Permaculture orchards

Overview At Brook End we have inherited a small orchard with a number of fruit trees (see base map) and a variety of apples. In the zone analysis, the orchard is designed as a zone 3 space as we harvest seasonally however it is visited daily for the rescued chickens and as a main pathway, opening it up to new design possibilities. This section aims to collate my research around permaculture approaches to orchard management, and their congruent cousin, forest gardens. One such approach of permaculture applied to orchards is forest gardening which has been called the 'eco-functional intensification of orchards'. What are forest gardens? A forest garden is a designed agronomic system based on trees, shrubs and perennial plants. These are mixed in such a way as to mimic the structure of a natural forest - the most stable and sustainable type of ecosystem in a temperate climate, " says Martin Crawford from the Agroforestry Research Trust.
2

Examples of orchard Re-designs

PermaLot: One example is the design of the PermaLot apple orchard in the Czech Republic that details the proposal for 'a monoculture in transition towards multifunction sustainable agriculture within an existing organic orchard'. An extremely brief overview of some of their design outcomes include: Zoning near their teahouse with a flower and herb garden to be processed into several products Broadscale forest garden including a productive hedge, nursery, swales for water loving fruit producing trees & shrubs, a well designed fruit & nut canopy & understory Productive, nitrogen-fixing coppice stands Productive windbreak Diverse shrub layers of fruit bushes Trees as trellises for roses & climbers A larger agroforestry system with alternating nut trees and animal forage

UK Systems: Old Slenningford Farm (10m x 5m designated area) Canopy layer: Apple (various), plum, and cherry Lower trees: hawthorn Shrubs & bushes: Raspberry, gooseberry, black currant, red currant, and jostaberry Herbaceous layer: Great mullein, fennel, rhubarb, comfrey, salad burnet, and rocket Climbers: nasturtium Soil surface: Mint, alpine strawberry, cultivated strawberry, oregano, marjoram Bulbs & Tubers: Jerusalem artichoke, wild garlic Harlow Carr, RHS Trees: ash, silver birch, crab apple, damson, pear, cherry, bullace, gage, plum, elder, apples, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn, rose, cob nut, medlar, wayfaring tree, almond, rowan, cherry plum Groundcovers & bushes: strawberry, comfrey, raspberry, herbs/salad, rhubarb, fruit bushes, sea buckthorn During a design tutorial with Stephen Pritchard, he highlighted one of the common design lessons in forest gardening, that actually space and light is beneficial and we should be wary of 'over-designing the space'. This is also where social factors become integrated into design work, as we intend to use the orchard as a location of a round building called, 'Hopping Crow' where we can host earth-based spirituality events & gatherings. This means that the orchard has to be very visually attractive. The orchard was also re-designed as part of Diploma Design Support Intensive with Aranya, As an area it really does have to be designed for total self-regulation and low maintenance, as our greenhouses and kitchen garden are large enough to be energy demanding.

Aims
Aims for the Brook End Orchard > Increase the diversity of species, especially the diversity of plant families > Integrate new plants and groundcover to reduce the amount of grass > Integrate nitrogen-fixing plants > Integrate more multi-layered planting, such as fruit bushes > Maintain regular mulch of young and establishing trees & plants > Increase access to current fruit trees through grass management > Make the pathways multifunctional > Design around the piggeries and summerhouse in the orchard as a more zone 1 approach with culinary herbs for use at the barbecue for events, making the use of microclimates and the southfacing wall > Aim to accurately identify current varieties of fruit > Develop processing equipment to make the most of the orchard yields > The long-term aim is to create an inspiring, welldesigned, productive, healthy orchard that is informative of permaculture to all who visit.
Resources
Michel Postma & Max Vittrup Jensen, Proposal for permaculture design on the PermaLot apple orchard, 2006 Design Support Tutorial with Stephen Pritchard, http://ediblelandscape.co.uk Diploma Support Intensive with Aranya, May 2011 Andy Goldring, 2011, Presentation at Annual Meeting of Farm Woodland Forum, Eco-functional intensification of orchards Sepp Holzer, Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, 2011 www.edibleforestgardens.com Ethan Appleseed & Interns, Permaculture Orchard Renovation, www.appleseedpermaculture.com

Their aims are to: - To be biologically sustainable - To cope with disturbances such as climate change. - To be productive, yielding many different products - To require low maintenance Their key features are that they: - Mimic a young forest in structure - Have up to seven layers: root, groundcover, herbs, shrub, small tree, canopy and climbers (see diagram). - Tree density is optimized - Interspecies interactions are maximized & the whole system is designed for diversity - The aim is for permanently covered soil - Plants maintain fertility - A key design aim is to maximize light penetration, using edges for light loving plants. - They involve an intensity of cropping and so they tend to be between 0.1 and 1 hectare in size2. "A forest garden requires thoughtful planning at its inception, and lots of work to get it planted and well established. Yet as the garden's trees, shrubs, and herbaceous perennials mature, less and less effort is needed to maintain what has become, in effect, a largely self-regulating system. Robert Hart

Appleseed Permaculture Orchard Renovation Ethan Roland and his intern team in the US were commissioned to re-design a five-acre orchard, which had not been managed for a number of years. Their approaches included: - A 5-year orchard renovation plan - Cross pollination cluster model reducing pests & diseases - Diversifying number of species - Integrating new elements: native & medicinal plant walk, nut grove windbreak, reconstructed wetland, cut flowers, mandala kitchen garden & integrated animal systems.

BROOK END
Nicole Vosper, Wild Heart Permaculture 2011