Geoff's Approach to Selecting Trees, Shrubs, and Support Species

Rachel has a question for us. Watching all the Q&A's videos from past courses, questions keep repeating about which species Jeff has used at, say, Tuna Farm. I know this list would be an incredibly long list, however, does Jeff have a list of trees, shrubs, vines, cover he can share? How does Jeff keep record of what has worked and not worked at, say, Tuna Farm, apart from a mental note? Well, I have a mental note, but they're here or they're not here. If they didn't work, they're not here. Or if they haven't worked well, they're here and they're not in good condition. It's something you just learn along the way. It's something you're working with. It's like remembering the names of your cousins or your second cousins. You usually remember those. Aunties, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, and all your friends. You're in a relationship working with things. I have those lists. For our clients, we do lists for Mediterranean climate and dry land climates and cold climates, tropical climates, subtropical climates. But what we do is we make up the basic list of fruit trees for that climate. This is subtropics. If you want this list, this is subtropics. It's only going to work for subtropics, really. There are other tropical trees that won't grow here that need more tropical, and there are other trees that need more chill because it's the Mediterranean or cooler climate. But what you do is you get your main list of fruit trees that are your winners, and then your main list of shrubs, and your main list of understories, et cetera. Then you go through and you get your main list of large long-term support, and medium long-term support, and short-term long-term support, short-term support trees. This is ice cream bean. It's a long-term support. That is Tipuana Tipu. It's a long-term support. But there are a much larger list of medium-term that only lasts about 10 years, and ones that last about four or five years. Wherever you're working, it's not the fruit trees that are hard to find. They're usually pretty well recorded. You can get a list of fruit trees quite easily, and a list of vegetables quite easily, and a list of herbs, and a list of shrubs, and vines, et cetera. It's the support species that are hard to get. That's kind of the permaculture list. You can Google the rest and get it. What is the long-term legumes that when you cut them, they regrow? When you cut them like this, they regrow mulch for you. What is the medium-term? What is the short-term? What is the very, very fast? What are the annual cover crops that give you a cover quick? What are the short-term legumes that live for about four or five years and grow like a rocket? And there's a large number of those, but then they're sacrificial. They die out. Or you cut them out because you need space, because things are coming through. You've supported it. Medium-term, 10 to 15 years, grow quite fast. And then 10 to 15 years later, they're done, or you've cut them out beforehand. And then long-term, and you might over-plant those as well. And you cut some out, but leave five to 10% of the total mass. That's the question. That's the big question. How do you work with a natural set of succession and support an ecosystem into establishment that is a productive ecosystem in your favor? Because that's what the world needs. It needs productive ecosystems in favor of humanity. So we don't have to keep taking down all the ecosystems that are out there to put in silly industrial, monocultured agriculture supported by machines and technology that's totally unnatural. How do you put in natural systems that go on for forever, for eternity, for infinity, for as long as there's life on earth? Because that we can do. But you have to understand the sequences of how nature works, and then you have to set it up in favor of your long-term productive ecosystem. And you have to ask those questions. What are the support species, long-term, medium-term, short-term, ground cover, climbers, all of them? And you have to have no prejudice about native, non-native, or whatever. It's all carbon pathways that you've designed in. We'll cover this as we go through the course. Now, that's really a question that I'd like to change the emphasis of the question and not say it's a list of all the trees. Because I'd just spoil your fun if I give you the whole list. Oh, here it is. Just copy this. I want you to know what is it that's special about that list. And it's not the fruit trees. It's not the food species. Those are easy to find, and you just keep having an adventure. I'm still finding new productive crops. I've got Chaya this year, a perennial leaf crop from Indonesia. We always get new things. It's okay. Well, we've got a lot here, a lot of diversity. It's the support species that are more interesting. From a mechanical engineering point of view, I always wanted to understand how do I rev this ecosystem up to go a bit quicker, to be a bit more stable, to be a bit more long-term? How can I make this a very long-running, high-quality, high-performing engine, an engine of fertility? And it was the sequence in the support species.