Fruit Tree Guild, Revisited

In June I blogged about how to plant a fruit tree guild, and gave the example of one I was planting by the Fowl Fortress.  I thought I’d show you how it matured.

This was the area four months ago.  Heavy, sticky clay taken over with Bermuda grass.  A struggling apple tree begs for my help.  A star jasmine climbs the side of the Fowl Fortress.  A portion of the brown subterranean irrigation system lies aboveground.

Using permaculture design, I created a plant guild with herbs and vegetables that would build the soil and help the apple tree.

Strawberries went around the trunk of the tree for groundcover and grass competition.  Comfrey, a valuable nutrient accumulator in there, too, for slash and drop fertilization.  There is also a perennial basil, marjoram, gourds, golden runner bean (a nitrogen fixer), garlic chives, a prostrate rosemary and a tomato, along with other flower seeds.   This is how it looks now from the same vantage point:

Polyculture beds produce abundant, insect-confusing food guilds which help fertilize and water each other and improve the soil quality.  Meanwhile the apple tree has a few apples on it and looks healthier than it has been.  Next year’s growth should be drastically improved, and the amount of invasive grasses should be nil.  If I don’t grow consecutive annual crops here around the perennial plants, I will sheet mulch the bed.