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Guerilla Gardening in Western Washington - Fruit Trees/Perennials

 
Posts: 12
Location: Bonney Lake, WA (Zone 8a)
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With Spring quickly approaching, I want to try some guerrilla gardening.

What are some Masanobu Fukuoka style perennials that I can just plant and forget in Western Washington? (Besides Himalayan Black Berry). I am interested in both scattering true to type seeds, and even planting some small fruit trees. The main thing is that I will not be able to care for these plants or water them, so they must be resilient in our climate. Since nobody waters our forests, I know this is possible.

I want to plant edibles and harvest them later with little to no maintenance. Fortunately we have a fairly wet climate.


 
pollinator
Posts: 1703
Location: Western Washington
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Oh there's lots of stuff. Give me some time to think. It also depends what you are going for. Also some transplants thrive on neglect. Like strawberries. A day planting strawberries into a scrub grass field will yield strawberries for decades. They've got hella persistent runners and don't need much looking after unless they are in tilled fields, in which case they need water.
 
Posts: 310
Location: Seattle, WA, USA
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I have guerilla-planted fruit trees but had to water them during the first few years. It is difficult to keep young trees alive during our dry season July - September.
Plants that thrive on STUN: comfrey, burdock, j-choke, mint, raspberries, filbert
 
Landon Sunrich
pollinator
Posts: 1703
Location: Western Washington
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nettles
nettles
nettles

foxglove
many mustards
And I'm becoming a super fan of wild arugula types.
 
Posts: 947
Location: Graham, Washington [Zone 7b, 47.041 Latitude] 41inches average annual rainfall, cool summer drought
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Despite what people like to say about required maintenance, Apple Trees can grow like weeds here.

Find some way to give it protection from deer [for example, by using a sheet of plywood to squish down a patch of himalayan blackberries long enough to get in there and plant the sapling and get back out] and in time it will fruit assuming there are pollinators in the area.

On that note, crabapples [of edible cultivars] are likely an even better bet than the domestic species. They tend to provide FAR more food for the pollinators around, ripen more easily and more easily overcome disease attacks.
 
pollinator
Posts: 1781
Location: Victoria BC
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Having seen a few reports and examples of volunteer fruit trees springing up in the middle of blackberry thickets, I have vague plans of saving some plum pits and apple cores and flinging them into such thickets. About as low effort as it gets!
 
Posts: 3
Location: Portland, OR
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This is coming from a Forest Restoration specialist. Please keep in mind that whatever you put in the woods has the potential to spread and seriously affect the local environment. Foxglove is already heavily invasive along the Sandy River and other parts of Oregon and comfrey isn't even sold in most nurseries because of it's history of invasive tendencies. Some plants are great for the home garden, but some plants left unchecked can cause serious harm to the local ecosystem (like Himalayan Blackberry, Reed Canary Grass, Foxglove, Cherry and Plum etc.) I know some of these are excellent food producers, but they don't produce the kind of food our native wildlife need and this leads to environmental degradation. Take a look at the invasive species list for your area and please consider avoiding planting any fast spreading plants like mints. Invasive species really are a problem as they limit the growing potential of very sensitive local flora which in turn decreases wildlife habitat, diversity and viability. Be conscientious and happy planting!
 
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