Pros and cons of a fruit tree guild

How about mulching with wood chips? It can be done every year, or every other year for a reasonable price, including labor.

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White and Scarlett clover are my alternatives to grass. it actually covers my property from fall to early summer. it doesnt matter if it grows right up to the base of the trees, since clover is nitrogen fixing, it stays green all winter and is great forage for pollinators.
There are a number of selective herbicides that dont affect clover if you need to clear out other grass varieties.

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I love clover, and thought of seeding it throughout my lawn, however under sprayed trees it is problematic, as one cannot spray insecticides on open flowers, and clover has open flowers all the time.

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Only bad thing about clover is accidentally stepping on bees because of their constant bloom. I love microclover but it’s so hard to source them

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I’ve done this in the past but my chickens have thrown mulch everywhere. I have considered not letting them free range but I hate choosing between the two.

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If you’re looking for additional plants to put around the trunks of your fruit trees I would suggest Hosta for consideration. They make an attractive and intentional looking cover during the growing season, so it won’t look unkept. Then in winter they will completely die to the ground with little to no need for any trimming back. This means that during the winter months they will not provide any cover for small mammals which would enjoy chewing on the tree trunks.

As a bonus, the spring shoots of Hosta make nice veggies (I recommend them chopped and cooked, but they are safe to eat raw as well). I actually like harvesting their flower shoots like asparagus as well (only when they are still tender enough to snap with my fingers). Obviously, you will only harvest them once the clumps are mature with many shoots to spare.

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I’ve gone back and reread your comments and they ring so true. I’ll give the book a closer look. I love hardback books with photos of garden and orchard spaces. I want a more pollinator friendly and natural look while still keeping it intentional and under control. In other words, I want the best of everything! Throw in easy maintenance and I’m sold :blush:

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I’m just not sure how these full sun areas would do with hostas. Yes the trees provide partial shade, but as the sun moves, the trunks and ground become exposed.

Most Hosta would be fine with direct sun early and late in the day as long as the trees provide mid day shade.

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rhubarb is another one that grows carefree and is edible, if your z7 and cooler. it still likes shade in the afternoon heat over z6. its big leaves keeps the ground cool and moist around it and the tree its near. once you have a established patch you can take root chunks and spread it around where you want it. hybrid comfreys the same. both look nice but not as much as the fancy hostas. many older spray free apples around here have a patch of rhubarb around them, so they coexist well. keep them at least 4-5ft from the trunk. if you keep the flower stalk cut back, you can spray the tree without worry. i cut it back to keep the rhubarb continually producing. if you do that keep fertilizing them with N until late summer to keep them productive.

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There are hostas that tolerate full sun. I believe they’re the white/variegated ones, but you should double-check exactly which ones are best for sun.

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I’ve found that there are sun tolerant selections in many of the Hosta color/pattern categories so it’s hard to generalize. That said, ‘Halcyon’ takes sun pretty well in my location and there are MANY sports of it available with various leaf patterns (such as ‘June’). It would be safe to assume most of its sports take sun well also. The species Hosta plantaginea as well as many of its hybrids will tolerate sun pretty well and they are fragrant too.

Even selections which do not take sun well will still be likely to survive with some sunburn to the foliage in summer, which could be tolerable given that the tree canopy would eventually fill in more and make them look good in the future.

Actually, New Hampshire Hostas (who I’ve purchase from in the past and think they have good quality plants) has a whole search category on their website where you can view the selections they vouch for as being sun tolerant.

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Thanks for sharing your wisdom!

The squares look neat, but I would be worried about voles, humidity, competition and potentially ladder fuel if a fire comes through. I would like to eventually create an open woodland look in certain parts of my orchard using native plants suited for the light levels. I would probably mow interconnected circles around each tree to remove competition and pest pressure, make it easier to access the trees for maintenance and harvest.

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I keep the orchard mowed 4 inches high, which is as high as my John Deere X500 will go. But that is high enough to mow over my “drip hoses” if I am careful. Four inches also allows the blades to pass over a lot of white clover blooms, which my honeybees make honey from. I also am planting under and between the trees, rhubarb, Egyptian Walking onions, garlic and a few flowers.
We let our 3 dogs run in this area as it has a 5 foot fence to keep deer out. The dogs and I walk through this orchard at least 5 times each day. I am 81yo and these strolls


are great exercise.

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Has anyone tried to grow ramps under their fruit trees?

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i have a small patch growing in a clearing between my large spruces and a stand of alder and chokecherry. they are interplanted with fiddlehead (ostrich fern). they survived our drought in 20’ and 21’ but haven’t spread at all. i mulch around them and give some compost every Apr. before they sprout. they are in light shade when they 1st sprout to heavy shade once the alder and chokecherry leaf out. i may try transplanting some on the north side of some of my bigger fruit bushes to see how they would do.

There’s probably a lot of reasons I should not be doing it this way, but it is worked for me the last five years. I use cardboard, wood chips and a plastic border . I pull the cardboard up with a bedding, fork late November and bury it in an old garden plot . In March, I usually add a little compost manure check my soil and put down fresh cardboard. Biggest problem with the cardboard sheets is get ants around the outside along the black plastic border and cardboard. I try to control them organically . I have someone that helps me cut my grass during the summer and they chew up some black plastic border, but they don’t harm my trees. The water tends to flow off the cardboard run underneath the cardboard and or flow to the wood chips really helps during a drought. I use wire to keep the wood chips away from the base of my tree. Cardboard is an excellent weed blocker plus the grass cutters throw grass on top of the cardboard, which also helps .



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Thanks for the details! It’s very helpful.

I don’t really bury the black plastic border. I fasten it together with a couple of wood screws. Sometimes I’ll throw a little dirt on the inside edges. The best cardboard is the 4 x 4 pallet covers most grocery stores bundle and recycle them But will usually be glad to help you out . A razor knife and Harbor Freight electric scissors do a great job . Takes me about 30 minutes per Tree, but then I’m done until November. I do occasionally have to lift the wire from around the tree and remove grass or sprouts, but no big deal. You are welcome and hope this helps

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