Cold climate food forest establishment

[@mfleur]

I like this no dig “minimum effort for maximum effect” approach. I would love to see what you’ll do next. Keep us updated !

[@mountainfigsperennialfruits]

Great diverse spot, clearly explained. Great planting, cutting, mulching, and grafting approaches. I'm also battling poison ivy on a bank. I might try to shade it out with rudbeckia or cereal rye, though I'm not at all confident in the potential success of that. I also do plenty of comfrey around fruit trees and bushes.

[@jkochosc]

I agree I think shading it out is the best bet - it seems to be fairy tolerant of shade, but it can certainly be outcompeted and turn into a minor player.

[@jesserahimzadeh4298]

What’s your plan for curating the herbaceous layer? Will perennials be planted by direct seed too?

[@jkochosc]

I have tons of roots to plant in there. Once I start that part I’ll do a follow up video. It will be rows of comfrey on the sides of the tree row and myoga ginger in the middle with other interspersed throughout. It needs to be super competitive since I’m not tilling or weeding.

[@sambonney4608]

Reminds me of “syntropic” agroforestry systems used in the tropics. Very cool! Do you notice any difference with vole pressure with this type of management?

[@jkochosc]

It seems that voles have a huge affinity for piles of grass, but little interest in piles of sticks. Some of my plantings have been getting a lot of chopped up woody material since 2016 and I haven’t noticed and increase in voles there. Anywhere I have used hay though, there they are! I love the syntropic framework and have been trying to adapt it here for a long time with a lot of failures but some promising leads!

[@peterellis4262]

Someone working on a similar project might want to consider using some of the logs in the 3-6 inch dia. range for growing mushrooms. It's another layer of work and management, but it's an option, and the logs get returned to the soil in the end ;)

[@jkochosc]

My wife said the same thing a couple days ago! My plan is to put little black locust logs on the ground and then pile the other hardwood logs on top of those and inoculate cold strains of shiitake. Get two good years of mushrooms and by then maybe be heading towards soil :)

[@jkochosc]

I really like the cold strains where you just inoculate and leave them and they fruit in spring and fall. Oysters as well!

[@JeremyThomas_Environmentarian]

Seems like there is a method but we do like to chop, chop the trees hey...

[@jkochosc]

If the old branches don’t lay flat on the ground, they won’t decay and turn into soil very fast! I can’t do as many chops as a wood chipper, but I have to do as many as I can to get it all on the ground :)