Earth Day 2026. Thirty five chestnut seedlings in the ground

Earth Day 2026. Thirty five chestnut seedlings in the ground at Run-a-Muck Farms. 🌳

No till, no plow, no disturbance. Just a narrow slit in the pasture sod, bare roots tucked in, a mulch ring laid on top of living grass. The soil food web stayed intact. That is the whole point.

Five rows of seven, forty feet apart, wrapped around a central compost pile. Five cultivars planted on purpose: Stehli Gellatly Sweet, Stehli SR 11, Eaton, Pandora, and ACE. Chestnuts will not self pollinate, so diversity is not a preference, it is the pollination plan. Stack the genetics, stack the resilience. Blight pressure, climate swings, pest cycles, a late frost, any one of those can take a single cultivar down. Five will hold the line.

Permaculture principles running through every decision today. Observe and interact. Catch and store energy in woody biomass and mycorrhizal networks. Obtain a yield, someday, generously. Use small and slow solutions. Use and value diversity. Produce no waste, the compost pile at the center is our waste stream feeding the future orchard. Integrate rather than segregate, the trees will share this pasture with sheep and cut flowers. Design from patterns to details, the grid is the pattern, the mulch ring is the detail.

Phase one of the Runamuck nursery trial. We are watching growth, timing, and blight response now so future trees leave here better adapted to York County Pennsylvania.

Follow along through the season. Stop by the farm stand when we open.

#EarthDay2026 #ChestnutPlanting #PermaculturePA #RegenAg