by Sally Morgan
Wild pear Pyrus communis Small tree growing to 8m (26'), with white flowers. The fruit can be cooked or used for perry (pear equivalent of cider).
Keeping the weeds at bay will be critical to the successful establishment of the hedge, so you can either cover the ground with a 1m (3')-wide length of ground-cover fabric, and plant through this, or surround the saplings with a thick layer of mulch to suppress weeds. The recommended spacing is 40-50cm (16-20") – this is generous, as you want the plants to bear lots of fruit and nuts. If planted more closely together, they would create a tight, secure hedge, but the yield would be considerably lower. For a wider, more productive hedge, plant two staggered rows at 50cm (20") distance. If your soil quality is poor, you can boost the chances of the plants establishing well by using mycorrhizal fungi powder, which is easily applied by dipping the bare roots in the powder before planting (see page 103).
If you are using ground-cover fabric, first secure the edges by pushing them into the ground with a spade. To plant your sapling, make a slit in the membrane to the width of your spade. Then push in your spade and wiggle it to make a slit in the soil and insert your sapling, making sure that it is planted no more deeply than it was before it was uprooted (look for the old soil mark on its stem). Carefully remove the spade and firm the sapling into place with your boot. If you have rabbit problems, protect the saplings using a plastic spiral guard and bamboo cane. Once in place, trim back your saplings to about 30cm (12") so that the plants form lots of low branches, filling in the hedge.
The plants need to be pruned regularly, but don’t prune the whole hedge at once. Most hedgerow plants produce their fruit on new wood, so it’s better to prune one side of the hedge one year and the other side the next year, so you always have some branches fruiting. Keep an eye on the more vigorous ramblers, such as blackberries, as they will need to be cut back regularly to prevent them suppressing the growth of the other plants.
A newly planted edible hedgerow on our plot, which was prepared with a thick layer of mulch and covered with a membrane to keep down the weeds.
Chapter SIX
Tree crops & forest gardens
You may think the only sort of trees you have space for on your plot are fruit trees, but with careful planning it’s remarkable how many trees you can fit in to a small area. You can even grow wood for fuel, if you have a wood burner in your home.
When considering where to include trees on a small plot, you need to think about how to make best use of the space. One option is to use the space in more than one way, to get the most from the land, for example by running your chickens under a willow crop. Forest gardens – in which edible trees, shrubs and low-growing plants are combined in a natural woodland-like manner – make good use of vertical space. They can be surprisingly productive, and are not as labour-intensive as vegetable plots.
Fuel supply
The modern hybrid willows have been selected and bred for their fast growth. Some can grow 2-3m (6'6"-10') in their first year, reaching a maximum of about 10m (33') if allowed to mature. A 15m x 50m (49' x 164') strip of fast-growing willows could produce a ton of wood a year. This may not be enough to heat a whole house, but it is more than sufficient for a small wood burner that is used in the evenings and at weekends. There are many different varieties of hybrid willow, varying in their rate of growth and tolerance of different conditions as well as their bark colour.
Coppicing
Willows are usually grown for about 5 years and then the stems are cut to the ground, in a process called coppicing. The shoots grow back and can be harvested again and again. Coppicing is a traditional system of woodland management used for tree species such as hazel and sycamore, which are harvested for stakes, poles, woodchips and firewood. The woodland is divided into sectors, the number of sectors being the equivalent to the number of years that the trees will be allowed to grow: for example, hazel and sycamore tend to be grown on long rotations of 8 to 15 years. So for a 15-year rotation the woodland is divided into 15 sectors, and one sector is harvested each year. This not only provides a sustainable, annual supply of wood products but also provides a range of different habitats for wildlife, from open woodland in the newly coppiced sectors to dense woodland ready to be harvested. This form of management supports the greatest diversity of plants and animals.
Willow grown for fuel.
A similar management system is used for willow, with a short rotation of about 5 years. To create the rotation, divide your 15m x 50m (49' x 164') strip into five sections of 10m x 15m (33' x 49'), and harvest one section each year.
To establish your willow coppice you need a lot of willow cuttings. For example, a 50m x 15m strip will need 500 plants. These can be bought from specialist nurseries in winter. The cuttings are simply 30cm (12") lengths of willow supplied in bundles of 50 to 100, which will root readily once pushed into the ground. Just make a 20cm (8")-deep hole in the ground with a metal bar or sturdy rod, insert the cutting, and firm it into place.
Coppice willow is planted in rows, with a spacing of 1m (approx. 3') between plants and 1.5m (5') between rows. You can grow them closer, but the stems will be thinner, which may be fine if you are growing for woodchip or basket weaving but are not so suitable for fuel. It is important to control the weeds in the first few years of growth in the coppice cycle as they will compete with the young willow plants, and this is most easily achieved by using ground-cover fabric or thick mulch, which you plant through. The first winter after planting, cut the shoots almost to the ground to encourage lots of new shoots. Replace any cuttings that have died. You can start your coppice cycle the next winter by cutting the first section to the ground, although you won’t be harvesting much for the first few years!
Growing poplars
Another option for fuelwood is poplar. Hybrid poplars can grow several metres (10 feet or more) in height a year; the fastest-growing reaching 15m (49') in just 5 years. Like willow, they can be established from cuttings. They are usually left longer than willow before harvesting, but they yield good-quality logs. We have poplar growing around our small plots of willow, forming a boundary, and we harvest them every 8-10 years, but they could be harvested every 5 years. A recent harvest of 15 trees yielded one ton of logs. We pollard the poplars (see page 122), so the new shoots grow above deer height.
Mature poplars ready for harvest.
Recently pollarded poplars: the new shoots already 2m (6'6") long in just 5 months. The willow visible behind is ready to be harvested.
Pollarding
If you would like to run poultry under your willow coppice, to make more use of the space, it’s better to pollard the trees rather than coppice them – that is, to cut them at least 60cm (2') above the ground. This creates a willow with a sturdy lower stem and a cluster of new shoots above the ground, out of reach of the birds. Once the willows are established, remove the ground cover and seed with a grass mix. Willows create a dappled shade but do not shade out grass completely, so vegetation will grow for your birds. The birds can be introduced once the vegetation cover is established.
Pollarding is also preferable if you have a problem with rabbits, as they too can damage the young tree shoots. Pollarding to 90cm (3') lifts the new shoots above rabbit height. I have seen willow successfully pollarded even higher, at 1.5m (5'), which means that the area could be used for grazing sheep or goats. If you are intending to pollard, then buy cuttings about 1m (3') long and don’t cut them back at the end of the first year.
Shelter belts
Tree crops such as willow can be grown not only as a sustainable source of firewood but also as a shelter belt for young fruit trees. Wind sets back the growth of plants considerably. On our first holding, we didn’t realize just how much wind damage we were experiencing. We were located on a gently rising slope and didn’t consider the holding to be windy, but the fruit trees took forever to get going. We then planted a double row of willow, which grew several metres (at least 10 feet) in the first year, providing
an almost instant windbreak, and the benefits were noticed almost immediately too. The willows produced long stems, which we harvested and sold to a basket maker to be used for weaving screens and edging for raised beds.
Willow cuttings in a shelter belt are planted more closely than willows planted for fuel. For example, plant two rows through ground-cover fabric, with 25cm (10") between plants and 50cm (20") between rows.
Mushroom logs
If you have a shady spot and some spare logs, then you can grow your own shiitake or oyster mushrooms. To grow them you need a supply of 1-2m (approx. 3-6') lengths of freshly cut hardwood logs, about 8-20cm (3-8") in diameter, cut in winter when there is high moisture content. You also need some fungal spawn – tissue impregnated with fungal mycelium – to inoculate your logs. The easiest form in which this comes is as plugs on hardwood dowels, but some suppliers provide impregnated sawdust.
The logs are inoculated by drilling rows of holes in the wood, 2.5cm (1") deep and 15cm (6") apart, with 10cm (4") between the rows to create a diamond pattern. The plugs or sawdust are inserted and sealed with wax, and the inoculated logs then stacked outside in dappled shade. You can expect your logs to fruit after 5 to 18 months. Since the time of fruiting is uncertain, you can force your logs into fruiting by ‘shocking’ them. This involves tapping the logs on the ground and immersing them in icy-cold water for 24-48 hours. Under ideal conditions, a log can be expected to fruit for up to 2 years, with two harvests a year.
A pile of inoculated logs.
The forgotten nuttery
Long forgotten in modern cultivation systems, a nut orchard or nuttery is a versatile addition to the holding, supplying a protein-rich food to complement fruit. Nut-bearing plants are easy to grow, and, as with fruit trees, there is no need to designate an area just for the nut trees, as they can be planted in hedgerows and other convenient locations.
The two best-known nut trees suited for small spaces are the cobnut (Corylus avellana) and filbert (Corylus maxima): cultivated varieties bred from the common hazel. The husk of the cobnut is shorter than the nut, while the filbert (also called the full beard) is a longer nut with a fringed husk that extends beyond the nut. Other options for nut trees include almonds, sweet chestnuts and walnuts, although these do grow into sizeable trees.
Growing cobnuts and filberts
Cobnuts, filberts or hazels should be planted at 4m (13') intervals, in staggered rows. You need to buy a mix of varieties to ensure cross-pollination, as most are self-sterile. The trees can be bought as bare-rooted stock and should be planted in autumn into prepared ground mixed with compost. Once planted, cut back the stems and, if not using ground-cover fabric, mulch well to suppress weeds. Use tree guards if there is a risk of rabbit or deer damage. If the soil is too fertile, you will get excessive leafy growth in young trees at the expense of female flowers, so you may need to snap off leafy shoots to boost flower production. It takes about 4 years before the trees bear nuts. (See also Resources.)
The nuts are harvested by hand in late summer when they are in their green state, and this can be quite time-consuming, as you need to inspect the nuts for damage and disease. If you drop them in water, diseased and damaged nuts will float to the top. Dry them in their shells until they turn brown, when they will have developed their full nutty flavour, then remove the husk. Dried nuts can be stored in a single layer, or in a nut net, in a dry ventilated place protected from mice. If you have a large harvest it may be worth investing in commercial nut crackers to extract the kernels. Under ideal conditions they can store for a year, but to ensure that they don’t go rancid you can freeze the shelled nuts. (Sweet chestnuts are different – since they are mostly carbohydrates, they go hard when dried.)
Tiny round holes in the shell are a sign that you have nut weevils. These pests lay their eggs in young nuts, and when the larvae hatch they eat the developing kernels. They exit the nut by boring a small hole in the shell. The pest can be controlled by running chickens under the trees in late spring to the middle of summer, when the weevils are active on the ground.
It’s not essential to prune hazels or their cultivars, as they tend to grow into large bushes, but if you want to be able to reach all the nuts you should keep the plant to about 2m (6'6") high by pruning. In winter, remove any diseased and dead wood and thin out shoots, directing them outwards to create a open bowl shape with about six to eight framework branches.
Bamboo
Establish a clump of bamboo on your plot and you won’t need to buy bamboo canes ever again! Bamboos are edible too. The young shoots are harvested before they are 2 weeks old, so they are still tender. They are then peeled and cooked for 20 minutes before being used in stir-fry dishes, etc.
There is a variety of bamboo species to choose from – but beware that some are more invasive than others! Their spreading rhizomes can pop up metres away from the parent plant, so for these species you need to put in a physical barrier such as a root-barrier membrane before planting. Bamboos of the genus Fargesia are clump-forming, so lack the invasive rhizomes. They are shade-loving and very hardy. The umbrella bamboo (Fargesia murielae) is very attractive, with yellow canes up to 4m (13') high. Bamboos of the genus Phyllostachys are tall, vigorous and spreading, with thick canes up to 6m (20') high. They can cope with full sun or light shade, and are great for screening.
An edible forest garden
If you don’t have the time or inclination to cultivate fruit and vegetables on your plot, a forest garden may be the answer. It’s not a quick fix, but in time a forest garden can provide a supply of food and other useful products with minimal cultivation and maximum biodiversity. Pioneered by Robert Hart, and more recently by Martin Crawford, a forest garden is a system based on trees, shrubs and other perennial plants that mimics the structure of a young natural woodland. (See also Resources.)
There are two key elements of a forest garden: the productive plants and the perennial support plants. The productive plants include not only edible crops (fruit, nuts, edible stems, leaves and roots) but also medicinal herbs, plants that provide fibre and others that may be harvested for timber. The support plants perform roles such as providing ground cover or shade, attracting beneficial insects, fixing nitrogen or drawing up minerals from deep in the soil. The incredible richness of species in such a system means that there are fewer diseases and pests, partly because there are no large blocks of crops to attract them, and also because the biodiversity leads to an array of natural predators.
In this view of Martin Crawford’s forest garden in Devon, there is a shrub layer of Phormium and Elaeagnus and a canopy layer of Italian alder and fruit trees, while the ground-cover layer includes lemon balm and comfrey.
A layered approach
A forest garden can be likened to a cross between an orchard and a forest, rather than a mature woodland. In a tropical rainforest or a mature temperate woodland, little light penetrates the canopy, and this restricts what can grow below. But a forest garden is designed to let plenty of light to reach the ground, allowing up to seven different layers of plants to flourish:
The canopy In a forest garden the canopy trees rise to above 10m (33'), but they are deliberately few and far between. They are too tall to be useful for harvesting edible crops, so they are usually timber trees, such as oak or ash, or trees that can fix nitrogen, such as the black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) or walnut for nuts. However, in a small forest garden, space constraints mean that this layer is usually omitted, or there may be just one or two tall trees.
The lower canopy At 4-9m (13-30') high, this is the main tree layer in a small forest garden, comprising species such as Italian alder (Alnus cordata), wild service (Sorbus domestica), apple, pear, medlar, quince, mulberry, fig, hazel and willow. The trees are spaced well apart.
The shrub layer At 1-3m (3-10'), a variety of woody shrubs can be grown under the lower-canopy trees, such as currants, gooseberries, hawthorn, blackthorn, Elaeagnus species, flowering quinces (Chaenomeles spp.),
bamboo and rosemary.
The herbaceous layer At up to 1m (3'), these are plants that reach a good height but mostly die down in winter, unlike the shrubs with woody stems. This is a varied layer that could include plants such as artichokes, asparagus, cardoon, fennel, perennial kale and broccoli, comfrey, giant butterbur (Petasites japonicus), crimson clover, vetches, herbs such as mint, sweet cicely and lemon balm, and even yacon and oca (see Chapter 4 for more about perennial vegetables).
The ground layer These plants cover and protect the soil. Here you could grow low-growing plants such as Nepalese raspberry (Rubus nepalensis), ferns, wild onions and leeks, wild strawberries, buckler-leaf sorrel and white clover.
The rhizosphere This is the root zone, rich in soil life such as bacteria and fungi. Mycorrhizal fungi form mutualistic relationships with the roots of many of the plants. Their fruiting bodies, the mushrooms, appear above ground in autumn.
Climbers These plants root on the ground and clamber up into the canopy. Examples include blackberries, hops and yams.
The seven layers of a forest garden.
The rhubarb-like large leaves of the Japanese or giant butterbur (Petasites japonicus) thrive in the dappled shade.
Planning a forest garden
Planning is critical before planting a forest garden, as space is limited, even with a half-acre or one-acre plot. Of particular importance is the positioning of the trees. Shrubs can be dug up and moved, but not a tree. Make sure you consider the shading and sheltering effect of a tree when it is full grown, and the extent of its roots. Given the space limitations you will need to focus on the smaller tree species and shrubs with edible fruit or nuts (see Chapter 5), as well as edible perennials (see Chapter 4).