Cultivate abundance for people, plants and wildlife - Growing with Nature
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Jay Angler wrote:I think that planting a food forest is easier if you're starting with few to no existing trees. Trying to work around an existing forest, as I am, can be harder. Since I'm not in a position to make big plans, I've settled for small ones. For example, I am trying to plant shrubs in clusters with support plants to help with pollination. Recently I planted 4 Honeyberry shrubs and accompanied them with comfrey. There were existing iris, a couple of baby salal, and a sword fern just north of where I was planting, and lots of raspberry canes just south. The web said that chives are also good companions to Honeyberry, but they're not where I'd like regular chives, so I'm starting some Garlic chives and hoping that's similar enough. The elephant's in the room are two Wet Coast cedars (IOW big - ~150 ft tall) to the north-east and north-west and the new plants are within the drip line of the west one in particular. We shall see how they do...
Cultivate abundance for people, plants and wildlife - Growing with Nature
Josh Garbo wrote:Yeah, I think adapting a current forest has to be harder than building a forest on grass land. I'm doing it on an acre, and it takes a while to get grass/groundcover established, and digging for new plants. Right now I have a huge Tulip Poplar over-story that provides good shade for new grass and trees, but will have to come down at some point
It's still fun, and you learn a lot... but definitely slows you down. Seems to force you more to use hand tools.
Cultivate abundance for people, plants and wildlife - Growing with Nature
Florian Hübner wrote:Sounds very interesting but is that something for a garden of around 0.2 acre?
A build too cool to miss:Mike's GreenhouseA great example:Joseph's Garden
All the soil info you'll ever need:
Redhawk's excellent soil-building series
Toby Hemenway did some very interesting work in the combined back yard of a duplex, but you have to choose your layers with care. For a negative example, Black Walnut discourages other plants (although there is a walnut guild), so I wouldn't recommend it in a small space. For positive examples, Hazelnut can be a taller plant, but can also be coppiced to keep it smaller and can provide both wood and nuts and Sea Buckthorn produces both berries and is a nitrogen fixer which can be managed as a hedge (although you need male and female plants for fruit).Sounds very interesting but is that something for a garden of around 0.2 acre?
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Sim
Sea Buckthorn produces both berries and is a nitrogen fixer which can be managed as a hedge (although you need male and female plants for fruit). Many gardens around here are planted purely with ornamental plants. Step one is to picture what replacing them with edible shrubs and trees would look like. For example, when we bought our house it came with a Flowering Dogwood in our front yard. If the owners had planted a Kousa Dogwood (http://eattheplanet.org/kousa-dogwood-fruit/) by now I'd be picking fruit. Its understory is a decorative plant in the mallow family, but there are edible plants in this family that could be substituted.
Gail Gardner @GrowMap
Small Business Marketing Strategist, lived on an organic farm in SE Oklahoma, but moved where I can plant more trees.
"Do the best you can in the place where you are, and be kind." - Scott Nearing
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"Do the best you can in the place where you are, and be kind." - Scott Nearing
Cultivate abundance for people, plants and wildlife - Growing with Nature
"Do the best you can in the place where you are, and be kind." - Scott Nearing
Sorry - I've got the ornamental tree only. I thought I had, but I was going from a description and a damaged "tree site map" and it turned out that I'd tried Strawberry Tree fruit instead. Our flowering dogwood is doing well, but it sounds as if the Kousa dogwood would need more reliable moisture than I've got a location for. I've had no luck with grafting so far - again I've only read about the procedure and I don't think I'm being particular enough about the precise time of year to do it. At the moment, I've got too many plants that should be already in the ground to tackle anything new!Yeah, replacing the ornamentals with edible types is great. Kousa dogwood is on my list of plants I want to try out. Have you tried the fruit from it? Is it good raw?
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Jay Angler wrote:I think that planting a food forest is easier if you're starting with few to no existing trees. Trying to work around an existing forest, as I am, can be harder. Since I'm not in a position to make big plans, I've settled for small ones. For example, I am trying to plant shrubs in clusters with support plants to help with pollination. Recently I planted 4 Honeyberry shrubs and accompanied them with comfrey. There were existing iris, a couple of baby salal, and a sword fern just north of where I was planting, and lots of raspberry canes just south. The web said that chives are also good companions to Honeyberry, but they're not where I'd like regular chives, so I'm starting some Garlic chives and hoping that's similar enough. The elephant's in the room are two Wet Coast cedars (IOW big - ~150 ft tall) to the north-east and north-west and the new plants are within the drip line of the west one in particular. We shall see how they do...
Cultivate abundance for people, plants and wildlife - Growing with Nature
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Sim
Nican Tlaca
Daron Williams wrote:
Nicole – Very good points. A deep dark forest would be a big challenge. I have one that I’m considering modifying (at a restoration site) and the only way I can imagine doing it is to thin and clear some of the low branches to let in some sunlight. Though the soil is so poor that it will take time to get things going…
Florian Hübner wrote:Sounds very interesting but is that something for a garden of around 0.2 acre?
steve bossie wrote:i turned my wifes acre lawn into a food forest of 50 varieties of fruit, nuts, medicinals and edible ground covers.
not any real good ones. ill try and get some next summer. everythings in strait rows 15ft. apart. the rows are mulched with 4in. of wood chips every spring. once the ground covers fill in i won't have to mulch anymore. for trees i have several apple, mulberry, apricot and cherry. under them i have currant, gooseberry , rhubarb and blueberries. under them i have arctic raspberries, alpine strawberries, low bush blueberries, lingoberries, creeping thyme , chives, nodding onion etc... my cane fruit are grown by themselves as they over whelm anything grown around them but everything else is under planted with something. I'm still filling in spots. i have a doz. siberian pea shrubs growing in my grow room that I'm putting out in spring to help fix nitrogen in my rows. right now I'm topdressing with chic manure for fertilizer. once the pea shrubs get going i shouldn't have to fertilize anymore. im always looking up ways to improve on what i have. theres a guy on youtube from quebec namedFlorian Hübner wrote:
steve bossie wrote:i turned my wifes acre lawn into a food forest of 50 varieties of fruit, nuts, medicinals and edible ground covers.
Sounds great! Do you maybe have some photos to see how it looks?
Planting for the animals may require you to protect those plantings until they're established and you'd need ideas as to what they like. The deer around here certainly love almost every fruit tree they've met, not to mention strawberry plants.Cath Brown wrote:I need some advice on how to start a food forest in some very damp ground. A river runs underneath a patch of ground at the top of my property. It has lain fallow for decades, and the soil is a rich dark brown. I want this area to become even more of a wildlife haven...Deer, wild boar, lizards, frogs, snakes are regulars. I would love to be able to uses some fruit and medicine when I'm there...for about 2 months of every year.
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