As I mentioned in an earlier post (Trees Rule), we are somewhat obsessed with planting trees, shrubs, vines, and other useful perennial and annual plants around the farm. Every year we plant dozens if not hundreds of plants everywhere from our minimally managed forest clearings, gaps, and meadows to our intensively cultivated raised beds. However, there is a method to our madness…nearly everything we plant supplies us with food, fuel, feed, or fiber. Upon moving to the farm 10 years ago, the lack of these useful plant species on the farm concerned us since our goal was to one day make a small living from the farm while providing for most of our needs. Here are a few examples by category of what we’re planting (or already grew) at the farm and what we hope to gain from it.
Food: We have planted hundreds of dwarf, semi-dwarf, and standard fruit and nut trees on the farm over the years. We currently have about 40 different types of heirloom apples and many different types of plums, pears, apricots, peaches, blueberries, nectarines, and cherries. Besides domesticated fruits, we also plant native and exotic plants that have food value. In the last several years we have planted hardy kiwis, bush cherries, elderberries, pawpaw, persimmon, cranberry viburnum, mulberry, quince, serviceberry, hazelnuts (filberts), and ramps. Despite the great variety of fruit and nut trees and shrubs growing on the farm, many of them have not matured yet. However, because we plant every year with an eye toward the future, something is always coming into fruit or nut giving us yet another food option. It also gives us satisfaction to know the next stewards of our farm will be very grateful that the previous occupants had such vision and ability to create such a diverse forest garden and edible landscaping.
Fuel: Wood is our primary source of heat at the farm and we are fortunate to have many acres of existing woodland to meet our heating needs. When selecting trees for firewood, our first choice is downed, damaged, diseased, or misshapen trees. Our second choice is to thin overcrowded stands of hardwoods to promote growth in the remaining timber, and finally, our third choice is to set aside areas of the property where we coppice certain species of trees to grow new firewood in rotations, currently several areas of black locust and hickory. Many people choose to cut down dead standing timber, but we choose to leave most of these snags as wildlife habitat, although I have cut down quite a few dead black locust trees for both firewood and posts.
Feed: This is once of our weakest areas of the four “Fs”, simply because we do not have large fields to grow grains for livestock feed. However, we still manage to harvest quite a few things on the farm that we use to supplement our livestock’s diet. These include
· windfall, blemished, or overripe fruit (cattle, lambs, hogs, and chickens)
· pomace from the apple press (cattle,, lambs and hogs)
· overripe or blemished vegetables (hogs and chickens)
· sunflower seeds (chickens)
· nuts such as black walnuts, hazelnuts, chestnuts, and acorns (hogs)
· sorghum (lambs)
· mulberry (chickens)
· giant ragweed (chickens)
· small patches of oats and soybeans (chickens)
There are probably more, but that is all I could think of off the top of my head.
Fiber: Although we have not used our plants for fiber production here at the farm, there are many plants growing here that could be used in various applications (cordage, crafts, clothing, furniture, paper, etc.) if needed. These include
· milkweed
· cattails
· stinging nettle
· various trees such as basswood, willow, yellow poplar, hickory, ash, etc.
· bamboo
· luffa gourds
· grape vines
· rye and sorghum
· ornamental grasses
· thistle
So, the next time you plant something around your property, try to make sure it has as many uses as possible. Chances are someone down the road will appreciate it even if you don’t use it.
