Joao Winckler

Really interested to hear Greg's results in zone 5. I've been thinking about planting something under my apple trees that actually produces food rather than just being a ground cover, and myoga keeps coming up. The fact it handles near full shade is what appeals to me. Most edible understory plants I've tried need more sun than they actually get once the canopy fills in by midsummer.

Peach wood is great for smoking meat, gives a subtle sweet flavour that's milder than hickory or mesquite. I've used prunings from my trees and it works well. The wood is fairly hard for a fruit tree so it holds up to turning too, though the pieces tend to be small unless you let a branch get quite thick before cutting. The espalier along a fence idea is brilliant for peaches. They fruit on last year's wood so you can see exactly which branches will produce and train accordingly. Fan training against a south-facing wall works a treat in cooler climates, the reflected heat helps ripen the fruit earlier.

Interesting that they left your chard alone. I had a similar experience, they completely ignored anything in the allium family and most brassicas but absolutely hammered my sunflowers and squash leaves. The guinea fowl idea is solid if you have the space for them. A neighbour of mine runs a small flock and his grasshopper problem basically disappeared within two seasons. They patrol constantly and eat an insane amount of insects.

White clover works well in containers as a living mulch between seasons. I undersow it around my tomatoes in half barrels and just leave it over winter. Fixes nitrogen, keeps the soil from compacting, and you can chop it back in spring without pulling it. Crimson clover is another option if you want something that dies off over winter so you can replant without dealing with cutting it back. For smaller pots where space is really tight, I've had decent results just leaving the roots of previous crops in and scattering a handful of field peas on the surface in autumn. They don't take up much room but the roots do the soil building work underground.

I think the most actionable part is just paying attention to what appears when you disturb ground. The volunteers tell you a lot about what stage the soil is at. I cleared a patch last autumn that had been under grass for years, and it came up absolutely covered in fat hen and chickweed by spring. Both are pioneer species that thrive on bare disturbed soil with decent nitrogen. Told me the soil was in reasonable shape and ready for something more permanent. If I had got mostly docks and thistles I would have read that differently. It is not something you control exactly, more something you observe and let inform your next move.

I planted a couple of columnar apples last year in a narrow strip between the house and the fence where nothing else would fit. They are doing really well so far, barely any pruning needed. The only downside is pollination, since they flower at slightly different times you need to make sure you have enough varieties that overlap. I stuck three different ones in a row about a metre apart and that seems to be working.

Keep the layers in order honestly. The topsoil has microbial life and organic matter that feeds the roots as they grow out, and flipping it buries that activity where it can go anaerobic. With only 3cm of topsoil though, I would focus on building it up over time rather than rearranging what little you have. Mulch around your seedlings after planting and let the worms do the mixing for you. Over a season or two the topsoil layer gets noticeably deeper on its own.

Coriander for me. Every single time. It just bolts before I get more than a handful of leaves off it, regardless of when I sow. I have tried shade, full sun, succession sowing every two weeks, different varieties. Still bolts within about three weeks of putting on true leaves. I have basically given up and just let it go to seed now for the coriander seed instead.

I use straw mulch around my fruit trees and it does a really good job at suppressing weeds without me having to think about it. The main thing I noticed is you want it thick, like 10cm minimum, otherwise weeds just push through and you end up worse off because now they have a nice moist layer to root into. Slug pressure went up a bit the first year but once the birds figured out they could find them under there it balanced out. Curious how it works on your hugel beds since those already hold moisture so well.

Ha, that's me M Ljin is referring to. I built Leaftide partly because I had this exact problem, wanting to know where everything was planted without relying on memory or scrappy hand-drawn maps. It doesn't do the walk-and-sense thing Judith is describing though, you still place plants manually on a plot map. The GPS accuracy on phones is only good to about 3-5 metres which makes it pretty useless for individual plant positions unfortunately. For what you're describing, graph paper and a tape measure is honestly still hard to beat for accuracy.