Help tweak plan

I bought an adjacent lot (in town) this winter and removing an allotted garage/workshop it opened up a new 100ftx40ft playground.  
I have a friend that mastered in landscape design (specialized in wildification) and he agreed to make me up a food forest.  
He has no experience in permaculture so it is from a beauty standard.  I made several adjustments but haven't ever actually dived into a project like this, is there any blatant adjustments needed?

Kansas, Zone 6b.  Humid Subtropical.

Thanks!

Hi Matthew, Welcome to permies and congratulations on your new playground!
The plan does look pretty. It would probably give you better suggestions for improvement if you tell us your location or climate zone.

Good call, new to posting but should have known better from lurking.

6b, considered humid subtropical

Matthew Muhlig wrote:Good call, new to posting but should have known better from lurking.

6b, considered humid subtropical

How are your soil conditions?
When we started our food forest 10 years ago, we did the mistake of planting before we improved the soil, but which was more dirt than soil at that point. This meant that we lost plants, and trees. Do you have rich dark soil, or are you working with dirt, clay or maybe sand? We spend 2 years transforming dirt to soil, before we planted anything other than trees. Even now after 10 years, I am still working on improving the soil.
Other things to look for: where does you sun light hit first and during the day?
when you get wind and storms from what direction does it come from?
What are you going to do about water? Water is important not just for the plants, but also for the birds and pollinators. If you have hard winters, insects will need spots with lots of grass, they can hide in, until things warm up. Migrating Birds will need extra food just before they migrate and when they return, and the ones that stays, will need access to food.
Does it get wet enough that you can or need swales?
What tree guilds are you going to form?
Which plants are nitrogen fixers?
Are you starting with very young or more mature trees and scrubs?
What wildlife will be attracted to the area? It took a long time, before I figured out, how to co exist with our local wild life. I love our gophers now, but was frustrated in the beginning, since they kept cutting down, what we planted. Now we cover our important trees roots with metal netting, and I have planted food for the gophers close by. The gophers has proven essential in transforming our clay/sand dirt into fertile soil. They tunnel through the hard dirt, and mix in the compost and mulch we provide. If you have deers you also have to take that into consideration.
Our food forest is in a much warmer zone, since we are in Southern California in grow zone 10b, but the decisions are pretty much the same.
If you are planting very young trees, you can add temporary crops between them, until they have matured. I planted more trees last summer, and I am growing strawberries and pigeon peas in the same area, until the trees need the space.
Sun direction is important when it comes to where you place a plant. Some like morning sun, and others afternoon sun. Wind direction is important for plants, that are sensitive to wind and storms. Those would need to be planted behind a wind break.
Water is also very important and it’s easier to plan the water first, instead of last. If you get a lot of water, you can eliminate irrigation by adding swales and doing the aquatic layer of the food forest early in the process. This will save a lot of money. Not all trees are alike. They have favorites they like to grow with, so planning your scrubs, vegetables etc in the beginning is important too.
If you want to see our food forest from the start you can check out my blog here: Building a food forest on the edge of the desert
I hope this helps. Happy gardening. Keep us informed and keep asking questions.

I like Ulla suggestion of building the soil first.  Wood chips is a great start.

I also would suggest more plants that are vegetable related.  Here is a thread on perennial vegetables:

https://permies.com/t/23/perennial-vegetables/Perennial-Plants

https://permies.com/t/146448/perennial-vegetables/love-idea-perennial-vegetables

Are you against vegetables?

I rarely see a suggestion for buffalograss though it is a great option for paths.  wood chips are also good for paths.

https://permies.com/t/93789/Love-Affair-Buffalograss-Buchloe-dactyloides

Soil conditions are mixed, house was once on a chunk so that area is poor.  I do have a historical Burr Oak (historical society dated it as a sprout date of 1712, for a prairie that is amazing) on the south end which provides ample leaves and plenty of squirrels tilling each year.

The morning sun hits almost the entire lot, side from some partial shade from some black walnuts and the burr oak.  Late sun gets blocked by neighbors house/fence.  Most of the lot should get 8-10 hours a day.

Wind and storms shouldn't be much of a problem, its in a corridor that has a 6ft fence wind block via neighbor.  The other side is slight downhill and causes wind to be mild.  Once the workshop gets put in I foresee wind being almost non existent.

My hose reaches so for the first year/in drought I'm going to water the young.  Else we get enough rain for majority of plants on the list.  Serviceberry is mainly for the birds, I also have 2x apricot, cherry, peach and 5x apple on the property my house is on which is adjacent to it.  Also have pecan and black walnuts within 500ft which feeds large variety.  Grade should allow runoff to keep from flooding.

Guilds will be focused on the persimmons and pawpaws, other guilds are 100ft away on house lot.

Clover is mainly fixer, black locust will provide some on the north end.  Looking to mix in a bit more.

I also plan on abusing the spot my workshop is going on, comfrey is getting planted to pull all the nutrients out of the 28x30ft floorplan until I get the funds to build it in 4ish years.

For all trees I mixed in well aged compost, most trees are bare root ~1ft tall.  Cheap enough to eat cost and young enough to thrive if they survive the first few years.

We occasionally have gophers, planting heavy on the daffodils around main trees.  Deer might be a problem, I live in town but close enough to a creek they meander through.  Occasional ground hog too.  Squirrels are the main pest, I plan on them stealing a large chunk of my hazelnuts and fruit.  Quantity is my plan...

Strawberries are in the plan for ground cover in spots, love having them.

The blog doesn't have a link?  Do I just look it up on YouTube?

Thanks for the reply, it gives me things to consider further

Anne, thanks for the reply.

Not against veggies but I plant those in my main lot, (I'm a huge spinach and snap pea lover)
Also have a sunchoke corner.  My non-perm garden has lots of annuals too.

I do plan on adding chives, nasturtiums, borage to the guilds beneath the trees, I don't think veggies are usually in landscaping, especially here in Kansas with our winters.  Since he did it for free I didn't have him get granual in the understory spot.  I do have to be careful though because my town is pretty grumpy when it comes to unkept lawns which is the main reason I asked him for a visually pleasing setup.  I'm fashion blind so it'll be a tightrope between function and fighting off the town fines.

I hope to get wood chips this spring/summer from the local energy company as they shred trees, I asked for 4 truckloads to start!

I do quite a bit of composting with weeds and chickens; though always room for improvement.

Thanks again!

Here is the link to the blog: Building a food forest on the edge of the desert

Sun and wind conditions will help you identify your micro climates. Those micro climates will enable you to grow things you normally wouldn’t be able to.
As for the vegetables. While I do grown avocado and pigeon peas, most of the herbs and vegetables come from chaos gardening.
I have a mason jar, where I drop in expired seeds, and seeds I don’t want to grow. I also add in any herbal seeds I have left or collected. Then in February when temperatures go up and we get rain, I shake the jar and toss them all over the floor of the forest garden. I do this every year. I don’t just do it, because it’s easy and convenient, but also to create a forest floor where you can practice foraging. This year, we got a lot of arugula, Amaranth, sorghum, radishes, dill, fennel, radishes, diakon radishes, tomatoes, lettuce, a pumpkin, summer squash, mint, borage, chamomile, mallow, dead nettles, calendula, mustard and many more. Many are ones that self seeded last year. For example, I haven’t cultivated any tomatoes in three years, because they grow wild year round in the food forest garden. Another you should check out, are tree collards. They are perennial collards, that grows into something, that looks like trees. They can be tricky to get established and propagate though cuttings.
Be careful with the comfrey though. It can get invasive and are impossible to remove due to the roots. For that reason I grow my comfrey in a raised bed.
They all self seed, so each year I see more herbs and vegetables. I also toss out native wild flower mixes.
As for the squirrels, they hate capsicum, so when I have something growing, that I don’t want them to take, I spray the plant with hot sauce. I have to do this regularly, as it washes off, but it works really well.
Critters are pretty easy to manage. All you have to do, is provide them with plants they can eat, and make it difficult for them to get the ones you want to keep. Critters will always go for the easiest food source.

I'm not familiar with your climate zone, but think the winding path and trees will make a lovely area. It makes sense to have biomass accumulators as well as edible plants.
I just have a couple of thoughts:
I note you have espalier pears planned - these will need training and pruning and will be much more expensive; although will make an attractive feature. I see they are opposite grapevines, so I assume you have an arbour or other structure planned to make a feature walkway at the entrance to the workshop.
The only other point I would wonder about is the Apios. These are climbers - what will they climb? and I believe they prefer damp soil (even swampy?) I have grown them in my polytunnel and am yet to find them really thriving here - well out of their native range.
Wishing you well!

Nancy,
I have 0 experience with apios, there is a line of mature trees on that edge (technically sharing the property line with neighbors). How well do you think they'll attach to trees 2ft+ in diameter?

Espalier is something I am trying for the sake of getting experience in it, love the concept and I'm young enough that I can replant in 5 years if I end up hating the process.  Mainly just want to have another tool in the belt.  My other fruit trees planted the last few years have been test subjects for my pruning and this year I finally feel like I gave them a proper haircut for the first time (after several that took off way too much and was lacking the knowledge of using the remaining bud for direction).

I also really want to experiment with creating a landrace currant variety, the only one people have heard of here in Kansas is the clove currant, and I have never even tasted that one as it doesn't even show at farmers markets (at least from what I have seen).  I'm trying to find as many varieties of red, black, and white to intermingle with the clove and see if I can get all the colors to thrive in our limestone soil.  Or at least to see what the most interesting thing I can grow is.  The main problem is getting the varieties, I have found a single nursery within 5 hours that has one variety of black,  which is hard to justify the trip.  Online nurseries are out of stock or far too expensive, and etsy has burned me on unrooted cutting a too many times.  I'll probably add one or two a year till I get it built up!

My true plant passion is raspberries, specifically black caps.  My grandpa grew them when I was young and it is a strong memory.  He tore them out a decade ago sadly.  I bought their house and immediately reestablished the berry line, had my first tint harvest last year and it was one of the best tastes on earth.  I have 5 varieties growing in different corners of the house lot since disease can spread to black caps easy.  I look forward to trying to develop a variety specific to me, I enjoy the taste by itself but the thrill of making something new adds a bit of ooomfph to my step.