I'm working on filling my property with useful plants and especially nitrogen fixers and biomass mulch plants.
Some of these I have
experience with, others I'm reading up on.
If anyone has some interesting or useful thoughts or experience to share on any of these I would much appreciate it.
I have several places I'll be planting these.
For now I plan on filling my food forest with most of them just to try them out.
The garden/under fruit trees/paths will get some but not all.
Here are my thoughts, please share if I'm off on these uses in any way.
Trees/Shrubs:
Black Locust- Interplant around property, food forest, hedges, source of future
wood fuel
Siberian
Pea shrub- Woody chop and drop candidate, interplant around property, in food forest, near
chicken coop, hedge candidate
False Indigo- Mulching, interplant with seedling
trees, strategic spots in garden
New Jersey Tea Plant-No experience here, supposed tea substitute, but I was surprised that it's a nitrogen fixer too.
Fragrant False Indigo- Lower growing, plan for possibly using under fruit trees, as barrier mulch plants for annual beads to fight off grasses/weeds
Illinois Bundle Flower- Very excited for this one, appears to be a useful plant with mulching potential, possible forage crop for the
chickens
Wild Senna-Same here
Showy Tick Trefoil-Trying it out, I know about the sticky burrs, to be honest this one may be used as a pioneer species when I clear out a bunch of buckthorn form certain areas of the property.
Annual Shrubs/Vines
Partridge Pea- No thoughts other than it's an annual I could plant under taller things and help
feed them with.
Trailing Wild Bean- Vine that I'm hoping is more vigorous than the garden varieties. We'll see.
Perennial groundcover/lowgrowing
Prairie Turnip- Amazing potential from reading up on it. A perennial tuber that also fixes nitrogen and competes with grasses. Could be planted on the edges of my garden , anyone grow/eat/heard of it?
Birdsfoot trefoil- Vigorous grower supposedly, I'd like to try it on paths to mow and for out competing grasses and weeds in other areas.
Crown Vetch-Have this already, plan to "plug" it in areas I'd like to see devoid of weeds/buckthorn/grass, or to establish for erosion control
White clover- Last year I used this in the path areas of my garden and it did well. Took long to establish though and did die off quickly in the fall, it's easy
enough to trim with a mower on it's highest wheel setting or with a cheapo electric string trimmer. Nice on the feet when it's not too wet.
Annual groundcovers
Red Clover- no experience, supposedly will winterkill right? I'm hoping so and will use it to re-invigorate/recapture my annual beds in weedy spots
Fenugreek- Herb, I think low growing, I'll experiment in annual beds.
Winter Peas-I used these last year with some success along with turnips. Not as vigorous weed suppression as I liked, but the soil looked good this fall.
Debating whether to plant
Two-Grooved
Milk Vetch- Selenium accumulator that supposedly stinks and is poisonous. I thought it might be worth planting to deter
deer from grazing in certain spots, but after reading up on it I may not bother. Seems like a
native plant that has it's place, but maybe not in my edible forest forest or garden.
Cheers!