Starting a food forest- small town Colorado- 7000 ft- zone 5- where to begin?

Hello folks-
I've recently moved to a small town in CO at 7000 ft. I'm working on starting a food forest now that we've unpacked and moved in! Currently we have one Amur cherry planted too close to the house, a front yard covered in dead bluegrass (I refused to water it when we took ownership of our home and nature took her course), a gravel covered back yard, and a whole lot of cardboard leftover from our move. I'm gradually shoveling out the gravel, revealing a weed barrier (which I'll remove, obviously) and intend to begin sheet mulching most of the yard with organic matter, cardboard, and mulch to get started on building the soil. I also want to move the cherry to a far corner of the yard. There is an irrigation system in place, which I'll modify/move/use to get the garden up and running.

I've got so many questions, but I'll start with just a few.

1- When would be the best time of year to move the cherry tree to ensure its survival? Tips to help make moving it manageable?
2- Thinking of ordering trees now for spring delivery. Am I getting ahead of myself? If not, any suggestions for types of trees which will survive this elevation/zone/annual rainfall (around 9 inches a year) are very welcomed.
3- I've read conflicting suggestions regarding the best mulch for this elevation and average rainfall. There's some gorilla hair mulch on a small (devoid of life) bed which seems to prevent any penetration by rainfall or sprinkler, so I'm steering clear of using that. Any suggestions re: the best mulch for this alkaline, dry soil? Pinestraw, shredded leaves, and straw were my choices when I lived in GA, but I am a turtle out of water here in CO!

Thanks in advance for any and all suggestions/advice.

List of helpful links   (specific to zone 5, 7000 ft)

https://permies.com/t/20082/Thoughts-mulch-semi-arid-high#167580

https://permies.com/t/74437/Veggie-garden-Permaculture-Hugelkultur-challenging

https://coloradomountaingardener.blogspot.com/

It's always a big learning curve when you move to a new climate! I've moved a couple of times coast-to-coast and it always took a couple of years for me to really start to understand how my new ecosystem worked.

I'd suggest you wait a year before you invest in trees, for two reasons.

#1- that steep learning curve+trees are expensive

#2- the gravel+weed cover probably equals dead soil underneath and you might want to work on building the soil first with mulch and compost and some nitrogen-fixing crops. Definitely get a soil test done and even better would be to take a look at what soil life you have under a microscope.

Have I taken my own good advice on the past? Nope! And it's cost me hundreds of wasted $$$. I planted at least fifty different native plants the first year we moved to our current house and exactly 2 are still alive and those still struggle because of their poor start due to my mistakes. I also bought a huge bunch of different fruiting shrubs and trees and planted them in poorly prepared soil (a former gravel wasteland), thinking I'd just dig huge holes and fill them with good soil and compost. Those poor things barely straggled on for a few years until I took pity on them and, with a few years of observation under my belt, was able to move them to a much better location in my property. Meanwhile I covered my compacted gravel wasteland in a dump truck load of wood chips from our power company. It was too big an area and I didn't have the means of removing the gravel but luckily there wasn't weed barrier underneath. I'm still trying to remove an obscene amount of weed barrier from a different part of my yard. Anyway those wood chips have gone a huge way in waking up the soil and making it productive.

One way you can get a head start and still get the plants you want (because I definitely understand not wanting to wait!) is to buy tiny cheap little things or get cuttings locally and keep them in pots until they are big and you know your land and climate better. You can also easily move them around and see what kind of sunlight and wind exposure they will get in different areas and what kind of sunlight exposure they like.

Thanks so much, Jenny, for your hard won advice. Exactly what I needed to hear, especially considering how impulsive I am. I almost hit pay on $800 worth of trees from this lovely resource- https://www.treesofantiquity.com/- but will rein myself in and wait. I'll carry on shoveling gravel, removing weed barrier, and building soil. Then come Spring, I'll let my planting impulses run wild-ish. A kind neighbor has already offered raspberry canes and rhubarb from her back garden for this spring.

But the best news of all is this: When we moved in a couple of months ago, I pulled the gorilla hair mulch from the tiny dead plot near our back door and started digging in our kitchen veggie scraps, spent tea leaves, and coffee grounds. Yesterday, I noticed several seedlings popping out of the soil, giving me great hope for soil life! Loving the restorative power of Mama Earth.

Thank you, again, for the advice and encouragement.

What is "gorilla hair mulch"?  Sounds fascinating. My mind asked if there was a zoo nearby, and if you could instead get some manure.

Here are my thought for your new garden in chronological order. I think you could do all of it this year

Soil-Water:
Add drip irrigation and swales

Soil-Carbon:
Add bio-char, woodchip, etc

Soil-SoilLife
Add compost, worm tea, pond/aquarium water, etc

Soil-CoverCrop
Add legumes, daikon radish, mint/thyme family, chive/onion family, dill/celery family

Plants-Shrubs
Add fast growing, native: blackberry/raspberry, and strawberry

Plants:
Every 10ft along the fence line/perimeter plant some fruit/nut trees
- Hybrid Persimmon, Pawpaw, Elderberry, Honeyberry, Gooseberry/currants/jostaberry, Blueberry,  Sand Cherry/Beach Plum, Juneberry/Aronia/Mayhaw
- Jujube, Chicargo Hardy Fig, Dwarf Mulberry, Seaberry, Goumi
- Grapes-vine, Hardy Kiwi-vine, Artic Kiwi-vine, Maypop-vine, Abekia-vine,
- Almond, Hazelnut, Yellowhorn
- Asian Pear/Quince, European-Apple/Medlar, European Plums/Cherry/Apricot/Peach

*Plants in bold do okay in a semi-shady spot

Kim Goodwin wrote:What is "gorilla hair mulch"?  Sounds fascinating. My mind asked if there was a zoo nearby, and if you could instead get some manure.

Ha! No zoo here, but if there was I'd be collecting the poop! Here's the skinny on gorilla hair mulch- https://yardandgardenguru.com/gorilla-hair-mulch/ It was applied much too thickly, so no water was getting through. I'm not a fan, but I'm sure it works for some folks. As my grandma always said, "Everybody's natured different!"

S Bengi wrote:Here are my thought for your new garden in chronological order. I think you could do all of it this year

Soil-Water:
Add drip irrigation and swales

Soil-Carbon:
Add bio-char, woodchip, etc

Soil-SoilLife
Add compost, worm tea, pond/aquarium water, etc

Soil-CoverCrop
Add legumes, daikon radish, mint/thyme family, chive/onion family, dill/celery family

Plants-Shrubs
Add fast growing, native: blackberry/raspberry, and strawberry

Plants:
Every 10ft along the fence line/perimeter plant some fruit/nut trees
- Hybrid Persimmon, Pawpaw, Elderberry, Honeyberry, Gooseberry/currants/jostaberry, Blueberry,  Sand Cherry/Beach Plum, Juneberry/Aronia/Mayhaw
- Jujube, Chicargo Hardy Fig, Dwarf Mulberry, Seaberry, Goumi
- Grapes-vine, Hardy Kiwi-vine, Artic Kiwi-vine, Maypop-vine, Abekia-vine,
- Almond, Hazelnut, Yellowhorn
- Asian Pear/Quince, European-Apple/Medlar, European Plums/Cherry/Apricot/Peach

*Plants in bold do okay in a semi-shady spot

 

Thanks so much for the suggestions. I really appreciate you taking the time to list specific plants, as I'm still figuring all of that out. I'm still trying to identify which plants are "weeds" over here, much less productive plants! I'm looking forward to moving the gravel out and seeing what's underneath. There's a local source for compost here, and once I've shoveled out the gravel, I'm having them bring in a truckload. I'll spread that out, cover it with cardboard, then cover that with whatever mulch I can get locally. This is going to be a very busy year! Again, thanks for your insights and suggestions. Much appreciated.

Careful digging back there, it looks like there's a buried power line!

Call 811 or 800-922-1987 to have it located.

Over here on the humid east cost the following plants require too many input to overcome pest problems:
European Grapes (but not native concord/muscadine grapes)
Apple sub-family: European apples, even the native juneberry is hit or miss
Prunus sub-family: European almond/apricot/cherry/plum/peach/nectarine (the native sand cherry, beach plum and black cherry do fine)


I think that the above will do slightly better for you due to the air being less humid.
Pistachio, Pomergrante, Fig, Maypop, will grow in zone 6, but with you being in zone 5b, it might be a waste of time to try and make it work.
Cuurant/Gooseberry/Jostaberry are natives in your region (10+ different wild species, centered around you)

I recommend putting down 18in-24in+ of compost because the plant roots will most likely never try to "dig" down into the hard/poor/drive native soil

I would say keep the gravel and supplement it as you move forward. The limiting factor is colorado is water and that gravel might be your best option of mulch. The advantages of gravel is that it sheds water instead of absorbing it, and allows water to get down into the roots even in a light rain. It doesn't need to be reapplied every year. It won't blow away. As the stones erode it will give provide a slight nutrient boost. It will provide a thermal mass to keep your plants warm when its cold and cool when its hot. That gravel is a ready made mulch already in position. Use it to get your bushes and trees going and you can supply liquid compost tea into it. If you remove it, soil moisture will drop, and weeds will pop up.

Many societies have used gravel mulching throughout history including the Israelites, Chinese, Inca, Easter Islanders, Canary Islanders, and Nabateans.

Besides, do you really want to spend all that work to haul it out?

Thanks, Skyler- as a grandmother of five, I've opted to remove the gravel for multiple reasons, not the least of which is to reduce the rock throwing opportunities! Also, I love being barefoot outside and the type of gravel spread by the previous homeowner is large and sharp and very unpleasant underfoot. I've spent the last year shoveling it all out, and have layered the bare ground with compost, cardboard, and more compost, well watered in and topped with a thick layer of wood chips dropped in our drive by a local arborist. We're in the process of fencing the front and side yards and I'll do the same layering again over the now very dead, very pointless, very out of place Kentucky Bluegrass. Then I'm going to go back over the whole garden with further compost, straw and more compost. Soil building has commenced.

Many little volunteers are letting me know they like these new conditions, and I'm enjoying figuring out who wants to be here. So far, lamb's quarters and purslane are the strongest contenders, along with volunteer sunflower, millet, and thistle sprouted from scattered birdseed. Plenty of tumbleweed, goat's head, wild amaranth, buffalo gourd, and henbit replacing the dead bluegrass, but I'm not as keen on nurturing those? Maybe someone can enlighten my thinking around their value? I've been pulling out all the goat's head to prevent it's spiky spread, but I'm leaving the rest to chop and drop under the layering. Is this the right way to go? Should I yank out the buffalo gourd, too, before it gets too stuck in?

My neighbor has dug out multiple 3 foot deep beds in his yard, and replaced all the alkaline soil with amended soil. He's used all the beautiful rounded cobble he unearthed to mulch around the trees, shrubs, and flowers he's planted in the beds. He dug out enough rock that his entire yard is covered in cobble, from one side of the property to the other. I'm saving all the cobble being dug out for our fence posts to possibly do the same around trees as I plant, or at least use it to edge some pathways as they emerge. Does this sound like a reasonable compromise to your keeping the gravel suggestion? At least it is easier underfoot?

Onward.

Hello,
Lamb's quarters and amaranth are nice edible greens.
Sounds like a good start.

I would plant the nitrogen fixers earlier than your potential crops if you have time.