How do you plan a permaculture patch/tree guild?

Hey all, so I planted a couple of fruit trees about a month and a half ago, since then I've learned about permaculture and plant guilds, and I want to turn it into a tree guild and permaculture patch, and hopefully squeeze in my vegetable patch. Fewer areas getting watered means less weeds to fight during our dry summers. I'm in zone 9 in california's sacramento-san Joaquin delta region, which means barely freezing winters and hot dry summers. The trees are semi-dwarfs so they'll get to be about 15' across.

I already have some potted or dormant plants that I really want to add. Those are: asparagus (3 jersey giant, 6 mary washington ready, and 10 UC157 in the mail), blueberries (1 ea bluecrop, bountiful blue, duke), 6 cauliflower romanesca (the fractal one), 6 celery seedlings, 2 chives, 12 marigolds and seeds, mint (though I'll probably keep that in a pot somewhere else), 5 seed potatoes, 160 onion sets (1/2 red/white), 40 sweet onion sets, garlic 1 head set but plan on buying more, 2 echinacea plants, 1 chamomile, 3 hostas, 2 peruvian daffodils, and 20 strawberry plants. In addition I have seeds for corn, borage, nasturtium, Roma tomatoes, dill, mammoth sunflowers (I was thinking maybe as a windbreak along the fence?), fennel, basil(purple, sweet, genovese) bell pepper, green beans (bush and pole), cilantro, parsley, and hopefully I can use lettuce as fill in shady areas and native wild flower seed mix in other areas.

I have neutral to slightly alkaline soil so I was going to make an 'acidic section' in one corner where I would mix a bunch of peat into the soil and mulch with redwood leaves for the blueberries and other acid loving plants.

I'm not sure if I want to leave the gutter ditch mostly alone like in the unfinished sketch I added, or turn the parts more than a few feet away from the foundation into a proper swale-and-berm, and curve it towards the corner of the fence. Though what would I do with the triangle below it?  In the future I guess I could make a second swale and curve it around the north side of the corral. (No animals, btw, but it is where my grandfather the property owner does his garden, and I want to see how my companion planting compares with his old school rows.)

As you can see if you can read my sketch, most of my main harvest crops seem to fall into two main compatibility groups: corn, potatoes, cabbage family, and other annual veggies; and the perennials and tomatoes. These two groups hate each other for the most part, so I want to be really sure about my placement. Any feedback and advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you for reading my wall of text.

Looks like a neat plan Kyle.

If you have access to any mulch, you could spread it around the general area near your plants. It'll help retain moisture and build soil fertility.

Excited to see how it progresses!

I forgot to mention that the highest contour line is based on the height of the lip of that lowest stone beneath the downspout.

I made an updated and color coded layout. There will be aromatics like basil and thyme scattered throughout as well, and I'm thinking about clumping up the celery and cutting that wildflower patch in half so i can wiggle that path a little bit. If no one points out any major flaws, I'll probably start earth moving tomorrow.

This is how I plan.

From the pictures you posted, it looks like this area is pretty exposed and will have harsh conditions (sun, heat, wind) for the first time at least. This is why I'd propose you also think about how to get the garden to life, especially thinking about time as a dimension: What can you plant to break wind, improve soil health, retain moisture. What are pioneer plants which thrive in these conditions which can chaperone other plants? What can be the other plants be? What could a second generation look like? Can you add other things like a stone wall to protect from wind/sun and keep the temperatures over night as a thermal mass?
Then you can go a bit more specific: What can you plant around your trees to protect them? I have a siberian pea shrub next to all my fruit trees since it is a good wind breaker, grows fast, creates mulch and fixes nitrogen in the soil. Then you can think of a ground cover around the trunk. Chives and strawberries are almost always a good choice for that. From this you can continue developing your garden with the things you want to grow and how they can be combined. With time you can get more specific: For example I've added a Horseradish close to my peach tree since it helps with general health of the tree.

So in short: Go from high level concept to specific plant needs, take the time as a dimension into account so you can bootstrap your garden. Then take it from there.

Also: the plants I recommended work for me, make sure to grow plants which work for your conditions!

Thanks Ben.
My patch isn't any more exposed than my grandfather's garden plot, just on the other side of the fence to the west, and that does fine. Most of the corn did lodge last year, but it wasn't correlated with windy days, I'm pretty sure it was because the seeds were too old and weren't planted deep enough. There is somewhat of a windbreak in the form of a small ridge with a thicket of trees on the west edge of the property about 200 yards away. I was also thinking about planting the mammoth sunflowers beneath the north and west fences of the corral and weaving them through the bars.

As for succession, as I understand, its only necessary when the soil is extremely degraded or thin/non-existent. My understanding is that if the soil/conditions are good enough for your final community, then it's most efficient to go straight to them wherever possible. The soil here is quite fertile, despite appearances.

Also, I have about two rectangular bales of five year old uncomposted hay I was going to use as mulch, but then I had the idea to bury the flakes under the berm even with the bottom of the swale to help distribute the water through the soil.  There's even a dead almond tree nearby I could pull sticks and bark off of for the purpose(I want to keep the larger stuff for other things). My main concern is that peach tree. It's roots are below the depth I want to dig to, so I'm not too worried in that sense, but would burying fresh material right next to the trunk cause problems?

kyle fite wrote:Also, I have about two rectangular bales of five year old uncomposted hay I was going to use as mulch, but then I had the idea to bury the flakes under the berm even with the bottom of the swale to help distribute the water through the soil.  There's even a dead almond tree nearby I could pull sticks and bark off of for the purpose(I want to keep the larger stuff for other things). My main concern is that peach tree. It's roots are below the depth I want to dig to, so I'm not too worried in that sense, but would burying fresh material right next to the trunk cause problems?

It would probably not lead to any problems. Just keep the direct trunk free, so you don't get rodents or similar to eat on it. Also you might not be burying the material at all, just drop it around as some kind of mulch and it will break down by itself and brought into the soil with the (rain)water.