Joao Winckler

The volunteers always seem to outperform whatever I actually planned. My best tomato last year was one that came up through a crack in the path next to the compost heap. Didn't do a thing for it and it just got on with it.

Comfrey is probably the most underrated one. Grow it once, chop it down a few times a season, and you've got a free liquid feed or mulch material indefinitely. Deep tap roots pull up minerals from well below where most crops can reach.

The storage point is the one that keeps me coming back to grain. Roots and fruit are great but you can't stack them in a barn for three years. There's something to be said for having a buffer that doesn't rot.

The observation step is underrated. Worth spending a season just watching before you commit to earthworks or big plantings. Where does water pool after rain, where does it dry out first, where does the frost sit longest. That shapes everything else more than any book plan will.

Strawberries tend to exhaust themselves in the same spot after a few years regardless of companions, the allelopathy thing is real but so is just general soil depletion. Might be worth rotating a fresh batch to a different patch every couple of years rather than trying to keep the same plants going indefinitely. The peach guild idea sounds solid though, dynamic accumulators under fruit trees work well once everything establishes.

Twist the cob in your hands while holding it over a bucket, works fine even when fully dry. Takes a bit of effort on the first few kernels to get started but once you break the seal they come off pretty easily. If you've got a lot of cobs it gets tedious fast though, that's when a sheller like the one mentioned is worth it.

Bing cherries get big, so I'd give them at least 20-25 feet apart if you can. They're not self-fertile so the pollinator is essential, and it needs to be within about 50 feet to do its job properly. One thing worth knowing early on is that cherries really don't like wet feet, so if your soil holds water at all it's worth planting on a slight mound or raised area. They'll reward you for it.

The keyhole path layout makes a lot of sense for that kind of space. Having the polytunnel as the anchor and designing the kitchen garden to flow through it means you're naturally passing through both areas on the same trip, which is how zone 1 actually gets used rather than just planned. Alpine strawberries as path edging is a good call too, they just sort themselves out once established.

The 500-year claim is interesting but I'd be skeptical without a solid source. Most of what gets called "ancient" in permaculture circles turns out to be much more recent once you dig into it. The practice itself clearly works regardless of age, but the history tends to get romanticised.

Doug's point about spraying is worth taking seriously, councils can be pretty aggressive about what they consider weeds near roads. Native wildflower mixes that are low-growing tend to survive better than anything tall and shrubby, and they're harder to argue with as a nuisance. Yarrow, wild strawberry, and creeping thyme all handle occasional mowing and come back reliably.