June Garden Update, Creating a Forest Garden in a Wilderness Setting, Shiitake Mushroom Logs 

Haha, Cali seems to understand that when Shawn is shooting a video it's her role to wander about in the background joyfully forever wagging her tail. Good to see she's feeling better now.

I admire & envy, especially during my hard times of loss this year. You are a positive mentoring example for the future generation that doesn't have men role models, like you are.

I am amazed at your variety and curiosity of interesting things in life. Incorporating these in your homestead and gardens. Your knowledge of the forest trees. Wild bush berries, mushrooms and wild medicines plants. Your excellent carpentry work. Your study of the soil and subsoil and their benefits. Etc etc. Your curiosity in life and studies have benefited you greatly. May you continuelly be blessed and protected. Cheers

So good to see Cali fetching her toy and acting healthy and dog happy! 🌀♥️🌀

You could not have a better side kick. Cali made it impossible to look at you as you spoke, she walking behind like a princess, just simply being Cali. Thank you.

I love how knowledgeable, and caring your followers are, and I've learned many great tips, which im very grateful for, from reading thier comments. And for those that leave negative and hateful comments , well all I can say is, they can move along, and take thier negativity with them...

I love what you are doing. My son is here in Costa Rica. He is thinking about a Greenhouse. He and the children planted lots of stuff on the property but the Leaf cutting Ants have been an ongoing problem. My youngest Grandson love plantig and growing stuff. He had planted Pineapples and actually had some not quite ready to harvest but in one night some animal came in and ate most of everyone. He was devasted. His Bell Peppers are doing well, one plant has 19 Peppers on it. He also had Lettuce, Celery, tomatoes and other stuff as well as Herbs and Berries. He us always looking after his plants and checking them thoroughly. We also have Bananas, Plantains, sour Sop, Mangoes, Papayas, Mandarins, Limes. I wish we could get Lemons but they are not here. They plan to plant a lot more. Things grow quickly here but the battel is the animals and Ants. So happy that you are making such good and steady progress. I miss home and am hoping that Covid will soon go away completely so I could return home. I used to live in Barrie but that is to cold for me. I have Arthritis and Fibromyalgia. It gives you quite a tough time anywhere. Take care, God Bless.

Who else was listening to Shawn but really watching Cali play in the background all the time?

Wow. Coming along nicely. I see my love Cali. Hi sweet baby. Glad you are ok. 🐕❤️❤️❤️❤️

Amazing plans! I've eaten young stinging nettle- very rich in nutrients and tasty too, but until I watched this video I had no idea it made good rope. BTW Cali has an enthusiastic tail that makes old men grin and women laugh. Very glad she is Cooling Down!

Loving the Journey of the new Homestead. I was a late bloomer on the last build, but I am glad to be here for this one from the beginning.

I don't know what I'll be doing in 3 years time. Except that I'll be watching you enjoying the fruits of your labor. This makes me happy and sad at the same time. Congratulations on your great work!

I used to live in a place with very white sand. Growing fruit and veg was a pain. For years I added organic material to improve the soil. But it just naturally turned back to this awefull white sand that would become hydrophilic. I ended up converting to large tubs for food plants and growing native plants in the white sand. Saved a huge amount of time, money and water with the tubs.

Just shared our first strawberry ever on our homestead between the six of us yesterday! Man was it delicious 😋

Chipping the dead brush around the cabin and the garden will take cover away from small creatures that can become pests, more importantly and with dry conditions, chipping the dry brush will reduce forest fire fuel. Good stuff, Shawn.

Three years in the future: "Sold Out... Shawn James Organic Farmers Market"! I'm luvin your garden, try and stay cool.

So GLAD TO SEE CALLI DOING BETTER,DIDN’T REALIZE THEY COULD GET HEAT STROKE THAT EASY. KEEP HER NEAR THE WATER IN JULY & AUG SHE’S SO PRETTY 😍 GOD BLESS…

Good Tuesday Shawn & Cali🐕! So good to see Cali is herself again. Wow! Your vegetables in the Greenhouse looks good. I Watched a lot of Korean Videos. These people lived in the wilderness and mountains were growing the shiitake🍄mushrooms. I think those logs should be standing up position by two rows and the logs touching together in a horizontal line. They kept them in the forest or wooded areas. 👍🏞🏡

Good to see you and Cali' good she snapped out of that heat wave'' love her shes a sweet pup' who loves her dad for sure. and your new homestead is looking amazing things are coming along well'' i am looking forward to seeing the new homestead additions sending a big well deserved hug for a great fella doing amazing work' bless you and your family

Busy hands are productive hands. I really enjoy seeing the ongoing evolution of the homestead. I admire your vision. Take care Shawn. Vaughn

So interesting. Thanks. Glad to see Cali running around.

The greenhouse is looking great and you’re in for some fantastic harvests!

The greenhouse plants are coming on great. I look forward to your videos - thank you.

How are the sand-wells performing? You had mentioned one for the cabin as well... did you get below the water table enough for it to be effective? Cali looks back to normal! Yahoo!

Thank you for the closed captions within 24 hours of posting this video.

You might want to consider planting up to five times as many hazel trees, and succession plant them staggered one fifth of a group every year. Hazels tend to produce nuts within 2-3 years or so (given at least 2 species for pollination), but can be coppiced at the 5-7 year mark; they'll grow back up from the stumps, providing lots of straight limbs for use in wattle-woven fencing, AND it's a remarkably good/dense firewood. Not many people use it as a firewood because it's so useful for fencing and furniture building, but it genuinely is quality hardwood once fully dried. Just cut any limbs or trunks at an angle that will shed rain off the cut surfaces to prevent rot, and you'll be good to go. It's a system of woods management that has been used in Europe for literally thousands of years, and as a woven fencing material, it can be made strong enough to resist damage from moose, etc, while adding beauty in the choice of patterns woven in a sustainable, ecologically safe manner. Thin branches can be debarked, trimmed, and woven while green in a form of wickerwork for making baskets, chairs, so on and so forth. Woven panels can also be used to as a trellis for supporting outside garden vegetables, and branches (whole, or split in half or quartered if thick)woven among poles around a garden bed, serving as the walls for a raised garden bed, helping contain the soil while letting excess moisture seep out the sides. Best of all, if it gets rotten, or damaged from trees falling in a storm, just pull it out and chip it up for mulch, or toss it in the underbrush to let nature take care of it.

I've got some tomatoes peppers, carrots, green onions and cucumbers in pots on my deck. :) And a black raspberry vine. Oh and a strawberry plant! I just have that one though because i think the flowers are pretty lol. We're looking for a new house so I didn't want to put anything in the ground. They're doing well! :) Your garden is pretty!

Looking forward to seeing you harvest your first January salad from the greenhouse. Sooner around the corner than you think!

Green Houses make such a big difference, my garden is growing but your stuff is twice the size, Cheers from Simcoe County all the best and take care!

Wow a Tuesday video..thanks Shawn!

Really enjoying watching you build the entire homestead.

It's so Good to see Cali running around in the background wagging her tail and being her usual self. The heat dome is still hovering over the Pacific Northwest but it looks like it may dissipate a bit in a few days. It has destroyed many crops however our biggest fear is for the forest. Take care Shawn and thanks for the update.

To combat the mosquitos, get some "BOUNCE" brand fabric softener sheets, rub one on exposed skin and mosquitos won't even land. I live in Florida and have a mosquito problem working in my woodworking shop. These fabric sheets work better than "Deep Woods OFF", doesn't irritate my skin and smells nice too.

Thanks Shawn! We enjoy your adventure, I hope you do also! Take care. Also I have to commend you on how you handled Cali during her need. I wish I could do as well as you! Great job!

The Cali Show (with Some Guy in the Hat.)

Love the dome greenhouse - I would never leave there so peaceful. The place is looking great!

It's amazing how quickly plants grow big, with warm moist weather. I've always loved courgettes/zuchini's for that! Huge ground cover against evaporation, lots of edible, and great for the compost heap. And you can grow sooo much underneath them too, like radish, spinach, etc..even when it's hot! I used to cut away one of the bottom leaves to make a little room, and just sow right on the spot underneath them. It's awesome, it almost feels like cheating, so much food you can grow! Oh, and there just WAS no space for weeds anymore that way. For weed, yes, for weeds, no. 😁 (< in jest)

I grew up in FL, which is a sandbar on top of limestone. It is not possible to hold nutrients in where the veggie roots grow. The water washes everything down. We had a pasture behind our home, where we had horses, cows, goats, and chickens. Decades later, my parents gifted that land to my sis and her hubby to build a house. The first thing they did was dig a pond for flood control and the soil (sand!) was used for the pad of their house. That deep sand smelled just like a barn that had never been cleaned out. All that animal waste had accumulated down there at the ground water level. My mom wanted decorative plants and an herb garden outside the kitchen window. From 1974 until she passed away in 2017, she used compost, wood chips, and topsoil to enrich the sand in that 10ft by 30ft bed. Almost every plant she put there died within a month, and the soil-after 40 years!!-was still just SAND! Yes, using a wood chip mulch will help with moisture retention, but it won’t do a thing for adding or retaining nutrients. Use garbage cans to compost. Use the compost to make compost tea. Use the tea as a foliar spray. The most success I had with my own garden in FL was when I decided to use a kiddie pool for growing my plants. I put the drainage holes 3 inches up the side, so the soil wouldn’t dry out so fast. I used compost and decent soil. It was the first time my garden survived long enough to collect any tomatoes or peppers.

Wish I could grow my own mushrooms, I love them. Nice seeing Callie make a cameo😍

Nice that you got the rain you desperately needed. Out here in BC we desperately need rain now with the heat wave we got going on. Shattering previous records going back decades. Temp. In the high 30s to mid 40s. Small place that sets records. Lytton BC 46C yesterday.

Even Sitting indoors, I am starting to itch and scratch as I watch all those bugs hovering around. lol

I heard yogi bear was getting a bit to snoopy so you turned him into some yogi burgers nom nom!! 😂

Cali looks like she is back to feeling well again. Thanks for the garden update, Shawn. And nice to see the workshop again - it’s been awhile since you filmed from there.

Nothing tastes better than food you've grown yourself.

Love the sound of running/trickling water in the greenhouse.

Not sure if bees are common in your area but setting up swarm traps might be a good way to get started in beekeeping and producing a sustainable source of honey.

Shawn hello from Las Vegas Nevada. Bugs!!! At my lake home in northern Minnesota I discovered a plant, Citronella, cousin to the geranium plant, it hates bugs. When you brush up against them they release an oil that smells like a fresh cut lemons. I planted them all over my property, I had some in pots so I could carry them onto the pontoon and it even kept the big horse flies away.

The garden is coming along nicely. Stinging nettles will be good to grow because they can be used as a vegetable as well has for making rope.

Stinging nettles are amazing....as long as you're on the right end of them. They make a great tea as well

I find myself focusing on Cali in the background.

Hello Shawn and Cali from Australia, so good to see Cali is doing okay now, scared me to see you carrying her in that video, especially knowing you have snakes there! Things are progressing along nicely! You most certainly have a green thumb, unlike me! I really love seeing the footage of the area as it is such a pretty area, seeing how it continually changes and how fast it changes is lovely! You live in a very picturesque area, it is so peaceful too! As always, give Cali a hug for me!

Shawn, you are & have, accomplished SO MUCH, in short time you share w/us so far, JUST TOTALLY AMAZING, Shawn!!!!!! Do take care. Fl., USA

Dang! Those are some fine looking veggies! Seems like only last week we saw you putting in the beds for them!

Wonderful to see the greenhouse flourishing and fruit trees doing well with proposed fencing. Great to see the streams flowing again and Cali healthy and happy. I know your crazy busy but hope you get the mushroom logs soaked in water. Wood chipping forest garden sounds like a good plan along with composting. So nice to see you planting for ALL animals.👍

Good to see Cali back on Squirrel patrol, plus she taking advantage of the running streams across the property. Yes Shawn trees take their own time to replicate, as the first year or two is set on root proliferation and then once that is established , growth kicks up a gear and the first fruits develop - Mother Nature can be slow as Heck!!

Looking Great, well done Mr. James !

I want to see more hugs and "Good Girl" moments with Cali. That so rounds out the serious technical content we are learning. Love to you both Shawn.

My experience with shiitake mushrooms is that even under ideal conditions, they normally take 12 to 18 months to fruit. Good luck brother!

Glad to see cali doing well. Your growing of the vegetables an mushrooms is very interesting.

Cali looks like she's back to herself, looking good Shawn.

Will sassafras, ginseng, yellow root grow where your at?? Blood root also!! These have also medical and drink worthy properties!! Everything is looking awesome!! Happy for you!! Hugs for the pup!!

That’s awesome you’ll be adding wood chips. That’s like Back To Eden gardening, and Good Simple Living has great success with theirs. I’m so excited to see what all you grow. I’m learning so much from you about how to make the land flourish & thrive!😎👍🏽🙏🏼🕊💙

Eventhough it's sad you had to move out and start all over again, I think it's also pretty great how you now know what to do differently and how to do stuff. For an example that basement you're building, which you didn't have on the old homestead and the greenhouse/garden stuff which you started making only a year or two ago unlike now when you're doing it before you even have the cabin built. I know there's a lot more to build, but I can already tell that this homestead will be amazing and I'm really looking forward for watching you make it all happen.

I've been using wood chips as a covering on my garden for over 5 years. It really cuts down on the need to water and weed the garden. I have also noticed more beneficial earth worms in the soil.

Nice to catch a glimpse of the workshop area again, it's been a while!

You could easily make yourself a compost furnace with all those organics. Run some copper or something through a box behind the greenhouse, plumbed into your water reservoir, and fill it with all your leaves and such. With a solar pump (or convection if you set it up right) you can get even more heat in your greenhouse to extend your season even more, and have that much more thermal buffer for the deep cold.

green house garden looking good, always waiting for the next video !

Every things looking good I know your keeping a eye on callie with this heat.🙏🇺🇸🔨📐📏✏✒🎣

God bless you Mr. Shawn James, sweet 👨 man, I 😍 when you are doing great job, like growing the fruits, vegetables, building a 🏡, love Cali ⛪📖📘😇🙋

Nice to see Cali running around in the background. The gardening projects are impressive.

" C'est un long apprentissage parfois, que de savoir rejoindre enfin la vie qui nous va."..Olivier Adam......très belle vidéo Shawn, premières fraises..délicieuses...cela me réjouit de vous voir tous les deux en très bonne santé!!...la pluie enfin..et les moustiques ( moins bien!)..une clôture électrique contre les ours?..je ne sais pas si c'est efficace!...vous vous donnez tellement de peine, je suis sûre que cela sera grandiose!!..bonne continuation l'ami.

It looks like a lovely morning or afternoon there. Shawn, your hard work and perseverance are motivational in so many ways. Thank you for sharing your life with us. ❤ to you and Cali from 🇺🇸

Very exciting to watch you build this new homestead. I've been following you for a few years and your content is so interesting ❤️

Do you have anyone/anything helping you know, so many very interesting ways to plant and harvest the foods and fruits you consume? I am fascinated by the wonderful ways you plant and recycle so well. Bravo! Elizabeth

amazing times as always. love looking back over the years.

I have bought 'Hotbin' compost maker and have been harvesting 90 litters of compost every 90 day cycle. It helped and improved the quality of plants this year.

I don’t know how you keep up with all you have to do! Building a garden, building a house, wow!

Always both educational, and enjoyable, especially with that good-natured Golden. Callie is awesome, just like all Goldens.

Holy smokes, Shawn, the garden popped up quickly. It seems like I was watching you plant it only yesterday.

Don't forget bio-char, with all your sandy soil, it reminds me of the Terra Peta they found in the Amazon jungle. The bio-char helps retain nutrients in sandy soil.

Glad to see Cali doing better! ...As a note, you can also use the leaves of Stinging Nettle in lieu of Spinach...it is a “superfood”...just steam for 15 seconds to remove the sting!

An incredible expression Shawn, on living self-reliant.

Put your coffee grounds into your compost as it helps improve the soil, it also makes the worms and insects work faster. You could try putting a pile of coffee grounds down to see if animals avoid it as some do not like the smell, if this works put it around the plants you want them to leave alone. If you don't use much you could give your local towm coffee shop a bucket with a lid and ask them for their used grounds. I have put it down to stop cats invading my bird feeders, not having bears and cougars in Scotland though, I cannot be certain it will chase them off.

Successful gardening anyone would love to have those fresh organic veges.

Have you considered adding edible fish to the pond in the greenhouse? Something like Tilapia? This would give you an additional protein food source. Every thing is looking great. Thanks for sharing.

I love videos on Tuesdays.

Yeah, we tried that shiitake mushrooms in the log drill...literally. After two years, nutin' so those logs are now cut and split and sitting in my smokin' wood pile. Had to surround the garden with chicken fencing this morning because the 'rabbit fencing' wasn't keeping out the bunnies. And don't talk to me about our efforts with fruit trees. Hopin' you have greater success that us.

Well done! Nice job, Shawn. Glad to hear the watershed has been replenished. You should be eating well over the winter. Cheers.

I was so glad to see Callie I guess she got over her bad spell your place is looking so good Sean

I admire your diligence with all your projects. I would not have the energy. Watching you , I am tired already 😂but I enjoy your vids.

Happy Cali in the background 💕

Very fast his garden with fruits of his labour starts to use, all the best Shawn.

Sound good Shawn. Take Care !

Never heard of stinging nettles used as rope. I only find them when I’m in the thick of woods in shorts. Or maybe they find me. Great videos! Thank you

Hey Shawn you might want to consider making your own firtilizer from stinging nettle if there is enough growing on the property. all you need to do is add one kilo of nettle to 10 liters of water and let that rest for 10 to 14 days. stir it every day. when it is done and you will definitely smell when it's done, mix again in a 1 to 10 ratio with water and water your plants with it. this natural fertilizer can also be used to spray on plants that are preferably eaten by bugs. it will keep them away.

I really like the parts concerning gardening, and composting. Your posts are informing many people plus me. Thanks a lot.

Lot of dedication congratulations eat healthy food organic 😊 was excited rain there bugs biting around the world 🤣 hello Cali see you way bk ahhh ahaha 🐾🐾 -- things looks good nature’s way is the best living ever enjoy ur dinner blueberry are good for animals we feed greens as well I am thankful for organic food blessings today tomorrow forever to ur family 😊🤗

Beautiful garden. Your homestead is looking amazing. Glad Cali is doing better. Thank you for sharing and your updates.

So happy to see Cali back to heself..

I cannot recall them right on top of my head, but I know there are some natural mosquito repellents. I believe that Lavender is one of them. Might be worth looking into. Some of the plants that are repellents could possible even have other uses.