Fall Tour of the Orchard, Wet Meadow, and “Wilder” Half of the Yard

The attached video is an end of the season catchup on where we are in developing the back/wilder half of the yard. I’ve listed below several take aways that I discuss in the video.

1. Work with what is already here: This is a strategy I have employed in various ways in all of the gardens I’ve created, including rooftop and container gardens. However, in this case I’m talking about how I decided to break up and use the space in the back half of the yard. There were already 4 fruit trees in a straight line down the right side, so it made sense to develop that space more fully into an orchard. Beyond adding more fruit trees so they are interplanted rather than in a row, we are also planting permaculture guilds underneath the existing mature trees, and removing most of the lawn in favour of mixed use beds around and between the trees that will be full of diverse plant species. Eventually, there will be grassy pathways and very little lawn to mow.