With the completion of the phase one of this job, a dated shrubby garden has been replaced by a highly productive orchard / food forest system.
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Swales, garden beds, lawn. The holy trinity.
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Citrus, companion plants and edible plants.
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This food forest is irrigated by drip lines as well as by a rainwater diversion system that passively delivers rainwater to the swales.
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Great care has been given to plant selection. A wide variety of edible plants and companion plants will produce all year round and keep pests maintenance to a minimum.
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- After a wet spring, the food forest is already producing more then a familly can eat!
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A few months after planting, the berries are already fruiting, the artichokes are ready for picking and lettuces, spinach and salad greens are abundant.
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Elderberries, sunflowers, artichokes... so much goodness!
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The fruit trees will need a few years to start producing fully. From then on though, they will bear fruits almost all year round, from loquats in early spring to Tamarillos holding their fruits all winter.
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Phase two will include a chicken yard and a structure to grow grapes. Logs inoculated with shitake and oyster mushrooms will also be buried in the mulch on the paths!
Click here for a link to a short video made in this garden at the end of its first summer
Click here for a link to see who visits this garden after only a year from planting!