I have been planting hostas, strawberries and rhubarb under our fruit trees.
I am expecting that one day it will be so thick with these plants and if I crush them while harvesting fruit off of the trees, I'll use the plants as natural live
mulch material. They die back when winter comes anyways, Yes, some will get damaged, but I figure they are vigourous plants and will survive the beating & trampling during the tree fruit harvesting time and resprout in the spring. I love using baby hosta leaves as an addition to salads & soups.
If you want your husband to keep harvesting the fruit off of the trees, then don't worry about what gets crushed. You do not want to discourage him from doing anything in the garden in fear of "destroying" your plants. Whatever gets crushed, then just use them as chop & drop material.