Orchard Forest Garden

This garden has required the most work and is the heart of our permaculture forest garden hopes.  

Downed trees lie perpendicular to the slope of the hill in abbreviated hugels.  (Full hugels would be covered in dirt and manure while ours lay mostly bare so far.)  They will prevent erosion, give rain a chance to soak in rather than run off, and as they decompose they will retain water and give off heat and nutrients for the surrounding plants. 

The land here wants to grow up to be a forest so our forest garden will mimic that as closely as we can while still producing food, medicine, fiber, and more.   We will have fruit trees, berry bushes, perennial herbs and vegetables, mushrooms, and ground cover.  We are giving priority to heirloom varieties which have natural resistance to pests and are hardy in our zone (4a).  We surrounded the area with deer fencing as fruit trees are one of their favorite winter foods.  Tim has put in 26 fruit trees so far including 2 of each of these varieties:

Apple, Wolf River
Apple, York
Apple, Winter Banana
Pear, Summercrisp
Pear, Parker
Apricot, Manchurian Bush
Cherry, Evans-Bali
Cherry, Meteor
Cherry, Carmine Jewel
Cherry, Nanking
Plum, Toka
Plum, Alderman
Plum, Native

We did start many perennial/re-seeding vegetables including:

Asparagus, Purple Passion (Chisago Master Gardeners, CMG)
Asparagus, Jersey Knight (CMG)
Rhubarb (CMG)
Sunchokes (from La Finca CSA fall share)
Arugula (SSE)
Welsh (aka Bunching) Onion (Richters)
Arugula, Wild (WCS)
Mache, Baron aka Corn salad (WCS)
Potato, All Blue
Potato, German Butterball
Potato, La Ratte
Potato, Nicola
Potato, Yellow Finn
Potato, Yukon Gold

Perennial or reseeding herbs:
Chives
Garlic chives
Hyssop
Lemon Mint
Licorice Mint
Thyme
Sage, Green Culinary
Lovage
Lemon Balm
Flowering Chinese Leek
Chamomile, German
Dill, Grandma Einck's

Annual veggies because there was space and sun:
Onion, Ailsa Craig (TSC)
Onion, Cipollinni (TSC)
Onion, Candy (CMG)
Onion, Yellow Spanish (CMG)
Kale, Red Russian
Kale, Lacinato
Collard, Georgia Southern
Corn, Tom Thumb popcorn 

 

Medicinal/bee food flowers:
Cat Grass, Varigated (TSC)
Marigold, Aztec (Richters)
Marigold, Mexican (Richters)
Marigold, French (Richters)
Lamb's Ears
Echinacea, Cheyenne Spirit Mix (WCS)
Echinacea, Yellow Coneflower (WCS)
Echinacea, Powwow Wild Berry (TSC)
Echinacea, Purple Coneflower
Yarrow, Summer Pastels

Update 6/27:
Tim just added-
Clover, red (R)
Clover, White Dutch (WCS)
Sunflower, Tarahumara White Seeded
Sunflower, Humongous (TSC)
Sunflower, Rostov