Episode-2824- Nick Ferguson on Fodder Trees and Soil Health
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:25:48 — 19.6MB)
Expert council member Nick Ferguson is in town staying at my place this week so we took time and sat down together to do a show on these two very important subjects today. We also address what we both feel and fear will be looming food shortages in 2021 which will likely continue into 2022.
Nick Ferguson is an international traveling consultant specializing in ecosystem engineering. He designs your land to suit your needs from the ground up using principles taken from ordinary civil engineering, permaculture, keyline design and many more design sciences.
He runs homegrownliberty.com, and more recently has started a nursery business at rareplantstore.com specializing in plants that are either hard to come by, or are just plain awesome for building resilience on your land. He’s a third generation prepper/homesteader/homeschooler. Married to the amazing Catie, and father of three wild boys. Today he is in studio at Nine Mile Farm discussing soil health, fodder tree, pending food shortages and more.
Resources for today’s show…
- Follow Life With Jack on Instagram
- TSP Facebook Group
- Join the Members Brigade
- Join Our Forum
- Walking To Freedom
- TspAz.com
- TSPC on Discord
- TSPC Group on Telegram (group chat)
- TSPC Telegram Channel (just messages from me)
- Jack on Parler
- Jack on MeWe
- Join Me on Odysee
- PreSearch.org – Get paid when you search with full privacy!
- Not in My Name – John McCutheon
Nick’s Links from Our Discussion Today
- Episode-828- Steve Solomon on Organic Mythology and Soil Health
- Home Grown Liberty
- Rare Plant Store
- The Intelligent Gardener: Growing Nutrient-Dense Food
- JADAM Organic Farming
- Just Enough: Lessons in Living Green From Traditional Japan
- Episode-981- Lessons in Sustainable Living Japan’s Edo Period – About the Book Above
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You have me interested in planting white mulberry trees. I’m in South Louisiana and can’t find them anywhere. Nick, do you have some than can be shipped?
Yea they are on his website.
I’ll second that The Intelligent Gardener is a very helpful book. After reading it a couple years ago ago, I used Logan Labs to test my garden bed soil, added a few things that seemed out of balance or low, and this past year (possibly a coincidence since it’s only one year so far) I did have the best harvest I have ever had. With record sized harvests from most crops.
Found a Copy of J. Russell Smiths book ” Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture” copyright 1950, at an antique mall in MD. Chapter X talks extensively how the mulberry was used for food for swine and poultry, particularly for swine or “Hawgs” in NC. We raise pasture pigs in south central PA and are looking to find alternative ways to feed our pigs besides the feed mill. Thank you Nick and Jack for this informative podcast. I am negotiating with my husband to dedicate a few acres of our pasture to these trees. Wish me luck!
Good luck!
I’ve been obsessing over fodder trees since listening to this episode (3 times).
Just ordered 3 different hybrid poplars from a nursery.
Good episode. I know the idea behind the specific trees Nick suggested were that they are optomized “nutritionally” (protein content), are fast growing, and suited well to coppicing…(may have a few other benefits i may be forgetting), but are there other “Second tier trees” he can suggest that are maybe not so agressive in their growth (stay put/ in their isolated location) but still have good/decent fodder benefit? I have spent many years on my land getting certain unwanted species under control…and without toxins like roundup. That includes the Tree of Heaven/Hell (Alianthus?), Oriental bittersweet, Wild clematis, and others who’s names i dont know. I simply do not want to invite new species that if i accidentally ignore or forget about for 3-5 years that they go crazy particularly with their roots. Any suggestions from Nick or Jack?