Old river bed conversion

Hello

Right so there's this old riverbed. It's dried out now. I would like to convert into a food forest. Only it's invaded by
acacia saligna.

These trees are really something. They took over the area and are growing so fast. There is considerable mulch under most of them. So they have been there for a while. And there are alot of new trees growing in the river bed. Alot of the old ones are on the bank of the old river bed.

My question is where to start and how to go about it. It's a Mediterranean climate here so I'm thinking of planting carobs, olives, citrus trees, almonds, pomegranate, guava, fig, papaya, maybe some bananas and avacado also some date palms maybe. Irrigation would be very difficult so that needs to be kept to a minimum.

And what should I do with the acacia trees? They are densely packed. There is hardly anything else growing under them or even in between them. Shall I cut some down and plant the fruit trees inbetween? What is best?

Thanks

Where do you live?

Hello
Cyprus. Kyrenia

Yassou, Yusuf

You live in one of the best climates in the world, in my opinion!

That particular Acacia tree is commonly used as a wind break near dunes, apparently, to keep them from being destroyed by wind. If that is not a problem for you then there are many uses for the tree should you decide to remove them.

In an old river bed I would guess that, with cut acacia, you would be able to create wonderful Hugelkultur beds to help retain the water from what little bit of rain that falls in your area. To help manage water it would be beneficial to create some berms and swales to direct water flow as well, perhaps from the natural banks of the river and channeling the water down to hugelkultur beds which would be partially dug out and sunken as to make sure moisture retention is high. Your plant selection looks ideal! I'd add some Moringa trees, and other medicinal plants to go along with the food production. Add some Coffee trees in places where other trees will provide good shade...coffee fruit is one of my favorite! "Ice Cream Bean" is another great, beautiful, tree with a food crop. Don't forget about things like Blueberry, Mulberry, Mayhaw, Persimmon, Kiwi vines, Passion Fruit vines, Kukuri Nut (Candle Nut), Tea, and Yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria, which makes a tea like Yerba matte but is incorrectly said to cause vomiting...it does not.)

There is endless potential!