Did your Honeycrisp survive?
three sisters
You might consider Fordhook lima beans and Delicata squash. I've heard good things. Do you have purslane (Portulaca oleracea) there? If you let it colonise the garden beds, it makes a weed-suppressing moisture-retaining arthropod-sheltering edible ground cover.
Pruning hasn’t been an issue yet, but I will need to more actively manage the raspberries this year.
Yes you will, lest they begin to manage you. I recommend growing them over a fence or some wire or some sort of trellis and then pruning the ends before they can touch the soil and tip-layer themselves. Life is easier that way.
In the future I’m hoping to add lots more edible native shrubs, and maybe more trees if I can find good spots for them.
Some ideas in alphabetical order:
- Amelanchier laevis
- Asimina triloba
- Diospyros virginiana
- Prunus americana (if you don't have plum blight there)
Last year one bin produced enough to cover about one and a half of my 4x8 ft garden beds
So you cover the surface of your garden beds with compost? That's the way. Protect the soil from erosion while keeping the nutrients near the surface where the roots can reach them. A generous layer of mulch over the winter is also helpful, especially if the beds will be vacant.
I don’t really expect to get fully self sufficient on compost anytime soon, but I’ll keep producing as much as I’m able.
Do you compost your poop? Mixed with wood shavings, that could make a fair amount of compost.