My syntropic experimental garden in northern Italy

This is my 2 year old 2000 m2 garden with multiple tree lines integrated with swales. Support species are willow, Paulownia, Italian alder, black alder, black locust lupine and scotch bloom. Other trees are for example cherry, pear, asian pear, nectrine, plum, pineapple guave, medlar, loquat, pomegranate, szechuan pepper, black walnut, pecan, almond, hazel. The lower layers consists of blue honeysuckle, blueberry, strawberry, tayberry, gooseberry, seaberry, red current, black current, Japanese wineberry, borage, sunflower, Jerusalem artichoke, yucan, asperge, pumpkin, amaranth and much more. Next to all my fences I grow kiwi, kiwiberry and two types of akebia. The land borders and steeper parts are used to grow grapevines for Barbera wine.

The vegetable garden is fenced because it would be consumed by wild animals. I grow a permanently white clover in my vegetable beds that I cut down short whenever I plant new crops, so they keep the soil moist, fertilized and free of weeds. The only care is watering in summer and cutting the clover around the plants if they overgrow them.

The garden is an experiment with many species in varieties with the plan to learn from the successes and mistakes and use this knowledge to plant around 7 hectares in the future.