Easy EDIBLE Windbreak with Permaculture Plantings (Serviceberry and Honeyberry)

The top portion of my property is fully exposed and a lot of wind blows through the pasture. I currently have semi-dwarf apple trees and peach trees along this top edge with their guild members, but I think a wind barrier is needed. This windbreak will help protect the fruiting trees that already reside here PLUS it’ll make the birds more comfortable in their pasture throughout the winter.

SERVICEBERRIES
I’m choosing serviceberries for their ability to withstand wind and wide range of water and soil conditions. They provide edible berries that are beneficial to humans and both birds and wildlife. They have the ability to grow thickly and quickly.

HONEYBERRIES
I’m also adding honeyberries. Honeyberries are incredibly nutrient-dense with loads of antioxidants. They, too, thrive in a wide range of soil conditions especially if there’s good drainage. Doubling up on plantings means more of a windbarrier, more privacy, and more food. Perennial plantings offer a home to birds and predatory insects who I would like to retain year-round, as they keep pest populations under control in our growing spaces.

GOPHER CAGING:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/axeandroothomestead/list/42GB54NAV49U?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfaxeandroothomestead_W3SJQC888TGK822NWBD9

CROP CLOCHES:
https://www.amazon.com/shop/axeandroothomestead/list/42GB54NAV49U?ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_aipsflist_aipsfaxeandroothomestead_W3SJQC888TGK822NWBD9

Check out Les Fermes du Bec Hellouin:
https://www.fermedubec.com/english/

#permaculture #permaculturefarm #permaculturelife #organicgardening #organicfarming #organicelderberry #homeorchard #serviceberry #windbreak #hedge #ediblegardening #honeyberry
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My Books:
The Sustainable Homestead: https://a.co/d/aJiktEc
The Little Homesteader, Spring: https://a.co/d/81clkYB
The Little Homesteader, Summer: https://a.co/d/1Dcqgvx
The Little Homesteader, Fall: https://a.co/d/4NVXWcO
The Little Homesteader, Winter: https://a.co/d/hpQ8x7s
The Harvest Table Cookbook: https://a.co/d/00rW3uq

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Welcome to Axe & Root Homestead®! I’m a first generation, self-taught permaculture farmer in Central New Jersey. If you’re looking for information on gardening, homesteading, canning, animal care, working with your land, or regenerative farming practices, I have lots of info to share:
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Hey it’s spring it’s time for planting perennials um I am a big believer in planting along the margins one of the permaculture principles and I’m taking inspiration from Le duen who uh are located in France and use every square inch of their property for growing food

So let me show you what I’m planning here on the top edge of this property I have some apple trees and while they are growing they’re not necessarily thriving and I think that has a lot to do with the amount of wind that comes from this side of the Hill that’s my neighbor’s

Prop where that shrub is this cup portion of my pasture and property is home to a few peach trees and apple trees you can also see the perimeter fence of one of the pastures where the Ducks currently reside so I need to create a Windbreak for these apple trees

And the birds and so on this side I want to plant some service berries and on the other side I’m thinking honey berries and then you’ll be able to walk right in between and harvest everything that you need so here I bought a few Thicket service Berry it’s going to give me a

Nice dense hedge and then I have two types of Honey berries for cross pollination to increase my yields this area is outside of the reach of my livestock Guardian dogs and there’s lots of goer and deer so I just want to measure the size of the hole we’re going to do some crop

Caging well I had plans to give you a play byplay of everything that I was planting and then I ended up with a tooth absess and I had to have it pulled it was a big deal got into my lymph nodes and then what ended up happening

Is I had to plant these things with a swollen face and I couldn’t talk about it and narrate at the same time so now that that’s behind me let me show you what I’ve done we did have a slight change of plans originally I talked about alley cropping meaning I wanted to

Put my honey berries on one side have a mode path in between and then do the service berries on the other but my husband pointed out that hey if you put the honey berries up against the fence chances are it’s going to interfere with our solar electric fencing and it won’t

Be able to provide a strong current because it’ll be grounded out by the honey berries so I had to move them closer to the service berries meaning now we just basically have a double hedge or a double wind break still to fully functional still works it’s just not quite what I envisioned initially

But we adapt right everything is planted okay let’s have a look we have four service berries I planted these about 8 ft apart so that eventually they will grow together as a thick hedge it’ll take a while um but you would want to plant them farther apart if you’re

Looking for more individualized trees um the other thing that I did is we do have a gopher population back here since it’s the top edge of the property and so what I did is goph for caging around the actual sapling itself and then I mulched

And then I put a deer cage around here also so there are some barriers here that we have to employ since my guardian dog can’t get past this fence so there’s that they will provide the much needed Windbreak to the apple trees that are here because again the wind is coming from this

Direction um now if we go over here again I planted these a little closer together these are the honey berries they are in a gopher cage with a crab cage around them while they’re young yet and then eventually we’ll do a deer cage until they get well established and

They’re planted more closely together because again we want to create more of a hedge type situation so there’s probably about 6 ft between where I planted the service berries and where I planted the honey berries so they are going to be close together eventually someday um but you know what I’ll take

It it’s a lot better than the nothing that I have here about 10 to 12 bird houses that are coming they’ll go up on every single post those are massively helpful when it comes to keeping insects that infect the apple trees and the other Fring trees on

The property in check so we want to not only hang bird houses from the trees this time of year we also want to put houses up on feds posts so maybe this gave you some ideas for Alley cropping or creating a wind break super awesome I

Think that you can use edible plants to help create a more comfortable environment for our Birds when they’re in the pasture and also just to create a nice hedge or privacy barrier along the top portion of the property thanks for watching