Read on Twitter
I wrote this thread a couple days ago about elderberries and assholes in America, the Land of Death. Yesterday I indulged in some quiet insurrection against the system. https://twitter.com/homemadeguitars/status/1304177614400094209
2. According to information posted by the Missouri Department of Conservation, elderberries grow well from seed.
A trifling few remaining surviving plants can still equal a significant number of seed-bearing berries.
A trifling few remaining surviving plants can still equal a significant number of seed-bearing berries.
3. So I made up an elderberry planting kit. One donkey, one cart, one hammer, a bunch of wooden survey stakes, and my little plastic coffee can containing my precious subversive berries.
Oh, and drinking water.
Oh, and drinking water.
4. I have a small field where I plowed two keyline swales for rainwater management. I planted chestnuts along the swales last year, but they did not succeed in this field. Heavy black soil.
5. The way I planted the elderberries, was, step 1, drive a stake into the ground. I planted all these on the top of the furrow slice I had turned out of the furrow, laying along the downhill edge as a curb to hold back water.
6. My practice is, I drive the stake, and then whatever I am planting, the seed goes to the east of the stake. That's just to make it easy for me to remember where the hoped-for crop plant will be if it sprouts.
7. According to the NRCS document posted by MDC, elderberries do well from seed, and should be planted barely below the surface of the soil. Here's a copy on my Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mO47XgvL8seULQOR13QoQ16203Zb2dzw/view?usp=drivesdk
8. Missy is getting better at this "working" business. It still makes her a little fearful, but she's learning.
Once again, this is next to no effort for her, and no pain. It's just the newness, the noise, the thing behind her.
Lots of pets, lots of praise, lots of treats.
Once again, this is next to no effort for her, and no pain. It's just the newness, the noise, the thing behind her.
Lots of pets, lots of praise, lots of treats.
9. It's been raining all week. The swales are full of standing water and tiny frogs. The surface is still wet.
I put a berry on the ground, squish it, rub it around until the seeds are incorporated into the surface soil later.
At each stake I planted from 3 to about 6, 7 berries.
I put a berry on the ground, squish it, rub it around until the seeds are incorporated into the surface soil later.
At each stake I planted from 3 to about 6, 7 berries.
10. I got both swales in this west side field planted and still have a significant amount of berries left. I think today I'll go intersperse more plantings among the chestnuts and hazelnuts in the east slope field, and then plant the remainder in the riparian woods.
Subversive.
Subversive.
