leeks/garlic instead of daffodils in fruit tree guilds

Way back when I was first learning and permaculture, I kept hearing about how it's a great idea to plant daffodils around fruit trees because they stop grass wildlife. And, hey, they're pretty! So, I planted them around my fruit trees. Years went buy, and it made more sense to plant elephant garlic and leeks around the trees, because they're yummy and bulb in the same way, and I needed somewhere to plant them.

But, I never pulled up the daffodils. It just didn't seem necessary to mess with them, even though they never really stopped grass or anything. Well, this year, before the daffodils had sent up blossums, my son thought the leaves looked just like the leeks he loved to munch on, and I caught him eating them.

In case you didn't know, daffodils are poisonous.

And while a small taste of them made my mouth tingle like crazy, they didn't have that effect on my son. He just thought they tasted mild. I called poison control. We rinsed our mouths out per poison controls recommendations, and thankfully he had no reactions.

But, the next day I went out and pulled up ALL the daffodils and replanted them by my hydrangeas to make a not-edible garden.

I like the idea of having everything under the fruit tree be something edible. This makes it handy when looking for food--wander around the fruit trees and there's something to munch on almost all year round. And I like that there's no poisonous look-alike plants.

And, really, why plant something non edible like a daffodil when you can have something that useful and yummy there instead. I'm pretty sure the garlic and leeks will repel animals and pests just as much as--if not more than-- the daffodils. And it's edible. And, frankly I don't think I can grow enough garlic and leeks. Almost everyday, for 3/4ths of the year, I pick some garlic or leek leaves to use in any dish that calls for garlic, onions, etc. They're edible, useful, perennial, fill the same bulbing roll as the daffodils, and I don't have to worry about my kids getting poisoned by them.

To me, alliums are a far better fit for my fruit tree guilds than daffodils, and maybe they would be for you, too! (and, my kids love munching on them. Just today, my son made a kale, sorrel, miners lettuce and leek leaf "sandwich" while he was out in the garden. I love that!)

Same here, I am very careful to put something non edible or even poisonous in our garden since the kids are used to eat from the garden. Alliums are definitely perfect for a fruit tree guild. I'd recommend strawberries, chives and mint too. I have a peach tree guild with this and can do a great summer fruit salad with peach, strawberries and mint.

Ben Knofe wrote:Same here, I am very careful to put something non edible or even poisonous in our garden since the kids are used to eat from the garden. Alliums are definitely perfect for a fruit tree guild. I'd recommend strawberries, chives and mint too. I have a peach tree guild with this and can do a great summer fruit salad with peach, strawberries and mint.

I agree - if the point is to grow a food forest, I'm happy to pack edibles into every ecological niche inhabited by a noxious plant. I personally think poison ivy vines are lovely, but that doesn't keep me from removing them wherever they show up on the property - which is everywhere. (Dewberries do a great job of crowding them out.) It usually doesn't  take long to identify a native edible or medicinal that thrives in the same location.

Couple things:

Garlic, when naturalized as you want to do, are going to crowd in on each other so much that they'll resemble clumps of chives. They scape, which are edible, but the bulbs will be useless.
Garlic needs spacing to make the big bulbs and cloves.

Have you thought about perennial onions, also known as egyptian walking onions? Dig and eat as young green onions, or later as bulbing green onions. Reliable self sower/ spreader, but not annoyingly so.

Quite attractive plants, and you will never need to buy onions again. Well, except during winter.

Interestingly enough, walking onions don't seem to compete as well on my property as do leeks and garlic, or even chives. I think the softer stems of walking onions are more prone to destruction from slugs than leeks or even chives.

Honestly, the alliums (as well as the daffodils) really don't do much to suppress grass or weeds. The grass on my property grows by runners...so it just reaches between the alliums to grow near the tree. Buttercup does the same thing. BUT, the alliums do survive and grow there. So, even though they're not being a barrier or a suppressant, they are doing a good job of providing food in a place that doesn't grow much other foods.

What I do every year or three is go along and dig up the leeks, chives, or elephant garlic around a tree and replant them with better spacing around the tree. Then they flourish even more and create even more alliums.

Chives have been the easiest for me in tree guilds, they just spread themselves and come back every year without any fuss. Garlic works but you're right that it needs spacing to do anything useful, otherwise you just get a mat of thin stems. The perennial onions Jeff mentioned are worth trying if you can find them, they naturalise well and the bulbs are actually usable.

Joao Winckler wrote: Garlic works but you're right that it needs spacing to do anything useful, otherwise you just get a mat of thin stems.

There are recipes that use "green garlic", referring to those thin stems. The lady who was looking to buy them is Iranian by birth, so it recipes may be in Middle Eastern culture, but she used them as a cooked vegetable.

What about a native viola species? Most are edible, they are very pretty, and they are great for early pollinators.  

I suppose theoretically hostas are edible, and would enjoy being under a fruit tree and suppress grass. Maybe they have slug issues in your area?

I have added garlic chives and Welsh bunching onions to my garden, way too early to see how they will perform at weed suppression.

Catie George wrote: I suppose theoretically hostas are edible, and would enjoy being under a fruit tree and suppress grass.  

I'm told, some are yummier than others. My sister says the bunnies agree... and the deer ate mine before I knew to taste test them. Sigh...

Jay Angler wrote:

Catie George wrote: I suppose theoretically hostas are edible, and would enjoy being under a fruit tree and suppress grass.  

I'm told, some are yummier than others. My sister says the bunnies agree... and the deer ate mine before I knew to taste test them. Sigh...

I always forget that not everyone has a very diligent dog to discourage bunny/deer visits.  Well, them, and a healthy local raptor and coyote population. I have never even seen a deer near my current house.

Jay Angler wrote:

Joao Winckler wrote: Garlic works but you're right that it needs spacing to do anything useful, otherwise you just get a mat of thin stems.

There are recipes that use "green garlic", referring to those thin stems. The lady who was looking to buy them is Iranian by birth, so it recipes may be in Middle Eastern culture, but she used them as a cooked vegetable.

Oh, I use the green tops far more often than I ever dig up the bulbs and eat them--and that applies to all of my garlic (even the ones well spaced). I just cut up the leaves and use them like chives in soups and salads. I also munch on them when I'm walking around the garden, and my son LOVES to eat them (he makes a "kale-sorrel-leek sandwich" with all three leaves, as well as just eating the leaves by themselves).

I don't usually bother with the bulbs, because I like to just go out and harvest food for dinner....and a lot of the times its not the right time of year to harvest bulbs (they're woody). I've never harvested and dried garlic bulbs. The leaves impart garlic flavor, and I can get them all year round!

Jeff Peter wrote:Couple things:

Garlic, when naturalized as you want to do, are going to crowd in on each other so much that they'll resemble clumps of chives. They scape, which are edible, but the bulbs will be useless.
Garlic needs spacing to make the big bulbs and cloves.

Have you thought about perennial onions, also known as egyptian walking onions? Dig and eat as young green onions, or later as bulbing green onions. Reliable self sower/ spreader, but not annoyingly so.

Quite attractive plants, and you will never need to buy onions again. Well, except during winter.

There are wild spots where the garlic gets bunchy. I use those as seed reserves for the next time I want to plant a new row in the kitchen garden. And yes - we have enjoyed our walking onions immensely. A neighbor gave us a big bunch over twenty years ago, and they just keep getting better with time.