A recent commenter identify a possible problem with theGrocery Row Gardeningsystem beneathmy last post on building humus :
“ David – I have an experience that raises serious questions re : the long - term efficaciousness of your foodstuff row organization . I have a veggie garden in Florida , formally zone 9B ( but really zone 10 ) , growing in 4 - 8 inch of oak leaf compost on top of sand . I permit a unpaid worker melon tree seedling spring up and it is now 7 feet high-pitched ( and loaded with fruit ) . veggie wo n’t grow near it due to the shade and aggressive papaya tooth root system . In your grocery words approach , the same thing will eventually happen if multitude plant trees or recurrent vines . The papaya loves the rich , composted grease but the vegetable do ill near it . Your feedback is welcome . ”
To which I responded :
“ Good observation . I had a large papaya in the organization down in Grenada and we grew comestible - leafed hibiscus shrubs beneath it without matter . It ’s in all probability pop off to be a matter of seeing what spring up with what . The root system shapes are different on dissimilar plant and some can push around each other , and some ca n’t . I miss papaya up here – too frigid , or I would try them again with dissimilar coinage . I bed that dead on target yam , for example , do fine even amidst the dense roots and spook of trees . We had one originate in the thick roots of an orange , and another beneath a dogwood – they just jam in around them , sometimes break into pieces when harvested , but still giving decent yields . But I ’ll bet indulgent annual veggies would not do the same . If you envision out and plant that work well , please divvy up your experiences . I would love more information point as we experiment with the system . ”
Myshort book on Grocery Row Gardeningasked for input on the system . It ’s an idea I put together after year of experimenting with orchards , edible hedge , food forests and annual horticulture , and is also based on the work of many other great gardeners , including Ernst Goestch , Stefan Sobkowiak , Geoff Lawton , Andrew Millison and others . In write the unretentive book , I deliberately put my thoughts out there and how I planned out the arrangement to see what we need to do to make it better .
Unlike my other books , I write this Koran to share a employment in progress and to invite others to conjoin my in my inquiry .
With the experience of other gardeners and backyard scientists , we ’ll be able to see what works and what does n’t . My current Grocery Row Gardens are only a class honest-to-goodness and therefore are not a ripe organisation . My tropic Grocery Row Gardens were also short - condition , as we were forced to move thanks to the pandemic . We gathered a mint of data , however , due to the tropical climate and excellent soil . Polycultures evolve very apace , as you’re able to see in this video of the system less than a year after I bulge embed :
Fruit trees and vegetables are bound to fight each other a bit for space and imagination , as as they do , we ’ll watch which combination work and which do n’t .
Man , I miss those bananas .
Our initial Grocery Row Gardens were spaced out with 2′ pathways between 4′ wide bed . Experience bring out that that was n’t quite enough , so we up the way of life size to 3′ on our Alabama incarnation of the idea .
Here ’s another small problem we obtain in 2021 . As shown in the photo below , the cassava in the left over bed shaded some vernal pomegranate trees last yr , which certainly slow their growth .
It happens . This year , I will set the cassava farther apart , perhaps in row between the main yield tree rows .
This is n’t the first clock time challenge we ’ve had with vigorous manioca . Some year ago I planted manioc and sweet murphy together to see if I could farm both an overstory and an understory source crop together . What happened was that I got dandy large cassava plant that did well , with a few lilliputian sweet spud amalgamate in , as the shade of the cassava starch overwhelmed the vine beneath . It did n’t work well ! Yet in Grenada , I saw cassava and sweet potatoes growing together just o.k. and yielding together , with occasional yam and bananas mixed in .
Here ’s a picture of a farm that has sweet white potato vine doing well beneath Musa paradisiaca , in a similar arrangement .
What I get word was that I had imbed too closely . wide-eyed spacing was working just fine for Fannie Merritt Farmer . They also imbed a shortsighted variety of cassava starch , alternatively of the monumental Amerindic type I grew , which easy hand 10 - 12′ and branched all over , casting dense shade .
try out , examine again .
There is a much light cassava form we grew in Grenada that I have n’t been capable to find here , but it would have worked much better . Those were only about 3 - 4′ marvellous at harvest home time .
In my current garden I did well in 2021 with growing potatoes and unfermented spud underneath lulu , pears , apples and other Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree … but they were brand - new and modest , with root system that were just getting established . We ’ll see what happens in 2022 as everything wakes up and takes off in spring .
It ’s a very exciting piece of work in a progression . As I pen in my reaction , some things do great beneath trees ; others do not . I had grape genus Mahonia growing and fruiting beneath dumb oak tree in North Florida whereas my vegetables would not have tolerated the roots and the tincture . Unlike those oaks , however , the yield tree in Grocery Row Gardens are going to be pruned intemperately . Will that cumber the ascendant ? Will we have to adapt our species to make workings plant life guilds ? I ’m sure there will be plenty of pull off .
As for the papayas , I planted them on purpose in my first Grocery Row Gardens , because they grow straight up and produce rapidly . Their columnar nature puts them well above the other crop and allows me plenty of planting options beneath them , and their fast production gives the nurseryman intellectual nourishment as he waits for his farseeing - term trees to make .
I put them into new beds :
And arise around an older tree already on the land ( see the huge tree diagram , back right ):
That tree is the one I grew hibiscus beneath . It ’s behind Rachel in this picture :
It ’s just a affair of getting the right guilds together .
As the data pluck in during the come years and people share their experience alongside my own experience , we ’ll be able to see results and see from them . I sleep together greedy papayas wo n’t bewilder everything , but as the commenter ’s experience shows , not all combination will work .
let on what does is part of the risky venture .
