Green orach, garlic, currant, parsley, woods’ rose, chive, rhubarb, motherwort, sunflowers, mustard greens, lemon balm, and so much of it volunteer plants! I think your point about planting some (parsley, rhubarb, lemon balm, orach) and letting volunteers show up over time to evolve the guild is well taken. Thank you!
@@BrokenGround You need have no fear of wildness with me. I'm a rabid evangelist for wildness and food production being possible together on the same land. I believe its the only way forward. The intentional use of key native species is, I believe, the answer. Highly productive native plant species support invertebrate diversity, nesting birds and native soil microbiomes. The latter can be essential to the survival of wild vegetation. It is in my region with the N fixers. These native species do not have to take up much room. They are so diverse and can be incorporated as trees, vines, mixed hedges, herbs, flowers and other support plants in guilds and as food plants. Doug Tallamy got me on the north American ecology. Oak willow and prunus are the most productive species in much of north America and Europe, but Rubus is also good. A bunch of food plants are going to be very productive for invertebrates without damaging yield. Leaving weeds can also be very productive. So I watch videos very closely to learn from them. Your visuals are like a successful experiment, yes, that works, that works... Videos are like a pool of citizen science. We can learn from others without suffering the blisters and stress they have been through. We usually don't see the failures with garden vloggers, which could be even more informative. I'm a self publishing garden writer, and I do about 50% of my content on failures and problems. Its a lot of work, reading and experimenting in the garden, but youtube would be on another level. UA-camrs are generally pretty driven. Hats off to you.
@@carolinekloppert5177 Such good observations and super useful. I love what Doug Tallamy has done to catalyze the conversation around native plants and biodiversity. Have you watched my video about establishing my native wildflower garden? Sometimes even more than my food forest, it is one of the most enjoyable experiments! You can watch it here if you haven't already: ua-cam.com/video/RBM-UhTB1YQ/v-deo.html
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. We are planning some fruit tree guilds. Going to fill some of the space with annuals in the beginning, until the perennials fill in. Orach is a great idea.
Nice :-) I would love to have A Fuji apple tree they are so good. The plants growing in my geothermal greenhouse taste amazing growing in the cold so sweet.
@@BrokenGround I built a geothermal greenhouse out of trampoline frame. My goal was to keep it cheap and use things that we normally throw in the trash like trampolines. It struggled with the -17 but for the most part working great. I have a few videos posted you can check out. I continue to make improvements as other viewers have suggested better alternatives.
Hi. How did you avoid the roots of the tree when adding your plants? We have 3, 6-8 ft fruit trees in our lawn with just a little bit of mulch between the trunk and the start of the grass. I let the grass grow in before finding info on guilds. What a great concept! However, I'm not a fan of having to cut holes into sheet-mulching cardboard to get plants in. Thanks. J Horney'
Hello! You may encounter a few roots but it's not that bad. I'd plant several feet from the trunk of the tree (maybe at least 4 or 5 feet. Then, plants naturally self-seed and migrate so you're not having an impact so close to the trunk, if that makes sense.
Thanks for sharing. Do you have any recommendations for starting a guild with a small apple tree? My sister has a few that are maybe 3 yrs old. We are trying to figure out what, and how close she can plant fruit shrubs, etc.
If you know the variety of apple trees and how big they get, then you can plant the shrubs within a couple feet of the drip line of what will be the mature tree. For example, if the apples are meant to get 20 feet wide, I'd suggest you plant fruiting shrubs within 8 feet of the trunk. Other plants like comfrey or rhubarb can go closer, within 4 or 5 feet. Bulbs can go even closer. Fruiting shrub options would be things like honeyberries, gooseberries, red and black currants. Hope that helps!
How do you manage to go under the apple tree for picking? You just know you will step on few plants or you like to keep a little path? Thank you! My food forest is still small but we have about the same plants under our trees :)
I have a little path to the apple tree, though sometimes I do end up trampling some plants. But yes, it's good to have designated pathway to each of your fruit trees for ease of harvest. That's great that you have some of these same plants under your trees already!
Hello from Western Australia. I love your gardens and have enjoyed the few videos I have seen so far of yours. Thanks!
Thanks for watching my videos! Really appreciate it!
Thank you for the update Kareen ! I am starting a food forest next year, all because of you :) SO thank you and have a nice day
Wonderful! That's great to hear! Good luck and get in touch if you have any questions!
@@BrokenGround Appreciate it a lot ! Will do :)
Green orach, garlic, currant, parsley, woods’ rose, chive, rhubarb, motherwort, sunflowers, mustard greens, lemon balm, and so much of it volunteer plants! I think your point about planting some (parsley, rhubarb, lemon balm, orach) and letting volunteers show up over time to evolve the guild is well taken. Thank you!
You're welcome Rick! Yes, allowing the system to evolve on its own with a little bit of your stewardship has definitely been the way to go!
Just love your light hand on nature !
Thanks! Sometimes I feel like I let things get a little too wild but I love creating habitat for non-human species! Thanks for watching my videos!
@@BrokenGround You need have no fear of wildness with me. I'm a rabid evangelist for wildness and food production being possible together on the same land. I believe its the only way forward. The intentional use of key native species is, I believe, the answer. Highly productive native plant species support invertebrate diversity, nesting birds and native soil microbiomes. The latter can be essential to the survival of wild vegetation. It is in my region with the N fixers. These native species do not have to take up much room. They are so diverse and can be incorporated as trees, vines, mixed hedges, herbs, flowers and other support plants in guilds and as food plants. Doug Tallamy got me on the north American ecology. Oak willow and prunus are the most productive species in much of north America and Europe, but Rubus is also good. A bunch of food plants are going to be very productive for invertebrates without damaging yield. Leaving weeds can also be very productive. So I watch videos very closely to learn from them. Your visuals are like a successful experiment, yes, that works, that works... Videos are like a pool of citizen science. We can learn from others without suffering the blisters and stress they have been through. We usually don't see the failures with garden vloggers, which could be even more informative. I'm a self publishing garden writer, and I do about 50% of my content on failures and problems. Its a lot of work, reading and experimenting in the garden, but youtube would be on another level. UA-camrs are generally pretty driven. Hats off to you.
@@carolinekloppert5177 Such good observations and super useful. I love what Doug Tallamy has done to catalyze the conversation around native plants and biodiversity. Have you watched my video about establishing my native wildflower garden? Sometimes even more than my food forest, it is one of the most enjoyable experiments! You can watch it here if you haven't already: ua-cam.com/video/RBM-UhTB1YQ/v-deo.html
I am always looking for plant suggestions so I really appreciated the video and found Orach to be very unique and interesting.
Yes, I love orach! It's a crazy self-seeder but I love it as an early spring groundcover.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing. We are planning some fruit tree guilds. Going to fill some of the space with annuals in the beginning, until the perennials fill in. Orach is a great idea.
Thanks for watching, glad you'll be planting some fruit tree guilds!
Nice :-) I would love to have A Fuji apple tree they are so good. The plants growing in my geothermal greenhouse taste amazing growing in the cold so sweet.
Wonderful! That's great that you have a geothermal greenhouse. Thanks for watching!
@@BrokenGround I built a geothermal greenhouse out of trampoline frame. My goal was to keep it cheap and use things that we normally throw in the trash like trampolines. It struggled with the -17 but for the most part working great. I have a few videos posted you can check out. I continue to make improvements as other viewers have suggested better alternatives.
@@organiccleanfoodconnection I'll check out your videos!
Hi. How did you avoid the roots of the tree when adding your plants? We have 3, 6-8 ft fruit trees in our lawn with just a little bit of mulch between the trunk and the start of the grass. I let the grass grow in before finding info on guilds. What a great concept! However, I'm not a fan of having to cut holes into sheet-mulching cardboard to get plants in.
Thanks. J Horney'
Hello! You may encounter a few roots but it's not that bad. I'd plant several feet from the trunk of the tree (maybe at least 4 or 5 feet. Then, plants naturally self-seed and migrate so you're not having an impact so close to the trunk, if that makes sense.
Thanks for sharing. Do you have any recommendations for starting a guild with a small apple tree? My sister has a few that are maybe 3 yrs old. We are trying to figure out what, and how close she can plant fruit shrubs, etc.
If you know the variety of apple trees and how big they get, then you can plant the shrubs within a couple feet of the drip line of what will be the mature tree. For example, if the apples are meant to get 20 feet wide, I'd suggest you plant fruiting shrubs within 8 feet of the trunk. Other plants like comfrey or rhubarb can go closer, within 4 or 5 feet. Bulbs can go even closer. Fruiting shrub options would be things like honeyberries, gooseberries, red and black currants. Hope that helps!
How do you manage to go under the apple tree for picking? You just know you will step on few plants or you like to keep a little path? Thank you! My food forest is still small but we have about the same plants under our trees :)
I have a little path to the apple tree, though sometimes I do end up trampling some plants. But yes, it's good to have designated pathway to each of your fruit trees for ease of harvest. That's great that you have some of these same plants under your trees already!