Food Forest a Good Design?

[MrILoveTheAnts]

I'm not trying to promote my blog but I feel the topic is worth writing about.

I reviewed the book "

Gaia's Garden

Gaia's Garden

" by Toby Hemenway. And I realized I hate the idea of a Food Forest. Click on link above (I don't make money if you buy it or not, it isn't one of my promotion links). Just look at the cover! It's like someone went to the garden store and bought 10 of everything. It wouldn't surprise me to learn this picture was actually taken at a garden store. The "design" here is limited to generalizing the plants into categories rather then playing off the attributes each plant has to offer.

Still just looking at the cover I see a nice salad garden, a fruit tree, some zinnias for color, whatever is growing on the arbor in the back looks nice, but what is all the rest? I can understand someone growing a few herbs but this person has ever spice known to man! This is Noah's Garden.

Regular images of Food Forests on Google Image Search aren't as bad but there's such a thing as to much diversity.

Is there anyone here who grows more then 10 herbs, that you actually use as an herb?

[biigblueyes]

Not me - basil, thyme, rosemary, parsley, green onions, shallots, onions and garlic would be about it for me. I've grown oregano, marjoram and curry, but didn't actually use them. Would you count hot peppers and leeks as vegetables or herbs?

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Peppers would depend on how they were used, but I don't know anyone who eats them raw.

Maybe a lot of these plants on the cover are going toward making tea? I really don't understand this design.

[biigblueyes]

Chop up raw hot peppers in rice & gravy - soooooo good. Would eating them raw make them herb or not?

[hazelnut]

Food Forest: An Example from a Northern Michigan Forest

Mr. I Love the Ants. You might want to take a look at this article to get a better idea of what a Food Forest is -- it doesn't have anything to do with spices and zinnias.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Oh I have nothing against the Forest part of the Food Forest, it's mostly the full sun areas that I have a problem with. Fruit trees actually look pretty especially when you mix them up together. Flowers are beautiful in the spring and the color of the fruits as they ripen play off each-other, and possibly even on what's growing down below.

But for anyone who has the book "Gaia's Garden" (2ed edition) on page 199 there's a picture of ... I guess you'd call it a Tropical Cottage Garden; there are dwarf Banana trees growing across form some Corn with patches of Moss down below growing along some rocks. Not exactly a good design by any sense.

Most of the plant diversity is in the lowest layers of the garden. The smaller plants are more compact then the fruit trees and shrubs so you can plant thousands of them. But it's not award winning to have 20 raised beds with a huge collection of plants in them. It just looks like a mess compared with the trees. There are to many different shapes, colors, and textures happening down here.

Food Forests and Permaculture are fairly young concepts but does anyone have a picture of one that looks nice? Extra points if you have a Banana tree in the photo.

[hazelnut]

Mr I Love the Ants. A food forest replicates local ecology and uses local wild foods. You would not plant a banana tree in a food forest in New Jersey. I hope you read the book Gaias Garden, and read my article as an introduction to the Food Forest concept. The food forest concept refers to ecology - plants that work together to form an on-going edible garden in a given environment -- not to collections of plants.

You Tube

You Tube

Here's a video featuring Robert Hart.

[MrILoveTheAnts]

Actually there are two varieties of banana that can supposidly grow in NJ, though I don't know how well they'll fruit. Raja Puri and Cavendish are both supposidly tolerant. But the question is that of design. What plants could I possibly pare it with as a companion that would soften the tropical feel?

I like Robert Hart's garden a lot but I'll point out it actually is a forest and the sun loving Prairie area looks nicer because it's mostly spread out in the garden and isn't a huge collection of species from all around the world. The fruit trees I see in the video almost all work well together, probably because Apples, Pears, Plums, Peaches, Nectarines and so on are all related to one another and have similar leaves. Even the Pomegranate he has blends in. These fruits have traveled around the world and we have thousands of varieties of each.

I've read through Gaia's Garden and I'm arguing that because there is so much world wide diversity of herbaceous perennials, herbs, and vegetables that this part of the garden looks like a mess. In the book he recommends planting Bamboo and Perennial Sunflower for their use, but think about what they look like when planted next to one another.

Think about all those landscapes people on this forum probably hate. The house with the massive lush lawn rivaling the local golf course, the Japanese yews lining the walk way, the evergreen Azaleas along the house, imported Junipers softening the corners of the home, and a line of Bradford Pears and imported Colorado Blue Spruces's to the side of the yard. Worst of all there's no garden to speak of. The "beauty" of this landscape though is that we have a collection of plants from all around the world and it actually looks nice, though none of them are useful.

Food Forests are like walking through a garden center and only finding 3 native plants.

[hazelnut]

Some food forest designs by permaculturists do display eclectic plant collections -- they are designed to function like natural ecosystems -- the individual plants do not matter as long as they play the part they are suposed to in their contribution to the whole design. If you want native plants -- use those.

I don't think the permaculturists have good models for the temperate forest. It always seemed to me there was more horizontal organization than layering - or in addition to layering. A Northern forest typically does have more open spaces in it -- which allows a sunny disposition for ground dwellers or prairie plants.

[milkweed]

If I understand the concept of food forest correctly, the wood land Indians were doing that very thing.

Tall nut trees where under planted/seeded with shade tolerant fruit trees; paw paws, serviceberries etc. Then shade tolerant berry bushes were encouraged to grow.

1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann