Kate Staron

Oh, Southeast Va. Read hot, muggy, wet (except when it forgets to rain for a month.) In the summer temp and humidity tend toward 90's.
According to the site I bought at - anna was the female and meader was the male.

I'm in zone 7b as of last year's hardiness zone, zone 8 as of this year. soil tend toward clay and most of the yard is fairly soft from burrowing critters (not sure which)

I got a pair of Actinidia - Anna and Meader cultivars (looks like that might make it A. arguta Hardy kiwi not arctic? Are the two terms used interchangeably?)

alas, my blender doesn't fit my mason jars. however I use a hand blender and a stainless steel "utensil container" to make smoothies. Also can blend soups right on the stove.

So, I was inspired by this site to get some food guilds in my yard using the existing trees as a base. I've got a red maple, white oak, and pin oak. The white oak gets the most sun.
I just ordered some arctic kiwi plants. I originally thought I was going to use it on the maple tree, but observing today, it's getting the least sun of the three trees, so I may be putting it on the white oak.

I hope to add some berries, thinking raspberry or cranberry and such to fill out the guild.

For anyone that has the kiwi vines:

How best to train it to the tree? I heard letting it spiral would be bad for the tree.

Assuming it vines longer than the eight feet, where the first branch of the tree is, is it possible for me to let it droop, or do I need to figure out where to put another support to bring it across and down?

If I need more support, how much?

Is there any special planting/watering/pruning care this needs? (I've read it need more than a bit of pruning, but I'm not sure if that applies to a forest type garden)

Anything surprise you about the plant? (Good or bad)


Thanks for any advice. I'm usually quite bad with plants, but I'm trying to get my head around permaculture and how to make it a reality on my little lot.