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I have a couple acres of former industrial-ag cornfield I am planning on converting to a permie orchard over the next year or so. I’ve got a general design outline, but since I am relatively new to all of this, I wanted to run it by folks here and hopefully get a discussion going that would be helpful for everyone.

Goals:

• long-term perennial crops, especially nuts for a resilient source of fats and proteins for family and community
• low- or no- input, at least after the first year or two for establishment
• low upkeep
• simple harvesting process
• revenue/income generation only enough to cover property tax or similar ongoing costs (ie. non-profit)

Land properties:

• open field, high sun
• 4-5% slope, so gentle/moderate slope
• clay, acid soil with low-ish organic content
• historical avg. 40″ of rain per year, but trending more towards extremes with flood events and draught

Crops (tentative):

1. Heartnut/Butternut (40%)
2. Hazelnut (20%)
3. Chestnut (10%)
4. Honeyberry (10%)
5. Mulberry (10%)
6. Pawpaw (10%)

This isn’t so much intended to be the end-goal crop composition so much as an initial test to see how things perform and scale from there.

Orchard Design:

• Crop plants on 20′ – 30′ rows
• More dense plantings grown from seed vs. cultivars
• Swales on contour, crops planted on or near berms downslope
• Alleys cover cropped with nitrogen fixation from clover, vetch, and general biomass grasses
• Interplanted densely with nitrogen fixers such as goumi and native alder
• Hybrid willows, native alder, and black locust planted in the swales for biomass coppicing and water management
• Coppiced wood goes into the swales, lasagna’d with mowed alley grass clippings as a sort of lazy/in situ hugelkultur
• No irrigation or input fertilization – hoping the passive setup will be enough to grow suitable genetics

“Business” Design:

After initial establishment

• Personal harvesting for food, nursery seed stock to grow more locally hardy cultivars, farmer’s markets etc
• work with local community services that offer volunteer work for harvesting in exchange for food for food banks or similar food distribution
• WWOOFing, similarly primarily for community distribution

Thoughts? Feel free to tear any of this apart. I’d rather find out I’m wrong now than find it out five years later!

So I share a chainlink fence with my neighbours and would like some privacy and I’d love to get something that produces something edible. There is a very large, very well established black walnut tree nearby who is so beautiful but he kinda limits my options a bit. Anyone have any ideas for a good plant too fill that gap?

I’ve been reading about permaculture and want to convert a corner of my yard into a permaculture guild. My idea is a dwarf pear (or some kind of fruit tree that would do ok in zone 8a) surrounded by nitrogen‑fixing clover, yarrow, and comfrey for mulch.

To plan it out, I sketched the area out on paper. I am hesitating though on pulling the trigger – do you guys have any go-to resources on designing a guild? Something that lets me put together combinations of plants and my space and it would help me think through them and make suggestions.

For those practising permaculture: what have you planted under your fruit trees? Are there any groundcovers or herbs you’ve found especially beneficial? I’d love to hear about your guild setups and any pitfalls to avoid.