Instead of cutting the tree down nearly to the ground, stump culture practitioners leave the bottom layer or two of branches. This preserves the health of the roots and allows the branches to continue growing. One of the branches is eventually selected to form the leader of a new tree. Like well-managed coppiced trees, which can produce steadily for hundreds of years (the oldest known coppiced trees are over 1000 years old), stump culture allows trees to produce continuously for many years. In British Columbia, some stumps have produced a tree every 5 years for more than 60 years.

In British Columbia, stump culture Christmas trees and greenery are often produced in combination with cattle in silvopasture agroforestry systems, or combined with shade loving floral greens such as Salal (Gaultheria shallon), Bear-grass (Xerophyllum tenax), Falsebox (Pachistima myrsintes), Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant), and Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum). These are just a few of the alternative crops suitable to grow in agroforestry systems.

Learn More:

• Christmas Trees: Plantations to Agroforestry Systems
• Silvopasture With Christmas Trees

An edible hedge is a hedgerow designed to produce food for human consumption. In addition to providing inexpensive and nutritious food for your family, edible hedges can:

• provide privacy
• reduce heating bills and protect sensitive livestock by serving as a windbreak
• extend the growing season by creating a protected microclimate for tender plants
• reinforce fences, or even act as fences by themselves
• reduce agricultural and stormwater runoff
• reduce erosion
• provide food and habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and other wildlife
• serve as a wildlife corridor
• provide fodder for livestock
• and more!

Planning Your Edible Hedge

Edible hedges typically incorporate a variety of plants including trees, shrubs, vegetables, herbs, wildflowers, grasses, and groundcovers.

Each plant should contribute one or more functions to the hedge. For an edible hedge, the most important function is edibility. Choose primarily plants that produce edible fruits, nuts, seeds, berries, leaves, roots, or other parts.

However, edibility should not be the only function of the plants in your hedge. For example, the food production of your hedge can be increased by 30% or more by incorporating plants known to attract pollinators and other beneficial insects, often known as “insectary plants.” Nitrogen-fixing plants such as clover and other legumes improve the health of nearby plants and can reduce or completely eliminate the need for synthetic fertilizers. Finally, groundcovers and other “living mulches” keep the soil cool and moist and reduce the need for watering, as well as providing improved habitat for earthworms and other healthy soil fauna. Depending on the secondary purposes of your edible hedge, you may also want to choose plants that provide other functions as well, such as dense shrubs for privacy, or the host plant for a favorite species of butterfly.

Depending on the size of your property, you may or may not want to include trees in your hedge. Large fruit and nut trees can overwhelm a small lot. However, there are many dwarf fruit tree varieties and small understory trees such as dogwood and crabapple that can make excellent additions to an edible hedge, even in a small yard. If you have the space for large mast-producing trees, a few of the best choices include native oaks, hickories, and pecans. Non-native fruit trees such as domestic apples and pears also make great choices for an edible hedge, especially if your main goal is food for your family.

The most common plants in most hedges are shrubs. There are dozens of great native and non-native mast-producing shrubs that are good choices for an edible hedge, including blueberry, raspberry, blackberry, serviceberry, hazelnut, elderberry, chokecherry, aronia, wild cherry, wild plum, gooseberry, currant, shrub roses, and viburnums.

In addition to edible trees and shrubs, incorporate herbs, annual and perennial vegetables, native wildflowers and grasses, and groundcovers into your edible hedge.

Planting an Edible Hedge From Scratch

Whenever possible, choose a spot to plant your hedge with enough room for at least two staggered rows of plants. If you plan to use chemical pesticides or herbicides nearby, add an uncultivated grassy area up to several yards wide on either side of the hedge, if possible. The grassy buffer will help protect plants and beneficial insects in the hedge from chemical drift.

Mulch your new hedge heavily to reduce weeding and watering needs while it becomes established.

Converting an Existing Hedge

If you already have a hedge that you want to convert to an edible hedge, thin it strategically and start planting edible shrubs, trees, and herbaceous plants in the gaps and edges. A good goal is to convert a single row into two or three staggered rows of plants to encourage maximum productivity.

In order to reduce disturbance to the roots of the remaining established plants, don’t till the area you plan to plant. Instead dig individual holes for each new plant, and mulch heavily to reduce weeds. Laying down a layer of newspaper or cardboard under the mulch is a biodegradable way to kill turf grasses or other unwanted plants.

This is one reason mast-producing trees are so valuable a part of conservation and restoration efforts. As truly multipurpose plants, they offer benefits not only to wildlife and the environment but also to humans. Mast-producing trees offer many business opportunities for farmers and other landowners interested in diversifying their income with alternative crops.

The following is a sampling of some of the many crops produced by various mast-producing trees and shrubs that are suitable for commercial sale:

• Almonds
• Apples
• Aronia
• Blueberries and huckleberries
• Brambles
• Cherries
• Chestnuts
• Christmas trees
• Cranberries
• Currants
• Elderberries
• Firewood
• Gooseberries
• Hazelnuts
• Hickory nuts
• Kiwis
• Lingonberries
• Mulberries
• Nursery stock
• Pawpaws
• Pears
• Pecans
• Persimmons
• Plums
• Sawlogs
• Walnuts

In addition to crops produced directly by mast-producing trees and shrubs, there are a number of crops and livestock that can be raised in association with trees and shrubs. For example:

• Boar
• Deer and elk
• Honeybees
• Mast-finished pork
• Free range poultry
• Mushrooms

Value-added products and services related to mast-producing trees and shrubs include:

• Apple cider
• Baked goods
• Canned fruits
• Dried fruits
• Game park or private hunting preserve
• Handmade wood furniture or toys
• Honey and beeswax products
• Hunting guide
• Jams and jellies
• Maple syrup
• Nature preserve
• Sawmill
• Trail rides
• U-pick
• Wine

Learn More

• Income Opportunities in Special Forest Products
• Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture

Analog forestry products are typically less productive on an individual basis than those raised in more traditional agricultural settings. However, the high degree of biodiversity in analog forests ensures a steady income for practitioners. Analog forestry also provides the same ecological benefits as natural climax forests, including erosion prevention and water purification.

To date, analog forestry has primarily been practiced in tropical environments. However, the edible forest gardening movement in temperate regions shares many principles with analog forestry, and if analog forestry does move on a wide scale into temperate regions, mast-producing trees and shrubs are likely to play a major role in most analog forest gardens due to their multifuctionality.

Learn More:

• International Analog Forestry Network

Long practiced in the tropics, agroforestry is gaining increasing attention in temperate regions due to its many benefits.

Some of the basic techniques of agroforestry include:

• Alley cropping is a system of planting annual or perennial crops in strips between rows of trees or shrubs. The woody perennials help prevent erosion, improve moisture retention in soil, and diversify income streams through production of wood, fruit, nuts, or other tree products.
• Silvopasture combines trees or shrubs with livestock to diversify income and provide forage and/or shelter for the animals.
• Windbreaks and hedgerows are used to protect more valuable crops and livestock from strong winds and other inclement weather, but they can also be designed to provide habitat for wildlife such as game birds and beneficial insects (farmscaping), or to produce crops of their own.
• Riparian buffers are dense plantings of trees and shrubs planted along streams and other waterways to improve water quality by reducing erosion and agricultural runoff. In addition to their ecological benefits, riparian buffers are commonly managed to provide wildlife habitat and/or produce timber, firewood, fruits, nuts, and other tree crops.
• Forest farming is the production of timber and non-timber forest products in a naturalistic forest setting. It is different from wildcrafting and other opportunistic methods of harvesting forest products because the forest is managed. Examples of forest products produced by forest farming include timber, firewood, fruits, nuts, mushrooms, greenery for floral arrangements, medicinal plants such as ginseng, maple syrup, and more. Small scale and non-commercial forest farming is often known as edible forest gardening.

Mast-producing trees and shrubs make excellent additions to any agroforestry system because they are so multifunctional. Many forms of hard and soft mast are edible for humans and can be harvested and sold raw or processed. Many mast producing trees and shrubs produce superior timber or firewood, and all are exceptional wildlife plants that can be used to provide an additional source of supplemental income through hunting rights, birdwatching tours, taxidermy projects, and more. Some domestic livestock species also relish mast, while the flowers produced by some soft mast producing species are important nectar sources for bees and other beneficial insects.

Learn More

• Agroforestry Overview
• Association for Temperate Agroforestry
• National Agroforestry Center
• Center for Agroforestry

Woody agriculture is an intensive system of production that establishes permanent stands of the woody crop through coppicing. Nuts are gathered annually, and the wood is typically harvested for biofuel or charcoal production once every 5-10 years. The plant regenerates from the roots and returns to food production the following year.

Woody agriculture has many benefits over traditional annual-based agriculture, including:

• Reduced erosion. Once the stand of trees or shrubs is established, no tillage is necessary, greatly reducing wind and water erosion. The deep root systems of woody perennials also help hold the soil in place.
• Reduced agricultural runoff. The deep root system of perennial woody crops uses soil nutrients more effectively, requiring less fertilizer, and utilizes fertilizer more efficiently when it is applied, reducing runoff. Herbicide and pesticide needs are also reduced.
• Reduced water needs. Established perennial crops are also far more drought-resistant than annual crops and require little or no extra water in most regions.
• Improved wildlife habitat. Woody trees and shrubs provide food and shelter for many animal species in addition to the food and fuel they produce for humans.

Contrary to popular belief, tree crops, especially improved hybrids, can produce as much or more per acre than traditional annual crops, and some hybrid varieties have been bred for precocious production, reducing the amount of time between stand establishment and income generation.

Woody agriculture has also been gaining attention from the scientific community due to its carbon sequestration capabilities. Woody plants fix three times as much carbon dioxide as annual crops per year, and it is estimated that converting 1/4th of current agricultural land to an intensive woody agriculture system would completely counteract the excess carbon dioxide emissions produced by fossil fuel burning and other human activities, while providing large amounts of food and fuel for human consumption in the process.

Learn More

• Badgersett Research Corporation
• Woody Agriculture

Creating or preserving riparian buffer zones has many benefits for both the environment and the landowner, including:

• reduced surface and groundwater pollution from agricultural or urban stormwater runoff
• reduced erosion
• reduced risk of floods
• improved stream health
• increased fish populations
• improved wildlife habitat
• diversified income opportunities

The ideal width of riparian buffer zones depends on the function of the buffer. (All widths are measured in one direction starting from the edge of the water.)

If erosion control is the primary goal, a 50 foot buffer zones is probably adequate. In order to remove pollutants from agricultural or urban runoff, a width of at least 66 feet is best. Most scientists consider the ideal width of a riparian buffer zone to be 100-150 feet. This provides maximum stream health and water quality benefits. However, if wildlife habitat is your primary goal, a width of 300 feet might be even better.

The ideal width of riparian zones also depends on local conditions and the lay of the land. For example, steep streambanks require wider riparian buffer zones than shallow ones.

Riparian buffer zones are divided into three parts, or zones.

Zone 1 is streamside. It should consist of a minimum of 30 feet of large trees planted in about 4-5 staggered rows, as well as dense plantings of native shrubs and ground covers, especially along the stream banks. The first one or two rows of trees should be fast growing that are tolerant of wet conditions, such as cottonwoods or willows. These will quickly begin to shade and stabilize the streambanks.

The next two or three rows should consist of slower growing, mast producing hardwoods such as oaks, walnuts, and hickories. These trees provide food and shelter for wildlife, and can be used to diversify the income of the farm or property through fruit or nut sales, lumber sales, and more.

Zone 2 should consist of at least 12 feet of small trees and shrubs. These can include soft mast producing species such as dogwood, chokecherry, and wild plum, to provide food for wildlife and additional income for the property. Zones 1 and 2 provide flood control and wildlife habitat.

Finally, zone 3 should consist of at least 20-25 feet of unmowed native warm season grasses and perennials such as switchgrass. This is the most important zone for reducing erosion and water pollution. Most sediments and pollutants are absorbed by the deep, fibrous roots of the native grasses and forbs before they ever reach zones 1 and 2.

There are a number of federal programs that offer technical assistance, cost-share programs, or grants to landowners interested in installing or improving riparian buffer zones. These include the Conservation Reserve Program.

Where To Plant A Hedgerow

The best place to plant a hedgerow depends on its purpose. Hedgerows can be used to create stock-proof “fences” around pastures, to serve as a privacy screen or hide an eyesore, to serve as a windbreak, to reduce erosion and runoff along stream banks, to serve as a wildlife corridor between two different habitats, to attract bees and other pollinators to crops, and many other uses. Plant your hedgerow where it will best meet your primary needs, and provide as many secondary benefits as possible.

When possible, choose a spot with enough room for at least two staggered rows of plants, and an uncultivated grassy area up to several yards wide on either side of the hedge, especially if you will be using chemical pesticides and herbicides nearby. The grassy buffer will help protect plants and beneficial insects in the hedge from chemical drift.

The Best Hedgerow Plants

The best plants for hedgerows depends on your region and the hedgerow’s intended purpose. For example, if you plan to use your hedgerow as a fence for livestock, you will need to choose shrubs that are very dense, while your priority for a privacy hedge in a suburban yard is likely to be beauty and aesthetic appeal. Windbreaks should emphasize evergreens and conifers, while a hedgerow intended as a wildlife corridor or haven for pollinators should include as much diversity as possible.

Whenever possible, plant 2 or more rows of plants in your hedgerow, and include a mix of several different species each of trees, shrubs, grasses, and flowering plants. Native mast-producing trees and shrubs are an especially valuable addition to wildlife hedgerows, because they provide both food and shelter to a huge variety of animals, from whitetail deer and wild turkeys to bees and butterflies. Mast producing trees and shrubs can also be used to create an “edible hedge” for humans.

If you are planting a wildlife hedge, it is especially important to plant a hedgerow that provides food and shelter in all four seasons, so plant a mix of summer and fall fruiting berries and nuts, and choose flowering plants with the goal of having at least one species in bloom from early spring to late fall.

Maintaining a Hedgerow

Selective thinning every 5-10 years can help maintain a diverse and healthy hedgerow community. Weeds should be managed by hand or with spot applications of herbicides to prevent damage to the hedge. Heavy mulching can also help keep weeds down in the early years while the hedge is becoming established.

Incentives and Grants

There are a number of government programs that can help offset the costs of planting a hedgerow through grants or cost-sharing programs, including the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP), the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).

Though the idea of temperate forest gardens was developed in Britain, it is easily adapted to North America.

Forest gardens are designed to mimic a natural woodland and are planted in up to seven distinct layers:

1. The tall tree layer consists of fruit and nut bearing trees such as chestnuts, walnuts, oaks, apples, and hickories, planted irregularly to intermix patches of sun and shade on the forest floor below.
2. The low tree layer consists of smaller understory trees such as almonds, mulberries, dogwoods, and pawpaw, as well as dwarf fruit trees.
3. The shrub layer includes fruiting shrubs such as blueberry, raspberry, hazelnut, serviceberry, elderberry, chokeberry, wild cherry, and more.
4. The herb layer includes annual and perennial vegetables, flowers, culinary herbs, and other non-woody species.
5. The ground cover layer includes a mix of low growing edible plants such as strawberries, nitrogen fixers such as clover, living mulches, and low growing flowers.
6. The root layer includes edible roots and tubers such as garlic, onions, potatoes, and Jerusalem artichoke, as well as a type of plant known as “dynamic accumulators,” whose deep root systems draw nutrients up to the soil’s surface where they can be used by other plants.
7. The vine layer includes climbing plants such as wild grapes, kiwifruit, honeysuckle, and annual vegetables such as cucumbers and squash.

The typical edible forest garden is designed to be both useful and beautiful, incorporating a mix of mast-producing trees and shrubs, vegetables and herbs, flowering plants, and garden workhorses such as nitrogen fixing plants, living mulches/cover crops, and dynamic accumulators. Many edible forest gardens also provided excellent habitat for birds and other wildlife.

The result is a self-sustaining, multistoried garden that produces copious food for humans and wildlife alike.

Learn more

• Edible Forest Gardens
• EdibleForestGardens.com
• Edible Forest Gardens: An Invitation to Adventure
• Plant an Edible Forest Garden
• Forest Farming Creates Profit Niches, Conserves Endangered Plants
• A tour of Robert Hart’s garden