tantric
Yamadori
hi, i'm tantric. yes, it's stupid but i really get called that. i'm just starting with bonsai, as in i'm working on a few project that might become bonsai in a few years. but it does seem like i've been preparing for it, even if i didn't know. i went from a BA in japanese and asian lit to the phd program in ecology.
i stand to inherit a small farm (my father is 81). its about 5 acres of arable land around a house and yard, all fenced. it used to be extremely isolated, but development has literally crept in and now we have subdivision neighbors. me and my family really don't get along, so i've never considered living and working on the farm, even though i spent the first 20yrs of my life here. but at this point, turning the farm into a profitable, sustainable enterprise looks like a good bet.
my father is the salt of the earth - the thing you pour on rich, fertile ground when you want it to die and never live again. more respectfully, we have a very different approach to pesticides, fertilizers, companion planting, and basically sustainability. now the old man can grow the mess out of tomatoes and watermelons and basically any normal crop he cares to. but he will only grow Early Girl tomatoes, because 'only old people like farm tomatoes and they don't like weird shit'. but i sold enough heirlooms at twice the price (real farm tomatoes, $1/lb or $2/lb heirloom) to get half the crop heirloom this year.
so, bonsai...well, per square meter one of the most profitable things you can grow on a small farm. only, i'm not setting up a bonsai factory. we have a couple of rows of blueberries. i want to turn the area into a pick-your-own berry patch with early, middle and late blueberries, then some side areas of blackberries, raspberries, lingonberries, muscadines, etc - just so long as for most of the summer there's blueberries and one other berry available. i can't compete in volume with the orchards, but i can make it neat and fun for kids. i'd also like to have on hand a few potted berry-producing plants. these will be my basic starting material for bonsai, air layered or brought in or trained in situ. right now i'm just learning the plant, studying it. i brought one in and kept it alive, but it was a near thing. i may try again soon to see if what i think i learned is useful.
another source for bonsai is all of the trees i'm going to have to cut down, some of which i grew up with. i'm not going for the axe, relax - but i can't have walnut trees in my garden area and i'm not really interested in all the mutated fruit trees (the kind that make so much fruit they break their boughs). but i would like to preserve some part, for me. it's not bonsai, but there's a rose like this. my mom *loved* roses, but she died 20yrs ago and my father has slowly transformed her rose bed into a tomato bed. now there's only one left - that's the kind of thing i want to preserve. the trees aren't really special - if there's any left over to air layer or what not and work with, i'll sell em in a heartbeat. as an experiment i airlayered an old lilac bush a few weeks ago, and, well, it hasn't died.
considering my materials and goals, what's the best way to start?
i stand to inherit a small farm (my father is 81). its about 5 acres of arable land around a house and yard, all fenced. it used to be extremely isolated, but development has literally crept in and now we have subdivision neighbors. me and my family really don't get along, so i've never considered living and working on the farm, even though i spent the first 20yrs of my life here. but at this point, turning the farm into a profitable, sustainable enterprise looks like a good bet.
my father is the salt of the earth - the thing you pour on rich, fertile ground when you want it to die and never live again. more respectfully, we have a very different approach to pesticides, fertilizers, companion planting, and basically sustainability. now the old man can grow the mess out of tomatoes and watermelons and basically any normal crop he cares to. but he will only grow Early Girl tomatoes, because 'only old people like farm tomatoes and they don't like weird shit'. but i sold enough heirlooms at twice the price (real farm tomatoes, $1/lb or $2/lb heirloom) to get half the crop heirloom this year.
so, bonsai...well, per square meter one of the most profitable things you can grow on a small farm. only, i'm not setting up a bonsai factory. we have a couple of rows of blueberries. i want to turn the area into a pick-your-own berry patch with early, middle and late blueberries, then some side areas of blackberries, raspberries, lingonberries, muscadines, etc - just so long as for most of the summer there's blueberries and one other berry available. i can't compete in volume with the orchards, but i can make it neat and fun for kids. i'd also like to have on hand a few potted berry-producing plants. these will be my basic starting material for bonsai, air layered or brought in or trained in situ. right now i'm just learning the plant, studying it. i brought one in and kept it alive, but it was a near thing. i may try again soon to see if what i think i learned is useful.
another source for bonsai is all of the trees i'm going to have to cut down, some of which i grew up with. i'm not going for the axe, relax - but i can't have walnut trees in my garden area and i'm not really interested in all the mutated fruit trees (the kind that make so much fruit they break their boughs). but i would like to preserve some part, for me. it's not bonsai, but there's a rose like this. my mom *loved* roses, but she died 20yrs ago and my father has slowly transformed her rose bed into a tomato bed. now there's only one left - that's the kind of thing i want to preserve. the trees aren't really special - if there's any left over to air layer or what not and work with, i'll sell em in a heartbeat. as an experiment i airlayered an old lilac bush a few weeks ago, and, well, it hasn't died.
considering my materials and goals, what's the best way to start?
