permaculture

["Gene Monaco" <efmonaco@comcast.net>]

Hey folks,
I have this great fig tree that my Grandmother brought to NYC from Sicily 90
years ago.  My father and mother have a cutting of it growing on the eastern
shore of Maryland, and now I have it growing (again by cutting) in east
Tennessee.  I love this tree.
After learning about N2 fixers and guilds, I let this volunteer hackberry,
which I understand is a N2 fixer, grow up next to it.  Hackberries grow like
crazy around here, and I like to munch the berries in late fall when they
get crunchy.  A perfect guild so far.  I made a mulched bed around the area
and planted some vegetables last spring along with some sage and some
flowers, figuring that the hackberry is fertilizing everything.
My wonderful daughter, with a new degree in environmental engineering and a
minor in biology, has informed me that I'm a fool because the hackberry is
getting too big and will shade the fig--it is to the south of it; less than
5 feet.  She thinks the fig will do better getting the direct full sun, and
it doesn't need the hackberry or at least, it's not worth the trade off.
So I'm agonizing about it.  She might be right.  My process at this point is
to observe and communicate with the tree people and see what they tell me to
do, but I wanted to run it by the geniuses on this list first, especially
Kevin Topeck, to see if there are any insights.
What say ye?
-Gene Monaco