edible forest garden

Hello everybody this will be my first post. I have been browsing the forums for a while and they are a wealth of knowledge. I have also read Gaia's garden and will soon be reading the two volumes of edible forest gardens.

I am in the middle of purchasing a 2.5 acre piece of land. It used to be farmand but I would say that it has been uninhabited for 40 years +. Has various hardwoods, that are approx 10 - 18 inches in diameter, with some really big whoppers here and there. I plan on putting a strawbale home on this property but there are many roadblocks before we break ground.

My idea is to start planting my forest garden in areas that will be undisturbed once construction starts. A dug well is located on the property and I surmise I could put some type of pump on this, solar preferable that would fill up an elevated barrel when the sun is out and then gravity feed it to where it is needed. My primary areas of focus will be fruit and nut trees, both full size and dwarf, perennial vegetables, black berries and raspberries. I am looking for feedback on guilds that include these. Also any suggestions and criticism on my current plans.

Thanks for reading! 

think you might be a little warmer than i am at my Michigan home..zone 4/5 here..but you sound like you are close to my growing conditions.

I think the plan sounds wonderful, esp for the water..haven't done anything solar here for pumping or heat or elec as we live in a place where sun is  not consistant..but i would like to so share in the future how you do your solar pumping of your water, i'd be interested in trying to do it sometime in the future..usually people around here use wind to pump.

the forest gardens is something i'm slowing getting into here as half of my property is a forest area..mixed hardwoods (mostly ash, oak and maple) with soft woods (beech, aspen, cherry and alder)..we have a high water table.

i am also replanting fruit trees and nut trees here on our property as a house fire and the insuing construction destroyed a lot of my orchards and gardens...i'm also replacing an area of raised bed garden i lost in 2002..this year..lots of good hard backbreaking work.

welcome and good to have you here

I'm guessing the lack of response is because the response would fill many books!  So, not just something that would it into a post. 

I would like to suggest that you start a thread for each guild you would like to start.  Trees might best be started up in the woodland forum.  The threads could even be titles something like "all about raspberries" and the thread could then cover lots of aspects of raspberries including what would be good guild plants.

The property edges might be a good place to start.You probably wont be doing much building right on the edge.Selecting wich trees to cut and what vegetation to remove in order to create space for other stuff might help .

If you want to get into berries, check to see if currants and gooseberries are allowed.  They are in my town outside of Boston.  They tend to be banned in more rural areas unfortunately.

I'm picking up a big order of these from Nourse Farms in the next week or two.

Protractedly observe movement of water on land and in the soil and its relation to natural productivity and diversity.  Contemplate and research effects and patterns of canopy gaps.

you can't buy them in Michigan but the black currants grow wild here..right along side the white pines that they are said to damage (blister rust)...we have had no problem with either the blister rust or the pines in any way..so i guess our currants are OK? Which I am thankful for cause i love the black currants ..a lot

Before planting new trees, you might see if the species currently there are suitable for grafting what you want. Hawthorn and crabapple are both able to support standard orchard varieties. A branch or two of scion will be established and productive a whole lot sooner, and for less cost, than a transplanted tree.