Suggestions for South facing alley in Missoula, MT (Zone 5)

Hi. My name is Sarah. I'm new here and new to permaculture. I live in the heart of Missoula, MT. I have a roughly 5' x 24' strip of South facing alley where I'm wondering what to plant. Keeping in line with the principles of permaculture I'd like it to be diverse and widely beneficial. I've seen neighbors' alleys planted with gooseberries, saskatoons, currents, etc. I haven't seen any raspberries planted in the allies here and am wondering if that's because they're deer candy? Would any small, narrow fruit trees work in this strip? I bought a number of native plants today from our local native plant Society: Purple Coneflower, Fringed Sagewort, Purple Prairie Clover, Blanket flower, Wild strawberry, Upright Goldenrod, Bee balm, and Prairie Smoke and am hoping to incorporate a few of those into the area but I also have other areas of my yard where I can incorporate these.  I'm open to any and all suggestions. Grateful for this community forum and all the knowledgeable folks in here who have advice.

Hi Sarah

Welcome to Permies!

Thank you, John! Happy to have found this site.

Sarah, welcome to the forum!

I like your choice of plants.  

Blanket Flower aka Firewheel is my very favorite one!

As for raspberry being a deer candy, it is probably not much more than the other berries planted in your neighborhood.

I have lots of deer and a blackberry plant so we surrounded it with a chicken wire fence.  The birds enjoy all my berries.

Sarah, my neighbors down the alley have a very similar strip on the south side of their garage planted with fall-bearing raspberries with virginia waterleaf as a groundcover. They cut everything to the ground every winter and it seems to be thriving. No deer in our heavily trafficked urban neighborhood so I can’t comment on that, but I can say that raspberries seem to be doing well in similar conditions. I’m in St. Paul, MN (4b).

I think making a trellis up to the roof would be a good way to use that vertical space. Wires could be ran up to the peak of the roof or other side to extend the trellis. This would shade the roof and just look cool

That’s helpful to know. Thanks for your reply.  I love the blanketflower!

Thanks for your response. Our area isn’t too bad for deer though I certainly don’t want to attract them. Glad to know your neighbor’s raspberries are thriving!

Great idea! Do you mean a trellis for the raspberries?