Permaculture + food growing vs. Planting natives

Around here we have very often the discussion weather one should plant natives or grow edibles.
While you can decide that for your own garden, there are public spaces to be planted too.
It is very easy to convince the city council to plant natives or give the plants for a planting action,
it is very difficult to convince planting edible plants. Bushcare is everywhere and they want natives only.
Apple trees are a pest because birds spread the seeds. Fruit trees generally do make bigger fruit eating birds move in
at the expense of smaller birds. Olives are spread by birds and so on.
The trucks, the spraying and packaging of fruit never seems to be an argument, because they say that people can build
bird protected orchards in their gardens.
Were is the bigger environmental impact?

Permaculturalists generally opt for the plant that will get the job done. Bill Mollison has said he only uses plants native to this planet.

Towns trying to eradicate "invasives" are larger consumers of herbicides.

i think it isn't one or the other. I live in a forest that i almost all native plants and it is one of the last bishop pine forests left. I am very mindful of what I plant and where I plant it and also I like to look at what native plants are also food plants and have lots of them. This is a fabulous place to grow berries and I adore berries so I am growing lots of different berries most of which are native here. I also have none native fruit trees. pomegranate and apple trees and a weeping mullberry tree to turn into a children's living play house as it grows. I like to plant food plants that would not work here permanently that if I leave the deer will probably eat up and the native plants can move back in. and the more invasive species like Jerusalem artichokes I will probably grow in containers or if I grow them in the ground I will choose a variety that does not spread much. for public spaces many people here feel the same as where you live but in San Francisco there is a gorilla grafting movement going on to graft fruit tree branches onto many of the city trees and there is a public park in San Jose that is an edible food forest!

most of the parks here without fruit trees still have bigger birds like crows hanging out waiting for people to drop food they bring in for picnics or children have as snacks.

When I took Geoff Lawton's online PDC last year, my final design project was my neighborhood. I came to look at the 160 acres of my 'hood as a unit. When I did this, I realized that at least in my extremely hot and dry climate, food-producing trees in public spaces were not always the best choices. Why? Because they often require more maintenance or resources (water, pruning, protection from superheated environments such as roadways, replacement) than native trees. Also, in my climate, many fruit trees need additional water and by being in Zone 1, they can tap into greywater sources (laundry, shower/tub, sink) and are close to many opportunities to harvest additional rainfall off impervious surfaces such as roofs, patios and driveways.

In terms of policy and cities getting on board with edible trees in public spaces - therein lies the challenge. One must make a case and take it to the city. Usually one has to do some experimenting to make sure the idea is sound. Sometimes the efforts are guerilla efforts (like those in SF). For example, we probably would not be where we are today in terms of stormwater harvesting practices along public right-of-ways if it hadn't been for Brad Lancaster and his brother, Rod, creating some guerilla curbcuts and infiltration basins. Now, 15 years later, that idea has proven so successful that whole neighborhoods in Tucson, Arizona employ a variety water harvesting features, from traffic slowing chicanes and roundabouts to streetside curbcuts and basins. Tucson has become the first desert city to achieve the coveted "Emerald City" award. And now that Tucson has approved these Green Infrastructure (GI) methods, it can (and IS) spread to other cities like Phoenix where I live.

But it all started with a series of experiments. And it took root because of the concerted work of many people over a number of years. Cities rarely pay attention to something that is not tried and tested.

We need to plant our food crops to feed ourselves.  We need to keep natives to support the ecosystem in which we live and on which we depend.  We need to do both.  Each on our own piece of land, and together as communities and a country.  A stellar resource on the importance of Native Plants is Douglas Tallamy, for those who want more information.  Of course, native plants that produce edible food for humans are win-win!  Skills of observation and a knowledge-base of the plants around us are vital.  Depending 100% on distant industrial food factories is frighteningly ignorant.  Support local small (clean) farms!  Also, try growing some of your own food.  It is an eye-opener and door-opener to the natural world.

We can gradually reduce the proportion of  turf grass and ornamentals, by planting some natives each year. Every native plant is edible to something in the local ecosystem, and so contributes.  Bring in native berry and nut plants that produce human-edibles and use them for the landscape - hedges, islands, groundcovers.  They take minimal tending because they BELONG.  Be aware that they will get eaten by native caterpillars and insects - that is the sign that the food web is working!  After installation, the new natives Just need watering & shade when small or in drought, harvesting, occasional interventions for weeding, pruning or cleanup.  Within a small yard's polycultural diversity, the bets on what survives are hedged.  Some plants will be happy*.  Time becomes a friend, as the plantings grow and mature each year, all on their own!

During the growing season, we can also LEARN to grow and rotate the families of the annual veggies that we eat.  The tomatoes, potatoes, beans, squash, crucifers, lettuce, herbs will be proud contributions to the dinner plate.  Growing our own food teaches us SO MUCH.  I learned how much I don't know, and how important fertile deep soil is for nonnative grocery-store crops.  Also sufficient rainwater.  I learned to appreciate farmers, and I joined into a CSA agreement.  I also learned the importance of knowing how to forage and prepare wild edibles!  These are all ancient skills that humans had for millennia.  Growing and foraging/harvesting food taps into a part of our brain that has been waiting to be used.  You can feel the link to your ancestors as your hands pick the berries or unearth potatoes.  You feel the thrill of Life when a plant sprouts, grows, fruits, and multiplies the one seed into 10 or 100.  It IS sometimes hot, sweaty, buggy, dirty, achey, frustrating.  But there is always progress, and we can each go at our own pace.  Plants want to grow.  We want food.

*Many plants produce more/only when there is cross-pollination.  This means that a minimum of two individuals - not vegetative clones - must be grown within pollinating distance from one another.  Also, small plants that are unhappy can generally be moved to a more suitable spot of  sun, heat, moisture.   This will set them back, but give them a better chance of survival.   More fun comes after the plant has matured: propagation!  A few plants can be multiplied into many more each year.  Cuttings or dug offsets/suckers can be grown into clones for planting elsewhere or trading.  Seeds can be saved and planted too, but this introduces more variability (+/-) and takes more knowledge of how to store to maintain viability, and how to incubate to allow germination.  Seeds have amazing and diverse mechanisms of life stasis and expansion.

It’s hard to find examples of community gardens and food forests on public land that thrive for more than a decade, because they do require management that local governments are not equipped to provide. Even if there is good community engagement in the beginning, to get it off the ground, there has to be someone (a group of someones) each year to pick back up and carry on the work. And at least one person with enough commitment to the project to lead it and organize that volunteer labor and make decisions about what to add and remove. So that’s why pseudo public gardens/food forests that are actually run by some non-government organization can perform better, when there is continuity and a source of people to do the work (and eat the food!).

Edible native plants are a great compromise for public land. The funding and will are there, and upkeep is less demanding. Still some education is required, to prevent city workers from contaminating the plants and to allow & encourage the plants to be eaten. Where I live, it’s legal to forage on public lands, but in many places it’s not (or required a license/permit). There are tons of really great native edible plants here and I think there must be in most places? But it can be hard to find them available through plant nurseries. That must be why some government agencies propagate their own.