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Massive guide I typed up to perennials, divided up between usda zones and layers on a food forest, meant to help people planning their own food forest. (docs.google.com)
submitted 20 hours ago by to c/gardening@lemmy.world
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Hey all,

A while ago I wrote up a massive chart / guide in google sheets for all of the perennial plants I could think of that had a major human connection (food, medicine, fiber, ect). I organized based on their usda zones which aren't perfect but give a pretty good idea of what things can be grown where. As well as their layer in a food forest, so there's a different layer for underground rhizomes, a canopy layer, a groundcover layer, ect. It's shaping up to be a pretty good resource for people planning out a food forest

Anyway I've been updating it recently since it's starting to get cold outside and I can't work out there as much. Was wondering if people had suggestions for me to add.

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[–] 1 point 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

Looking pretty good! I'll pick nits because this is right up my straße, but it does work well for its purposes.

I prefer sorting by botanical names, but searching helps. Common names are too woolly & unreliable.

If you're feeling adventurous in the long winter evenings, you could nerd out with cross references. Have a table of plants buried somewhere that are called in charts of uses, growing seasons, etc.

You could calculate Growing Degree Days with auto-filling Base50 temp averages, or just give GDD info per plant with calculation instructions as the lazier option. Store GDD ranges & info in chart from above. I made a gnarly automatic GDD spreadsheet with home assistant filling temperatures for ornamentals and insects/pathology, but I never really look at it despite it updating every day.

Don't sleep on dyes, inks, etc.

You were creative in the spelling of perennial and comfrey.

Plants:

  • Consider adding Urtica, Papavar, Lactuca, Galium aparine. Urtica dioica is extremely useful for food, medicine, fiber, & fertilizer - the stuff of legends. Corylus (hazel) is good for building and food.
  • Not sure why you specify Symphytum x uplandicum and not just Symphytum spp., especially when your link points to S. spp.
  • Salix is a fairly big genus, and most fiber willows are going to be in the shrub or understory layers (eg Salix lucida). Willow bark as medicine is overstated, and it is not analgesic, but it does reduce fever if you hate your stomach lining.
  • Not sure what Lathyrus latifolius is doing in there - it's not edible, and I don't know of any uses for it other than pollinator fodder.

Source: A particular perversion for this kind of ethnobotany & a hort degree program that indulged it (suckers!).

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