How about a Permaculture Web/Mobile app. The user enters their zip and/or their soil test info (if they have it) and it spits out a list of plants/trees/herbs/shrubs into the appropriate Permaculture Categories & Zones/Sectors, and it would be broken down by support/edible/aesthetics.

I keep hearing you and Paul Wheaton say “It Depends” when people ask you what they should plant this could potentially solve it. The Plants for a Future site doesn’t let the user enter their zip code and have it spit out what should work in that area. I did see that they offered the Plants database on cd/dvd and it has all the data in ascii with scripts that allows it to be imported into MySQL. Most of the work is done…just add a few more things to it for the permaculture aspect and you got a workable app.

The web version could also give you a pdf file that you could save/print for later. I haven’t taken a PDC so there is probably some more info that could be added to this like understory category…and probably tons of other stuff.

Unfortunately I am not a developer…just a DBA 🙁 but there might be someone out in the audience than can take this idea and run with it.

Regarding Kudzu. Man I’ve had this discussion numerous times with people (to include native plant zealots).

Turns out Kudzu is completely 100% healthy to eat and is a staple in places in East Asia. Meaning each piece of it, is not only edible, but is also healthy (and supposedly is good to eat, I hadn’t tried it yet). Go figure. It’s also extremely good for forage/browse by animals. How do you control kudzu? Allow animals to go bat shit crazy on it. hah.

Elaeagnus umbellata autumn olive
Why I would not consideration autumn olive in a food forest for where I live (western NC).
I’m not sure how autumn olive responds in Texas, but in North Carolina it is very aggressive forming dense monocultures in established forest, forest edge, and open areas. Autumn olive out-competes many native species forming a dense shady area that naturally shade tolerant species can’t get established in changing natural succession.
While autumn olive has many beneficial attributes and the ability to grow on relatively infertile and/or severally damaged soils, it will likely displace native plants in the nearby areas. Autumn olive is a prolific seeder producing more than 65,000 seeds per plant in 1 year’s time. The seeds are favored by birds as a food source that persists late into winter getting deposited over several miles, advancing the spread of the species.
In many areas, exotic (non-native) invasive (spreads prolifically, undesirably, and/or harmfully) have no natural checks to keep them balanced (disease, insect, animal, etc). In these circumstances native plants that do have to contend with these things are disadvantaged.
On a side note black locust Robinia pseudoacacia is not native to Texas, but it is at least on the same continent and has been naturalized there for many years. Aside from being a legume, black locust has a very extensive, fine root system. Most trees have a root spread that roughly matches its bole. Black locust has a shallow root spread approximately 1 ½ times that of its bole, making it a great soil retention species.
Black locust does best on moist soils with limestone origin and should do well planted below the swells, but the tree is very drought hardy and could be planted pretty much anywhere on your property as long as it remains a dominate tree in the canopy (extremely shade intolerant species).
I look forward to seeing how your property progresses and your evaluation of things learned. Thank you for making things like this public. It helps us all to see things from a different perspective and plan for our own future endeavors.
Best wishes,
Tim