Looking for suggestions.

I don’t know how far my homeowner association is willing to let me go, but I am thinking about survival landscaping ideas. So far I am thinking about gradually replacing lawn with:

Perennial plantings: fruit trees, grapes, herbs, medicinal plants,

Self-seeding food or seasoning plants: [need to research this]

Mini-wood lot, including: oak, willow, birch, bamboo

Small veggie and herb garden – learn how to save seeds for the following crop year.
[I am mindful that I do not have the time to tend anything major but could learn the skills and have some fun now. See: http://forums.equipped.org/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=114437&fpart=1 .]


Central California will grow just about anything but lacks the frosts some plants need.

Then I suppose I need to think about an unpowered “root” cellar, perhaps a decorative windmill that just happens to generate power?

Not a bad Idea..........

Only problem with the wood lot, is you're looking at numerous years of growth to really yield a good crop for wood products, but i guess with time and enough space the potential is there.

www.ediblelandcaping.com

-Blast

Welcome! Be sure to check out Blast's blog. He has information and pictures of his adventure yesterday "dining on the wild". Wish I could have been there

willow and bamboo depending on the variety can be fast growing and be useable in just acouple of years. check the second link for fast growing oaks.

http://www.bowhayestrees.co.uk/willows1.htm

http://www.fast-growing-trees.com/

maybe think about planting herbs plants and trees that have medical uses like Eucalyptus.

http://www.gardensablaze.com/HerbEucalyptusMed.htm

Great ideas so far, and I don't have any ideas to add to the food area, but one area of survival is security and that can be added to by gardening too. I don't know where you’re at but there are several types of shrubs that have thorns that will deter all but the most determined thief. Holly comes to mind because of it’s growing range but there are others. If your homeowners association will allow it you can plant them around the perimeter of you property, or if they won’t let you do that them plant them under all of your windows making arrangements incase it’s used as a fire escape.

I love it.

For your fruit trees, check out the dwarf varieties.

I have several dwarf trees that produce full-size fruit...peaches, apples, cherries thanks to my Father-in-Law. It takes a several years, but eventually they start producing useable yields.

Also, fruit trees are a great excuse to raise honeybees. At least that's the story that I am trying to sell to DW.

Good suggestions, all.

Let me give you some more information.

Useable front yard is south-facing and about 50 feet by 50 feet. Useable backyard is about 70 feet by 90 feet, more than half level and the last part sloping down to a freshwater, tidal slough to form a north-facing slope. Thee is a very large oak tree next to the slough at the north-east corner of the backyard, about half on each side of the property line.

In the front yard I have to get permission from the homeowner’s association for trees but am free to do pretty much whatever else in “flower” beds if I the visual display is not noticeably outrageous as you drive by.

FYI, the property is not in a fire zone, just part of suburbia that happens to back up to a slough. Most likely problem around here is flooding, but I am on what is considered high ground about ten or more feet above normal high tide - while the rest of the neighborhood and much of the town is well below

I already compost. I can figure out how to protect stuff as needed. If trees take years to mature – so be it.

Like I wrote, just about everything grows here. I have begun researching California native plant nurseries. My idea is to begin growing useful and /or edible native plants.

Not only would this help me learn to identify the plants, but I would eventually have small samples available with which to try primitive skills. I hope the yard would become more ecologically friendly and drought-resistant; it might also help attractive wildlife for my backyard learn-to-track project..

So, the question is, assuming no other real world limitations, what plants or plant categories would be best to have represented in the yard?

These sites suggest some plants that I will investigate:

http://www.friendsofcortemaderacreek.org/cn/miwokplants.pdf

http://www.primitiveways.com/harvesting_gathering.html

> willow and bamboo depending on the variety can be fast growing
> and be useable in just acouple of years

I would check around before growing bamboo. It's a vicious, non-native, invasive grass that will take over not only your yard but the yards of all your neighbors. Growing it in pots is one precaution, but you may end up alienating all your co-owners if your bamboo takes over. See
http://www.gainvasives.org/weeds/bamboo.html
for some information.

Using non-native plants (like the eucalyptus, which is a filthy, shedding tree that burns its eucalyptus oil like a torch if it catches fire) troubles me, but to each his own. Look on the Web and ask around (not people who sell them) before you commit to planting stuff. Remember, people thought kudzu was a good idea. :->
http://www.yahoolavista.com/kudzu/houses.html

"...bamboo..."

Be careful with that stuff, once you get it going you can't stop it, you will have bamboo EVERYWHERE...

I've heard Kudzu makes a great salad and has many other culinary uses including tea. It might not be ideal to plant it now...but knowing how to get it going in a survival situation could provide rapid growing food for years in the right place.

Johnny Kudzu?

Hi,

I am not sure about the types of wildlife that you have in your area but planting some species of fruit can lead to nuisance wildlife problems in the future. For example, residential apple trees in my area are a big attractant to black bears in the fall, some people like seeing them but many are terrified of the bears and try-up the police trying to deal with them.

Good idea to do some research now ahead of time, it may save you a big (furry) hassle later.

Mike

Permaculture!
Do some research on Bill Mollison.

this in itself could lead to a survival opportunity if one wanted to shoot said bear.

I love this idea. in wainwright I have a huge back yard and while out walking through it one day I noticed that I had wild chive and rhubarb all over the place. nice to know that ist there if I need it. problem is if I ever plant more survival stuff and get my land the way I want it the army will post me somewhere else.

oh well

you need the right kind of bamboo. there are runners and clumpers.

Cattails, yarrow and willows will grow in wet soil. It is possible to set up a grey water system and have your marsh do the processing.

Oaks.

Bamboo needs little to no cultivation. Look for both food and structural varieties. For some varieties keeping them under control is the biggest bother.

The new resistant chestnuts. These were a staple for wildlife and humans alike before the blight hit.

I don't know for sure but I have been told that onions, potatoes and carrots can be planted and allowed to go wild or minimally cultivated and will remain a reserve for many years.

Aloe can be let go in well drained soils.

Fruit and nut trees.

I wonder if adding a small pond would open some new possibilities? The slough in the backyard is unfortunately part of the heavily polluted Sacramento-San Joaquin delta, so foraging in its 1,000 miles of waterways is problematic.

Koi are good eating

Before you plant trees, check to see how big they will get. Always plan for the mature size. You see maples and other trees that people have planted under neighborhood power lines, and every year they have to be butchered so they don't pull the lines down during storms. Eucalyptus has no food value as far as I've ever heard, and it will dry up water sources. They are one of the trees Mussolini used to dry up the Pntine marshes. Willows are rather pointless, too.

Plant what your family will eat. If you want to try natives, try to find some fruit and taste it before you plant it. Native edibles and the kind of food you're used to eating tend to be world's apart.

Get your soil tested by a lab that knows what it's doing. Kinsey Agricultural Services can help [http://kinseyag.com/]. Bring your soil up to par; if it's out of whack, you'll have nothing but problems. Keep in mind that many of the local cooperative extension services still go by federal/chemical company advice.

I hate homeowner associations, and I don't trust them any further than I can throw a grand piano. Make up your main plan, have them okay it, have them give you permission IN WRITING to do what you want to do. That won't keep the next set of them from cutting down anything over 3" tall, but it might slow them down.

Trog's advice on Permaculture is excellent. Find Mollison's books: Introduction to Permaculture; Permaculture Two; Permaculture: A Designer's Manual. Gaia's Garden by Hemenway is good, too. All Mollison's books are collector's items these days, but you can usually find them in a library, or through the interlibrary loan system. Lots of drawings.

Sue

Fig trees and Date Palms should do well where you are.