The Orchard

Our food forest-inspired orchard is influenced heavily by permaculture principles in its design and implementation. Utilizing swales, dynamic accumulators, and tiered function planting our orchard yields a variety of edibles that include Kiwis, Sea-Berries (Seabuckthorn), Honeyberries, Goumi berries, gooseberries, apples, cherries, and more.

The orchard seeks to mimic the complexity and diversity of a natural forest, creating a self-sustaining system that supports a wide variety of edible plants, shrubs, and trees.

A detailed exploration of key design elements of our orchard:

Permaculture Principles in Design

• Diversity and Resilience: The orchard embraces a rich diversity of plants, creating a robust ecosystem that promotes resilience to pests, diseases, and climate fluctuations. By incorporating a wide variety of species, the orchard can adapt and thrive in different conditions.

• Guilding: This is a collection of plants that help each other, don't compete for all the same nutrients and provide for the fundamental needs of the whole installation in perpetuity.

Key Elements

• Swales: These are shallow trenches designed to capture and redirect rainwater. Swales help manage water runoff, reduce erosion, and ensure that the orchard has adequate moisture without excessive irrigation. They are often planted with deep-rooted perennials and dynamic accumulators, which draw nutrients from deep in the soil.

• Dynamic Accumulators and Nitrogen Fixer: Dynamic Accumulators are capable of extracting nutrients from deep soil layers and bringing them to the surface. As they grow and decompose, they enrich the soil with nutrients like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Examples include comfrey, borage, nettle, and dandelion. Nitrogen Fixers are plants that collaborates with bacteria in its root nodules to gather nitrogen from the atmosphere and make it available in the soil. Examples include Seabuckthorn, Goumi, Siberian Pea Shrub, clover, peas.

• Tiered function planting: This approach involves planting at different heights, creating a multi-layered structure similar to a natural forest. It includes groundcovers, shrubs, herbaceous plantings, small trees, and large trees. Each layer provides different benefits, such as groundcovers reducing weeds and large trees offering shade