WhenI chatter a local farmto checkout out the pumpkin growing there , I was also mesmerised to see an intercropped system of plantains , malanga , yams , sweetened potatoes and even the occasional bird - plant papaya tree diagram that had been appropriate to mature by the farmer .
The tropical sunshine is intense , allowing a gardener to engraft some of his crops in partial spook even though that would not work in a more temperate neighborhood .
This system , even on a small scale , could fertilise a crime syndicate a significant percentage of their calories . Sometimes we permaculture kinsfolk cogitate we are cutting edge … visiting farm and other part of the existence speedily uncover that a lot of the great unwashed have already run across the patterns possible and have worked with them before .
Many of the farm I ’ve project here are motley agroforestry plots . You might see cocoa , pigeon peas , corn , mangoes , bananas , yautia , yam , breadfruit , calabash Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , noni , coffee and scented potatoes all growing together .
If you live in Florida or another tropical or subtropical country , these types of gardens make a muckle of sense . This is the system I advance you to employ in my slight bookCreate Your Own Florida Food Forest .
It is incredible to see these character of systems being used on such a large scale , albeit in a patchwork of tiny farms scattered across the mountainside .
Trees provide nicety and protect the ground from battering rainfall . They also hold the ground in place . They send packing leaves and give dependable guy a position to live . Short crops such as sweet white potato , pumpkins and corn whisky provide prompt take .
Mix in some perennial vegetables for salads , such as katuk , Malabar spinach , cranberry hibiscus and you ’ll have all you need to eat well .
All These Great Staples…
When I visited the farm the yams were just coming up . I did n’t see them at first because they were fuse up in the fresh potato . The farmer told me he would soon be putting out stakes for them to climb .
I circulate some since they ’re hard to see :
Remember , yams and sweet-smelling potatoes are not the same affair . These are the same yams I showed a couple of calendar month ago in this video :
I have some maturate in my garden now . Unlike the typicalDioscorea alatafound risky in Florida , this eccentric consistently makes a smaller , gentle to peel and process stem .
plantain and bananas can be a staple in their own rightfield .
That stalk in good order there , when matured , will probably press over 50 pounds . And that ’s only one of many trees producing fruit at this sentence .
I cross bananas as a natural selection crop in a late episode of Totally Crazy Easy Gardening :
Quite versatile and I did n’t even get into the more esoteric food uses for bananas and plantains .
On the ground beneath , the vagabond sweet potatoes will also produce hundreds of pound of food for thought . The yams will as well . And malanga , though not as fat , offer both new leaves that can be eat in soups and some good roots .
One more matter I should mention : the farmer was also develop pineapples around the edges of this game :
In the midsection there you may see more malanga and some young banana or plantain .
odorous .
But what if I live up North?
If you are a lector up north , do n’t despair . There are some fantabulous inter - cropping systems for you as well . Though the tropics are abundant yr - orotund , do n’t write off the electric potential of trees such as chestnut , pecan , walnut , and even pears .
I used to have gooseberry bush and Nanking cherry tree growing beneath my Pyrus communis Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree in Tennessee .
establish some horseradish and rhubarb around those and you ’re doing better .
Plant a spacious swath of Jerusalem artichokes at the edge of your woodland .
leave behind subject space and in summertime plant corn , dome , pumpkin and other staple that have been used for generations by natives and European settler .
Unlike my Florida gardening friends , you Northerners often have the benefit of in effect grease . Make function of it !
My brother in Virginia took me on a virtual tour of his garden the other day . He has blueberries and yield tree diagram , strawberry , pumpkin and tomato plant , beans and all sort of wonderful things growing together straggle across his yard in the racy dirt .
As we do into fall , think about the trees you could institute . Plant them . In spring , garden around those young Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree . If you leave their spacing far enough apart , you ’ll always have enough luminousness to produce yourself some short crop while the sun shines .
