>>2360214This system is what you do if you either You are kind of just describing conventional agriculture. OP could do it this way if he is fine with putting a lot of additional inputs into the trees, both while they are establishing and on an ongoing basis that's not a self sustaining permaculture.
>>2360002Doubled back to this because I realized I should clarify what I mean by plant succession. Basically, how it works in nature is that a site first gets populated by pioneer species, and every plant after is reliant at least in part on the changes that the plants before them made to the conditions of that location. To replicate that to your advantage for permaculture, you would essentially want to:
1) plant your toughest plants first. Whatever loves full sun, dry soil and can handle getting beat up by the elements.
2) Once those establish (as little as a year), come in with things that are more tender. Plants that still like it dry but maybe can't take the wind for example
2) Next come in with the heartiest trees you intend to plant, or the larger leggy savannah shrubs. These types of trees often have to start under hearty shrub cover, oaks for example often start to come up under the shelter or rose hedges that are dense and protect them from browsing.
3) Now that you have a canopy you can start planting the more tender understory perennials and shrubs. The stuff that needs dappled shade to kill the worst of the summer heat, needs a richer soil that will be built by leaf litter from the canopy, and needs slightly more moist soil.
4) Once you have a good understory set up, you can plant basically whatever else, like you more needy fruit trees.
You can help each phase by adding natural materials strategically around the planting. Deadfall logs and boulders for example. These provide shade or shelter to establishing plants. Deadfall will also encourage invertibrates and fungi into the site that will aid in soil dev. The whole process would take 3-6 years
