Food forest.....

[Trying2keepitReal]

Anyone ever consider (or try) to start a food forest at your home instead (or in addition to when starting) the traditional garden? I did plant some squash around trees this year at our home and they grew but didn't fruit. I am hoping to read up more on food forests this winter and see how I can start to transition my yard into a food giving space. We don't use our yard as we did when the kids were younger and look at the 3 acres as having so much potential. I just need to figure out what to plant where.

 

[Phaedra]

I also dreamed of a food forest a few years ago when we bought the house and finally had our own garden.

But I changed my mind. Self-sufficiency is meaningful, no doubt. However, when the food forest produces tons of food, it might not always be joyful for everyone. Harvesting seasonal and fresh strawberries is a blessing; making some strawberry jam is also lovely. But, the situation might be different when there are 20kg, 30kg, 40kg, or more strawberries.

Ultimately, it has to match what my family and I really need instead of what it looks like in others' lives. I was also once very keen to have our bee hives, but I gave it up because we might consume less than three or four bottles of honey per year. I decided to support the local farm that produces honey.

Like a food forest - I enjoy watching EdibleAcres very much, but I won't even consider doing similar settings in our garden. A food forest, under the common definition, might include elements I don't enjoy - varieties (of crops), maintenance, harvest, preservation, and etc.

That's why I took it more as a reference now. Gardening also needs balance, and it's lifelong learning for me.

 

[baymule]

Plants, for the most part, need sunshine. Watching my sheep is educational for me. Pretty green grass grows under the few trees that are in the pasture, but they don’t eat it until there is nothing left. All I can figure is that the shaded grass does not have the nutrients that the full sun grass does.

I’d recommend clearing an area for fruit and nut trees, then planting it in clovers. Clover fixes nitrogen in the soil. After it goes to seed and dies back, mow it and plant beans or peas. Southerners love peas, northerners call them cow peas. They would be worth planting for the nitrogen and the vines, to mow and add humus to the soil.

 

[baymule]

On your 3 acres, permanent plantings plus a vegetable garden and some chickens would give you more than you could eat. I think you are on the right track.

 

[flowerbug]

that is a common permaculture topic, so yes i've thought of it but i really like growing annual garden vegetables so i don't have the space for it as much as i'd like. the back part of our lot is not easy to get at right now so it doesn't get used for anything other than being brush hogged once in a while.

commonly what is done is to plant your fruit trees (and fodder trees if you want stuff for feeding animals or growing some legume/nitrogen fixing trees) and then while they are small you keep on with your annual and other crops in the spaces in between until the shading starts to limit production. you can do other things too like understory bushes for fruits and vining plants too, but i seriously have a hard time enough as it is with the wild grapes here so the idea of vining and climbing plants in fruit or nut trees just doesn't quite work for me (and don't get me started with poison ivy either)...

so, yes, always thinking about what is possible, but often just content now with dealing with what we have because our set up is not at all what i would want it to be if it were just me here and i was the owner. for now i just help out and do what the owner (Mom) wants done so permaculture concepts are only here or there and around some edges and not really fully incorporated (nor were they when the place was built and sited).

 

[tortoise]

I am interested, but I get overwhelmed by permaculture concepts. I'm not convinced they are a great solution, but they still appeal to me. A garden that doesn't look like a garden is less likely to be raided/vandalized, IMO

 

[Trying2keepitReal]

I don't plan on selling, unless there is some big life change and even then, I can and could manage this place on my own. I would only be planting what I would eat and use, the struggle I have is where to put it. Our 3 acres has tree lines surrounding it, but then there are sporadic buildings and trees throughout, I would have to be really intentional about where I place stuff and watch the sun/shade (I have a good idea on most areas but not all). Maybe someday I can add a goat, sheep or two but that would be at least a 5–10-year plan so that isn't an option right now (and maybe it won't ever work into my plan). and then there is always the other 8 acres we owe of wooded land a few miles north, that is another work in progress.

 

[The Porch]

I have done a lot of gleaning from others over the years and based on the area I live, considering the weather and ya know, all of that,,,
I do what works best for here. I plant what grows best here, I plant nutrient dense foods. What has the highest value for our health. Everything else is good yes, but extra, I plant the necessity's FIRST and other stuff if it fits in the garden.
What can I plant that will reseed its self, not need a green house, over winter planting fava beans, wheat grass etc... will feed the ground.
I like to plant extra kale so I have some for the chickens,
I watched a lot of Charles Dowding videos last February
to have soil and not just dirt, composting is a requirement --- I LOVE how Downing explains it all- so I recommend watching all of his videos on it-

I did lay down carboard in some of my herb gardens and built up on top of that. https://www.youtube.com/@CharlesDowding1nodig/playlists

I do glean stuff from David - https://www.youtube.com/@davidthegood

 

[flowerbug]

I am interested, but I get overwhelmed by permaculture concepts. I'm not convinced they are a great solution, but they still appeal to me. A garden that doesn't look like a garden is less likely to be raided/vandalized, IMO

there's a lot of things in a full course, it takes more than a few hours, but still the concepts are worth learning about.

it's much more than picking just one technique and trying to apply it and finding it doesn't work... i don't consider hugels as introductory and they're not suited for some sites nor do i consider them a requirement. same for swales, ponds, dams, etc. all need some thought and understanding plus there may be local or regional laws involved.

 

[murphysranch]

I tried to plant some squash here and there. Store bought since we moved here in the summer. Nothing grew much of anything. I planted the same store bought plants in the garden that was already here. Harvested 5 acorns and 7 butternuts.

Plus we have deer. and anything outside of the fence was fair eating (like the tomatoes in some of my Japanese maple trees that I brought with me). Grrrrrrrr