Greetings and Salutations!

Submitted by Corrach-the-Blue on Mon, 09/27/2021 - 17:36
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Introduce Yourself, New Green Wizard

Greetings fellow Wizards of the Green! I am Corrach the Blue, Harbinger of the Long Descent.

Just kidding, lol. I’m just Corrach, plain, simple, Corrach. I’m a long timer lurker on the Archdruid Report and Ecosophia and beginner in the ways of magic. The last two years have convinced me that my long term planning probably wasn’t going to pan out and it’s time time to find a better way to live in the world.

I live on five acres of woods in the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina and I’m looking forwards to learning from y’all about how to collapse successfully.

Corrach the Blue

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.
"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

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Sweet Tatorman

Mon, 09/27/2021 - 19:09

Welcome. Fuel up the chainsaw and make a portion of your 5 acres of woods suitable for crops. As the resident evangelist for sweetpotatoes and former resident of NC I suggest that you have a good climate for sweetpotatoes as well as many other crops.

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Corrach-the-Blue

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 20:25

My wife will be glad to hear that we’re good for sweet potatoes. She loves them.

Kay Robison

Tue, 09/28/2021 - 08:10

Welcome Corrach. I look forward to hearing of your adventures on your 5 acres in North Carolina, a place in the world I an really not at all familiar with.

Teresa from Hershey

Tue, 09/28/2021 - 11:51

Welcome! Bill and I used to live in York, SC so your climate isn't unfamiliar. Bill also went to Chapel Hill which I think is near you.

As Sweet Tatorman says, fire up the chainsaw while you can. Clear what you need for veg gardens. Use what you chainsaw for both firewood AND to set up your new beds with hugelculture.

That is, save what wood you need for firewood but everything else should be buried in long trenches, covered with soil, and turned into planting beds. You're probably gardening on sand so you need to add HUGE amounts of woody material to your soil and bury it deep to make long-lasting improvements. David, our host, did a post on hugelculture and it's easy to locate pix and instructions online.

You've got the chance to set up the best garden beds IN ADVANCE rather than retrofitting like the rest of us.
Best wishes to you!

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Corrach-the-Blue

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 20:27

Yes, Chapel Hill is just a ways down the road from me. We’re actually on a ton of clay. I’ve already broken two shovels.

Teresa from Hershey

Tue, 10/12/2021 - 13:12

Hugulkulture will probably still help as what it's really doing is adding a ton of humus to your soil.
Added humus will lighten your soil, making it easier to dig and for your plants to grow.

In some ways, heavily amended clay is better than heavily amended sand. It's got more minerals and holds moisture better, although it's harder to dig through.

Adding sand is fraught with peril. I've read that it turns clay into cement.

Adding humus in whatever form you can get (organic is organic) is never wrong.

jbucks

Sun, 10/03/2021 - 04:36

Greetings from Atlantic Canada and welcome to the forum! If you have 5 acres of forest, I wonder if you couldn't also leave some trees or reserve an area for firewood coppicing? I'm sure the ever-wise Green Wizards here in this forum could advise you on more specifically. If we had the space, we would experiment with that, too.

I don't know what your winters are like, but being able to heat your house without being reliant on the power grid would be useful if they are cold.

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Corrach-the-Blue

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 20:30

We’d like to leave as many trees as possible. We love the woods. But yes, we pan to stock some firewood. We didn’t realize it, but our house is terribly unfit for wood heating.

pygmycory

Sun, 10/03/2021 - 16:18

I'm over the other side of the continent and substantially further north, and so am likely to be one of the less helpful people with regard to your garden. Just thinking... 5 acres of wood... do you have a wood stove? Seems like they might go together.

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Corrach-the-Blue

Mon, 10/11/2021 - 20:32

No wood stove, just a central fire place. We’re looking at retrofitting but that’s down the line