Exploring the many gifts offered by the Service Berry in the context of Food Forest Design. This is Installment #3 of the Stacking Functions in the Garden, Food Forest and Medicine Cabinet series.
I just planted one of these (a bareroot slip) this past fall in a newly cleared area in the southeast of my yard. Surrounded by welded wire for protection against deer. Got it from a local "permaculture" grower, uncertain of the variety. He basically propogates what seems to do well here and offers them. (edibleacres.org)
I was first made aware of the delectability of the fruit when "grazing" upon several trees growing in a commercial area nearby in occupied Haudonsanee land. Delicious!
I had considered blueberries but they require highly acid soil prep and these do not.
I also grew a Saskatoon in the drought stricken caliche in 5000 foot altitude New Mexico and it did pretty well even with minimal supplemental irrigation.
Service Berries are more versatile and a better producer than blueberries per square footage for sure, though I do also love my blue berries and often design edible landscapes with things like White Pine (for more info: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/an-encounter-with-an-ancient-healer ) near by to create a slow release localized soil acidification relationship between the two plants.
Yes! Saskatoon berries are so tough, I have seen them growing in gnarly desert terrain in the Okanagan of BC, the high alpine, the arctic Tundra and they also grow on the shady north side of our house in southern Ontario and still produce beautifully!
My pleasure, thanks for the comment and thanks for caring about our Mother Earth.
Service berry shrubs/trees would typically prefer better drainage, but it is a very resilient and adaptable species and so would likely produce unless it was super boggy and the roots got drowned.
You could always make a burm to create a soil micro climate with better drainage and then a bush or tree would really thrive.
Containers could also work (as the roots are super cold hardy).
Also, if it was a very wet landscape (swampy/boggy) you might be able to do an adapted version of the ancient triple Alliance (aka 'Aztec') technique called Chinampas and then you could grow a range of different things and avoid having to water.
I provide some info on that technique at the bottom of this recipe post:
Bravo! Thanks for the excellent collection of information on luscious serviceberry! I hope I'll be able to refer to it later.
So hows that alien thing working out for ya? See?
Could you elaborate on what you meant by that comment please?
Alien thing?
I just planted one of these (a bareroot slip) this past fall in a newly cleared area in the southeast of my yard. Surrounded by welded wire for protection against deer. Got it from a local "permaculture" grower, uncertain of the variety. He basically propogates what seems to do well here and offers them. (edibleacres.org)
I was first made aware of the delectability of the fruit when "grazing" upon several trees growing in a commercial area nearby in occupied Haudonsanee land. Delicious!
I had considered blueberries but they require highly acid soil prep and these do not.
I also grew a Saskatoon in the drought stricken caliche in 5000 foot altitude New Mexico and it did pretty well even with minimal supplemental irrigation.
Thanks for the info Gavin!
Awesome!
Thanks for the heads up on Edible Acres :) I`ll add them to my list of trust worthy seed/seedling/tree companies at the bottom of this post:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/seed-saving-to-save-the-future
Have you ever been to Twisted Tree Farms? https://www.twisted-tree.net/
Service Berries are more versatile and a better producer than blueberries per square footage for sure, though I do also love my blue berries and often design edible landscapes with things like White Pine (for more info: https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/an-encounter-with-an-ancient-healer ) near by to create a slow release localized soil acidification relationship between the two plants.
Yes! Saskatoon berries are so tough, I have seen them growing in gnarly desert terrain in the Okanagan of BC, the high alpine, the arctic Tundra and they also grow on the shady north side of our house in southern Ontario and still produce beautifully!
My pleasure, thanks for the comment and thanks for caring about our Mother Earth.
Great idea about growing blueberry as semi understory to pines. Yes, check out Sean at edible acres, he has a YouTube channel also.
wow...I wonder if it would like marshlands? my local palouse soil is clay dominant ....
Service berry shrubs/trees would typically prefer better drainage, but it is a very resilient and adaptable species and so would likely produce unless it was super boggy and the roots got drowned.
You could always make a burm to create a soil micro climate with better drainage and then a bush or tree would really thrive.
Containers could also work (as the roots are super cold hardy).
Also, if it was a very wet landscape (swampy/boggy) you might be able to do an adapted version of the ancient triple Alliance (aka 'Aztec') technique called Chinampas and then you could grow a range of different things and avoid having to water.
I provide some info on that technique at the bottom of this recipe post:
https://gavinmounsey.substack.com/p/mole-polbano-dry-spice-mix-and-sauce
very fun , thank you!