Many people have remarked, profoundly: "You'll have to wait a long time.", when referring to my tree planting endeavors. I don't really have a insightful or witty response and can feel foolish in a small way in the context of fast food, TV and other forms of immediate gratification. The yields from trees often don't occur for a generation or even a lifetime. Growing trees is more like gardening than any thing else and a meditative type benefit can result. It is something that doesn't pay to do in a hurry!
But who is going to do this, if not us? I can make a difference with this 36 acre portion of this planet. It is a gift to our children-less concrete than a college education- but real nonetheless. We can put off the hard choices and hard work until "the cows come home", but in the mean time we will run out of "milk"-or oil, soil fertility, tropical rain forests and the host of resources and solutions they provide, and CO2 will continue to build up and affect our climate. We each can become true producers, not just consumers, and in the spirit of "stacking functions" can become the solution.
When planting trees, shrubs, annuals and perenials, try to pattern them so that everything works together. Obviously, you have to plant light loving plants in the open, and shade tolerant plants can be planted in more shaded areas. For example: stone fruits of the prunus genus love light and serve as pioneering and edge species in nature so plant them at the south edge of your windbreak or on the edge of your garden. Pears or persimmons can take more shade, while the regal Paw Paw can grow in dense shade. A basic knowledge of ecology is helpful and understanding the concepts of niche, succession, and microclimate can be vital to designing a permaculture system.
This is a corner of our more intensive house garden. We don't pretend to have green thumbs and we don't do french intensive but we try to maximize our returns of fresh vegetables for eating and canning. A peach tree in the foreground and a windbreak of norway spruce and chinese chestnuts is in the backround at the northern border of our 36 acre property.
Our woodlot is managed with light selective cutting. We heat with wood and have been remodeling our house with cherry from these logs. Some went for flooring and some for trim work and furniture. Selling trees to loggers is giving away a valuable resource and I want no one but myself cutting these trees!
Who knows what the future may hold. It sure surprised me when someone showed me this mature stand of American Chestnut in the Leelanau peninsula. Large trees were thought by myself to be eradicated by the chestnut blight. This tree was the premier "corn tree" of the eastern US. Fast growing to large size, producing large quantities of sweet nuts, and having a rot resistant wood made a tragedy when chestnut blight came over from asia in 1908.
This hopefully will the beginning of a series of compilations of my experiences with permaculture and sustainable living. No one can claim a moral high ground in terms of their lifestyle and there is no perfection in mine but we all have to at least talk about it if something is going to be left for our descendents. Jon Towne