guildfordcycads

I started a food forest in October of last year after becoming low-key obsessed with permaculture after first hearing about it a year or so earlier. Over that year I had started figuring out what plants were most compelling to me with the goals of cold hardy, edible and resilient plants. I was extremely fortunate to have a one acre area to build out that was largely a blank canvas with lots of sun access.

Planting History

In fall of 2024 I planted about 50 shrubs and trees. Probably an order of magnitude more than “reasonable” but I figured it was better to fail fast and learn fast, especially because I was able to get great prices for bare root plants thanks to some incredible local nurseries. I started building out my “berry hedge”, which will eventually be a 200′ long hedge of a huge variety of berries, Noah’s Ark style with pairs of plants for cross-pollination and “backups” planted every 5′. Got about 20-25 berries in at this time, and learned a lot about some of the cooler, less known permaculture favorites like haskap, seaberry and goumi.

Winter was an exercise in patience and I mostly sucked at it.

In spring, I planted a bunch more trees and shrubs, mostly from spring pre-orders of some cider apples, serviceberries, and some new red mulberries that had been eaten over the winter.

Successes and Failures

I recorded everything in a spreadsheet to track plant, planting date, status, any cultivar, and other notes. The trees and shrubs are at about an 85-90% survival rate at the moment, which I am very happy with given the total lack of experience going into this.

The plants that were hit the most were the red mulberries – all of them were eaten by something small enough to fit through welded wire tree cages. So, my guess is voles or potentially rabbits. Lesson learned here is to incorporate rodent guards OR just be fine with some level of predation. Time will tell how the other plants survive this winter. The shagbark hickory only has about a 40% survival rate so far, and I’m not sure why. Most just didn’t leaf out in the spring.

Several of the shrubs didn’t leaf out initially, so I assumed they had died, but all the ones that didn’t ended up just sending out new shoots and seem like they’re thriving now.

The berry hedge was fenced off and all the trees had different levels of homemade cages or tree tubes. The berries had a great survival rate so far, and most of the trees have survived as well. But, I made my tree cages far too small. They were made for the size the little seedlings were, not what they would grow to. Obvious beginner mistake, and a lesson for next time. The tree tubes seem to have done really well so far – I guess the greenhouse effect on the trees that had tubes helped them start growing much earlier and more consistently. But, plastic sucks, so I’m not sure if it’s enough of an effect yet to scale up if I do more.

I started trying to build out the other layers – herbaceous, ground, vines, etc. But since I didn’t take the time to sheet mulch, everything was rapidly overtaken by grasses. I’ve ended up being pretty happy with tall grass, because I’ve been able to chop and drop and use it as incredible mulch and biomass. But I will need a better plan to establish other layers for next year. I’m pretty sure I’ve got some asparagus, sunchokes and comfrey out in the wilds doing their thing, but I will have to wait and see (and hope I don’t accidentally mow over them).

Most planted trees/shrubs: Red mulberry, hazelnut, serviceberry, haskap, black currants

Next Steps

I’m going to try to establish larger islands around the trees and shrubs using a mixed strategy of either sheet mulching or butt-load-of-woodchips mulching. I really want to build out more protein sources in the food forest along with more nitrogen fixation. The big edible companion plants I’m aiming to establish near the trees are fava beans (using tree cages as a trellis while the trees establish), hopniss/apios americana (same thing), and more asparagus (so when I pee into the compost it’s maybe got more pest deterrence).

Top tree/shrubs for fall/next spring: heartnuts, butternuts, river locust

I’ll aim to do another update in the fall. Thanks for any feedback!

Flax and chia seeds give off a goo when mixed with water. So the idea is that when the seeds are mixed with clay and smashed into the soil and the pond is filled with water,the seeds will release their goo and help seal the pond off with the clay as well. Ive seen someone use a synthetic powder called watersave that creates a goo which helps a pond keep water in and this would be a natural alternative. Would this be a viable alternative?