Plot 33: A new community 'forest garden'

Good afternoon from central England, where we've currently got a mini-heatwave-storm which is uncomfortable for us ... temperatures about 5 deg C higher than comfortable, but c. 85% humidity which is unpleasant, plus electric storms (a house caught fire after being struck by lightning this morning near the A45, no one harmed as far as I know), and potentially harmfully torrential downpours too.

I'm at the beginning of what I'm hoping will be a new community 'forest garden' project.

We've just got initial permission to access Plot 33 on the allotment site where I already have a 'standard' permaculture / stockfree-Organic plot.

My vision is to supply seasonal fruit, and hopefully some vegetables too, to neighbours who wish to help out tending the plot, as well as at least a grocers tray or two in the year to the local Black-led Mutual Aid food programme (currently feeding up to 120 people per week, and often short of fruit and vegetables).

Here's an image from last week.  The plot has not been tended for two years, but was well-tended until then.

Image: Plot 33, a 'half-plot' (nominally c. 5 square rods in area e.g. c. 125 m2, I've not yet mapped it myself).  Initial inspection suggests: in the North-East (left foreground), a rambling hardy purple grapevine that produces a good number of bunches of grapes when tended (woo-hoo!).  Along the c.  West (right) edge, what was probably a hedge 100 years ago at the bottom of the gardens of the adjoining houses.  There is a fence about 1 m behind the visible English ivy extent, with fully grown sycamore trees overshadowing.  There are a lot of ash & sycamore seedlings & a few saplings to be removed.  

Along that Western hedge-line, a row of about 6 dwarf rootstock fruit trees, pear & apple as far as we know.  To the East of those, a mixture of soft fruits: variety strawberries, redcurrant, blackcurrant, raspberry (not sure if they might be autumn fruiting), and excitingly, purple gooseberry.  At the southern edge (background), two clusters of about 7 Prunus prunus trees (possibly damson?).  In front of them, a rambling Rubus, possibly a tayberry hybrid (we hope!).

Sounds exciting AC! Quite a bit of grass in the centre and some pallets? You could maybe propagate more fruit into the unplanted area when you do remedial pruning over winter.

Nancy Reading wrote:Sounds exciting AC! Quite a bit of grass in the centre and some pallets? You could maybe propagate more fruit into the unplanted area when you do remedial pruning over winter.

It is rather!

We are going to cut back the grass. I have to negotiate with D, who does the mowing, on the width of the grass path: one mower width, or more?

I hope there is space for more raspberries, for example.  I have plenty to transplant, the summer ones you had from me plus golden autumn ones.

The one pallet is a half-size one we brought to mostly cover the previously open barrel of water, for safety.

There should be space for two vegetable beds, in the sunniest SE corner for example.  There's a frame for climbing / runner beans in that spot now, visible in the image ..

Woo-hoo!

Plot 33 does look like the beginning of a forest garden.  

What a lovely opportunity.

I cant wait to see how this plot get transformed.

Some more background information:  I walk past Plot 33 every time I visit the allotments, as it is right beside the gate.  

Firstly, this means that I have had the chance to observe it evolving for the c. 12 years I've been visiting. I was on friendly terms with the previous plot holder too.

Also, it will be convenient being by the gate when wider  community members visit, as the site is relatively long & narrow. The site is also secluded, being surrounded on all sides by tall trees, and beyond those, houses on two sides, and a canal on the other two sides.  This means, lower theft rates e.g. of Brussels sprouts at Christmas & so on ..

Plus, I know the overall site history and conditions: over 100 years as allotment gardens; reasonably well drained on the side furthest from the canal (which we are); visited by e.g. heron, pigeons, mice, foxes and badgers, as well as domesticated cats; typical weather conditions e.g. urban heat island effect.

As for specifics, I think the shade on the West of the plot is a bit too profound: the fruit trees are growing asymetrically toward the East.  I am minded to slightly lift the canopy, as the tall trees are mostly ash & sycamore so forgiving & lacking edible fruit.  In late winter, as the inedible-to-us fruit is ending, I will also take back the encroaching English ivy towards the fence.  This will improve access & air circulation too.

All the fruit is going to need attention: strawberry runners to clear around & transplant; raspberry canes, presumed tayberry, currants to carefully prune I'm case they are wrongly identified! Purple gooseberries need some restoration pruning. Grapevine needs a substantial re-shape! All of these I intend to try to propagate too, for myself and for the community.

We have already done a restoration prune on the presumed damson, as this apparently reduces their susceptibility to fungal infection compared to autumn pruning.

Then the apples & pears need a light prune too.

Besides all this, we need to cut some paths into the long grass, mulch around the fruit, and edit out the unwanted volunteers including dozens of second year sycamore seedlings ...

We also have herbs around the grapevine: a lot of green sage, a rosemary hanging in there, and I think a fair bit of marjoram.  I will have to ask our community food project if they are interested in fresh herbs (they almost always have used dried so far, donations of fresh being rare).

So, lots to do, and of course, lots more to observe from closer proximity. Oh, and I caught up with another gardening neighbour today who is keen to visit, so will hopefully help out in due course!

Ac Baker wrote:
As for specifics, I think the shade on the West of the plot is a bit too profound: the fruit trees are growing asymetrically toward the East.  I am minded to slightly lift the canopy, as the tall trees are mostly ash & sycamore so forgiving & lacking edible fruit.  In late winter, as the inedible-to-us fruit is ending, I will also take back the encroaching English ivy towards the fence.  This will improve access & air circulation too.

All the fruit is going to need attention: strawberry runners to clear around & transplant; raspberry canes, presumed tayberry, currants to carefully prune I'm case they are wrongly identified! Purple gooseberries need some restoration pruning. Grapevine needs a substantial re-shape! All of these I intend to try to propagate too, for myself and for the community.

We have already done a restoration prune on the presumed damson, as this apparently reduces their susceptibility to fungal infection compared to autumn pruning.

Then the apples & pears need a light prune too.

Besides all this, we need to cut some paths into the long grass, mulch around the fruit, and edit out the unwanted volunteers including dozens of second year sycamore seedlings ...

We also have herbs around the grapevine: a lot of green sage, a rosemary hanging in there, and I think a fair bit of marjoram.  I will have to ask our community food project if they are interested in fresh herbs (they almost always have used dried so far, donations of fresh being rare).

So, lots to do, and of course, lots more to observe from closer proximity. Oh, and I caught up with another gardening neighbour today who is keen to visit, so will hopefully help out in due course!

It sounds like a lot to do, but I think you have the right idea!

Sycamore and Ash, I agree they have to go, too much shade to keep around. Sycamore is a serious shade tree, so unless it's right on the north edge of the plot I think it ought to come down. Ash might be useful for coppice if it comes down too, those might make good grapevine poles or fencing, though it's a bit slow to rely on that coppice for the restoration you're working on.

Since you have a set of volunteers, I would suggest making some month-by-month tasks. Depending on your zone, maybe November is a good time to transplant the dormant raspberries and grapes, which means you want to prepare the transplant destination ahead of time. So I might write

September - clear tree saplings in raspberry area

October - cut back grasses in raspberry area and paths

November - cut back and transplant raspberry crowns

With all the pieces in motion, you will probably have several tasks lined up for each month, which you can share with your volunteers and make short term plans for.

I would love to see more of the plot, especially once the unwanted growth is cut back and only the more welcomed food producers remain. I would also enjoy seeing a map of the plot and where the sun hits.

Alan Burnett wrote:

It sounds like a lot to do, but I think you have the right idea!

Sycamore and Ash, I agree they have to go, too much shade to keep around. Sycamore is a serious shade tree, so unless it's right on the north edge of the plot I think it ought to come down. Ash might be useful for coppice if it comes down too, those might make good grapevine poles or fencing, though it's a bit slow to rely on that coppice for the restoration you're working on.

Thank you, Alan.  Unfortunately, the sycamore and ash are rooted in the gardens that back onto the allotments, so we can't take them down.  Also, they are too the West, hence the problems of trying to use this plot for annual vegetables.    

So as I say, I'll just be able to lift the canopy along the fence line.  We have two fairly good telescopic tree pruning tools (which I wouldn't want to entrust to a volunteer) that should reach c. 4m maximum.

Alan Burnett wrote:
Since you have a set of volunteers, I would suggest making some month-by-month tasks. Depending on your zone, maybe November is a good time to transplant the dormant raspberries and grapes, which means you want to prepare the transplant destination ahead of time. So I might write

September - clear tree saplings in raspberry area

Good call, most of these are seedlings thankfully, but some digging required.   Also, time to tidy up the strawberries.

Alan Burnett wrote:
October - cut back grasses in raspberry area and paths

November - cut back and transplant raspberry crowns

I used to consider October the start of soft fruit transplanting season (other than strawberries).  But we tend to have warmer Octobers than we used to.  

Alan Burnett wrote:
With all the pieces in motion, you will probably have several tasks lined up for each month, which you can share with your volunteers and make short term plans for.

I would love to see more of the plot, especially once the unwanted growth is cut back and only the more welcomed food producers remain. I would also enjoy seeing a map of the plot and where the sun hits.

Once we've got thing tidier, I'm planning to document further over the winter.  

Also, I'm going to experiment with a new-to-me ground-cover plant, which does well on our site.  We don't have any grazing animals kept on site, which would be the only contra-indication as far as I can tell: Medicago lupulina (black medick).   I'm looking for bulk 'straw-like' crops to help my low-dig potato growing, and a leguminous hay which would only seed in valuable ground-cover for the following year sounds promising.

"Black medick can be grown as an annual, biennial or short lived perennial and used as a .. green manure or hay crop."
https://agricology.co.uk/resource/manifold-green-manures-part-3-black-medic-and-lucerne/

A short update:  We have had enough rain to soften the ground at last. But we have also had a rather cool week, with the threat of air frost.

Thankfully, there's no sign of frost damage, and the weather has turned warmer again this weekend.  So we are hopeful that the grapes will finish ripening.  The bunches and grapes are small, presumably due to the lack of pruning.  Apparently, late winter or early spring is the time to remedy that.

There is one tree with a good apple crop, and a few pears on the two pear trees.  None seem quite ripe yet. But I have been offered the excess apples from another plotholder, who has more than they know what to do with.  So with luck, apples may be our first donation to the Black-led Mutual Aid food project in our ward.

Also, I have started extending specific invitations to interested neighbours to visit the plot, now we've found and tidied the path.   I'm going to encourage people to visit before fall of leaf, as the plot looks more interesting now than it will again before mid-spring.

I have determined that the soil is tending to be silty.  This may be more like the unimproved state of the land.  We know that our other plot, 32, was lovingly tended for up to 30 years before we took it on in 2013. Lots of organic matter was vigorously incorporated by all accounts.  So, I plan to top-dress with compost liberally as we clear the more troublesome volunteer plants (sycamore saplings!) from the once-and-future vegetable patch.

Ooh pears! That's lovely too! Harvesting fruit might be nice for volunteers to help with.

Hard pruning of grapes is usually best done when dormant in winter - if you leave it too long the plants can bleed badly (I think you can collect the sap like birch and maple sap...). In summer you can prune back the new growth though to keep it under control (they can put on a lot of growth).

I remember Martin Crawford saying that ash were the most problem weeds in his forest garden....I have killed a sycamore sapling by repeated rubbing out of new growth during the growing season - that might be an option if you have ones in useful places for structures perhaps. It saves digging the roots out.

Nancy Reading wrote:Ooh pears! That's lovely too! Harvesting fruit might be nice for volunteers to help with.

Oh, yes.   Only about 8 pears this year, but I'm hoping next year (with judicious pruning) the two trees should do better.

Nancy Reading wrote:Hard pruning of grapes is usually best done when dormant in winter - if you leave it too long the plants can bleed badly (I think you can collect the sap like birch and maple sap...). In summer you can prune back the new growth though to keep it under control (they can put on a lot of growth).

Very good points, I'll look up about the sap.   So, before mid-February around here probably for the hard prune for the grapes.

Nancy Reading wrote:I remember Martin Crawford saying that ash were the most problem weeds in his forest garden....I have killed a sycamore sapling by repeated rubbing out of new growth during the growing season - that might be an option if you have ones in useful places for structures perhaps. It saves digging the roots out.

I'm hoping to get to most of them before they get too difficult to uproot.  The main trees are unfortunately rooted in the gardens of the houses next to the site.   But yes, I can see in the gardens all around here, that ash and sycamore are problem weeds.   A lot of people don't seem to realise what problems they're going to cause until they're already needing professional attention ..

Meanwhile, one of my lovely neighbours has anonymously donated two whole trees (dwarf rootstock, one grafted with two varieties, so three varieties in total) of apples.  Today, I was able to donate the first crate of sorted, cleaned apples - about 100, enough for just about everyone we're supporting - to the local food scheme.  They were delighted!

Spring is finally arriving: we now know we have three rhubarb crowns, as their first leaves are emerging. So we're feeding this with some home-made compost, and will add comfrey trimmings later.

We've given the curtain of English ivy a 'short back and sides' to open up light & air to the dwarfing rootstock fruit trees. This has reclaimed 2m of path against the boundary fence too.  You can get an impression from this photo of our first fruit blossoms, bullace we think. The trees in the picture are two plums & two pears.

Also, the robin whose territory this is, has been nagging for worms.  We have a lot of volunteer plants to exit out, mostly focken, dandelions .. and sycamore one year seedings!

Hi Ac,
Cute robin! They are always please to see a gardener

There is still a lot of overhang on that ivy. Pity the trees are planted so close to that boundary; the soft fruit would have been far more tolerant of a shady location. Hopefully what you have done will help them a bit though.
If you get any bullace suckers I wouldn't mind one please. It's one form of plum that doesn't seem to be as widely available, but being a native plant (I think) is more likely to grow well for me.

Nancy Reading wrote:Hi Ac,
Cute robin! They are always please to see a gardener

Oh, yes: the gardener's friend, indeed.

Nancy Reading wrote:There is still a lot of overhang on that ivy. Pity the trees are planted so close to that boundary; the soft fruit would have been far more tolerant of a shady location. Hopefully what you have done will help them a bit though.

Yeah, the trees are only about 2 m from the boundary and thus also the sycamore that the ivy is growing through.   This was designed by our friend who formerly had the plot, so I didn't have any input.  We do plan to see how they go this year, mulch the trees with as much hand-chipped branch wood as we can, and potentially cut the ivy back a bit more in a year.  I have lots of ivy on my original plot growing over the shed that wasn't growing there ten years ago.  So I like to think that's a bit of a trade-off in terms of habitat and food source.

Nancy Reading wrote:If you get any bullace suckers I wouldn't mind one please. It's one form of plum that doesn't seem to be as widely available, but being a native plant (I think) is more likely to grow well for me.

I believe I have one that could come your way this Spring .. it's only about 1 m tall at the moment.  Of course, I'm not 100% sure of the ID, but I'd say I'm 90% sure?