Ridge Berry Farm: Weeds and Critters

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Somewhere I read "a weed is just a beautiful flower growing in the wrong place". We've now come to really appreciate this dictum.

Since arriving at the farm, not a day goes by when we are not "weeding" one area or another. However, we've now come to better appreciate some of the plants that are attempting to grow in our fields.

Aside from our "nemesis" the Box Elder, we have discovered that quite a few of our "weed" plants and trees can be quite useful....particularly since we've now also learned to forage.

Last year, when we talked of untangling our Kiwis from wild grapes, thorn bushes and trees, we were not fully aware of what we were cutting down.

We knew Wild Grapes could be of use; they make a great jelly. However, given the amount of Grapes on the property removing the odd vine was not a concern. Today, the Wild Grapes are flowering and if we had the time and manpower, we could probably harvest much more than we could ever use.

Wild Grapes blooming in one of our poplars

What we did not realize at the time was that the "nasty thorn bushes" we were pulling were Wild Roses. Now that they are blooming and releasing a wonderful scent, they are quite easily identifiable.

Wild Roses abound on the property

Like the Wild Grapes, the Roses also serve a purpose. Not only do they attract pollinators, but this year we definitely want to harvest and process some of the Rose Hip.

However, Wild Roses also abound on the property. As such removing these from some of our cultivated rows still makes a lot of sense.

What was a surprise this year was a "weed" tree we simply could not identify last Fall. We discovered that some of the trees we were cutting down were actually Mulberry. This was quite evident when we noticed the berries beginning to form this month.

Our newly discovered "weed" tree: the Mulberry is fruiting

Unlike the Wild Grapes and Roses, the Mulberry tree is not so pervasive. Since of course we intend to harvest some of these berries, we have now decided to care for them and work around them. This may prove difficult where some of our Kiwis have completely entangled themselves in the branches of these tree. Appropriate pruning is definitely called for.

Not only do we have issues in our old Kiwi rows, but now that we have uncovered the June Berries, we realize the problem extends to many of our potential crops.

In the June Berry rows, we have the habitual Wild Grapes and Roses, but we also discovered multiple Tulip Trees. Many of these are now flowering.

A flowering Tulip Tree among our June Berries

Although, the Tulip Tree serves no purpose to us, it is a beautiful plant which is a symbol of the region and is unique to this Canadian Carolinian forest. So for us, there is no question; we need to maintain these trees one way or another. Given their location (away from our Kiwi vines), we believe we can allow them to grow in the midst of our June Berry rows. It only requires us to work around them.

Last Fall, we covered our harvesting of Black Walnuts. To many gardeners this plant is a nasty "weed". Releasing Juglone (a natural herbicide), it has a tendency to kill many other useful plants in its path.

Over the past weeks we have found quite a few Black Walnut seedlings in our cultivated rows. We even had one of our Niagara Grape vines destroyed this year by a small Black Walnut which we had inadvertently left behind.

The effects of leaving a Black Walnut at the foot of a Grape vine

Since we have quite a few Black Walnut trees on the property, we have now been diligent in pulling saplings everywhere we see them. Our objective is to always maintain a few good trees in isolated parts of our land where we can harvest them when the time comes.

In fact, we will continue to experiment with the Black Walnut and its many uses. We are keeping a close eye on the evolution of the fruit. Our intentions are to harvest it early this year and produce what the Italians call Nocino (a Black Walnut liqueur).

Keeping an eye on the Black Walnut fruit for early harvesting

As we have learned more about foraging, another "weed" tree on our cultivated land has me pondering. In a few locations, the Black Locust has taken root and one tree in particular is of outstanding size.

A bit late in its blooming cycle, we learned that the flowers of this tree were edible. The beautiful grapes of white flowers have a wonderful scent but surprisingly they are also delicious! They are sweet and have a nice crunch (hence a great decorative addition to salads).

The Black Locust flower: a delicious wild edible

Given this discovery, we are now thinking of keeping one or two well established trees.

As we continuously tackle the concept of weeding, we must also now address "critters". Last week we covered some of the issues we have with deer.

These animals are becoming bolder and approaching our house on a regular basis (perhaps because we no longer have a hunter on the grounds).

The deer are getting "bolder"

We have heard of many "physical" attempts to protect crops from deer and with each attempt, we've also heard of many failures. As a result, we've decided to employ something a bit different: an organic spray. We've decided to protect some of our crops (in particular our sapplings) using a spray which apparently makes the leaves of our plants unpalatable to the deer. I'm not certain this will work, but we'll be reporting on this in future blogs.

I must add that the deer have also been feeding on our Kiwi vines. Given the very healthy state of these hardy plants, we see no permanent or long lasting damage...so for the time being we will let them nibble on these leaves.

Our philosophy right now is that most of the "critters" are part of an ecosystem. If we try to contain one element of this ecosystem we may be doing ourselves harm by "unbalancing" the equation and raising another issue.

In fact, when we planted our vegetable garden we did so allowing for losses. Of course, we can now attribute some important losses to another "critter" which abounds on the farm: the Cottontail Rabbit.

This cute nuisance is getting its fair share of our vegetables

We have not done much to contain the rabbits and so far there may not be a need to do anything. Although they are getting their fair share, we have more than enough to satisfy our needs.

This is also the philosophy we are adopting with birds. We know we will lose quite a few berries. However, birds also contain the insect population and very often provide fertilizer as they stoop on our trellises.

The most frustrating "critter" though is the one attacking our only two strawberry plants. These plants are producing a large amount of berries. However, we find nice chunks taken out of each newly ripened berry.

We would not be so frustrated if they at least finished one whole berry and then left another for us.

Someone is munching on the best of our Strawberries

The culprit: we suspect a pair of Chipmunks. They have dug behind our shed and just across the path to our raised beds. Every so often we can see them darting to and fro from the raised bed to their hole.

I'm not sure we can do much and we definitely are not keen to harm these cute little rodents. I just think that next year, we will likely begin planting our strawberries in stacked containers.

In anticipation of insect problems (particularly on our Apple trees). We have had to come up with some organic sprays. This year will be a year of experimentation. So far, we have used Neem oil and we see no evidence of infestation. Later we will also be using some Rhubarb leaf tea.

The apples are so abundant, we should be selectively pulling fruits to concentrate the energy of the plant on a few good apples. However, we are not so concerned this year about the size and quality of our harvest. Our main preoccupation is determining the types of organic sprays that are most effective in protecting the fruit.

The Apples are so far doing well

The very wet weather we have had has caused some problems for farmers in the region. However, with our sandy soil, it has actually proven to be a blessing for the majority of our plants. So I leave you this week with a few photos of the upcoming crops.