Food Forest Update #5 - (ROOPHLOCH Edition)
2025-09-16
Nighttime Garden Obsession ROOOPHLOCH Style
This food forest project has really gotten out of hand. I'm out on the porch writing this update on my Palm Tungsten C PDA connected to a folding keyboard. If you're reading this that means I've hopefully gotten around to transferring the file somewhere and posting it before the end of the month.
What I've just finished doing before sitting down to write this was crawling around in the dirt with a flashlight, seeds, tape and markers planting and labeling seeds. I would say I'm a bit obsessed at this point. I love it.
Now that the seeds are planted and labeled I'll take this opportunity to get down everything I've worked on the last few weeks before I forget it.
Soursop Ahhhhh!!!
Maybe the most exciting thing that has happened in the food forest yet; my soursop tree has started flowering!...then a couple days later a big storm rolled through and knocked the tree over. Oof.
Well, I staked the tree back up and I think it is going to be ok. It doesn't look like it's suffering at all and more flowers are still developing. I don't think it will actually hold onto any fruit or get any all the way to maturity if it does happen to. It is still an encouraging sign that it is doing well enough to be putting on good new growth and flowering already though.
### Front Yard Spiff Up
A major project I worked on recently was spending a significant portion of three days working on the front yard. It needed a real good clean up because it had just gotten so overgrown and unruly. Mowed the ground cover on the highest setting, trimmed all the borders, weeded and removed the last remaining bush stump that was still straggling from a previous project.
Once the cleanup was done I expanded the center bed a bit and planted and moved some things.
- Propogated the Beach Verbena to fill in along the new front of the expanded bed
- Took out some sage and blueberries and moved blueberries to back yard
- Planted two fig trees in one of the expanded parts of the bed
- Planted a Firebush in the expanded part of the bed
- Planted perennial peanut groundcover along the stepping stone path and expanded the herb bed slightly
- Planted Juanilama
- Planted some native wildflowers in a few different spots
- Scattered some sunflower seeds all around
- Pruned all the mango trees
- Top dressed most of the fruiting trees with composted manure
- Planted a couple more pineapples
- Planted a Mamey Sapote that I started from seed last year
- Planted some more Mexican Sunflower
I think that is it for the front. Probably forgetting something but oh well.
Backyard Stuff
Not as much new has been happening in the back but still some things got worked on. The biggest recent project in the back is the addition of another banana circle. The new banana circle is right on the north edge of the back patio. I have other things growing in that area along the northern property line that I don't want to shade out so I'm using dwarf varieties only for this one. I planted a kokopo banana, dwarf orinoco, fuzzy pink and a dwarf papaya.
A much smaller project I did in the back had to do with the pineapple that was ready. We harvested the pineapple and ate it but the plant didn't look like it was going to send out a new pup like it is supposed to. It kind of looked like it might just die instead. I saw an interesting method of propogating pineapple and thought I'd give it a try with this one since I'm not sure it will make it anyway. The method is to pull the entire plant up, strip all the leaves and then shallowly bury the long core of the plant that is left horizontally in the ground. What this will potentially do is cause that pineapple core to send up multiple pups all along the length of it. If that happens then I'll be able to pull most of them off and replant elsewhere while leaving one or two to grow in place. We'll see if it works. Experimenting is fun.
Everything else that has been in the ground for a while in the back is doing really well. Still waiting for the big banana rack to ripen which should be pretty soon. The passion fruit vine is starting to flower which is exciting. Sweet potato, seminole pumpkin and bottle gourd vines are absolutely everywhere. It really is starting to look a bit like a jungle. So cool. There are also a lot of papayas on the three papaya plants and the 20 or so muscadine grapes are almost ripe.
Seed Starting
As I mentioned earlier I was starting seeds in the early evening darkness. Some days that's about the only time my other responsibilities finally give me enough of a break to accomplish anything so I take what I can get.
I started some dwarf tamarillos, calendula, pepino melon, cape gooseberry, purple sugar apple, lettuce, lemongrass, cucumber and thai basil seeds. I expect that a good portion of these will not be successful but that's ok. I've failed multiple times with cucumber and pepino melon. I don't think they like our climate very much. This is probably my last attempt at them if they fail again. I'm more optimistic about the tamarillos, lemongrass and sugar apples.
Some previous seeds I had started have come up as well. Some of the earlier sugar apple seeds I started are coming up now. I don't think I mentioned this before but I also acquired the following new species: saba nut, lemondrop mangosteen and cherimoya. I have started all of them in various pots already and most of the saba nuts have come up and a couple of the cherimoyas. I have a few more things coming but I'll leave something for the next update.
