This week we begin a new video series as a thank you for 3,000 subscribers, Q&A (Questions and Answers) to your questions about your Permaculture Orchard or garden fruit trees.
Questions include:
Nut trees and shrubs you use?
What NITROGEN FIXING trees and shrubs work in USDA zone 4?
What are the most common mistakes you’ve seen/experienced over the years?
What specific apple (pear,plum) cultivars you have in each row and how you time your harvest by planting these together in the same rows?
Do all the fruit trees in the same row ripen at the same time or just the apples? If some things (fruits and veg) ripen at different times in a given row, how do you plant to coordinate harvest and how does that rotation work?
How do you deal with the most persistent perennial weeds? Do you have weeds like that? What do you do with them?
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Bill Mollison’s 3 Phases of Abundance:
https://permaculturenews.org/2009/02/09/phases-of-abundance/
Year One: Abundance of Species
When we set out to make a garden on at least 2-5 acres, in the Permaculture mode, we also set out to trial dozens of species, and to select those that thrive in our soil, under the conditions we impose, and in association with each other. Thus, in the beginning, even with generous help from our friends, we have relatively few plants of any species growing, but the basic garden assembly would have at least 300 plants representing some 240 species and 70 or so varieties. It takes a year and about $800 to put together such an assembly, and when we do so we feel the first sense of abundance, which we could call the rich abundance of species and forms. The yield is modest, more of a contribution to diet than a full diet, but many tree species will later come into production by years 3-6.
Year Two: Abundance of Propagation Material
In year 2, many species begin to demonstrate their fitness for the site. They grow and may divide vigorously. Most show steady endurance, although a few species become sickly and die as a result of drought or heavy rains. Although richness of species is maintained by new plantings, and a few sheltered niches protect more tender species, only precocious plants like bananas, and the annuals give yields.
However, for those vigorous plants that do succeed (sweet potato, comfrey, aracacha, chilicayote, ginger, turmeric, banana), and for plants that can be divided, that grow from cuttings or sets, or from root or rhizome divisions (cassava, pomegranate, sugar cane, lemon grass, and taro), it is now possible to economically set out some hundreds of these individuals relatively cheaply from the 20-50 originals that were trialled.
Thus, at the end of year two, we see our garden is promising a high yield if we increase the numbers of 6-12 important and reliable food trees (mango, lemon, orange, pomegranate, lychee, etc.) and if we make an effort to set out basic and useful food crops that have proven successful (lemon grass, tamarillo, sweet potato, taro, aracacha, ginger, turmeric, Queensland arrowroot). For us at the Permaculture Institute it was the beginning of the 3rd wet season, and a week or so of vigorous effort that resulted in an absolute abundance of banana, aracacha, papaya, sweet potato, taro, lemon grass, turmeric, ginger, tamarillo and cassava. It is no longer necessary to defer yield to assist propagation.
Year Three: Abundance of Yield
By the end of the 3rd wet season, not only are many areas intensively planted and basically self-maintained, but we have enough divisions of ground covers to become commercial, or to sell propagation material or products in year 4. Meanwhile, the contribution of varieties of fruit increases, a few mangoes and citrus are bearing, and by adding 30-90 trees of successful species this (3rd) year we also predict a “commercial” yield of fruits in subsequent years.
I would predict that by year 6 we will have achieved total food supply for the house and as much as we care to harvest for market. We should then be able to …
see the rest at this link: https://permaculturenews.org/2009/02/09/phases-of-abundance/
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