One of the principles of permaculture is stacking – three dimensional planting.
So this means that are going to use fruit trees as the basis of our design. We plan to plant fruit bushes in between the fruit trees – ultimately they want to be sited at the drip line of the fruit tree canopy and below that we will plant a range of perennial vegetable and mulch crops – chard, comfrey, sweet potatoes etc. We are also planning to put in an ornamental and edible hedge – because we are exposed to deer which we want to keep off the fruit trees at least while they are young.
So we’ve got a framework of trees – damsons, plums and apples with an odd quince, and last weekend we started planting them.
The trees were bought as 2 year bushes with bare roots – bought from Blackmoor because I interviewed them during my Growing Jobs research project and formed a good opinion of them.
We dug wide, shallow holes, applied Mycorrhiza and for some of the trees added some decaying wood to provide long term nutrients. The topsoil was then put back in the hole and the bases of the stem mulched with old cotton rugs. Finally the trees were protected from deer with some rubber mesh we had lying around at the back of one of the glasshouses supported with bamboo stakes and secured with cable ties.
Planting Shropshire Damson
The damsons, quince and most of the apples were on M26 stocks (St Julien A for the damsons) which will produce 3-4 m high bushes. The Victoria Plum and Blenheim Orange are half standards on M106 stock which will get slightly bigger. I chose the Blenheim Orange because my parents had one when I was a kid and it produced enormous quantities of dual purpose apples suitable either for eating or cooking with a wonderful distinctive flavour. Since it’s a triploid it needs to other apples to fertilise it so I’ve chosen a Braeburn which is supposed to suit the climate here and a James Grieve.
Blenheim Orange Tree planted with hedge in background
The stone fruit and quince are on new ground with topsoil redistributed from our rainwater harvesting reservoir. The apples are in a reclaimed flower bed. Some of the shrubs have been moved or trained into the hedge. Some have been removed.
One of the issues of Permaculture is getting the ground clean – we are planning to use the sheet mulch / grow potatoes in compost in year 1 followed by fruit bushes – more of that anon.