foodForesting (farmer, acres, villages, houses)

[2 rainbows]

Hi everyone,
I started a thread in the Garden-section of c-d, called "Forest-gardening"
that less than a handful of people even knew what Permaculture is. it's gardening after all,
albeit after the patterns of how a forest grows, with Human-design for eating, & also abit protection.

Since very few participated in this project in the Garden-section
(more interested in killing plants), I thought to start this discussion here. Growing a forest... for food, what is your experience?

[2 rainbows]

Here was my OP:
"We know that during the 1st. half of the last century the societal landscape of most of the continental U.S., or for that matter the world, was still rural - incld. Europe, where I was raised. Nestled in mountains, were 1000's of small villages with a main street lined with stone houses, all of the rest of the land were farms & gardens. - As a much smaller child, I recall asking grampa once "What makes our garden (it was less than 1/2 mile from the nearest forest) different than the woods ?". He knew i asked that because we went to harvest mushrooms, & berries, etc. in it occasionally, so he said "We have more flowers, & many more kinds of berries, & fewer trees, & too the forest takes care of itself" <-what ? I quite liked that last part. Imagine it: Picture yourself in a forest where almost everything around you is food. A garden that for the most part grows self-renewing, self-fertilizing, & self-maintenance because plants are self-renewing perennials or self-sowing annuals, with almost no interference from us.
well,
then got transplanted into the U.S., where grampa's Eden explanation got side-lined for way too long, while i was trying to flourish here. So consider now, further back in history, & even today still thrive "food Forest(s)", see http://permaculturenews.org/2011/10/...-food-forests/ . Sigh, that seemed lots more complicated than at 1st. thought, but to create a fully functioning forest garden is DOable as long as you have enough space for larger trees, plus using Companion perennial multipurpose plants intermixed to grow in a succession of layers, to build a more or less 'woodland habitat' in a 7-layer scenario:
1. High tree canopy - like maybe a tall nut tree, or Mulberries
2. shorter trees - like maybe apples & pears
3. climbers - like hardy Kiwis
4. shrubs - like Hazelnuts, & soft-fruit bushes,
5. ground cover - like herbs & strawberries
6. rhizosphere - like nitrogen fixing comfrey and Siberian pea
7. root crops - like maybe carrots, & native wildflowers
objecting,
most people would say: yeah well, Hurrah ! for those with 2 - 10 acres, like for instance:
a 10 acre Forested or https://blogs.uw.edu/gonzalsa/2016/0...a-food-forest/ or
Thriving 23-Year-Old Permaculture Food Forest - Happen Films
eventually
simply family-gardens, became more community-gardens, then Pea-patches, &
out of staggering economic necessities since 2008, now are 40+ such "food forest gardens" much smaller than an acre,
also here Map – Community Food Forests and best of all instead of back-breaking labor, it is intended to be fun...
Further resources: The Natural Farmer: Spring 2002: Edible Forest Gardens - an Invitation to Adventure

All the above to say that "food-foresting" I too want to make good use of, already having 40+ useful plants at varying levels of development. so Please join this discussion Thank you!"
====
The above is the Context. Please join this discussion. Thank you.

[2 rainbows]

from library, have & am studying:
1. https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Lot-.../dp/1603583998
+
2. https://www.amazon.com/Integrated-Forest-Gardening-Polycultures-Permaculture/dp/1603584978
+
3. https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-.../dp/1603580298 have this book
+
4. Additionally this 2-volume set, prolly the Best, but they cost like $98-105
https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Forest.../dp/1890132608

Further I explained:
(still potted ) plants waiting to be planted in their most Adventagous place:
Fig trees, Filberts & Hazelnuts, 4+ Apple trees, Asian pears,
Kiwi-vines, & Grape-vines,
Berry-bushes: Blue, Rasp, Currants, Goose, & a ton of others,
Herbs, comfrey & strawberries,
Root crops, & a gazillion other veggies
plus
100's of flowering plants (many won Blue-ribbons at State-fair).

No shade, so we have sun all around. Suggestions...re the Lay-out of a food-forest using the above plants?

[Rabrrita]

Originally Posted by 2 rainbows

Hi everyone,
I started a thread in the Garden-section of c-d, called "Forest-gardening"
that less than a handful of people even knew what Permaculture is. it's gardening after all,
albeit after the patterns of how a forest grows, with Human-design for eating, & also abit protection.

Since very few participated in this project in the Garden-section
(more interested in killing plants), I thought to start this discussion here. Growing a forest... for food, what is your experience?

I don't think they didn't know what you were talking about, but the way you phrased it was babbling philosophical boring to a gardner.

Now that you resurrected it, before we can even discuss this you better outline exactly what you are discussing. On one hand you're talking "food forest" yet you were also providing vivid details of your vision of some field of colorful plants forming a rainbow of color in an arch with red, white and blue plants that when ion bloom would create a waving american flag in the center... I'm also trying to figure out where your going to put the image of Mickey and Minnie with your Disney theme garden.... So are you after a food forest or It's A Small World children's garden?

[SimplySagacious]

Originally Posted by 2 rainbows

Hi everyone,
I started a thread in the Garden-section of c-d, called "Forest-gardening"
that less than a handful of people even knew what Permaculture is. it's gardening after all,
albeit after the patterns of how a forest grows, with Human-design for eating, & also abit protection.

Since very few participated in this project in the Garden-section
(more interested in killing plants), I thought to start this discussion here. Growing a forest... for food, what is your experience?

I started one last year in an existing stand of Persimmon trees. I am sticking with native and naturalized edibles from my immediate area because they are acclimated to local climate and soil, and are naturally resistant to local pests and disease.

I required a very low or possibly maintenance free option to supplement my other gardening methods, traditional, greenhouse, hugelkultur, etc. It's still evolving.

I started a thread about my idea last year and discovered during the course of it that what I had in mind already had a name (forest gardening). Victory Garden: Wild Edible Landscaping

Some call it a survival garden, You'll find more about this method by searching "survival garden" outside of this forum.



I read your other thread about disabilities. I'm not disabled but I thought that an additional option for you might be fruit trees using the espalier method. I started some of these last year too. I plan to keep mine low enough so that maintenance, picking, etc., can be done sitting down. So even someone in a wheel chair probably could maintain them. I'm not getting any younger so everything I add to the homestead takes potential disabilities and old age into consideration.

[2 rainbows]

Originally Posted by SimplySagacious

I started one last year in an existing stand of Persimmon trees.
I am sticking with native and naturalized edibles from my immediate area because they are acclimated to local climate and soil, and are naturally resistant to local pests and disease.
I required a very low or possibly maintenance free option to supplement my other gardening methods, traditional, greenhouse, hugelkultur, etc. It's still evolving.
I started a thread about my idea last year and discovered during the course of it that what I had in mind
already had a name (forest gardening). Victory Garden: Wild Edible Landscaping
Some call it a survival garden, searchi "survival garden" outside of this forum.

I read your other thread about disabilities. I'm not disabled but I thought that an additional option for you might be fruit trees using the espalier method. I started some of these last year too. I plan to keep mine low enough so that maintenance, picking, etc., can be done sitting down. So even someone in a wheel chair probably could maintain them. I'm not getting any younger so everything I add to the homestead takes potential disabilities and old age into consideration.

Thank you so much SimplySagacious for speaking to this subject as I intend.
Thank you for staying ON-topic

Yes, as I said in my OP, there are increasingly many "foodForests" cropping up, all over the world.
In fact, there's 2 near here close to a public-school, but they are more in the planning-stages, whereas
now I have plants (Trees & bushes, etc. etc.), waiting in pots for years... needing to find their Rightful place.
While
I'm still trying to make the template... or floorplan of the foodForest. I'm sure you realize
that unless I get this on graph-paper right, TREES often are dug-up , after they are planted.
Others of my friends had to do so on their property. so to avoid such mistakes, I started this discussion, hoping for Input from others so experienced. Actually in our Fruit-society, we had (until his untimely death last year) a NURSERY-owner who sold "native & naturalized edibles" that succeed well in our region. - I visited several times and always wanted our favorite Honeycrisp apples, & Almonds, & Sweet-cherries, & Peach-trees. And he kept telling me: "Great, but I don't sell them, because I want people to be successful, and those don't Produce here, & in fact may die in our climate". -> Sigh, am just an Unusual gardener, along with other rare/unique traits I have cultivated, like thinking... I'll plant Avocoado, & Banana, & Coconut palms etc. RIGHT HERE lol. (actually lived in Fla. but after fainting weekly because I could NOT get acclimated), I decided I needed to plant myself in a climate, like my native one as a child. - Somehow I've not yet accepted this awareness to our plants. And actually that is good, because in "Paradise Lot" the 2 authors discovered that MANY plants they too were told "No way, you can NOT grow Tropicals... in Massachusetts!, are you crazy?" <- Well, they too Ignored such well-meant advice, & VOILA, they succeeded more times than not. - Further, I have 2 friends in our city, & these guys also plant the (only seemingly "strange") plants in their gardens, that succeed, sometimes. At least they understand me. - But as far as the template, they tell me: So what if you need to dig TREES up later. - Now they know I weigh around 110, plus I really don't want to put trees thru such trauma, so I want to Avoid mistakes as much as possible.

re "sitting", well sweetie at this point can only move eyes, & mouth, so that's why I need to do everything...
But me? - I literally run... like there is no tomorrow, & generally sit-down on a pad like Little-kids do with both knees turned-out, & can easily stay in this position for hours. Of course, I'm also easily distracted like a little kid. Face it, I am just a little kid period, LOL - (Different context, but like when can find the means... to go practice my Figureskating, always clowning-around with Senior-moves because they are just so much fun, that rarely make time for the basics.)

re "espaliers": the Nursery-guy thought that was prolly in our Disabled-situation, a good choice too, and he showed me his. But
seeing all these to OUTsiders is like Advertising... the garden, whereas a foodForest properly planned+executed, is such a JUNGLE that plants are well-hidden which we want. Too, they need to be Carefully pruned all the time, & I am Totally-reponsible for not only the forest, but everything else! - so I'm sticking with DWARF-trees. And for the Canopy, some rich Nitrogen-fixers...

You are most Welcome to continue sharing in here. You never know who else you might Inspire...!