Alley Cropping in Your Backyard

Even the best ideas in agriculture fall short, if they don't improve the soil.

I have seem many documentaries and projects about avenue cropping that are nothing more that an industrialization of this practice. Yes, the farmer gets some aditional benefits from it, but they don't change their mentality about how nature works, and continue the same extractive operation that deplets soil, create more work, and keep the dependence of external imputs. Bill Mollision devised a system with avenue (alley) cropping adapted from Ray Witjewarden, Conservation Farming (1981), that creates an integration between crop growing and soil improvement.

This permaculture avenue crop is anchored by legume trees, and can be implemented in a home garden or in a field.

In this edition, in 5 minutes or less:

#1 Definition

#2 Construction Instruction

Definition

For those of you who are new to this idea, avenue cropping is more connected with growing food in large fields, by trying to integrate the use of tractors and machinery with trees, so that the farmer can still have trees and their benefits while carring out a plantation style operation.

The advent of the animal plow, and then tractor, enabled many kind of tools to be used in the field, which created a revolution in human history. Some machines are really usefull, like earth shaping tractor, but other are really harmful, like the plow. Well, this is a thorny issue that we will not cover in this letter, but if you are trigered by reading that the plow is bad, it means that you have been brainwashed, because there are solid evidence against the plow and other techniques that cause erosion, destruction of soil life, and deforestation (a grounding stone reference is Tree Crops, by J.Russel Smith).

So, normally avenue or alley cropping is presented as the solution to keep using technology and machinery in a harmfull way (for nature and thus, as consequence for us. Normally it is greenwashing. The culmination of Bill Mollision research and practice is a avenue cropping practice that really produces yield and builds soil, which is the fundation of any gardening and farming that can sustain us forever. There are two version for the tropics: one with palms, that is tought to be applied in broad areas (a farm) -which is not the scope of this series- and one with legumes trees, that is tought to be applied in smaller spaces (gardens) or in broad areas (a farm). It is, of course, multifunctional.

It is a wood fuel/mulch/soil improvement crop integration using legumes trees as fixed hedges, that are coppiced (meaning that the boundaries, the hedges, of the bed are planted which legumes trees, that are cut in a specific way to promote regrow, producing the maximum quantity of green material and fixing the maximum amount of nitrogen). They create a self-mulched and stable intercrop system (the intercrop is what you want to grow, and it is protected and fertilized by the legumes).

Its essencial characteristics are:

• Correct spacing of the legumes trees to fully shade the ground, but to allow cropping between them
• Coppicing of the tree legumes in order to leave stems 0.5-1 m above the ground
• Coppicing the trees at the right time of the season, namelly the warm wet period
• Replanting of the tree legumes that die out or loose vitality (usually over a 5-8 years cicle)
• Using suitable tree legumes:
  • Tagasaste
  • Leucaena
  • Gliricidia
  • Cassia
  • Acacia
  • Sesbania
• Supplementing the mulch production of the system with non-legume hedge and understory plants
  • Nicotiana
  • Echium fastuosum
  • Lantana
  • Cinnamon
  • Clumps of daisies
  • Clumps of wild ginger
  • Clumps of lemongrass
  • Clumps of vetiver grass
  • Clumps of pennisetum
  • Clumps of comfrey
  • soft ground legumes (like beans, peas, and lentils)
• Sowing of the crops just before irrigation or rain
• Using the right intercrop sequence
  • Maize/beans
  • Yam/beans
  • Cassava/beans
  • Melon/beans
• Returning mulch from crop wastes to the system
• Sticks from the legumes trees can be used as firewood, returning the ashes to the garden

Construction Instruction

It seems a lot, but it is not. It is quite simple once you visualize it.

You will understand how it works by looking at the figures:

What you need to know before you start:

• You need to replace spent tegumes trees around a 5-8 years cicle, so either build a tree nursery or source a tree nursery in your region
• Plan out where you are going to create your avenue crop
• Make sure you have enough water for your avenue crops, by placing swales to catch water, harvesting rainwater, and building ponds. Check out the previous series "Strategic Water Reserves for any Gardening Endeavour" Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 to wrap your head around it
• Space the trees accordingly to the species requirements
• Source mulch (leaves, cardboars, newspapper without toxic paint, natural fiber fabric without toxic substances) to help implementing your trees and your intercrop

Construction Steps:

Step 1: Find the spot that best suits your avenue crop

• where it is the most efficient to irrigate
• where the soil is best
• where the countour lines match your plan
• where it receives adequate sun, according to which species you want to plant.

Step 2: Decide if you want to build it as a zig-zag, as a paralel, or as a spiral avenues

• Mark the avenues and hedges. Try to place the avenues on the countor lines (they are on the same height), so that the water can lay equaly along the same avenue. If you have a flat area, everything will be on the same level.
• Double check if it lands matching with the countor lines
• Build in your irrigation system

Step 3: Choose your intercrop sequence

• As previous said, some good options are: Maize/beans, Yam/beans, Cassava/beans, and Melon/beans. You can also plant one intercrop instead of a sequence. Check your climate characteristics and site conditions to choose what fit you. You can also experiement with other options.

Step 4: Choose your legumes trees for the heges that best suit your climate and site

• Consult with local nurseries about most successful plants
• Observe in your region, which legume trees varieties are most successful
• Check your hardyness zone to discover new possible species

Step 5: Plant trees. Check this previous newsletter for the ultimate way of planting trees according to Bill Mollision​

Step 6: Sow crops before rain or irrigation

Step 7: Mulch everything

Step 8: Observe, takes notes and iterate

• Working with nature is a proccess, which means you have a learning curve to master the conditions of your site, and stablish the system (build it up until it is solid)

You can literally save our home planet by practicing this avenue crop with legumes trees and intercrop.

You can start small in your backyard, growing all the food you need, while you improve the soil, and also learn a sustainable practice that can be applyed in large scale. Plus, it is not only of great use in the tropics and subtropics but can be adatapted to any climate, by good species selection and seasonal timing for planting and coppicing.

We understand how challenging it can be to shift ones mindset towards permaculture and have confidence in your sustainable practices, and this is a very inovative system. However, it works, because it was field tested successfuly.

Would it be crazy to say that it is possible to transforms your relationship with nature through small manageable projects in your backyard?

See you next Tuesday!

Alexandre and Marina

P.S.: In our next newsletter, we'll dive deep into how everything comes together. We will present a total permaculture design for a tropical or substropical site based on a design by Margrit Kennedy and Bill Mollison, which showcases clearly the application of effective permaculture practices. You will never have again to struggle to create your own practice in the tropics.

Sources: Mollison, Bill, Remi M. Slay, Jeeves, Andrew. Permaculture: A Designers' Manual. Tagari Publications, 1988, pages 270, 273-276, 280 , figures 10.23, 10.27, and 10.29