Backyard mini-orchard permaculture experiment

Thank you. I’ve experimented a bit with lantanas. Something about the scent of the foliage really bugs me, and they trend toward invasive. I’ve used a few in my 2 big galvanized containers and the butterflies do like them. Same with some of the annual salvias.

I’m still getting used to the unpredictability of the weather here. But it sure beats having ice, snow and a short growing season.

Thank you so much!

[greenthumbomaha]

I couldn't see the photos until now, but I was eagerly following your narrative. Very beautiful edible landscape design with the hardscape highlights and defines the trees, shrubs, and herbs beds. I had a yellow ranch in the country just like yours when I was very small. So charming!

You have incredible patience too. Finding the right place to settle in and doing the soil prep to the extent that you did. I see your neighbors with the marlin house are nature lovers too.

New England explains the want for blueberries! They look so healthy. Do you get multiple pickings in the south?
An aside, I had an amazing low bush in southern New Jersey (I lived all over the northeast as a civilian in the DOD before getting stuck here in O.) The soil and water is so alkaline here that no amount of soil prep will keep down the ph. The orchard master at a popular u-pick ripped out the entire blueberry section after several years of preparation and investment in time and money for the bushes to mature. They were small, weak, and didn't produce, and his orchard was otherwise amazing. He said that was his last hurrah as by the time another section matures and turns a profit he will be retired.

- Lisa

Originally Posted by greenthumbomaha

I couldn't see the photos until now, but I was eagerly following your narrative. Very beautiful edible landscape design with the hardscape highlights and defines the trees, shrubs, and herbs beds. I had a yellow ranch in the country just like yours when I was very small. So charming!

You have incredible patience too. Finding the right place to settle in and doing the soil prep to the extent that you did. I see your neighbors with the marlin house are nature lovers too.

New England explains the want for blueberries! They look so healthy. Do you get multiple pickings in the south?
An aside, I had an amazing low bush in southern New Jersey (I lived all over the northeast as a civilian in the DOD before getting stuck here in O.) The soil and water is so alkaline here that no amount of soil prep will keep down the ph. The orchard master at a popular u-pick ripped out the entire blueberry section after several years of preparation and investment in time and money for the bushes to mature. They were small, weak, and didn't produce, and his orchard was otherwise amazing. He said that was his last hurrah as by the time another section matures and turns a profit he will be retired.

- Lisa

Hi Lisa,
This project had been fermenting in my head all the time we rented, and for the whole first year in the house. Then I ordered the fruit trees and the initial 6 blueberries and kept them in fabric pots for a year while we actively planned the project out. I also made lots of vermicompost that year.
We do love blueberries. I’ve just given them a bit of vinegar water from time to time in addition to the sulphur amendments when I planted. I added 4 more southern high bush last fall and may try to squeeze a few more in. Enough for us AND the birds, lol.
The plants bear over multiple weeks and growing different varieties extends the harvest quite a bit. Too bad to hear about the orchardist pulling them out; that’s a major bummer. I’m in Jacksonville and my soul is also alkaline, but I’m determined!
New Jersey grows great blueberries (and tomatoes!)

[greenthumbomaha]

And cranberries!!
You can't beat Jersey Fresh!

I wonder if those farms (southern/central Jersey)are housing developments now

Good luck with your amendments. I'm routing for your blueberries.

- Lisa

[SpookyShoe]

Very nice! I look forward to seeing the plants fill out the space. In north Florida, do you have to worry about "chill hours" for your fruit trees? We do in my area. I don't have any fruit trees, but peaches, grapefruit, and lemons and limes are popular.

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast

Originally Posted by SpookyShoe

Very nice! I look forward to seeing the plants fill out the space. In north Florida, do you have to worry about "chill hours" for your fruit trees? We do in my area. I don't have any fruit trees, but peaches, grapefruit, and lemons and limes are popular.

Donna, Texas Gulf Coast

Hi Donna,
I do have to worry about chill hours, except on the citrus. I spent weeks researching that topic alone when I planned what trees to get.
My 2 apples are right on the edge but I chose them because of disease resistance. What I really want are sweet cherries! Luckily there are breeding efforts underway in that direction.

[SpookyShoe]

Originally Posted by PlainJane

Thank you. I’ve experimented a bit with lantanas. Something about the scent of the foliage really bugs me, and they trend toward invasive. I’ve used a few in my 2 big galvanized containers and the butterflies do like them. Same with some of the annual salvias.

I’m still getting used to the unpredictability of the weather here. But it sure beats having ice, snow and a short growing season.

I love them, but I have only one, in a front yard bed. Our vet told us they are poisonous to dogs. And our dog Rusty would eat the leaves. But there are varieties that can be grown in hanging baskets.

Donna

Donna, I did not know they were poisonous to dogs. Good to know.
Hanging baskets look nice but I’ve never been successful with them for some reason, so I stick with containers.
- Joyce

Update on fruit tree guilds.

Cerinthe aka Honeywort: decent bee plant, ignored by hummingbirds and butterflies. Reseeds easily and looks great in spring but fades away once heat sets in. I pull the plants out once they get to the straggling stage.

Borage: good bee plant, and the apples and blueberries seem to like it as a companion. It flops all over the place and looks awful by summer but comes back via self-seeding. Once it melts away the remains are composted.

Nasturtiums: beautiful and edible until the heat does it in. Truthfully, I’ve never seen a bee or any other insect going for it. Re-seeds each year.

Herbs: dill, cilantro, basil, arugula are allowed pretty free reign wherever they pop up. I was surprised to see that arugula attracts the most bee traffic, and by a large margin. What I don’t use or give away, gets pulled once it looks too ratty. Everything re-seeds exuberantly.

Each fruit tree has several clumps of chives and some daffodils under it. The daffs do their thing and in late summer once the foliage has mostly melted away I remove the rest of it. The chives are a type that don’t bloom but the clumps spread slowly. Earthworms love to hang out around them.

[MuddyBuckets]

Truly impressive effort and result. I am in the same mode, if you can't eat it or feed birds and animals why plant it. Help all things natural. And throw in a few beautiful flowering plants for effect.