Two years ago I picked up a copy of Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway. The author packs the book with intriguing ideas. I am trying to adapt many of them to my yard in Austin, Texas.
One idea is that of fruit tree centered “guilds”. Hemenway defines guilds as interdependent communities of plants with synergistic properties. He goes on to lay out some ideas for an apple-tree centered guild. I took a few of these ideas and tried them out in a much more simplified manner with the peach tree in my front yard.
Last fall I planted daffodil bulbs in a ring around the peach tree and inside the ring I broadcast Austrian winter peas as a cover crop. Daffodils, and other bulbs like alliums and camas, help suppress grasses and keep them from encroaching on the fruit tree. In addition, by the time that the fruit tree needs extra nutrients for fruit production, the bulbs will have begun to go dormant and therefore not compete directly with the tree. More importantly for me, they look good. Since I don’t like to water my lawn during Austin’s scorching summers, I need something else to appease the neighbors.
The Austrian peas are a legume that fixes nitrogen, but they also do a good job of suppressing weeds. I only counted four or five weeds that I had to pluck out of the inner ring. When the peas start to flower I will crimp them down so that they die in place and continue to form a mulch.
Admittedly, I have so far only installed a very bare bones version of the types of guilds that Hemenway promotes. Other aspects that he mentions include insect and bird attracting plants, deep tap-rooted nutrient accumulating plants such as chicory and even dandelions, pest repelling plants and habitat nooks. As I experiment with these ideas around my other fruit trees, I will add additional elements.
I started working with a garden designer a few weeks ago and she left me this book to read last week. It is fascinating!
Hi, I realize this is an old post, but I have a question. I have a permaculture guild with a peach tree as well. Do you know of a permaculture style solution for peach tree leaf curl? Is it better to leave it alone and let it resolve itself, or should I do something to try to help it along? Thanks in advance.
Vicky,
When it comes to fruit trees, I turn to Michael Phillips. In his book, The Holistic Orchard, he recommends biweekly kelp sprays beginning at bud swell, and fall spraying of neem oil and liquid fish to help keep leaf curl in check.
Good luck,
Geoff