Well, nice to hear, I'm a world traveler, and wherever I've been, I found some guy from Croatia, which is quite strange for a country with only 4mil population
Sorry for OT.
You are right, there are no chestnuts on Croatian islands, but there is a large natural chestnut forest on the continental side, and some smaller chestnut forest on the north coast. Biggest difference in the climate from area without large trees and area covered with natural forest, including chestnut, is the
water. Islands are quite dry, rocky, with very little soil covering rocks. Perfect place for olives and grape wines, but not for chestnuts. I hope water is not the problem at your place, not only for large trees, but specially for berries. They also do not do well on Croatian islands, but maybe some permaculturalist could change this also.
I'm curious, what are you going to use for a Holm oak? I guess for timber, but the acorns
should also be eatable? I've eaten them as a child, and I'm just reading that it can be dried and grind into a flour. Also, it looks nice.
You place Black locust on list. It is a nice tree, nitrogen fixer, and even it is not listed as eatable, I can remember I've eaten a lot of flowers from it as a child, so this "uneatable claim" should also be rechecked, also I have to check if there are varieties that are eatable and uneatable. The reason why I didn't first consider this tree for my garden is because it's invasive, it creates suckers if tree is cut down. It is not just a belief, I've talked with older folks, they consider it as a pest and cut it whenever see it grows somewhere around the house. Now I'm thinking again if I should plant it, maybe if I don't cut it, it will grow as a regular tree. It is great nectar source for
bees, and if man could eat this flowers, it would find it's use.
Italian alder (
Alnus cordata) is for dry soils, common alder (
Alnus glutinosa) is for wet soils. So what you have? In both cases, some of plants should be reconsidered. In dry soil, some berries would not taste well. In wet soil sweet cherry fruits tend to rot while still on tree, I have one and this problem in moist years. Sour cherry is much better for wet climate.
You placed Linden under small trees. It grows up to 30m (100'). Linden has a special place in Slavic legends and culture, as they lived in linden forests. When they populated new areas, they planted linden in front of their houses. According to legends, they believed that linden will protect them from fire. So far, I can find the only use (except huge shadow and huge lumber tree after 100-150 years) is making a tea from it's flowers. It's on my list for forest garden, but it is not very fixed. I would have plenty of herbs for tea anyway, so I would like to know some other use for linden.
