Collins Kids Food Forest - Phase 1

[George Collins]

My eldest son still living at home and I started plugging trees into compost enriched dirt at about 7:30 this morning and finished up right at noon. We planted the 13 trees that were ordered form Willisorchards.com after much fussing over the details and doing all of the prep work that goes into converting the relevant portion of a pine thicket into a burgeoning food forest. The chainsaw, trimmer with brush blade, my son and my spinal erectors all got a really good workout.

[matt walker]

Awesome. I can't wait to start plugging 'em in here. Your encouragement to just start putting trees in is totally working on me.

So, what'd ya plant?

[George Collins]

I keep editing the original post in this thread to reflect the progress of the garden, dates of sentinel events, etc., so if you look there, you will see a more detailed list of what we planted on what date.

Having said that, as an abbreviated listing, we planted:
1 mayhaw
3 pears
2 jujubes
2 hazelnuts
1 almond
1 olive
1 nectarine
2 Asain pears
1 loquat

Fourteen trees all total. (I said 13 earlier but I forgot to count the loquat.)

We got everything done but for mulching them. My two eldest daughters had a piano competition this morning so they were unavailable to help and a family fish fry scheduled for this afternoon thankfully called us all away from ~1:00 till dark:30. Had it not, the soreness in my legs would have been much worse than it currently is for I'm sure we would have spent the rest of the day piddling around doing garden related chores.

[pa_friendly_guy]

Yo are well on your way to a food forest George. I was surprised to find this article on another Permaculture site about Seattle starting a food forest park in the city. Thought I would share.

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/02 ... ood-forest

[matt walker]

Really cool article Guy, thanks for sharing!

George, I wasn't aware you were updating the first post. I've gone back now and had a look. What you are doing is so impressive and inspiring. I dug on my swale for a couple more hours yesterday, and when I got in I was online shopping for trees! See what you've done. Your "plant a tree now" push is really taking hold with me, and I want to thank you for that. Hopefully you will post some photos before too long of your planting technique and layout. I'm sort of struggling conceptually with how to space the trees on my land, and also just plain how to plant. I used to landscape professionally as a younger fella, and know very well the traditional approach, but I'm curious what you might do differently. Especially mulches and clearing the area and the like. I've had a lot of losses of young trees over the years due to neglect and poor initial preparation. I'm GOING to plant some trees these next few weeks, so I'd love to improve my technique.

[pa_friendly_guy]

As far as technique Matt, I have always heard that you dig a $10 hole for a $5 tree. So if your trees cost $20 you need to dig a $40 hole. That being said you dig a very large hole for the root ball, you give the roots loose dirt to move into easily. Water the tree in as you plant it, adding water to wash the dirt down around the roots as you plant. This will give it a better chance of rooting well for you. There are different views on adding amendments to the hole. Adding mulch etc will help the tree take hold and make it grow faster for the 1st 3 years. But because it is really in a " Pot " that you have created for it with good soil the roots don't want to venture out into that crappy sub- soil that is beyond the hole you dug and improved. That tree has to live right there where you planted it, it can't move. So the tree that got no help or amendments and had to grow and survive in the native soil was far healthier and larger after 5 years of growth. I had not read that article or seen the photograghic evidence that proved their point when I planted my trees so I added a bunch of stuff to the hole. My trees are over 20 years old and at this point it really does not matter how they were planted. So the question in my mind would be, Do you feel that it is more important to get the new tree well rooted and established, or is it more important to have a large healthier tree when it is ready to produce fruit for you. If deer damage is a concern I would go for the quick growth to get the tree higher than 6 feet so the deer can't reach the top to damage it. If you are going to fence them off anyway because of live stock you may want a healthier tree in 5 years when its ready to produce alot of fruit for you. You pays your money, you takes your chances, Pick,

[George Collins]

Guy, I really enjoyed that article. The comments that follow are quire telling nes pa?

Matt, I'm following Martin Crawford's recommended guidelines for spacing in that the trees are spaced ~ 25' apart as opposed to the 20' normally recommended as the minimum distance. This will facilitate increased production within the below-canopy layers. Additionally, I am leaving a couple, contiguous spots open that a pure grid-layout would suggest should have trees. The purpose of doing so is to create flexibility for future placement of annuals, a sitting area . . . whatever. I am leaving the north and northwest aspects as vegetated as possible to act as a wind break. There is still some chainsaw work that needs to be done but that will wait until later when all realistic danger of a late frost has passed to give as much protection from as much as possible for as long as possible.

As for the actual technique of putting the trees into the ground, I tried to dig each hole three times larger than the root ball, amended heavily with some store-bought compost, oriented the tree as vertically as eyeballs would allow, partially backfilled the hole, watered heavily, filled the hole completely and watered heavily again. The dirt displaced by the addition of the compost was then used to berm the downhill side.



This first picture is of a pineapple pear just leafing out. There is a smallish swale on the uphill side, a U-shaped berm intersects the berm of the swale, the tree was caged with concrete re-enforcement wire, a nurse log was placed along-side, the whole swale and U-shaped berm were mulched heavily with old hay and topped with some cow manure.



This next picture is of an olive and represents the most westerly tree planted thus far. This is a good representation of how the thicket is being pushed back as trees are planted. Before the tree was put in place, the thicket extended well into the foreground of the picture. The downhill portion of the planting site has been bermed but no swale has yet been dug nor has mulch been placed (although it will before the day is out.)



This last picture is of a peach tree and one of only a very few where a tree ring has been used. The tree ring will ultimately be removed and replaced with an organic mulch. Here again you can see how the thicket is being pouched back as trees require planting sites. The view is to the northwest.

[matt walker]

Thanks so much for taking the time to post that George. Very informative, and I love seeing your area. Lots of pine! Good info and the pictures help. The mulch is what I was wondering about the most, and it looks like you are doing what I would like to as well, regarding small swales and mulch.

I'm currently reading "A Handmade Wilderness" by Don Schueler. I found it at the thrift store the other day, and it looked like it would give me a good idea of what your part of the country was like. I'm getting a little bogged down in how much they love racoons, but it is giving me an understanding of your climate and flora and fauna.

[George Collins]

The pines were all planted after pops clearcut the land in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Before that, it had a few pines but was mostly a stand of very mature hardwoods. The federal government replanted the pines at the request of my daddy and in consideration, he had to agree to let it alone for ten years. That was 2006 I believe. So, we have five more years before we can start removing them from the land. Something I intend to do at the earliest opportunity regardless of the economic ramifications. My house sits on a one-acre lot that pops deeded to me. However, that one acre is merely part of a 20-arce parcel of land that will, hopefully, one day, be a ~1/4 acre yard, 1-2 acre forest garden and the rest devoted to zone 5 after the removal of those infernal pines.

South Mississippi is considered prime land for the growing of the loblolly pine. EVERYONE cuts down their beautiful old stands of hardwood and then EVERYONE replants with those detestable things. I have grown to LOATHE a pine tree. And for those that are planting them, I'm afraid they are painting themselves into a terrible financial corner of their own ignorance for by everyone planting the same thing, the market value is surely to plummet and has already dropped considerably.

That's why I'm planting black walnuts and why, the instant I'm free to do so, I'm gonna remove or at least cut the tops out of EVERY - - - - SINGLE - - - - PINE - - - - TREE on the whole place!

[pa_friendly_guy]

Variety George, Variety is the key. Don't let the pines take over the woods, but don't eliminate them all either. Pines are good for wild life, they give shelter, food and winter cover. Many birds love them, deer often use their thremal mass when it gets colder, or in your case cooler. They provide great nesting places for many birds. They can also make a good wind break to help your young trees get established. Cut them, thin them, don't let them be dominate in your woods, but leave some stands in certain areas to add diversity to your woods. I don't know about the pines you have there, but some pines, especially Hemlock , are great for the water table and help hold mosture closer to the surface. Haveing a few pines in a diverse forest is a Great thing, not a Bad thing. Just my opinion you understand, it is still your land, do as you please. But I have replanted a few pines in my woods as the hard woods have over taken and killed the ones that were planted with them origanally. I like the diversity, and so does the wild life.

PS, I get opinionated at times, I am not always right, but I do have strong opinions, lol, Take what you like from my opinions and leave the rest, I won't get insulted.