Food Forest or Chaotic Mess? And a cookout to end the day.

Is there a fine line between productive food forest and unproductive chaos? If there is we're probably somewhere in the middle. Our orchard began with already existing and quite old apple trees. Added to that a tangled mess of old time blackberries, raspberries and black raspberries seem to battle for space.  There are also wild blueberries and wild grapes (as well as some newer varieties of blueberries and grapes we have added over time) which have a tendency to let the brambly berries overtake them. 

Because the area is in needed of weeding and clearing it's had to tell what is what.

 

Over time we've cleared area for more fruit trees such as peach, pear, nectarine and cherry. We've also added bushes such as arctic kiwi, hazelnut, honey berry, mulberry and a few others. There were already some elderberry and we've added several more. I've tried to tame the assorted thorny berries. I've added under-story productive plants such as Jerusalem artichokes which seem to be able to grow anywhere and give a lovely flower in addition to the edible sunchokes below ground. 

 

There isn't much else I can add to the under-story  because their fenced acre and a half is also our chicken and duck yard. They will eat most other low growth that we add. The ducks take advantage of the overgrown areas to hide and become broody. Again last night I could not get one duck into the coop for the night, I couldn't find her hiding place because things are overgrown, especially the thorny berries and sumac that both spread so quickly.

So many hiding places for ducks!

She was trying to bite me because I found her broody hiding place.

 

I have to get out there and clear every year about this time. I'm always a bit shocked by how overgrown things get in less than a year. I can't just go crazy and mow it all down because I have to get in between productive food growing areas. It takes time. I don't love this job but it is mostly mine since sometimes poison ivy gets in the back part of the farm yard/food forest and I'm the only one in my family not affected. I think I have it under control now but it can creep back because beyond the fence is really just the forest, wild and untamed because I can only do so much. Having the area we consider the food forest and chicken/duck yard gives a somewhat manageable area with clear boundaries that I can just about keep tamed. It's also a lovely area for the birds. They have places to hide, drier sandy spots to sunbathe and dust bathe, logs to sit on and berries for which to forage.

 

I think there are still things I need to change/add/eliminate and the hundreds of feet of fencing needs some care this year since in addition to protecting the trees and plants it also helps to protect the birds from predators.  

 

There is so much to be done but I can only do one thing at a time.  Such is the work of summer. It's important to fit in downtime too though so in the shadow of the rather wild homestead we have a cookout to end another day. Summer is short here in New Hampshire, we have to make the most of each day.

potatoes, vegan sausages, broccoli, a rosemary baguette

Dandies marshmallows to top it off.