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livingontheland - Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden

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  • From: Harvey Ussery <boxwood@nelsoncable.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Forest Garden
  • Date: Mon, 01 Sep 2008 11:49:01 -0400


That's when I really started to realize that I don't know what to put in the shrub
layer. There just aren't any native or commonly-used fruiting shrubs for this area.
Apparently, I'm going to have to research the shrub layer from scratch. If you have
any thoughts or information about hot-weather fruiting shrubs, let me know.
~"Mitch"

Mitch, I don't know the parameters for the plants I'm using thus far in the shrub layer--that is, I've made a start here in northern Virginia, zone 6b, have no idea if the same plants will do well for you in TX--but thus far I've planted: filberts (hazelnuts), gooseberries and currants (Ribes spp), bush cherries (both the Meader breeding efforts Jan, Joy, Joel--which fruited this year, interesting fruits I anticipate will be very useful--and the Nanking types.

Not really a shrub, but a group of plants that are that size and are perennial: the "mountain mints." This is a family of plants (Pycanthemum spp) that I guess are in the mint family broadly defined, though they are much more well-behaved (stay where you put them) than the culinary mints (spearmint, peppermint). My wife and I have become big fans of plants that become a virtual circus of insect activity, and these Pycanthemums are at the top of the list. (Another is bronze fennel.) Other tall perennials not really shrubs but that grow in that layer of the FG: meadowsweet (contains salycilic acid--make a tea to use in lieu of aspirin), angelica, valerian (roots used to make an effective sedative).

Hmmm, then there's Indigo bush (Amorpha fruticosa), a couple of wild indigos (Baptisia australis and B. tinctoria), and don't forget elder (Sambucus). Oh yeah, and autumn olive and the related goumi (Eleagnus spp). Widely cursed because dispersive, but nitrogen fixers, so good for the FG's soil--and us guys (with our prostate concerns) might note that the edible berries have 100 times the lycopene content of tomatoes. I'm using these as a nurse or "booster" crop under young nut trees: I've read that, as the nut trees grow, they shade out the Eleagnus, having benefited from the extra nitrogen in the early years.

Again, don't know how any of these would fare in your climes, but all are widely adapted, and are coming along pretty good in my beginner's forest garden, so check 'em out.

Glad to hear you're finding the Jacke tomes useful. Constantly at the ready on the desktop here.

Best luck.

~Harvey

--
Harvey in northern Va
www.themodernhomestead.us

I truly believe that as long as we have not found peace with the soil, we
won't find peace above the ground. That as long as we justify the
exploitation of any organism, other exploitations will follow and we will
remain parasites, consuming more than participating, and spiralling into
entropy until we commit mass suicide. ~Emilia Hazelip





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