As the season winds down, I’m starting to plan my crazy ideas for next year, going into my second season of the food forest. I’m hoping to integrate some annuals directly into the food forest rather than keeping them all in a separate, traditional annuals garden.
1) Fava beans around fruit/nut trees
Goal: add an easy annual nitrogen fixer around my trees that can grow along the tree cages
2) Potatoes between shrubs in my berry hedge
Goal: deep mulch/ruth stout potatoes worked well to kill grass, so by planting these between young shrubs (each about 5’ spacing) I can help remove turf and soften up the ground a bit as the shrubs grow up and expand.
3) Sunchokes and hopniss
Goal: Neither of these are annuals but the goal is to have hopniss vining up sunchokes as a support plant in a system comprised of two root plants that can be harvested at the same time.
4) Sunflowers as shade for young pawpaws
Goal: young pawpaws need shade, this can help provide additional shade especially in the hottest months of the year
5) winter squash along asparagus bed
Goal: provide ground cover for asparagus with sprawling squash leaves, from squash plants that are far enough away to not compete directly with asparagus roots.
Thoughts? Any ideas for onion or pepper companions in the food forest?
submitted by /u/AgreeableHamster252
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