Apple guild
Zone 1–2 orchard
Classic fruit-tree polyculture: N-fixers, mulch, insectary, and living mulch around a central apple.
- Apple — Center
- Comfrey (Bocking 14) — Mulch / miner
- Comfrey (Bocking 14) — Mulch / miner
- Goumi — N-fixer fruit
- Chives — Pest confuse
- Yarrow — Insectary
- Wild / alpine strawberry — Living mulch
- White clover — Path N-fixer
Keep the trunk mulched, not buried. Fence deer. A pollinizer apple belongs within 20 m.
Pawpaw patch
Zone 2–3 woodland edge
Clumped understory fruit with spicebush and woodland groundcover.
- Pawpaw — Clump
- Pawpaw — Clump
- Pawpaw — Clump
- Spicebush — Understory spice
- Wild ginger — Carpet
- Common violet — Carpet
Pawpaws fruit poorly as loners. Plant a grove, keep some shade on the west, and wait for the flies.
Chicken forage belt
Zone 2 paddock
Mulberry, locust, comfrey, and sunchoke — drop fruit, fodder, and cover.
- Red mulberry — Drop fruit
- Siberian pea shrub — N-fixer fodder
- Comfrey (Bocking 14) — Fodder / mulch
- Sunchoke / Jerusalem artichoke — Screen / tuber
- Blackberry — Edge fruit
Rotate the flock so shrubs recover. Mulberry is the engine. Keep sunchoke behind a fence they can browse over.
Riparian buffer
Creek and pond margin
Elder, false indigo, willow-role shrubs, and groundnut on the wet edge.
- American elderberry — Wet fruit
- False indigo — N-fixer
- Aronia / chokeberry — Wet fruit
- Groundnut — Vine staple
- Stinging nettle — Accumulator
Do not mow to the water. This belt eats nutrients before they leave the property.
Oak–hickory savanna
Zone 3–4
Mast canopy with prairie N-fixers and open grass for light grazing.
- White oak — Mast
- Shagbark hickory — Mast
- American persimmon — Fruit
- Leadplant — Prairie N-fixer
- Purple coneflower — Prairie
- New Jersey tea — Glade N-fixer
Keep the canopy open enough for grass. Fire or mowing maintains the savanna. This is restoration as much as production.
Herb spiral
Zone 1
A microclimate stack: thyme on the dry top, oregano on the south, chives east, wet pocket at the base.
- Thyme — Dry top
- Oregano — South slope
- Chives — East
- Yarrow — Insectary
Build the spiral from stone on a 1.6 m footprint, 1 m high, ponding at the north base. A teaching feature and a daily yield.
Three-row windbreak
NW sector
Locust and honey locust for height, pea shrub mid, then a fruiting edge.
- Black locust — Tall, coppice
- Honey locust — Tall, open
- Siberian pea shrub — Mid row
- American / hybrid hazelnut — Fruit edge
- American plum — Fruit edge
Place perpendicular to winter wind. Length at least 10× the height you want to shelter. Coppice locust before it seeds the pasture.
Log yard
Zone 2 north of the barn
Oak bolts under shade, wine-cap chip paths, oyster on the waste pile.
- Shiitake — Oak bolts
- Shiitake — Oak bolts
- Wine cap / King stropharia — Chip path
- Oyster mushroom — Waste logs
Needs shade, moisture, and a hose. Pair with Zone 4 thinning so the woodlot pays.