I have musk strawberries growing near my pawpaw trees. I also grow herbs like lovage, alliums like garlic (and, of course, weeds!) under fruit trees. I grow rhubarb, too, but (as others above) near and not directly under trees. I plan on putting in a few currants and gooseberries among the fruit trees over the next few years, too.
I’ve also toyed with the idea of planting a shade-tolerant nitrogen-fixer like the hog peanut. Anyone tried this? I hear hog peanuts can get a little out of hand.
A grassless lawn is a dream of mine. I loathe lawn mowing. Maybe hog peanuts would be preferable?
You can find these online… I have them printed out and given them some thought… just have not done that completely yet.
There is another for a Flower Fruit Tree Guild…
Of course I am sure you could mix those up as you wanted… and have a Edible/Herbal Guild… or Edible/Flower/Herbal Guild.
Right now I have mostly Rasbperry, Strawberry, Dill and a few flowers in my food forest bed… well along with lots of fruit trees and other berry bushes, goumi, blackberry, etc…
planting Ribes under your trees in your zone is a great idea. they will appreciate the shade and it mocks the enviroment that they grow in the wild. honeyberries are similar. i hate grass as much as you do. hopefully when im done with this property i can sell the mower.
I’m sowing micro clover (turf clover) in hopes of it making a “grassless lawn” It’s supposed to be max 4-6 inch high even without mowing.
It’s still very much an experiment for me though. So can’t say if the “advertising” on it is true or not.
it’s a perennial and N fixer, so if it works out to not grow to high and decently suppress weeds. It’s the “dream” for me. Would be nice beneath tree’s. And to plant taller herb’s/ plants in.
also just saw this
only has 1 followup video. Im curious what happend. Maybe funding dried up or they choose another option to share results.
I have spread clover (Dutch White) on top of wood chips. Only a little bit has grown but may be more in the future. My trees are still small but I want to break up the heavy clay soil and am thinking of eventually growing grains like rye, buckwheat, alfalfa. They all have deep roots. This will make me buy a roller crimper from my compact tractor but this will keep the weeds down and provide green manure to the soil.
creeping thyme is easy to grow and spreads out. can also walk on it with barely any damage. theres a ground cover raspberry from china that grows in your zone. i think its called emerald carpet sold by burnt ridge nursery. box huckleberry is low growing and hardy to your area also.
I think I may have to change mulch before I plant a lot of other stuff in my (sort of permaculture bed).
I am mulched with hay now… and so far so good with that.
But it is a real pain to put down any type of mulch when you have a lot of smaller plants to mulch around… like my strawberries.
That is what has (so far) really kept me from planting a lot of other stuff in the bed…
Easy to mulch around fruit trees and berry bushes, but smaller lower growing stuff… sort of a pain.
I would love to grow a bunch of other stuff in there… but then when you do have to add more mulch… well that complicates things. Perhaps that is easier if you are mulching with wood chips ?
yeah woodchips are easier. i get a big pile of arborist chips and dump them in small piles with my tractor all along my plantings. i then use a rake to spread it out. its easy to place it where you want that way. used to do it with my dump trailer and lawn tractor.
Did you spread out seeds? Or plant plants between the wood chips?
The seeds are small/tiny. I would not expect good results from spreading them above or under wood chips. Might be better to sow them in a smal patch and plant them out when larger if you got a thick layer of mulch. They stolon after a while (spread out by rooting the “runners”)
normal White clover (Dutch) gets quite tall though. And flowers quite a bit and quite early. The micro clovers should have more desirable traits. But i guess ill find out the coming years.
Eric. I would suggest you try out low growing “shrubs” or ground cover type plants. As others had mentioned, honeyberry , currant, gooseberry and lingonberry are some I’ve considered.
You could consider Salal berries as a native option, or check out Aronia, Goji, certain Blueberry (some don’t need highly acidic soil), strawberry, or one that I am very excited to plant, box huckleberry. There are a few other huckleberry species out there like Himalayan Blueberry that I’ve researched as evergreen options. You could even look at Oregon grapes or strawberry bushes (I can’t due to my zone).
I actually was thinking about buying a goji and some currents. I already have 7 or 8 mid height blueberries in pots that I need to figure out what to do with. Oregon grape and salal probably not in the mix but just because I have it all over up at my cabin. Strawberries seem like a good fit … my trees are small so the underplanting needs to be small too.
Bakers creek heirloom seeds sells black wolfberry (black goji). I have a bunch started this year. If small is the objective, definitely consider lingonberry and the "Berried Treasure"BRING ME A SHRUBBERY! (zone 6A) - #10 by disc4tw as they are both very attractive ground covers. My huckleberry is on the tail end of blooming right now
