Is there no chestnut blight in your area?

Even better!

Would you be able to prune the house? I don’t know the layout of your place, but that might make more room. Otherwise, the neighbour’s land is always an option.

Yes, convert that lawn! Two plants worth considering are Prunus persica ‘Kernechter vom Vorgebirge’ and Amelanchier × lamarckii. I’ve heard great things about them, but they were growing in SW Germany, so do your own research first. What do you use for a ground cover? Clover can be a valuable ally in the fight against the grass.

That is an impressive agroforestry system. :) Which chestnut species do you grow?

You have a ton of potential in South Florida! (Until sea level rise floods everything, of course.) Will you add more fruit trees? The nurseries in your area have some amazing options. Which mangos and avocados do you grow? I’m curious about the quality of ‘Monroe’ and ‘Oro Negro’ avocados.

It’s strange what’s happening with your avocados. Do you know if the bloom timing of avocados in your area has changed at all? If they were previously getting pollinated by trees that now bloom at different times, then that could explain the lack of fruits.

If it’s a choice between banana and grass, I recommend banana 100%. Pine Island and Excalibur both sold Dwarf Namwah last I checked, and that should be very productive. Excalibur also sells FHIA-18, which doesn’t taste so much like banana. I recently posted about it here, though the linked PDF is in spanish.

Off to a good start! Do you know what else you want to add? Forelle pear might be worth considering for your area, but do your own research.

Sounds like you’ve got a great thing going! Maintaining fertility by mulching with cut vegetation and composting “waste” is really important. How big is your fruit forest? Do you plan to diversify further and fill up the field? How small do you plan to keep the trees? I’ve found that pruning tall trees with a pole saw is really tedious and exhausting. Do you have a particular method that’s easier?

Hello and thank you for your thoughtful comment. In general, I agree. I was not insinuating that Dipteryx oleifera trees (or plants in general) are only valuable as a source of food. They provide a myriad of ecosystem services, and all life in the forest is connected and interdependent. I simply meant that while some fruit-bearing plants are widely planted outside of their native range for food (durians, mangos, peaches, and probably most things that we both eat), this particular tree is not probably worth planting for its fruit alone (especially considering its size), and therefore it doesn’t make sense to grow it outside of its native range as one might do with some other fruit trees. Within its native range, it could be worth planting for the sake of restoring the forest, in which case eating the fruit would be a bonus.

Of course, no animal is food.

It’s more beautiful than delicious, honestly. The fruit doesn’t have a very strong flavour, and the spines and seeds make it difficult to eat many of them out of hand, BUT blended with other things, it can be quite nice.

UPDATE: https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/03/mozilla-rewrites-firefoxs-terms-of-use-after-user-backlash/

“fruit trees, native trees, and other beneficial vegetation”

Seems likely. Even just “native trees” would almost need to include Inga species, which are legumes, and there are native Amazon nuts like Caryodendron orinocense that might also grow wild in the area.

You might appreciate this: https://slrpnk.net/post/20138177

But if you don’t plant trees, there will continue to be droughts, as trees help to regulate humidity and precipitation. Farmers in drought-prone areas actually plant trees (agroforestry) in order to reduce crop losses due to drought. Even in urban areas, planting trees (especially natives) can have many benefits for reducing the impact of drought. Of course, a diverse forest ecosystem would be most resilient.