Most of us tend to think of fruit trees as being needier than they are. Some trees warrant this preconception, sure… like commercially grown peach and apple trees. Trees may also be needy because you’re trying to grow them in a location not ideally suited to their needs.
Yet if you’re growing something that works in your climate and making sure it gets plenty of compost and other good stuff, then you can take a deep breath and start thinking of new ways to increase production or save space.
If a gardener spends his time reading Ag extension guides to growing trees, he’ll start to think you need huge spaces between individual specimens in order to get production. Yet… forests don’t work that way. Trees are packed in here and there in a crazy quilt of life.
Yes, when you plant things close together you get less production per tree… yet you may get more production from the space as a whole.
Here’s a great video giving you one idea how this can be accomplished:
Now: imagine you planted comfrey around those trees… or onions and garlic… or sweet potatoes. Your production from the space has just jumped higher. Better yet, plant a row of trees this way and tuck in berry bushes and other perennials along the front and back of that row, with various herbs mixed in to repel pests and provide you with culinary delights (or even natural antibacterial bandages).
If you’re gardening in a small space you don’t have to give up on tree crops. You just need to do things differently.
Don’t be afraid to experiment… life is more resilient than you might think.
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In my front yard food forest, I’ve continued to plant trees here and there. Yeah… trees can be expensive. That’s one reason I often make my own plants. If you do that, a failure won’t break the bank. Cuttings are free and seeds are usually free as well – plus, there’s a great sense of accomplishment in growing your own tree from a discarded pit or seed.
One way you can also save space is by redirecting trees to grow in horizontal space, rather than vertical. This can be done in multiple ways. Some trees, like mulberries, can be heavily chopped or even coppiced to keep their fruit close to you and their tops from towering overhead and eating all your yard’s sunshine. Others can be trained against walls, like my key lime tree or even sent along wires like grape vines. These folks in England have done it amazingly:
The process is called “espalier,” and I touched on it in my “grow things out of your range” post last week. It’s a serious way to save space, though it’s labor intensive compared to just jamming things together as I generally like to do.
This article wouldn’t be complete without raising some of the objections I get from prospective food forest builders and other gardeners who think I’m nuts for growing 100 fruit trees on a half acre. Let’s do it in my patented Imaginary Gardening Conversation Laid Out Like The Dialog Of a Play(TM) method:
DAVID THE GOOD: And see, I jam in all kinds of stuff into my yard and let it fight. That way I’ll have lots and lots and lots and lots of food.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: But what about when they get big? Won’t they shade everything out?
DAVID THE GOOD: No… I won’t let them.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: How will you stop them? I learned that life finds a way. That it breaks free.
DAVID THE GOOD: I want them to break free. I want them to all fight together. I want dinosaurs to show up, too.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: That won’t happen. Just tell me about the problem of shade. What will you do?
DAVID THE GOOD: It MIGHT happen. Haven’t you heard of Mokele Membe?
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: Oh for goodness sake, you irritating son of a
DAVID THE GOOD: Machete. And bow saw.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: What?
DAVID THE GOOD: That’s how I’ll add in light. I’ll take out limbs here and there and add them to the forest floor. Or a hugel bed.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: Do you think that will be enough?
DAVID THE GOOD: Probably not.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: So what else will you do?
DAVID THE GOOD: Bait. I’ll add lots of bait. Wonder where I can get a mammoth carcass… maybe from the ice of Siberia? That would bring ’em in.
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: The trees???
DAVID THE GOOD: Oh yeah… they’re herbivores, I think. I would need trees they like. Hmm…
COMMON-SENSE GARDENER: I’m leaving.
People just aren’t interested in learning any more.
If my friend the common-sense gardener hadn’t run out, he would’ve learned that I’m not as concerned about density as I am a lack thereof. “Too many trees” can be solved in a variety of ways over a weekend or two… but building density and creating a productive ecosystem takes time.
That said – don’t be afraid to completely remove unproductive or disappointing trees, provided you’ve thought it through and are really sure it’s worthless. (This brings up a good FAIL story. A couple of weeks ago I saw a post online where a woman wrote “FINALLY, it’s gone!” and posted pictures of a huge chopped up black walnut tree. The value of that wood… my gosh… and they’d butchered it. It almost made me sick to my stomach… all the possibilities for carpentry, not to mention NO MORE FREE WALNUTS. DON’T let that be you!)
Get out there… get thinking about what you can do creatively to maximize your space… then get planting.
(If any dinosaurs show up, please PLEASE call me.)