Hello, All.
I don't know if I'm violating some rule of etiquette by posting in the wrong place or have missed a
thread that covered this already, but here goes.
The Situation
We bought our house in September 2019 in urban Albuquerque, with a back
yard about 1790 ft^2. We have been making observations and reading about
permaculture, and have a pipe-dream of supplying 90% of our food needs in the front and back yards. We want to keep
chickens in the back (within 2 years, after we've cleaned out all the hardware),
bees on our back porch roof, fruit
trees espaliered throughout, maybe a maple in the back for a sort of
canopy, and raised vegetable beds in front and back. I haven't yet done a soil test, but we have a lot of pioneers, and I can tell the soil is a lot of clay and sand.
The Short Term Goal
Our financial and time restrictions rule out raised beds,
water catchment, and most things now, but we think we can start with a fruit-bearing vine trellised across our back porch. I want to find something at least regional that will provide significant summer shade and a significant amount of edible fruit, that we can responsibly incorporate into our future
permaculture garden. We also want fruit that will be safe for
chickens should pieces fall, or should
chickens forage their leaves. This porch is west-facing, gets about 5 hours of full sun from 1400 to 1900, and is about 9 feet high by 20 ft wide. Because of this I've already ruled out grapes (which will eventually go on a pergola carport in the front, or in the back to double as shade for chickens.) I've considered kiwi most recently.
I would like to hear full, honest recommendations for a fruiting vine, or even general recommendations for our situation! I've been enjoying the threads here. They've grounded me well in my research.
Dylan
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