My As-Of-Yet-Unnamed AWESOME Gardening System

Missed the livestream (was over watching Edible Acres live, and no notification popped, as usual) but the concept you’re talking about is pretty much what I am working on. The difference is I am putting a couple traditional beds of annuals (30″ beds) between tree rows. My aim is to get some spackled shade in summer for part of the day at least. Too hot in the sun! Plus, I like trees. The tree rows will have food forest style mixes with the trees. The beds between will be either annual in some places, and perennials in others.

I put out my first black locusts a couple weeks ago in my first tree row.. They seem okay so far, though hidden in the winter rye for now. Grew them from seed so they are about 2″ high. I put them 12′ apart with room for something else between. Maybe this row will get mulberries. Haven’t decided.

I do want bananas, but don’t have any going quite yet.

Your sources for ideas are pretty much the same as mine. I throw in Edible Acres too, and I get my syntropic theory via Agroforestry Academy who are Gauci students. And using some JADAM/KNF stuff to get the beds working, biochar, etc. And I run some chickens in tractors over areas where I am making new beds.

I am using even wider paths too. I plan to let them grow and mow them. May experiment with some very low clovers. Right now they are (ick) bare subsoil mostly since I forked the beds, then turn what topsoil there is from the walkways up onto the beds. So far seems to help with the occasional torrential rain issue flooding the beds. Do need to get something covering that ground or erosion will be an issue. Guess I can scatter some ryegrass seed soon… real soon.

I’m pretty much in the same zone as you are. My soil looks a LITTLE better (been sitting as bush-hogged field for years, I am told) and I am finding some buried wood from clearing/bush-hogging that means some organic matter in top 5″ or so. Below that it’s sand/clay mix which drains unless compacted by cement trucks… Then the clay makes a solid layer, it appears. Spot where trucks turned behind my new little house is a 3-6″ pond for the moment.

OK, something else to go with that last one:

Garden of Eatin’