Central Texas Zone 1 Food Forest Design

Hey all,

I'm looking for feedback on the preliminary design for the area immediately around my cabin.

Here's a 6 minute video outlining the site's climate details, land form data, existing flora and structures, sector analysis and preliminary planting schedule:



I've attached a site map, the sector analysis, and preliminary planting schedule.


The area has several mature over story trees so I'm particularly interested in shrubs or trees that can pruned into thickets to provide some privacy screen and do well in partial shade. Here's the list I have gathered so far:

- Pineapple Guava (Prefers morning sun, afternoon shade)
- American Hazelnut (Can be grown in a thicket, Tolerates partial shade but will not produce well)
- Texas Kidneywood(Can be pruned into a shrub)
- Red Chokeberry
- Yaupon Holly
- American Smoketree
- Texas Mountain Laurel
- Flameleaf Sumac
- Evergreen Sumac
- Paw Paw
- Red Mulberry (I've heard that these can be kept smaller with pruning and do well as understory trees)
- Methely Plum
- Mexican Plum

Most of this information comes from Texas Gardening the Natural Way by Howard Garrett and notes from a local food forest workshop I attended several years ago.

Also, any central Texas grape suggestions would be appreciated. I was considering  some type of Muscadine for their disease resistance and drought tolerance.

Thanks,

Aaron

Very neat design and property Aaron, enjoyed the video.

Our climates seem to be pretty similar. Muscadines have grown extremely well here, and Triumph has been a really good variety for me. It gets some rot if it rains a lot, but it produces so much fruit that it affects just a small percentage of the fruit. Red mulberries seem to grow well here too, both as an understory tree with some sun, and also in mostly sun too.

My Methley plum didn't grow very well here and eventually died. I've heard from a few others that it seems to be one of the more disease prone varieties. I have a Shiro plum though that seems to be doing really well so far. It has been a vigorous grower and generally no visible disease issues so far. I hope to maybe get a few plums this coming year, but definitely should get some the year after. I've heard that it's also a very reliable bearer.

I'm hoping to use pineapple guava as a hedge also, and really like how it's evergreen and keeps its leaves all year.

If you have some wetter areas, rabbiteye blueberries could be a good edible hedge for the warmer part of the year. They've done very well here.

Thanks for sharing, best of luck with everything!

Thanks Steve! I like that Triumph are table grapes. For some reason I thought muscadines were too sour and just used for jams and wines. I'll see if our plant nursery has them and the Shiro plums.

I'll definitely get some Pineapple Guava. I like Texas mountain laurel for screening and nitrogen fixing but an evergreen shrub that also has edible fruit. Sounds fantastic.

As for rabbit eye blueberries I failed to mention we have fairly alkaline soil in this area so the probably won't work here.

Thanks for taking a look at my plans. I really appreciate it.  

Great work, very clean and professional!

I know you mention shrubs and trees, with a primary goal of screening and privacy.  If you haven't done so already, I would add or mention more vining layers, on or near the fence line to the south east, to augment privacy screening.

I do feel some caution with that south east sector's root zone, however, possibly getting too tight around those established cedar/elms.  

Should that be the case, a well placed trellis (or archway) and vine combo *closer* to your zone 0 could achieve the viewscape goal.
The covered porch could also  possibly provide structural support for such a vining system.