The Great Holler Food Forest Reset - Strong Roots Resources

The following guide refers to a specific site – at Nicole Sauce’s Holler Homestead in Middle Tennessee. I’ve been providing occasional maintenance on this site since 2023 but this year it became clear we needed to change our approach. What I’ve laid out here is going to be applicable to new installations or if you’re working on resetting and rehabilitating a similar site. I’ve used this methodology in several locations at this point and I’m finding it to be successful in our hot, dry and weedy summers, especially considering how little organic matter is available in a lot of our non-forested native soils prior to amendment.

For a PDF guide and less wordy version, email me at strongrootsresources@gmail.com and I’ll happily pass it along.

The Great Holler Food Forest Reset

Original installation with SRR, Nick Ferguson and students: Oct 2023

Tree, shrub, herb, ground covers planted then with challenges including upkeep, weeding, poor soil, seed bed pressure, prioritization of tasks, poor soil structure.

Many plants have died or failed to thrive. Occasional maintenance visits made to help with aesthetics but not otherwise very beneficial.

Major weeding done Aug 2025, trees given inoculant.

New approach for a rehab situation or new installation:

Earthworks (if applicable), heavy mulching (wood chips, cardboard / burlap)

2. Trees planted – any bare soil covered with cardboard/woodchips

Always water in, provide compost and mulch well. No mulch volcanoes.

16 ft minimum spacing on fruit trees
25 to 30 ft spacing on large trees

3. Between the trees, add comfrey root cuttings or crowns – heavily planted within the rest of the berm or the surrounding area. Maximum spacing at 2ft. Closer is better.

Adding comfrey in this manner means:

Nutrient accumulation, weed competition, soil coverage, aeration, decompaction, living mulch/chop and drop. Useful as medicinal and animal fodder.

After 1 to 2 years or as trees reach 6 to 8 feet, dig out comfrey equidistant between trees, add shrubs (blueberry, goji, bush cherry, bush raspberry, and heavily cardboard/woodchip any exposed soil.

Try to minimize soil disturbance. Take comfrey crowns / roots and replant as needed elsewhere, especially at the base of the newly installed shrubs

Highly recommend maintaining a “propagation” patch of comfrey at a location convenient to the food forest site so that the soil isn’t needlessly disturbed between shrubs, trees, etc.

Allow another year of growth for the trees and shrubs to take place. If growth is robust, continue with adding the other layers. If growth is stunted, address that first, via inoculants, compost application, compost tea, etc.

Year 4 to 5 – if weed pressure has not been intense and soil/organic matter is looking good, add vining layers, herbaceous / root and rhizome layers.

Regular mulching with leaves and/or wood chips during the first few years is paramount.

Note about digging comfrey: the roots almost always tear, so new plants will emerge from the original planting site. Even with root sections left behind, it’s okay to plant your shrub in that location. You’ll wind up with smaller comfrey plants surrounding your shrub.

Weeds are constantly trying to repair the soil – they’ll take on that role if you don’t do it yourself. Let the status of your soil be the teacher. Installing all layers of a food forest immediately after soil disturbance / earthworks is unlikely to be successful in our Tennessee climate unless you’re prepared to take on 2 minutes of maintenance per square foot every 1 to 3 weeks during the growing season. Do the math on that and be honest with yourself whether you can manage that during the hottest months when weed pressure is most active.

Seasonal Tasks:

Earthworks can take place anytime that the soil isn’t waterlogged. Running equipment on wet soil increases compaction.

Consider if you need any type of additional irrigation system. Drip irrigation is preferred. You can build the manifold and add more junctions, tubing and emitters as needed.

Comfrey roots can be planted anytime of year when the soil isn’t frozen. Best to do it fall through early spring when possible.

October through mid March – best for tree planting. Low transplant stress, lowest pest pressure. Make sure the soil isn’t frozen.

Refer to this video for best planting practices: https://youtu.be/Jnn0rpD_fiw?si=Vwhymr_d19HddfVM

Potted trees (if root bound) need their roots untangled and pruned prior to planting. Never allow tree roots to dry out during this process, keep them soaking in a bucket during the pruning/planting process.

Mid Fall – seeding clovers, planting perennial herbs, digging and dividing perennial flowers as needed

Wintertime – mulching, amending, propagating hardwood cuttings, pruning

Spring – sowing annual seed, planting perennial herbs, propagating green wood cuttings

Summer: Mulch (keeping soil covered) general maintenance, successive seeding for any annuals.

Harvest takes place throughout the year.

Useful books and database for plant choices:

pfaf.org

PFAF | Shop Page

Gardening with the Native Plants of Tennessee by Margie Hunter
The Tennessee Fruit and Vegetable Book – Rushing and Reeves

Trees of Power – Akiva Silver

My personally curated list from multiple installations, site visits and my own demonstration site:

Smaller sites ought to avoid large trees or use just one or two from the list.

Large Trees: Above 40 ft height

American persimmon

Chinese Chestnut and American hybrids

Oak – Chinkapin, white oak, pin and post oaks

Hickory (pignut, shagbark)

Pecan

Black locust (edible flowers, will root sucker and form groves) Consider for edges / lessening deer pressure, tactical/protective layer

Catalpa

Medium Trees: 20 to 40 ft

Paw Paw (understory tree, needs shade)

English walnut

Pear – Bartlett, Keiffer, Asian varieties

Sassafras (will root sucker and form groves)

Kousa Dogwood – look for types that produce edible fruit

Fuyu persimmon

Small Trees: 20 ft and under

Plum (santa rosa, burgundy are self fertile)

Cherry (montgomery, all sour cherry are self fertile)

Apple (arkansas black, wolf river, liberty) Generally rust resistant

Fig (chicago hardy, brown turkey, celeste)

Mulberry (any black, white or red mulberry) Avoid paper mulberry

Edible sumac – winged, staghorn, smooth. Learn to distinguish edible sumac from poisonous sumac

Shrubs: 3 to 12 ft

Goji (good for hedges, wildlife and/or tactical barriers)

Blueberry (Rabbit Eye types, Powder Blue)

Blackberry

Raspberry

Bush cherry

Nanking cherry

Quince (make sure it’s not ornamental)

Currants/Jostaberry/Gooseberry

Elderberry

Rose of Sharon

Wineberry

Hazelnut

Herb/Pollinator Plants:

Lavender (needs dry, well drained soil)

Rosemary (dry, well drained soil, preferably protected by surrounding plants in wintertime)

Sage

Bulb plants – Daffodils repel deer, creek lily, daylily, various tulips, allium, lilies, saffron, snow crocus, dahlia, grape hyacinth, gladiolus

Asparagus – suggest the giant varieties for easy ID and harvest in prolific polycultures

Sunchokes – add with care. Incredibly prolific – keep to an edge that can be mowed to control if needed. Incredibly tall plants, pollinator supportive, rabbit fodder and wintertime forage for humans and wildlife

Zinnias

Rose Mallow

Borage

Echinacea

Basil

Chives

Ground cover:

Main focus here is keep heights walkable. Best to avoid the need to mow unless you’re employing ruminants and/or rabbits in mobile shelters to control height of ground cover foliage. It’s okay to blend perennials and annuals here. You can also maintain paths solely through regular application (1 – 2 times a year) of wood chips.

Strawberry

Mint – can get tall but cutting back 1 to 2 times a season keeps it walkable

Oregano

Thyme

Clover

Violets

Nasturtium

Cilantro

Creeping thyme

Vining:

Hops

Hardy Kiwi – male and female plants needed for pollination

Passion flower

Grapes – muscadine

Yam/sweet potatoes – foliage can climb or act as ground cover.

Squash

Melon

Pole Beans

Moonflower- feeds nighttime pollinators

Root/Rhizome:

Groundnut

Sunchokes

Potato

Sweet potato

Horseradish

Salsify

Fennel

Radish

Beet

Ginger

Tumeric (an annual in our region)

Garlic

Daffodils- earliest to bloom, pollinator support, deters deer

Fungi – mushroom logs – position once dappled shade throughout the day is available

Additional infrastructure:

Compost area – can be more than one area depending on size of the food forest

Wild edges – unmanaged areas to providing sheltering for animals/insects

Hives – at a quiet, sheltered edge that will be warmest during the winter months (minimal wind, activity)

Additional wildlife support:

Bat houses

Bluebird Houses – Bluebirds are territorial and will compete with other bird species that will decimate fruits. They also provide control for problematic bugs.

Water/small pond / solar fountain pump for pollinator watering

Protection from deer:

Bone Sauce – quality product from PermaPastures Farm that repels deer and may help with other animal pressure

Billy’s Bone Sauce – Perma Pastures Farm

Daffodils around entire food forest perimeter

Motion sensor controlled sprinkler

Beyond the food forest:

As you learn tree systems and all of the functional layers of the food forest, this system (if the landscape allows) can be expanded into fodder tree systems (for feeding livestock), agroforestry systems and silvopasture.

In deeply forested areas already present, you can also consider forest farming / forest herb plantings (this is Middle to East Tennessee region specific/Appalachia) such as Ginseng, Black and Blue cohosh, Goldenseal, Solomon’s Seal. There are grants, education and consulting available for this type of venture via Appalachian Sustainable Development and more.

CAGP | Catalyzing Agroforestry

Working Trees

The following supplier list I’ve curated through my own purchases, positive feedback from friends and customers and nearly all are small, local businesses in our region. Most of them can ship as needed, others are worth making a day trip to visit.

Suppliers:

https://hiwasseeproducts.com/

The Farm Connection

Organic Nursery & Organic Gardening Supplies | Peaceful Valley Farm – Grow Organic

Tree Seedlings

Direcraft – | Permaculture | Homestead Products & Technology | Edible Nursery |

Suppliers: Permaculture and Food Forest Plants. – Worldwide list – scroll down to US listings

Shale Creek Nursery – (2) Facebook

Bocking #4 Comfrey Root Cuttings

Panter Nursery
https://grownuttrees.com/

(2) Facebook – Subterra Organics

Centerville Farm – https://www.facebook.com/centervillefarmtennessee