Stanton de Riel

Looks like maybe Spanish Lime (Melicoccus bijugatus). It won't be winter-hardy above south Florida, if that's what it is.

Best thrifty support depends on durability wanted -- if only for a couple of years, unprotected bamboo would do, but for longer, perhaps a PVC pipe (bottom end closed!) protector, long enough to protrude above the soil line. Insert choice of pole (old wooden broom handle, perhaps, painted with polyurethane for ultimate service life); wire on a durable moisture collar to keep the pipe interior dry (a bit of bike tire innertube, perhaps). Dress exterior of pole with sphagnum moss or coconut coir, held tightly on with1/2" black bird netting. Plastic snowplow marking poles are durable, but too thin and slick to hold the coir well. (Am I preaching the coir to you...?) Only a huge specimen would feed though the aerial roots, as well as the buried ones. But perhaps they uptake water (as well as support ascension)?

Here's a publicity headline: "Wilder Green Roofing: A Little Prairie on the House".

(Laura Ingalls Wilder is the author of the Little House on the Prairie book series)

Alas, most of the tropicals you might wish to grow want not only light, but also heat and humidity to do well. Some other issues you might see with tropicals, grown indoors here in the temperate zone, are: minor nutrient deficiencies, and insect pests, typically scale (on citrus) and whiteflies (on pineapples). Additionally, you need to be mindful of the pollination requirements, if you want fruit. Avocados, for example, require two cultivars that must have complementary flowering patterns (it's quite complex); most other fruit requires only two two separate cultivars blooming at the same time. You must hand-pollinate, though, if they're flowering in winter (as citrus may).
I'd go with citrus (grafted only, seedlings are tall and very thorny!), and perhaps cultivars of Barbados cherry (Malpighia glabra), which has small but delicious fruit. Also, carambola (star-fruit) takes well to containerization.
Avocados must also be grafted; seedlings will easily top your space without deigning to bloom.
Don't grow pineapples from the tops (crowns); the result will be miniaturized fruit. Use only root-suckers, as is done commercially. Your nursery source should know the difference (it's an epigenetic effect, and fruit sizes may be arbitrarily scaled up and down by propagation from tissue from bottom or top of the plants).
If you have further questions on specific species, query me at: stanton.deriel@yahoo.com
-- Stan

Catherine G.,
I doubt that that Brassica stem will be long-term durable for a walking-stick, not enough lignan glueing the cellulosic fibers, would split and delaminate. Ordinary wood is more durable (and least labor in stripping, staining, polyurethaning); perhaps the ultimate in flexible fracture resistance is cornelian-cherry (prized for drumming rappers, but hard to find in walking-stick sizes), for rigid strength hawthorn would be my choice (dense, but gives a fine pattern of limb-scar knobs). Most of my work is in sweetgum, it's the prevalent vine-wrapped species hereabouts (lightweight, easy to carve to shape). You are always balancing weight vs. durability!
Technical tip: for those pesky fibers that stick out after cross-grain carving: a quick pass high over a gas flame will flash them off without changing the main stick surface.

the technology (berming, hugelkultur, capturing/excluding flood waters, crop strategies) etc. are all secondary to the math of expected Return on Investment (ROI). Because depth of flooding is statistically predictable (even extrapolating for climate change), and optimal response (maximal ROI) is to each depth category, most likely a spatially-distributed mix of responses will yield the best long-term ROI while avoiding total annual disasters (no-crop returns)? This is a multi-variable optimization issue. For a quick annual crop, I wonder whether non-traditional additions (Chenopodium giganteum, for instance) might add nutritional value?

Agree that vine-wrapped sticks confer artistic presence (as well as provide a nice hand-grip). I draw-knife off the bark, fine-trim around the vines, wood-glue the vines carefully into their slots (if they can be lifted, cleaned under, so much the better), differentially stain (if drawknifing something like Carpinus, the recessed areas which retain a bit of cambium? stain dark, and the protrusive areas with no such layer remain light), and polyurethane. Very durable finish. Finally, cap the tip with a hose-clamp (prevents splitting, but allows a trifle of mushrooming beyond for cushioning). Around here (NJ) sweet gum wrapped with honeysuckle or bittersweet is most common, though not the strongest. A bonus is finding grape-counterwrapped (it winds the other direction). Will email pix directly on request (don't have on a url). -- Stan de Riel, Hamilton, NJ stanton.deriel@yahoo.com

Chaos, no. But random-positioned seeding of spp (including nitrogen fixers, mineral excavators, desired crop species, etc.), and then measurement of distances from each individual crop plant to surrounding spp., vs. the individual crop plant yield, would be a possible alternative to controlled, variable-by-variable experiments to determine what might be beneficial (you'd have a wealth of information to mine!). The trouble is, the overall effects on yield of intercropping with nitrogen fixers (for example) are well known. As are synergistic plant interactions in general.?
--Stan de Riel
Hamilto, NJ

Hi Matt, when I pull up garlic the roots extend all of about 4" down. That's not a deep enough root system to utilize the moisture-retaining capacity of the hugels, I would think?
--Stan de Riel, Gardener in NJ, especially for dooryard fruits.

We mulch ours (effectively) with several inches of wood chips a year. It's tough for most perennials to outgrow that. Jerusalem artichokes might, and violets will worm their way anywhere. But they don't like it.