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Bearing Fruit
Home Farm talks fruit trees, including how to select the best trees and how to foster a diverse food forest that’ll give you access to delicious fresh fruit, year round.
Brandon and Jim from Farm talk fruit trees, including how to select the best trees and how to foster a diverse food forest that’ll give you access
to delicious fresh fruit, year round.
As the summer days get hotter, you may find yourself looking for some shade and a cool breeze.
Add some fresh fruit to the mix and I reckon you’ve got a pretty sweet situation going on.
Yes indeed, I’m talking about fruit trees! And in this column, we’re not just talking about that standalone lemon tree in your neighbour’s yard. We are talking about lots of trees, producing
all kinds of fruit, all year round!
In the previous two Grow Together columns, we’ve described setting up a growing space, then planting it out with diverse communities of seasonal vegetables that support and encourage
each other. In this column, we are taking those same ideas and applying them to the longer
living, perennial plants that are fruiting trees.
With so many different kinds of trees that produce a diverse range of fruit, it can send our heads
into a spin when choosing which ones we would like to grow ourselves. Apart from obviously
growing what we like to eat, a good place to start when planting out a successful food forest is
to look at our climate. From there, we can then learn which plants will thrive in our unique bioregion.
Here, in the beautiful Te Moana-a-Toi Bay of Plenty, we range from temperate to subtropical.
This means we have places situated inland, like Rotorua, where heavy frosts make for more temperate conditions. In contrast, our coastal areas, such as Mount Maunganui, stay relatively
frost free all year round, providing conditions suitable for growing more subtropical varieties.
(The Bay is also littered with micro-climate pockets that can offer subtropical growing conditions
in otherwise temperate areas.) See the list at the end of this piece for our temperate and
subtropical recommendations.
Once we’ve decided on what fruit trees we want to grow, the next step is to get them planted.
At Home Farm, we don’t just plant singular trees — we plant guilds! We introduced guilds in
our previous Grow Together column with the help of Frida Lotz-Keegan, from PermaDynamics
in Northland, who has been very successful in growing food forests in this way for quite some
time. Guilds are basically a diverse group of plants — centred around one primary plant
— that when planted all together, form a resilient community that help and support the growth
of every member involved.
Above: Prunings from plants can be reused as mulch — as it decomposes, it releases nutrients back into the ground for the other plants to absorb.
Each member of the guild plays a part in the successful establishment and longevity of the guild itself. Some of these members are not directly edible, but contribute in other ways. For example, some act as living fertiliser — they accumulate minerals and nutrients from the earth and store
them in their leaves. When these plants are cut back, and their stems and leaves are laid on the ground to decompose, all they’ve accumulated is then released back into the earth in a form the other guild members can absorb through their roots and use for growth.
The same goes for pruning any member of the guild — the prunings can be reused as mulch
around the guild and that decomposition leads to fertility for future growth. For that reason,
including fast-growing non-edible trees that function as mulch makers is a smart move.
An even smarter move is to include a fast-growing tree that not only produces beneficial mulch material, but produces shelter for the other members in the early establishment years. Plants that
can provide multiple services are a great choice for the guild.
When planting in such a dense fashion, it’s important to keep in mind the size that every plant
will eventually reach. Diversity not only applies to the different varieties of plants in the guild, but
also the varying amounts of space they’ll ultimately take up. Managing growth by pruning is an essential task — it can be daunting at first (and is called ‘unnatural’ by some), but if we do it at
the right time, working with the guild system, we can actually make space for, and stimulate, new growth, as well as creating future fertility in the form of mulch. In this way, we can think of ourselves as a member of the guild!
Guilds attract a diverse range of life above and below ground. When a member flowers, it attracts pollinators and beneficial insects. The roots not only uptake nutrients, but release sugars that attract and nourish the soil life underground. All of this life that’s being attracted to these plants build health and resilience against pests and diseases.
Imagine if you were a tree — would you prefer growing up all on your lonesome or with a bunch of mates around you? I know what life I would choose! If you’re after more information and guidance on planting guilds and food forests, check out PermaDynamics in Northland (permadynamics.net) and more locally, check out Backyard Paradise in Whakatāne at @backyard.paradise.permaculture
Temperate fruiting plants
Apple, pear, persimmon, stone fruit (peach, nectarine, apricot, etc), mulberry, fig, feijoa, grape, kiwifruit, berries (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry etc).
Subtropical fruiting plants
Banana, cherimoya, sapote, papaya, paw paw, avocado, citrus, loquat, guava, passionfruit, ginger, turmeric, tamarillo, monstera, sugarcane.
To read Home Farm’s previous columns, including preparing your soil and planting a vege garden, visit ourplacemagazine.co.nz The Home Farm team transforms spaces of any size into edible landscapes. For more info: @homefarm.nz homefarm@gmail.com
