Old Traditional Hunter Guy: Oh, that would have just been the militia guys practicing over in the sand pit on the other side of you.

Riggerjack
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Riggerjack »

Oh, I forgot you have a "Militia" in your neck of the woods. I would describe such as idiots in camo, rather than rogues with a rifle.

Any idiot who feels safer surrounded by militiamen deserves the fate he volunteered for. That being said, they were firing into the sand pit, so the only problem is their noise and nuisance, though one could say that is their essence.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

I wouldn't dismiss them quite so handily. The one individual I met who may or may not be a member of this group described to me in some detail how he sharpened his machete in violation of the Geneva conference in order to decapitate members of the Vietcong.

Riggerjack
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Riggerjack »

And what do you think of anyone who would be interested in joining said dumbass for post Apocalypse parties, or defence against the federal overreach? I think they should be encouraged.

Stupid, poorly adapted humans separating themselves from any group I'm in is always a good thing. Separate and clustered? Even better. The world is safer for me as people volunteering to draw fire move away from me.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

Right. We are in agreement that it is intelligent to seek information about the possibility of encountering stupid bandit humans with guns and/or bears while gathering huckleberries in a particular locale. I find it more relaxing to simply regard homo sapiens as another element in any eco-system, and then apply the principle of permaculture "Make a problem its own solution."

Farm_or
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by Farm_or »

Nobody to mention Mary Jane?

That, and the rogue with a rifle were forefront in my mind while stomping through the forest behind Sweet Home at 2am, looking for a lost friend. Those days were long before the legalization...

enigmaT120
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by enigmaT120 »

Farm_or wrote:
Wed Jan 24, 2018 8:07 am
Nobody to mention Mary Jane?

That, and the rogue with a rifle were forefront in my mind while stomping through the forest behind Sweet Home at 2am, looking for a lost friend. Those days were long before the legalization...
I've never been in the area much, except for Cascadia State Park, but I've heard some weird stories about the woods around Sweet Home, like human sacrifices and stuff. I need to start some rumors like that around Falls City, if we don't already have them.

George the original one
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by George the original one »

Aw, c'mon, Sweet Home area is nothing like Medford/Ashland/Grants Pass forests where helicopter surveillance finds acres of MJ at times... or Roseburg where there are fortified mountain tops.

7Wannabe5
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Re: Guerrilla forest gardening

Post by 7Wannabe5 »

A former co-worker of mine had to deal with a gigantic hassle when marijuana was found planted in large quantity on some rural property she had inherited and neglected for a number of years. It seems like a very dubious undertaking these-a-days with overhead satellite imagery onmipresent and designer product being grown pampered as rare orchids.

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