From Invasive Ailanthus Grove to Food Forest

From Invasive Ailanthus Grove to Food Forest

The rear of the property is a daunting invasive Ailanthus grove on a steep slope. After removing the invasive species, the space gives way to a sunny slope appropriate for a food forest. It is comprised of Paw paw, Asian persimmon, Cherry and Peach. Companion plants include Indigobush, False Blue Indigo, Pink Turtlehead, Butterfly Milkweed and Anise Hyssop.

The front yard is full of edible natives like American Hazelnut, Blueberry, Elderberry and Currant paired with ornamental natives like Dogwood, Redbud, Bayberry, Echinacea, Asters and Virginia Bluebells.

 

Terraced Food Forest

Terraced Food Forest

 

 

We designed this food forest utilizing the sun exposure in a woodland clearing. In order to stabilize the slope we recommended terracing the slope with logs from the property. The terracing will slow down water flow and prevent erosion while the newly installed plants are getting established.

In order to maximize sun exposure, the larger trees were placed to the north and or downhill of the smaller plants. The woody plant pallet is comprised of low maintenance food bearing trees and shrubs like pawpaw, persimmon, Chinese chestnut, elderberry and blueberry. The herbaceous plants are comprised of soil building plants like comfrey and false blue indigo, insect attracting plants like echinacea and yarrow, woodland medicinals like goldenseal and american gingseng and some edible ferns.

Lots of Flowers and Food, No Lawn

Lots of Flowers and Food, No Lawn

For this design, the client was ready to part with their lawn. In place of it we designed a garden with lots of flowers and food. They have a south facing front yard which is an ideal location for food producing perennial plants and a vegetable garden. The north facing back yard with mature tree canopy is the ideal location for a patio, fire pit, hammock and shade loving plants. The woody plantings are laid out on contour with infiltration swales to catch rain water. The tree species include Asian Persimmon, Sour Cherry, Asian Pear and Pawpaw. The property has a total of 18 Blueberry plants as well as Currants, Elderberry and Aronia. Herbaceous plants include Strawberry, Asparagus, Culinary herbs, dynamic accumulators, nitrogen fixers and numerous beneficial insect attracting plants.

Edible Landscape in Sun and Shade

Copyright 2014 Organic Edible Gardens LLC

Edible Landscape in Sun and Shade

An edible and medicinal understory and pond designed for a shady back yard full of mature hardwoods. A small sunny patch in the front gave way to edible ground covers, perennials, berries and fruit trees. The front downspouts are piped into two rain gardens, one in the shade the other in the sun. The rain garden in the shade is full of moisture loving woodland medicinals, while the rain garden in the sun contains native insect attracting perennial flowers. Species include: Pawpaw, Fig, Peach, Aronia, Spicebush, Clove Currant, Elderberry, Blueberry, Yarrow, Anise Hyssop, Wild Ginger, Asparagus, Black Cohosh, Strawberry, Goldenseal, Ostrich Fern, American Lotus, May Apple, Giant Solomon’s Seal among multiple other soil building, insectary, and native plants.

Gardening in Polycultures

©2012 by Jon Storvick and Organic Edible Gardens, LLC

I’ve been doing lots of reading of late, especially in the field of agroecology. Agroecology attempts to view farming through the lens of ecological thought, viewing farm fields and so on as ecosystems. Much of this information is very similar to what we find in the permaculture literature, though agroecology is much more academically and scientifically based. One of the key elements of both approaches is the idea of growing in polycultures.

Gardening in Polycultures

This is a healthy polyculture.

A polyculture can be defined as growing multiple species of plants together in a stand or patch. This stands in contrast to monoculture (growing a single plant species in a stand), which is the way we typically grow plants. A lawn is a monoculture. A corn field is a monoculture. A row of lettuces is a monoculture. The problem with monocultures is that they are unnatural – you simply don’t see stands of single species of plants growing anywhere in nature. The reason for this is pretty simple – groups of single plant species are highly vulnerable to pests, diseases, and other problems. A monoculture in nature would be decimated pretty quickly and would not survive.

Gardening in Polycultures

This is a sterile monoculture.

Ecosystems are systems, obviously. They are networks of multiple species of plants (polycultures), animals, microscopic organisms, and other elements. While there is a food chain – life must eat, after all – generally no particular element suffers too much. Overall, the system is stable. This is why gardening in polycultures is a pretty good idea – we are lessening the possibility of our desired plants being overtaken by insects, diseases or competition from weeds.

Here are some of the benefits of growing in polycultures:

Decreased pest and disease problems– Including different plant species can confuse pest insects, leading them to ignore our crops. Since disease organisms also generally infect a single plant species, by including “buffer plants” between crop plants we block the vectors of infection. By including various flowering plants, we can attract beneficial insect predators that prey upon pests.

Increases in yields – While the yield of a single crop may be less than in a monoculture stand, if we include multiple crop species in our polycultures we can obtain total higher yields per square foot.

Decreased competition from “weeds” – By filling ecological niches in our gardens, we leave no room or resources available for undesired plants.

Increased plant health – By looking at how different plant species interact, we can design polycultures where each plant has a positive effect on the other (this is sort of an ecological version of “companion planting”). By including soil-building plants like nitrogen fixers (plants which form a symbiotic relationship with soil bacteria to convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form usable by plants) and dynamic accumulators (plants which “mine” nutrients from the subsoil and concentrate them in their tissues, making them available at the surface), we can create healthy soil for our plants. By choosing plants which have similar water requirements and complementary root patterns, we can effectively partition the available plant resources (soil, water, nutrients) so that each niche is filled and no plant needs to compete with its neighbor.

This is, of course, a very basic and incomplete treatment of the subject. For those that are interested in learning more about polycultures and how to design them, I strongly recommend you read both volumes of Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. For a consultation on designing a polyculture that is right for your yard, call us at 571-282-1724 today!