While working on layout for the front yard our family is trying to find a use for the space between each of the fruit trees.
behold my most excellent aerial view of the front yard. The dark green circles in L formation are fruit trees, (apple, peach, plum, pear, apricot)
Can anyone suggest compatible plants from a permaculture perspective? or perhaps a source where I might find this information. Most of the books on the subject I have found do not include the tables and or lists I was hoping for. Which brings me to a minor rant about the "proprietary nature" of permaculture. Granted, I believe in compensating people for their skill and experience, but when information is so critical and may one day be the difference between life and death, keeping those cards so close to the vest seems counter to the mission of the concept.
2 comments:
Have you checked out Gaia's Garden? He's got a ton of different plants listed for each planting type and he even has example guilds built up using different trees. I think Apple is mentioned for sure.
I like to work my way down from the trees when I plan. I would start with shrubberies - hazelnuts and goumi favorites - though I have never gotten them to fruit. Gooseberries and Currants would fit well too. Then on to brambles like raspberries, soil builders like Russian Comfrey, insectary plants like New Jersey Tea (also n-fixing). Lots of multi use flowers like nodding pink onion (edible) and chives tuck in nicely -both are also dynamic accumulators of soil nutrients for your fruit trees. Sorrel and Good King Henry help salads and soups and through in strawberries in your understory for a ground cover. While your at it, mulch the hole thing 6" deep with straw/leaves/chips and innoculate the lot with an outdoor mushroom kit from Fungi Perfecti. Each year save room to tuck in tomato, pepper, lettuce and squash plants until your plants fill in to take part in the Deep Fertility of your system. These are just some of my faves - you will need to partner more on your soil type/zone/etc to fine tune it.
If you haven't already, skrimp and save the $100 for a copy of BOTH volumes of Edible Forest Gardening. Vol 1 will blow your mind, and Vol 2 -which I have never finished due to insanely detailed ecological science-speak- has 120 pages of appendixes on All Things Permaculture. Heck email and I will media mail you a copy of mine if you PROMISE to get it back to me by Spring!
one.straw.rob@gmail.com if you want a more detailed thought stream Kory!
-Rob
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