Last week, I recorded a chop-and-drop video sharing how to use weeds like goldenrod, mimosa trees, and wild mint as free, renewable mulch and compost in your soil. Since our food forest is not the main garden, we don’t do much with the herbaceous layer, instead concentrating on the long-term canopy and under-canopy areas, and just chop and drop the various volunteers.
I finished reading The Home-Scale Forest Garden by Dani Baker a week ago, and I wanted to share a quote that really resonated with me.
“There are three ways to deal with groundcover layers in forest garden planting. For small plots, you can plant all the layers, including the groundcover, at once. For larger plots, you can do the same in sections. One at a time Prepare one manageable area, such as with sheet mulch, and fully plant the area before moving on to the next section. Depending on the size of your site, the entire garden plan can take weeks, months, or even years.
I chose the third approach. I started by planning and planting the entire upper and lower layers of the forest garden. Next, we incorporated the shrub layer and finally added the herbaceous and ground cover layers. As I write this, I am completing the final stages of creating planting beds around existing trees and shrubs. By sheet-mulching one or more new sections each year and incorporating groundcover there the next growing season, I cover the ground with an ever-expanding blanket of target plants. What once seemed like a daunting task can be made possible by breaking down the work into manageable parts. ”
We’ll do this too.
When you have time, cover the area with sheet mulch to remove weeds and plant small plants under growing trees and shrubs.
Someone asked in the comments of the video if my garden is really producing food…or is it just confusing?
Good question, so yesterday I posted a follow-up video showing the wide range of edible plants in Food Forest.
If more food is needed in the early stages of a food forest, the solution is simple.
Dig garden beds, cover with sheet mulch and plant sweet potatoes, put beans, squash and melons in the ground, plant salads, and plant tomatoes. Basically, you just create a garden of fast-growing, short-lived food around trees and shrubs.
However, if you don’t need food or don’t have time for it, focus on getting the system’s “tent poles” in place. Perennial plant with nuts and fruit trees, fruits, edible leaves, fruits, and roots.
That’s where we are now. Three years later, plums, pears, pawpaws, citrus, beef and onion trees, blueberries, blackberries, hazelnuts, chestnuts, yams, persimmons, pineapple-guavas, loquats and other long-term canopy and under-canopy plants are reaching skyward. Over time, they will produce larger quantities, bringing us hundreds of pounds of food.
At this point, if you’re asking the question, “Is this a forest of food or a forest of chaos?” the answer is…both.
Weeds fill in spaces we don’t fill, fix nitrogen, mine minerals, and provide compost and mulch for surrounding trees.
If you have a small space, you can create a highly productive mini food forest by planting trees, a few shrubs, herbs, vegetables, and sweet potato ground cover. If you have a large space and don’t need to manage it for maximum production, focus on canopy and under-canopy trees and shrubs to keep them happy while killing any growing weeds. Over time, even poorly managed spaces can become more productive.
Think of it like this:
More time and effort: more food now/more food later
Save time and effort: less food now, more food later
In any case, as the system matures, you will have a lot of food.
If you want to learn how I plan a food forest and create one with much less effort than you think, sign up for my Skool group here and check out my complete food forest video course.
Or, if you’re in zones 8-11, pick up a copy of “Create Your Own Florida Food Forest.”
Or if you’re really cheap, watch my video. We have shared a lot about Food Forest over the years.
