Designing a food forest can be overwhelming. We’re sharing some tips to help remove the guesswork and make growing an edible landscape something that’s enjoyable and productive. Once your food forest is established, it should provide food for years to come with very little maintenance.
Food Forest Abundance
Matthew Britt, along with Food Forest Abundance, is building a decentralized food supply by working in harmony with nature and the science of Permaculture. They are working to design and install perennial permaculture food forests in every community and every yard around the world.
They help home, business and property owners grow food instead of lawns, and they do so in a way that is focused on abundance and requires less maintenance than a traditional lawn or garden.
Why Growing Food Is Important
There’s a push with Big Ag to want to “feed the world.” Whenever they’re promoting new genetically modified foods or using industrial herbicides, fertilizers and pesticides, it’s with the goal of providing enough food to feed the world. At least, that’s how they’re packaging it up.
But these methods of growing food come with a great cost and there will eventually be an end point to this game. Just like antibiotics have created antibiotic-resistant superbugs, there are now weeds that have become so resistant to herbicides that newer, stronger concoctions have to be created.
In fact, there are now 532 unique cases of herbicide-resistant weeds globally. (Source) The truth of the matter is that because of the way the food system is so centralized, “In the United States, people waste 92 billion pounds of food annually, equal to 145 billion meals. They throw away over $473 billion worth of food annually.” (Source)
That’s a lot of mouths that could be fed. However, if we simply started growing more food at home, in our own backyard, and in our own communities/regions, we could feed people locally and decentralize from the current food industries.
As Matthew says, the goal of Food Forest Abundance is to create a “localized, decentralized, poison-free food supply.”
Food Forest, Garden Forest or Agroforestry
So, what is a food forest? A food forest, also known as a garden forest or Agroforestry, involves planting perennial edible plants in a manner that mimics nature. They are typically three-dimensional in design and include eight layers (the overstory, the understory, the shrub layer, the herbaceous layer, the root layer, the ground cover layer, the vine layer, and the mycelial layer).
When growing in layers, we can grow more food in less space, all while improving the soil web and the health of the plants. According to the World Economic Forum, there are over 400,000 edible perennial plants. That’s a lot to choose from!
Annual Gardens vs. Perennial Gardens
Most of us are used to seeing gardens in nice, straight rows. Even here on Riverbend, we love growing food in our market-style garden, which we’ll put up and preserve for the year.
With food forests, we can grow more food with less work by growing mostly perennial plants and then utilizing the companion planting aspect to grow crops like root vegetables, tomatoes, etc.
The beauty of a food forest is that you can plant it once, get it established and walk away from it for a decade only to come back and still find it providing food. Whereas with the market-style garden, seeds must be saved and replanted each year.
How to Start a Food Forest
When considering growing a food forest, you can definitely think outside the box. We hear the word “forest” and think large or grand scale. However, Matthew talks about utilizing food forest techniques in a space as small as a balcony or in part of your lawn.
If you have a fruit tree, you can design a simple fruit tree guild and grow a good amount of food in less than 100 square feet. A guild is a group of species that have similar requirements and play a similar role within a community.
So, a fruit tree guild could be as simple as taking something like a fruit tree and then planting a group of plants around that tree in various layers. In a sense, it’s like perennial companion planting.
Climate
Every climate zone is different and has native plants that grow well there. To have long-term success with a food forest, it’s important to utilize what grows well in your zone. I’m even recommending going down a zone as we’ve had some extreme weather patterns that have wiped out dozens of our fruit trees in the past year.
This doesn’t mean you can’t layer in a plant or two that might not be perfectly acclimated to your zone, but in general, choosing specific plants that are known to grow in your area is best.
If you’re not sure what grows well, Matthew recommends visiting your local nursery and asking for direction.
Structures
If you live in an area with a shorter growing season, you can consider adding structures like cold frames to your food forest to help extend the growing season.
The best place to start is to look at what space you already have around you. Do you have a corner of your yard where you could start implementing these strategies? Layer them on year over year. If you start now, you’ll be surprised at how much progress you can achieve in five years’ time.
Where to Learn More
If you’d like to learn more, you can find Matthew Britt and many other certified permaculturists over at the Food Forest Abundance website, where you can get a free 30-minute consultation for your own food forest plans.
You can also find Food Forest Abundance on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
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