(bright music) - [Narrator] "The Home-Scale Forest Garden" is brought to you by... Brookfield Renewable, a provider of renewable power, supports public television, reminding the public to make safety a priority.

Know the risks.

Use caution in and around water.

Information available at safewaters.com.

- [Narrator] Since 1979, Adirondack Fragrance has offered artisan-made, place-based fragrance products made from our region's unique botanicals, providing aromas inspired by the mountains, forests, and fields.

Adirondackfragrance.com.

- [Narrator] And by Richard and Deborah MacSherry, the Northern New York Community Foundation, and by these additional sponsors.

Closed captioning sponsored by Reed's Incorporated.

- Welcome to "The Home-Scale Forest Garden."

I'm Loraine O'Donnell with Dani Baker, creator of the Enchanted Edible Forest Garden, and author of the book "The Home-Scale Forest Garden" on which this series is based.

In these eight episodes, we are visiting Dani's Garden in Northern New York at different times of the year.

We're also taking a peek at a subtropical garden in Florida.

Well, it's late winter, and it's time to prepare the garden for the coming season, and this means seasonal chores.

- One important chore is pruning.

It's crucial to wait till plants are completely dormant before pruning them, so I like to wait till late winter, but you wanna make sure you get done before they start to bud out.

(upbeat ragtime music) It's a beautiful late winter day.

The snow's all gone, and it's time to start pruning the raspberries.

These are summer raspberries.

The cultivar's named Prelude.

So these are last year's canes, and we're going to prune out some of the weakest ones and leave the best ones for the early summer crop.

These are a bunch of different pruning tools.

There's a long-handled one, medium, and short.

I'm going use the long-handled one for this so I don't have to bend as much.

So the idea is, with these raspberries, you want to prune out everything but the three or four tallest, straightest, and strongest per square foot.

So first I'm gonna take these, and you're gonna crop them right flush to the ground.

So clearly, a bunny rabbit came and sampled some before I got here, so I'm gonna take these out.

And then this is a nice one.

This is a nice one.

That's a nice one.

Anything that's bending over is a problem because when it's laden with berries, it's gonna fall to the ground.

So we're gonna take this one out, and then we're gonna take all the weak ones out.

So you can see these are very thin and weak compared to the strong ones.

And these two are weak.

And see how flush I'm cutting them to the ground, 'cause I don't want them to be in the way next year when I start pruning again.

So let's see what we have.

We have one, two, three, four of the tallest, straightest, and strongest in this square foot or a couple of square feet.

And now the final step is to cut off the tops.

Now, this is where my fall crop of raspberries was.

So I'm gonna cut off those tops, and the summer crop is going to end up along this part of the stem.

The final step is replenishing some wood chips.

So we just took some nutrition away.

Plus, the berries we picked last year took nutrition away from the ground.

So we're gonna replenish that nutrition by providing some fresh semi-composted wood chips, about a couple of inches.

And that's pruning summer raspberries.

(screen whooshes) Today, we're gonna trim a black currant bush.

This is the variety Titania, which is a very vigorous bush.

It can grow to six feet by six feet.

Black currants fruit best on the first and second-year stems.

So we're gonna try to leave six of the most vigorous second and first-year stems and cut out pretty much the rest.

First thing I like to do is cut out any low-lying stems because with fruit, you see how low this is to the ground.

When it gets fruit on it, it's gonna be falling down, touching the ground, and the fruit might rot in contact with the ground.

So the lowest ones are coming out first.

And let's take a look to see which are the first, second, and third-year stems.

So the first-year stems are very pale in color.

This would be an example.

The second year stems are, like, a reddish brown.

And then the third year stems are a much darker brown.

You can see that.

So I'm gonna get rid of some congestion first.

So I'm gonna take this third-year stem out.

Oops, and it looks like it took a first-year stem with it.

But we're gonna save that, and we're going to use this for what's called a dormant cutting.

So I'm gonna set that aside.

All right, let's see.

Oops.

Well, that's interesting.

So I didn't have to prune this, unfortunately.

We have a lot of rodent pressure this year.

There were a lot of rodents under the snow this winter, voles and mice.

And here a rodent actually severed this right below the ground.

So they did my pruning for me.

Okay.

All right, I'm gonna take out some of this congestion in the middle.

So one, two, three.

Take you out.

Four, five.

These are old ones.

Get you out.

All right, and you out.

Now, when I first started pruning, I was really felt like I was gonna ruin the bush by taking so much out, but actually, it just reinvigorates the bush.

So now I'm looking for first-year stems.

This is one.

And I want the tallest and the strongest.

Two, three.

This one is kind of weak.

Take you out.

And this one is too low to the ground.

Get rid of that.

All right, but again, we're gonna save them.

All right, so now I have six second-year stems.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven first-year stems.

I'm gonna get rid of you.

You're a third-year stem, and I think we're pretty good.

So now I'm just gonna take out some that might be intruding in the center.

This one looks a little close to the other one.

I'll get rid of you.

Okay, I'm debating about this one.

I'm gonna take it out.

I think we'll be fine with what we have 'cause it's too low to the ground, and it's just gonna fall down.

Okay, we're done.

(screen whooshes) It's really important to take good care of your tools if you want them to work for you.

So my practice is as soon as I'm done with a tool, I sharpen it,I clean it, I sharpen it, and I put it away so it's all ready for the next time I want to use it.

This is a very inexpensive sharpening tool that I picked up at my local hardware store.

And all you do is you take the outer side of the blade and you run it two or three, four times and feel it.

Ooh, that is like a razor.

Okay.

And then the flat side on the back, just to remove any pieces of metal that may have been shorn off.

And that's it, you're done.

Easy peasy.

(upbeat ragtime music) Did you know that if properly cared for, a raspberry patch can last 10 years or more, and currants can be around for 20 years or more?

- Well, after you've done all of this pruning, what do you do with the cuttings?

- It's the perfect time to use the cuttings to start new plants.

And it's the perfect time to plant seeds for the coming season.

(upbeat ragtime music) So we're going to prepare the black currant cuttings for planting.

First thing we're gonna do is make willow water.

Now, you can use any kind of commercial roots stimulators, but willow is a natural one.

So I happen to have a willow tree on my property, and I just cut these thin branches, and now I'm just chopping them up into water.

And these will will be a root-stimulating medium.

These are the black currant stems that we cut when we pruned the black currant bush.

And we're going to get them ready to root.

So you want first-year stems only, and you want them to be about pencil-thin.

So this one is just about right.

I square off the bottom, and I cut an angle on the top so I can remember what direction they were growing in.

And I'm going to prepare several of these.

I'm gonna start here.

You wanna have at least two of the buds under the dirt when you end up planting them and one or two above.

So a stem, this is too thin.

Too thin.

I did that one.

This one's good.

So squaring off the bottom and cutting above the second.

So there's four or five buds total.

Pencil-thin, about there.

Okay, so let's make a bundle of the ones we cut.

And again, check to make sure the angle is on top and the square's on the bottom.

Now I'm going to put a rubber band around these with the label.

These are the Titania, so I remember, 'cause I might have more than one kind of dormant wood cutting in this medium, and I wanna make sure I know what's what.

So I'm gonna put them in with the label and stick them in there and just leave them overnight.

And then tomorrow, I'll plant them in dirt.

(screen whooshes) Late winter or early spring is the best time to plant perennial vegetables and herbs from seed.

So today, I'm gonna plant one of each in these flats.

First, I start with some good potting mix, preferably sterilized, and I prefer organic, but you don't have to use organic.

I'm gonna first plant some Turkish rocket seeds.

Now, this is a perennial vegetable that I actually saved these seeds last fall.

And let's see what they look like.

So these are fairly good-sized seeds, and the rule of thumb is to make a hole two to three times the diameter of the seed.

So that's what I'm going to do.

I'm just going to use my finger and make little holes two or three times the diameter.

And then I'm gonna drop two seeds in each hole.

Seeds don't always germinate, so if you put a couple in instead of just one, you're more likely to get the six that I'm looking for.

And if two happen to grow, I can always separate them when it's time to replant them.

Okay, so that's two per hole.

And now I'm just gonna gently cover the holes with the soil.

Okay, so that is Turkish rocket.

(screen whooshes) The next thing I'm going to plant are chives.

Now, chives are tiny, tiny little seeds, as you are gonna see in a moment.

When you're planting very small seeds, there's no need to bury them.

Just drop them on the surface.

And I drop several together because that's the way chives actually grow in nature.

Several seeds will drop to the ground together.

So there we go.

I might as well use these all, so I'm gonna... And then just gently press the seeds so they have good contact with the soil.

You don't wanna press too hard.

You don't wanna compact the soil 'cause you need the roots to have nice, soft soil to grow down into.

Okay, now the next step is to water them gently and then put them in a room-temperature room, like 70 degrees or so, with plenty of light.

(upbeat ragtime music) The beauty of this kind of gardening is that perennial vegetables and herbs, like Turkish rocket and chives, get planted once and come back year after year.

And they even self-seed to create more plants in the garden all by themselves.

- So once those precious seeds and cuttings are planted in the ground, how do you protect them from the elements, harmful insects, and forest critters, like deer or mice?

- In a forest garden where plants live for many years, it's vital to protect them during the winter season.

Let me show you some of my techniques.

(upbeat ragtime music) This is the cherry tree.

And these are suckers coming up from the root.

You see this damage on the tree?

This is because I did not paint it white when I planted it.

And in this time of year, late winter when the sun starts getting really warm, but then it gets super cold as soon as it sets at night, black bark will heat up during the day.

And then when the sun sets and it's cold, it'll contract and actually start cracking.

And that's called sunscald.

And when that happens to a tree, disease can move in and kill the tree eventually.

So to prevent this, it's important to paint the trunks white.

And here's an example of that.

So this is a sucker that I allowed to grow, and this will replace this tree when this one dies.

And I made sure to paint it white as soon as I identified it.

So the white paint will reflect the sun, keep the trunk cooler so when it gets cold at night, it won't contract, and you won't get the same effect.

So these are suckers, as I mentioned.

And there's a couple of reasons to leave suckers and not prune them out in the summer or especially in the fall.

First of all, they give rodents something to eat in the winter.

So you can see rodents have been chewing on the bark of these suckers, hopefully instead of the trunk of the tree.

Second reason is when you prune, you stimulate growth.

You don't wanna stimulate growth in a cherry tree right before winter.

You want it to go dormant in winter.

So if you wait till spring to do the pruning, then you're stimulating growth for the summer, but not during the cold season.

So I'm just gonna take this, I'm gonna get rid of this, and I'm gonna get rid of this if I can.

Okay, and here's some more suckers in the back I'm gonna get rid of.

And there's another one and there's, yep, there's another one.

I have to come around the other side.

Yep.

There.

And that's it.

(screen whooshes) This is another way to protect bushes from rodents in the winter.

This is just metal window screening that I've wrapped around the multiple stems of this bush and clipped with some clothespins.

And that way the rodents can't get to it under the snow.

(screen whooshes) This is another way to protect seedlings from pests.

This is something I designed, I call it an upside-down tomato cage.

So I take a tall tomato cage, and I wrap it with chicken wire, and then I anchor it.

I slide it over a small seedling and anchor it to the ground with these garden staples.

Once the seedling grows above the chicken wire, it's taller than a deer can reach.

So that's the time to take it off.

And I like to take it off when the tree is dormant so I'm not ripping leaves.

So let's see if we can do this.

I'm gonna slide it up.

And there.

Now, let me talk about this for a second too.

This is hardware cloth that I use to protect the trunk that's can be gotten to by rodents or rabbits under this tomato cage.

So this is another kind of protection that's really important for seedling, single-stemmed bushes and trees.

(upbeat ragtime music) - We've talked about protecting plants in this northern climate, but what about other climates?

Are the concerns the same?

- The Pike Food Forest in Florida is in a subtropical climate where Amanda Pike has a little different take on protection.

We visited her forest garden where the heat of the sun is a major problem.

(upbeat ragtime music) I am here in Jupiter, Florida with Amanda Pike, who has this amazing subtropical forest garden.

And we're gonna talk about how you protect your plants from conditions and pests.

- So those two go hand in hand.

So when conditions are ideal, a plant is more resilient to pests and to diseases.

They have a natural system, just like humans.

We have an immune system.

So the plant can protect itself if it's not under too much stress.

And one of the main stressors here in south Florida is heat.

And I do tell people to think of themselves as an organism because plants are organisms as well.

And ask, how do you feel in full sun in Florida?

So although seed packets and even growing care guides will say full sun, that is great for Rochester full sun, Seattle full sun.

But in South Florida, full sun is a liability.

You would need hydration.

You would need irrigation.

You would need more fertilizers.

You would need more pesticides and herbicides.

But if you grow in dappled light using keystone natives, so for example, these oaks- - [Dani] What is a keystone?

- So a keystone is a plant that hosts a maximum number of caterpillars to create an ecosystem.

So caterpillars at the foundation of an ecosystem.

And for example, these oaks host about 396 species of caterpillars.

- Wow.

- So they're creating an ecosystem while also providing dappled light, so they're filtering the sun.

They're dropping their leaf litter, creating rich soil, and hosting as well predator insects that will eat the more herbivore insects that might leaf-mine or consume the leaves or spread viruses.

So by ensuring dappled light, we decrease the conditions of heat stress, but also create an environment, an ecosystem that is resilient from pest and diseases.

- Cool.

(upbeat ragtime music) - The traditional practice of gardening has always been to clean up the garden in the fall, cutting down plants, deadheading, et cetera.

- But that thinking has changed.

In a forest garden, for example, we leave all of the seed heads.

They provide food and habitat for all the helpful critters that still need to eat all winter long.

(upbeat ragtime music) It's important to leave seed heads standing, both of your flowers and any wild plants that happen to be in your garden.

This is milkweed.

And the reason it's important to leave them standing over the winter is because the seeds feed numerous animals and birds.

You can see that the seeds are still attached to the silk here, but over there, there's no seeds because somebody has eaten the seeds and left the silk.

(screen whooshes) This is another example of leaving seed heads standing.

This is coneflower or Echinacea.

And you can see that birds have pecked some of the seeds away from some of these flowers, and others are still intact.

So leaving this food for the birds over the winter is really important.

(screen whooshes) This is a birdhouse.

I wanna attract as many birds to my garden as I can because they eat bugs.

So this time of year, it's good to do a little maintenance on the birdhouses.

First, cleaning out any nest from the previous year, which I've already done, and then adding a little sawdust or wood shavings.

That makes it a little more hospitable for a bird to build a nest in.

Now, I wanna tell you about this.

So this is a baffle made out of a stovepipe, and the purpose is to prevent rodents or snakes from climbing up and eating eggs or little chicks.

So this'll be good.

Pretty soon, in another month, we should see a nest in there, maybe of a bluebird or a tree sparrow.

(upbeat ragtime music) As we perform some of our seasonal chores, we've also observed some of our seasonal features.

I'm really looking forward to spring and the new growth it brings.

- We're all looking forward to spring.

I know that.

In the next episode, we'll visit the garden in early spring.

I'm Loraine O'Donnell with Dani Baker.

Join us next time on "The Home-Scale Forest Garden."

Thanks for watching - [Narrator] "The Home-Scale Forest Garden" is brought to you by... Brookfield Renewable, a provider of renewable power, supports public television, reminding the public to make safety a priority.

Know the risks.

Use caution in and around water.

Information available at safewaters.com.

- [Narrator] Since 1979, Adirondack fragrance has offered artisan-made, place-based fragrance products made from our region's unique botanicals, providing aromas inspired by the mountains, forests, and fields.

Adirondackfragrance.com.

- [Narrator] And by Richard and Deborah MacSherry, the Northern New York Community Foundation, and by these additional sponsors.

(bright music) Closed captioning sponsored by Reed's Incorporated.

- [Narrator] Dani Baker's award-winning book, "The Home-Scale Forest Garden: How to Plan, Plant, and Tend a Resilient Edible Landscape" is available from Chelsea Green Publishing at chelseagreen.com and wherever books are sold.

(gentle music) (bright music) (gentle music)