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Compatible Fruit Trees and Vegetables

 
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Hello!
We're new to permaculture and beginning an orchard/food forest.

While I'm finding plenty of herbs that do well under our fruit trees, I'm having a hard time finding vegetables that are suitable (or not!) under our trees.

Currently we have..
Apples
Pears
Sour Cherries
Goji Berries
Sea Buckthorns
Blackberries
Blueberries
Red Currants
Honeyberry
A Hardy Fig
A Hardy Kiwi

Hoping someone can point us in the right direction
Thanks kindly all!!
 
steward
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Welcome to Permies Teresa!

I've currently got lettuce, beets, and peas growing under a wide mix of fruit trees. They are small but seem to be doing really well so far!

Depending on how shady it is, a lot of greens can do well in partial shade.

I've also planted some cucumbers, beans, and squash that are just starting to come up, so hopefully they'll do well too!

I can't think of any vegetable incompatibility issues off the top of my head with the fruit trees that you've listed. I like to just toss some seed and see what does well.

I'm really enjoying planting veggies in the food forest around the fruit trees so far. It makes it so easy and maximizes the use of the available growing space.

Here's a recent video from weekly updates of my young food forest with a clip in there of the cool weather crops currently growing under my fruit trees.

 
gardener
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You may be surprised by all you can grow. I plant squash, pepper, kale, strawberries and running vine veggies under my pear and peach trees. Figs tend to be more of a weird bush so there are less things I want to try with those. Under my smaller fruit trees I plant cucumbers and let them trellis up the tree. They manage to go towards the sun and find their spot.
 
Teresa Sahand
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Awesome! Thanks everyone!!

I think over the last few days we've figured out we should
- space things so we're not trampling anything when harvesting fruit
- avoid deep rooting produce that might disturb the young fruit trees' roots
- seek out more edible native perennials
- most any annuals go!

I was really surprised how much we could grow.
I think a food forest is really what our idea is, not just an orchard.

Scott and Steve these veggies you mention are right up our alley! Thanks so much!
 
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