Season 2 Apple Tree Guild Update :)

I wanted to share a spring update for the guild I started in the summer of 2011 As is always the case, I am SO open to suggestions, ideas, tuning, better practices etc. Thank you for any advice.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmfBl4GKXuQ&feature=youtu.be

-Brandon

The stems of the dandelions have medicinal properties they help with kidney and liver problems, and are also eddible

A really sweet little spot. Your garlic looks like it might benefit from some mulch on it--I couldn't really tell if there was any on it, but it didn't appear so. I was taught by a much more seasoned gardener that everything should be mulched all the time, since bare earth is unnatural and leads to various problems. If you happen to live near the coast and have access to seaweed, that's a fantastic mulch for garlic.

I often enjoy dandelion green salads at this time of year, dressed with a little oil, garlic, and a touch of soy sauce. And my neighbour makes dandelion jelly from the flowers. It's amazing!

Great job on the APPLE guild. I was checking out my apple guilds earlier this week as some plants and seeds I put in last year are growing so I'll just tell you a little about them, to maybe give you some ideas.

My Sweet 16 apple guild has a super dwarf apple in the center, there is a dripline perimeter of chives and perennial walking onions, this is an 8' circle. Inside the circle I have a baby comfrey, several oregano and thyme plants, very young and there might be a sage or two.

My Dwarf Braeburn apple guild hasn't as many things planted in it yet, it has a few brand new sets of the walking onions, there is a rhubarb and a couple baby comfreys as well as some yarrow plants.

My Standard Snow (Fameuse) apple is mostly surrounded by a thick carpet of yarrow, but there are a few walking onions and some comfrey plant babies in this bed also.

My Self Seeded full size standard apple is at the bottom of a slope facing north, it has a heavy planting under it of solomons seal, hosta, violets, vinca, and other shade lovers, a strip of lawn and then another bed with aegopodium, violets and other shade lovers.

My other self seeder has only swampy weeds and alders (most of which have been cut down) growing around it as it is in a wild field, need to work on that.

My 5 on 1 apple tree is growing in an asparagus bed and has comfrey, rhubarb, bearded iris, onions and a few other things growing under it.

My other baby apple trees are planted in mixed perennial flower garden beds and there is another self seeded apple growing in our woods among aspen and brush, need to clean out around that with a chainsaw.

your wild mint actually looks like wild viola not mint.

mints all have square stems, and it must look like a mint AND smell like a mint along with the square stems.

@Brenda, thank you for the detail! Awesome stuff, lots of ideas! Looking forward to adding more to this guild and starting the pear guild near it

@Jordan, That makes sense to me about the mint, I had questions personally when I mashed it up and it didn't smell of mint. It does seem similar to the photos I have found on google for wild viola

Thanks for responding!

Jordan Lowery wrote:your wild mint actually looks like wild viola not mint.

mints all have square stems, and it must look like a mint AND smell like a mint along with the square stems.

You were totally correct It's wild viola! Thanks!

violets are wonderful in salads and the flower can be candied as well. Violets really love shade so they should do well and although they are prolific they generally don't KILL anything that they are around..mostly just snuggle up next to them...I have a lot of violets in one of my apple tree guilds..also they draw in pollinators for quite a while in the spring when the fruit trees are blooming.