New forest garden plot in mid missouri

Somehow,  permaculture has evaded me for nearly 20 years of playing in the dirt. Until now!  

I've been planning a typical rowcrop garden for next year, taking over a large full sun spot in my yard. I'm just now getting to the hard work due to a broken knee last January.   I laid out a nice curvy blob, planned out the fence and rowcrop, and spent many a nights in the cool moonlight planning while the leg healed.  And then, about a week ago while searching for some missouri natives to spice things up,  I stumbled upon the idea of permaculture gardens.   Boy has it thrown a wrench in my plan!   Out goes the ugly fence, out goes the rowcrop, in comes a new plan.

Site challenges are plenty, but not insurmountable.   Poor and dry hardpan clay, just a few inches of topsoil thanks to 15 years of mulching mowing. Typical suburban grading which promotes zero water collection. An uphill neighbor hell bent on monoculture grass with weed and feed help. Creeping Charlie that fortunately hasn't reached that portion of the yard, but has started moving into my compost area.

Site advantages.  I have a third acre wooded back lot for endless compost and mulch if needed.  Canopy is 50 to 80 feet tall, many trees over 100 years.  If I can get the neighbor to cease the lawn poisoning, I can collect quite a bit more water.  I've cultivated a variety of fungus in existing beds and mulch piles, and have successfully converted old planting beds from hardpan into nearly excellent soil over the past 3 years.  

My basic plan is to mesh traditional ornamental landscaping with natives and a permaculture garden.  I have begun terracing the site from the top to encourage water retention, and there seems to be decent rates of water imbibement in my third terrace so maybe it's not so hard pan after all.  

1, ornamentals.  On the street edge and in a few key locations on the sides, I'll have about 2/3  ornamentals such as boxwood, juniper, barberry, etc.  The native grasses and prairie flowers will peak through. This traditional ornamental edge is to keep a standard curb appeal, match the other landscaping of the neighborhood,  and also hide much of the winter blandness and "mess" that will occur.


2. Native prairie.  The next layer behind ornamentals will be missouri prarie. Commonly called butterfly gardens to make it sound fun.   I have already planted some cord grass in anchor locations , and will add sedges and a variety of annual and perennial flowers such as asters, indigo, yarrow, coneflowers, blazing star, bergamot, black and browned eyed susan etc...  I picked up seeds from the Mo wildflower nursery and also have another property with 3 years of native plant efforts to yank root and seed from. The prarie plants have incredibly deep roots and break down hardpan like a boss.   This area on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th terrace will recharge the soil with water while pulling up mineral content.

3. Compost.  I want to have a compost pile hidden in the 3rd and 4th terrace, to hopefully feed my lower garden levels via runoff and reduce my time spent moving amendments around the property.

4.  The permaculture garden.  I am basing the garden around pear and plum trees in the 4th and 5th (lowest) terrace.  The width of my garden at this level is about 20ft , so it should be about right for the drip line.  The rightmost edge is also on the drip line of a very large oak tree located uphill in the neighbors yard.   I think I'll have one main pear in the middle, and a few more pear and plum crammed together between it and the natives.  Dont care about maximum harvest or perfectly shaped trees, I just want some nature and shade back from the boring grass lot.  


I'll continue the cultivar and layout planning with a map.   Its complicated enough that I can't really go much further without doing a typical landscape design.  Otherwise I'll make a big mess!  

Thanks for reading.  I'm quite excited about where this could be in 1 to 3 years time!

Here is my "hobby house " native prarie, in its 3rd year.  Cloud9, cordgrass, fox sedge, and big bluestem are the main anchors. The flowering plants have not kept up with manual planting, so we are seeding heavy for next year.   I have arborvitae and junipers as streetside ornamentals for a nice winter time and "clean" look up front.   I call it a mullet yard, business in front and party in back!    

This yard has many feet of rich rich topsoil, becomes a lake when it rains, and I have a rad neighbor that's let me extend the prarie into his yard!  Plus he loves dandelions and isnt into traditional monoculture grass yard marketing ploys...  This yard is what rekindled my interest in horticulture.   I'm trying to get some frogs to set up shop next, and will extend my work next year into food plots here too.

I like that it is right on the street where folks can see it.  It would be especially cool if you add some signage describing what you're doing.  For your prairie patch you might get one of these signs:  https://xerces.org/pollinatorhabitatsign/

That's a fantastic idea, Tyler.  

Not exactly to scale and not complete, but it lays out proper in the yard.  Now I just need to plan all the understory stuff and where I'll walk.  Comfrey, clover, veggies, brambles etc..  I'm hoping to box in a section with brambles and barberry well enough to give myself a chance at strawberries somewhere.

Pear and jujube trees are doubled up to ensure a little genetic variety and better pollination.

My out of scale plans were bugging me.  Made a properly scaled layout.  I ended up with two plum trees instead of two jujubes,  have two figs to place (that I will keep in bush form), and then we are off to the races!  I'm probably going to harvest some top soil from my other house or the back lot, as we dig downhill its turned into clay.  Which is why I chose plum over the jujube.   Early September planting should let everything root well enough to overwinter, so I hope... I've done worse.

And now I need some input. I dont want the trees in a linear line, its logical but boring. Pushing the small trees north will favor the east side prarie area.  Pushing them south will favor the trees. Or triangulation and shove em together, maybe a no downside option.

Thoughts?

There were four trees delivered today and the even number is bothering me since I'm second guessing my choice of putting the plums 18" spaced  😄

But progress shall be made!

Looks good John!

I like your movable plants on your design map, very convenient.

Of your design options above, I personally would pick the first one that would maximize the early morning sunlight from the east for each tree. Whichever one you pick I'm sure they'll be fine. Mine are all mixed together and it seems like it doesn't seem to matter all that much as long as the plants are healthy.

Excited to see how it turns out.

I like the notion of favoring east sun, and I think it will pull the eye nicely from uphill and downhill viewing. Also lines up the drip lines with the oak dripline to the north. Cooler weather coming this week,  will be great for planting.  

Thanks for the advice everyone, I'm really enjoying the planning process

Got solid work this morning before the sun came out of the clouds.  Almost half the ornamentals in.  Of course I bought twice as many as needed in haste and have some junipers that I dont like the color of. Can't decide on whether to mix them together in dense bunches or pull the minty green ones to my other house. Small details of little consequence though.

Progress shall be made!

Got in the trees this cool and beautiful morning!  A staggered line  moving north worked nicely to ease my even-number hangups.

Street view, maybe a little easier to see the staggered line

A clay yard with heaps of sand?  What in the construction waste world is going on here?  And is that a truffle in the mulch?  All sorts of surprises today!  

Also got blackberries, raspberries,  and wild strawberries from the local native nursery.  Looking forward to that next year. My grandma had about an acre of BlackBerry and I would gorge myself as a kid.

I suppose I'm mostly done, besides the greens and herbs around the trees. Thorny raspberries and blackberries are bordering the prarie section now, which is the best place for them!  One fig already died, it was looking rough from day one.

Its amazing what minimal contouring has done for water retention  .  Runoff is practically zero already.  

Oof, the deer have been having their way eating the trees and raspberry bush.  Had one tree scraped and pushed over quite a bit.  I dont want a fence.  Any suggestions?  I was thinking I could use string to stake the trees and maybe it would keep the antlers away if it was a tangle hazard.

Here the MO State Nursery site https://mdc12.mdc.mo.gov/Applications/TreeSeedling/

Very cheap but there's a minimum of 10 of each tree. They start selling Sept 1st and tend to run out of the good stuff in a week. I don't know why they don't adjust the quantities of stuff but they haven't in the past several years. They ship but I'm 30 miles away so I just went and got them the one year I bought stuff. I've got several Persimmon and wild plum I need to transplant this fall. I stuck them in my garden beds because I didn't have room for them. Now they're 3-4 feet tall. I've got some rebuds here and there too. Next year, I ordering on Sept 1st and getting elderberry and hazel nut.

EDIT

I just ordered 10 Kentucky Coffee trees. Member of the fabacea/pea family aka nitrogen fixing legume. They will make a mess of a yard with their pods.

EDIT

Although a member of the legume family
(Fabaceae), Kentucky coffeetree is not a nitrogen
“fixer”.  

well that sucks. I haven't paid for them yet so I may or may not bother. One thing they do have is a crazy tap root, many times the height of the trunk. Might be good to break through my hard pan.

EDIT again

Cancelled the coffeetree order and will be getting False Indigo instead, which is a nitrogen fixer and purty too.

That's nice looking. Maybe I'll add some to the list.

After I put up a fence or kill and eat this buck that's being extra destructive.    Fence, or bow?   My fall red raspberries went from a few hundred buds to being eaten to stalks.  I'm guessing he got tangled in this tree scraping it and freaked out. Nature will get its chance after its established. For now, I've gotta do something or I might have well just set the money on fire.

Couldn't get to the fence yet.  Made a choice to get firewood this weekend instead of build a fence.  Woke up Monday to three of 4 trees broken in half.  I guess I should have expected this, but I didn't.

How disheartening!  Would temporary fencing just circling the trees maybe get them through the first year or two to get them established?

I'm gonna fence it all now. They raked the raspberries with the antlers so hard I'll get none next year either. The last remaining tree was broken in half the next morning.  They also broke the tops off the figs.


I live in the middle of a 100k person city.  This is due to a neighbor that puts out 50lbs of deer feed a week so she can watch them in her back yard.   Wouldnt be enough food to keep them around otherwise.  I always wondered why there were so many deer and she stopped by while I was working one day to "wish me luck" against the deer while showing off her fresh bags of feed.

So now I've got a $500 deer to harvest. That's about how much damage the buck has caused.

post winter update, the deer have stomped and raked everything of food value.  On the upside, they have mixed in the amendments very well and tons of "weeds" are taking hold now.    Huge change from the hardpan side lot of last year that would barely grow grass!  


I'll be fencing in the side yard and replanting trees.    All 4 trees I planted were uprooted and stomped into splinters by the deer.    I'll have some food plot for the animals too, but for now I have to at least attempt to get something for the family first.  


On the upside, this winter gave me some time to start seedlings early indoors.   Got a nice little lettuce garden going that will serve as transplants.  

That is a great garden design technique with the moveable plants. I will be trying 100% , very excited about it thank you.

I also like the mullet yard description, that's how my house was, orderly rows in the front chaos in back. 👍 Never thought of it that way. It's looking great!

The native  blackberries and black raspberries are coming back strong, huzzah! Had some cilantro sprout in fall and  overwinter and is already massive. I've never seen that around here outside. Plenty of lettuces and herbs going, lots more work to do though!

Hosai pear didn't get totally killed by deer. I'm gonna let it grow and keep the rootstock suckers for pollination.  I shall add some trees back, but I'll probably plant a little denser.   Added a mulberry as well.

Also got chickens and will attempt a compost run for em. Just what I need, more work!

Got some new trees in today!  A Bartlett pear, red jonagold apple and granny Smith. The swales need a bit of work but the upper swales have done a great job and I havent watered once this year. I suppose that stops today with the new trees!  

In gonna hammer in some bush honeysuckle trunks and wrap wire or fence around them this time.  Also, look at the worms where the compost sat!  This yard has never had worms!  

I have some new (small) trees.  I made circular fences around each one with 2" x 4", 48" tall welded wire fencing.  Each protective circle is anchored by a steel T-post.  No deer so far, but it's early.  The deer never came close to my garden last year.  My husband thinks it's because it's so close to the house.  Of course, nobody is feeding the deer here in Vermont.  We can look at them often; no need to bring them in close to decimate the garden!

The deer used to avoid our front planters because of proximity to the house, but in the last year they've started walking through them too!  

For the night, i hammered in posts and strung up chicken wire. They nibbled a few leaves on the outside edges but didn't topple anything... so far so good.   The chicken wire by itself looks bad though, so I'm gonna get some cedar stakes and attempt a cute little fenced in area this weekend.    I think 3 feet high will cut it,  just want to make things a little difficult and keep it tight enough they don't have enough area to jump into. They are pretty fat and lazy deer, and walk around things instead of jump unless spooked.


My blackberries and raspberries are really taking hold now too.  I dont think they will produce this year, pretty sure the deer ate the budding sites.  No worries, we have a thicket at the farm if I really want to eat some :)

So irritating about your neighbor!  I never heard of anyone feeding the deer except hunters, and that's illegal in many places.  It's a bad idea anyway, it brings them into proximity with humans and creates highway hazards, not to mention the damage to your food production or even just landscaping.

There is deer repellent on the market - it smells of garlic and (to deer) dead meat.  To me it smells vaguely of garlic, and not unpleasant. Maybe it needs to be applied to the deer food under cover of darkness.  Also sprinklers and other sorts of alarms that go off with motion detectors, but those usually scare them at first and then they grow accustomed to it.  Poor fat deer.

A closer check to the garden, they topped one of my tomatoes and ate all the flowers!   These deer are gluttons, they've even been eating the cone flowers which is supposed to be nasty tasting to them.  

No worries though, I can just plant some more and I'm happy to encourage some biodiversity.  I'm not going hungry right now and if I was hungry theres some fat deer to harvest 1st!  

Really growing in this year.  Hosai pear got demolished by deer. Moved it to another house which hasn't had a single deer in the 6 years I've owned it.  A deer appeared in 2 days and ate it to nothing, lol!  

Apple and pears doing well otherwise.  Blackberry really loving the spot.   Natives really taking hold and spreading.  Cereal rye is doing well, it will become a staple.  Added 3 jujube trees to the side yard a little further back.  


Also knocked out 25% of my front yard.   5 hazelnuts, black raspberry, and golden raspberry among the natives.    We shall see if I can distract the deer enough to get the native hazelnuts bigger than bush size without a fence.  

The native raspberry and blackberry really exploded!  Only at 3 years?  Will get 1500 to 2000 blackberries from ten 2nd year canes.  55 new canes coming up...

Native flowers around the fruit trees have kept deer off and seem to reduce apple rust. I feel like I should clear off the flowers close to the trees but this is the healthiest they have looked and I know it's improving the soil vs the original hardpan.  Ain't broke, don't fix it.

The side yard is now dense enough that deer don't make an impact. Some browsing here or there but it doesn't make much dent.  This is becoming a proper food forest!  The newly added front yard is still sparse, had to put tree rings around all the hazelnut and they are grazing some on the raspberry planted there last year.

2 year progression from the same perspective

2 year, same perspective.

Thank you for sharing your garden pictures John - they are truly inspiring!
Great that you're getting less deer damage now (venison off the menu again?). What sort of native flowers did you plant and did you think they would make a difference to the damage? Is the neighbour still feeding them?

The natives i can identify are black eyed susan, coneflowers of a few types, coreopsis of a few types, various small sunflower, bee balm of a few species, milkweed, maybe swamp milkweed, yarrow, and some others that I cant identify yet.  got the seed packs from Mo wildflower nursery and sowed a few years, now it is so thick that nothing else can grow!  

I believe the flowers are keeping the deer at bay because it is thick, and also the bee balm and yarrow are quite fragrant.  I left all of last years flowers standing through winter, and used stalks of yarrow and bee balm in the spring around new plants I wanted to throw them off of.   Worked pretty well so far as distraction.    I assume the deer do not want to get so smelly, or risk getting antlers tangled trying to scrape the trees.  

In terms of damage, this is the least they have touched my plants although the deer are still thick.   It was also a bumper crop of acorns last year and they are still eating them out of the planters, probably helped ease browse pressure.  

The neighbor still feeds them.   At this point I'm getting past the point of critical mass where the deer can't keep up with the growth.  Huzzah!  

Exciting stuff! I'm glad you're past the hurdle with the deer.

(Mostly I'm commenting to note that I used to live about 7000 feet from where you do...like 23 years ago. It's fun to run into that kind of relation. )

Small world!  

Came across this 3 year memory on Facebook today.

How it started, middle of summer.

And how it's going now. I've let the native flowers take over a while to build some topsoil.  I'd say maybe they should be cut back from the fruit trees but the trees seem happiest they've been and that hardpan isn't going to fix itself.

I've noticed how well my trees do with the native plants and wildflowers also. I've let them grow up among all of my fruit trees now, and they really seem to be thriving. They seem to help build super rich soil and also attract a really diverse range of pollinators.