Lizzie Day

Hi Beau

Thanks for responding. When I click that link it takes me to a page asking if my purchase would require Permies to pay VAT/GST....mystery solved. I am not in the US so imports are subject to GST. Very frustrating as I'm keen to purchase plans and I'm sure Ernie and Erica are keen to have customers! I'll try emailing them through their website, perhaps they could offer an alternative.

Thanks again 🙏

I would like to buy the Everything Combo, but when I click on 'purchase' it just goes to a listing of all the Permies forums. The links to plans on Ernies and Erica's website also don't work for me. How can I actually purchase the plans?!

Thanks for that Eric.

I suspect the honey locust tree I have access to is one of the early improved garden species - it has very few thorns, and they are all well out of reach as it is a very large tree. The seedlings that spring up underneath it each year don't have thorns, although if they didn't get run over by a lawn mower while they're still pretty small, who knows what they might produce? 🤔. I will take that into consideration.

I have tried growing daikon radish in the spot, but although it grew well in other parts of the garden it didn't flourish where I needed it to.

Hmmmm, I do have a small established Black Locust, but it has not yet produced seedpods or sent up suckers/runners that I could transfer. The honey locust is attractive to me because I can get all the free seeds I could ever wish for 😉.

I have access to loads of honey locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) seeds. Since even small honey locust seedlings have a very deep and strong taproot, I am thinking of spreading the seeds thickly on a part of the garden that has very dense clay soil and leaving the seedlings in situ for a couple of years to break open the soil.

As they would be quite crowded they should grow straight up with minimal branching, so there's a possibility I might get some usable sized straight poles as well. That would just be a bonus though, my main idea is to get the honey locust to do the work of tilling the soil for me. The spot I want to grow them is full sun and the rainfall here is quite low (a bit more than 500mm p/a)  with only minimal extra water available to irrigate.

Would love to know if any Permies have tried something similar, and if you can see any big problems with my idea 😄!

Hi Thomas
Maybe my black locust tree is unusually strongly scented? It really smells quite disgustimg when I grub up the roots or cut a branch down. The dried wood doesn’t smell, until I put it in the fire, anyway! Can confirm reports that it is very dense and hard to chop through.

I burnt it in an ordinary wood heater, perhaps as PP has said, using it in an RMH will not present an odour problem?

Mark Brunnr wrote:I'm hoping that planting black locust and osage orange/hedge seedlings on the property will let me stop start a coppice rotation which as I age will still be an easy/safe option compared to felling larger trees.

I plan to do something similar, but with honey locust, eucalyptus and acacia. The smell of black locust wood burning makes me think a log of plastic has been thrown in the fire 🔥 🤢!

Rob Nowland wrote:
when I first read the book title, I thought it was Fire.....the landscaper. As in using fire as a landscaping tool the way some native cultures did for many years.

I thought the same when I read it. Here in Australia, fire is a destructive landscaper indeed.

Celeste Solum wrote:We make a rose wine that is heavenly and also a rose-ginger soda. !

Rose-ginger soda - yum! Recipe please

Assuming you already have cookware of some sort, why shell out for a pressure cooker at all? You can make a haybox cooker for nothing, or a wonderbag for only a few dollars - retained heat cooking is perfect for veggies and legumes, etc, that have a long cooking time. I'm not dissing pressure cookers, I have one myself....but I use a wonderbag more than I use my pressure cooker.