Permaculture – Your Plants Will Tell You What They Want by Thriving…Or Not
In my previous article, How I created a Food Forest, I documented what I did in 2021 to turn an 80’x30′ corner of my pasture into a permaculture orchard/food forest.
The Original Design
The original design included hand dug swales, and rows alternating between trees and beds. I used a homemade A-Frame to layout the contours and then hand dug swales with a broadfork, shoveling the loosened dirt into mounds.
This area is technically Permaculture Zone 3. It is 80 yards from my house, behind my regular gardens. It is visited occasionally but it is not part of the main gardens. But it is not the “back 40”.
It has hand dug swales to capture and infiltrate water from intermittent rains. In NE Kansas, there are no “April showers bring May flowers”. The most rain of the year falls in late May and June as thunderstorms that often dump 1-3″ of rain at a time, with dry gaps between rainfall. We have an extended dry period in late July, August, and very dry winters.
I have planted grafted apple trees as well as chestnuts grown from seed using the STUN method (sheer total utter neglect). Grafted apple trees do NOT Like the STUN method, and usually are only successful with irrigation. I expect the swales and mounds to hold enough water infiltration for the apples to make it. Sometimes in July or August I may drag an extra two-hose extension back there to essentially fill the swales with water, although I did not do so in 2022.
Before and After
This was the original layout, looking up hill to the West from the SE corner of the 80’x30′ plot.
And this is the beginning of growing season 3, a full two years after the original design and planting.
Breakdown – What Worked and What Didn’t
Each season the plants were evaluated for success and vitality. If they didn’t make it or weren’t thriving, they were removed and replaced.
In Row 1, from the drawing above, wormwood was added, which thrived. Chinkapins failed. I also added hazelnuts along the fence.
I planted chestnut seeds in that row, intending to grow them out and transplant them elsewhere. After two years they have not thrived and are not much bigger than they would be if grown in a pot for just one year. Will I tear them out and transplant them? Probably not, because I have found that a chestnut tree started in the ground frequently got a damaged taproot when dug up for transplantation. I will follow the STUN technique, and leave them there for this year to see if they improve. I will cut down the ones that do not thrive, and may remove them altogether.
In the first apple row, I replaced the apple tree and grew several elderberry plants, replacing some that did not thrive with cuttings.
In the next apple row, a nice variety of ground cover of candy cane mint (with a strong peppermint candy flavor), dandelions, and plantain.
Grafting onto the apple rootstock in the ground was not successful. I replaced them with another apple tree, interspersed with hazelnut.
The lane with asparagus was sparse and this year I added hazelnut. This is my year for hazelnut, with a nice bulk buy from the KS Conservation and my own seedlings from last year.
The bed with sweet potatoes and cowpeas in the design above had potatoes last year. That row became mostly grown in with grass. This year I broadforked it, added soil, and transplanted walking onions, hazelnut seedlings, and one small apple. The Ruby Autumn Olive in the background has bent over almost to the ground and needs to be staked.
The chestnut tree is doing fairly well, and blackberries planted on the mound have been very successful, creating new plants anywhere they touched the ground. I have cut these rooted blackberries off the main and then transplanted them elsewhere, with remarkable success.
The comfrey is in bloom. I harvested this comfrey for root cuttings in the off season and it still came back strong.
Here is the chestnut row, with the swale – before and after:
Chestnut and Punch Autumn Olive – Season 1, with a cover crop of buckwheat
Chestnut and Punch Autumn Olive, swale and mound – Season 3
The mound needs more cover crop added.
Milpa row
The Milpa row has hazelnut and Jerusalem Artichoke along the edges, and Milpa planted in the middle. The buckwheat and beans in the Milpa are just starting to come up.
The last row (not pictured) had hazelnut, Jewel Autumn Olive, and Apple. This row has been a challenge. The autumn olive has done well but everything else has failed – multiple times. I just replanted the ends with a chestnut and persimmon trees.
Next Steps
There has been lots of in grown grass, which makes it difficult to get back in that area in July, even with a scythe. Add cardboard and wood chips for better paths and to cover the extensive grass. Add cover crops like buckwheat and wood chips for bare areas on the mounds. There have also been some invasive trees along the fence that are already trying to out-compete the trees that I planted. They need to be cut out.
Lessons Learned
Permaculture is about observing your land and the plants and letting the plants “tell you” about what works or what doesn’t.
Don’t fight it. If you baby it and it doesn’t thrive then remove it. You will thank yourself later.
Overplant the area. Then let the trees grow out. Save the ones that thrive and cut down and remove the ones that don’t. This is especially important in my area where many apple varieties are susceptible to cedar apple rust disease.
Don’t see these as failures, or allow yourself to get frustrated. Go with what works, remove what doesn’t.
Seeds have a memory. They thrived to produce in a certain area. If you plant something from elsewhere in the country it likely will not do well, so plant what works for your area. Good luck!
