Top Permaculture Trees
How Can We Compare Trees?
Are
you searching for your ultimate tree? Do you want the highest yielding,
easiest to grow, most multi-functional, resilient, long living, best
tasting fruit, most nutritious fruit, best timber, not-too-tall tree
with fruit has no pests or disease? The search for perfection was at its height centuries ago.
Our ancestors had done thousands of years of genetic selection. But
then, in the industrial era, mankind settled on a bland diet where “75
percent of the world’s food was generated from only 12 plants and five animal species”.Our Winner Is…
A Yummy By-Product
Most Mulberry trees are not used for sericulture anymore (its primary farming role). The Mulberry was carefully genetically selected for over 5000 years to feed silkworms. The biggest advantage of this fruit for our site
is that these fruits do not succumb to the destructive native fruit
fly. Other wildlife, especially the water dragons, love eating mulberry
and will climb the trees or patiently wait for the fruit to fall. Lucky,
there is plenty to share. Be careful not to hang your washing
overnight near these fruits because the droppings from flying foxes or
birds will stain your clothes. Which brings us neatly into another
function – Mulberry makes a fabulous natural fabric dye.Conservationists warn against ‘Hardy’ food trees
If you live in an area close to fragile native forest, the Mulberry isn’t your ideal candidate because the birds will eat and poop the seeds and it could possibly displace some of your native trees. But if you live in the city and trees are in short supply there, you can enjoy your visits from the birds and know that any food you grow in the city takes pressure off existing native forests which are being felled to make way for farmland.
Prefer Amazing Taste or Amazing Packaging?
Mulberries
are sweet and juicy. But why are they not in the shops? They have a big
commercial flaw. Unlike some berries, the mulberry requires dexterity
to harvest it and the fruits perish quickly. Today, most consumers
choose to buy apples (often these have been stored for years). But we
could simply stop and reach up to pick the fresh fruit that grows on the
corner outside old Aunt Dolly’s house.Multi-function: a Key Permaculture Principle
Each Element in the design should be used and positioned to perform a range of functions. Each plant in
a permaculture design provides food, timber, mulch, shelter for the
garden and house, soil conditioning, water harvesting and more. 
Beautiful FRUIT Trees:“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”
