Summary: TweetLast week I did a show called Food Forestry and How it Actually Works. If you didn’t listen to it you, you might want to do so before listening to this show. The reason being is that this show is a direct result of questions that I asked the audience to send me at the end of that show. Hence much of what was covered there I will be assuming you have already heard today. The reality is a food forest is both simple and quite complex at the same time. The complexity is based on the system that develops, the massive numbers of interrelationships and the fungal networks, guilds, etc that are formed. However, nature does that, on our end it is really simple. Plan for sufficient irrigation or drought proofing to get it off the ground Include plantings for the 7 layers of the system, focus on trees but not trees alone Provide diversity, if you plant 7 apples in a forest, plant 7 cultivars for example and many other trees like plumbs, peaches, cherries, persimmons, etc. Focus on what you can grow, not what you can’t grow Include a lot of support trees, chop and drop them heavily Let nature do most of the work In the end it is really that simple. Here are where problems come up. People look at the work done in Australia and focus on the fact that they use tropical and sub tropical plants. WELL OF COURSE THEY DO, they are in the tropics and sub tropics. If you are in cool temperate, just use species that do well there, etc. Let me be clear for every person that says, “my land is to steep” (generally it isn’t even close to too steep but if you have a cliff face, yea, you can’t make that work), someone else says, my land is too flat. For every person that says they are in a cold climate, someone else says they are in a warm one and both see it as a problem. Let me put it this way, if you live where trees grow, you can plant a food forest. Now if you are in the tundra or on the salt flats of a desert, you have a problem, for the rest of you, trust nature and focus on what grows well where you are. Join Me Today As I Answer Your Questions Including… Back yard food forests in suburbia Dealing with eastern and western slopes Building a system with longevity beyond your own years Production from a forest beyond fruits and nuts Why your backyard is better than you think it is When guerrilla food forestry makes sense and when it doesn’t Forest concepts that support bees Why do we success out nitrogen fixing trees, do any remain in the final system How to make your tree planting more economical Determining your support tree to productive tree ratios Growing vine based crops in a food forest Conversion of existing polyculture orchards to more of a permaculture model Converting partially wooded lots from native to food forest systems Resources for today’s show… The Year 1251 Join Our Forum 13Skills.com Join Our Forum Walking To Freedom Get TSP Copper Sentinels TSP Gear PermaEthos.com Western Botanicals – (sponsor of the day) Knife Kits – (sponsor of the day) 5 Acre Permaculture Farm in British Columbia My Write Up on the Food Forest Project at Permaculture Global – NOT YET COMPLETED Remember to comment, chime in and tell us your thoughts, this podcast is one man’s opinion, not a lecture or sermon. Also please enter our listener appreciation contest and help spread the word about our show. Also remember you can call in your questions and comments to 866-65-THINK (866-658-4465) and you might hear yourself on the air. Also remember we have an expert council you can address your calls to. If you do this you should email me right after your call at jack at thesurvivalpodcast.com with expert council call in the subject line. In the body of your email tell me that you just called in a question for the council and what number you called in from. I will then give the call priority when I screen calls. Our Expert Council is Made Up of… Kerry Davis – Dark Angel Med[...]
