More digging and planting

We've planted five trees down in our hugelkultur-sun trap area: two European plums, two pawpaw and one fig. The plums (prune type) and fig because they're our favorites and the pawpaws because the label said they were both yummy and extremely hardy. I guess the fruit tastes something like a banana? You don't see it in stores, so it must not transport well. Pawpaw is native to the Eastern U.S.

There's room for more - we may add a couple apple trees later and Cousin Jim is going to advise us on the best pear varieties.

We also planted three hardy kiwi in front of the house. Two female and one male. These are climbers and a heavy-duty trellis will need to be built soon. Ideas and/or trellis-raising assistance are welcome.

A principle of permaculture is that each part of your garden should have more than one function. Our hedgerow, for example, has many functions: barrier to deer, habitat for wildlife, mulch to improve the soil, food for humans, windbreak and shade for plants inside the hedgerow. Each plant in the hedgerow likely contributes two or more of those functions.

As another example, today I planted some Maximilian Sunflower seeds down along the edge of the orchard area. This is a plant highly recommended in Gaia's Garden for all of the following reasons: 1) they are perennial, 2) they bloom in the fall after most everything else is done, 3) deer don't eat them, 4) they grow thickly and can actually form a deer barrier, 5) they produce copious amounts of compost, 6) the shoots are edible, 7) the birds like the seeds and 8) it's drought tolerant. How's that for a multipurpose plant?

We've planted lots of stuff. Now it's mostly about tinkering, watering, fertilizing, hoping for continuing sunshine and no more frosts, and praying. With Ruby around, we're not too worried about deer. She runs around baying at the top of her lungs, we have no idea what or why, but it's truly a frightening sound. And when I say run, I mean run. We're feeding her four times a day and her ribs are showing.