Forest Gardens: The Future of Real Food- pt. 2

Making a forest garden is definitely for people who like to experiment in Nature.

If you like straight rows and garden produce that everybody knows, then maybe it's not for you. Although there are plenty of books on the subject, creating this kind of garden is a continual, creative work in process.

Food forests are like any other natural bio-dynamic resource; they get more stable and resilient with each passing year. I would say that the most vulnerable time is during the first 5-10 years. Beyond that, you'll know so much about your garden plants and your specific location's climate that you will become a 'Master Gardener'.

In each locale, they will obviously have different structural characteristics, but the principles of creating one are fairly straight forward.

Strictly speaking, once you plant something in a forest garden, you can just leave it alone and let it fend for itself. But that really depends on what you goals are (how quickly do you want to nibble on the fruits of your labors?) and where you live.

I've created these types of gardens in the San Francisco Bay Area (very easy - mild climate), Oxford, England (easy - except for the unbelievable number of slugs and snails; where DO they hide in the daytime?), and in central Oklahoma (very challenging, to put it mildly).

For example, in rural Oklahoma (in addition to the normal insect pests that are everywhere), we are blessed to have moles, voles, gophers, rabbits, crows (and other birds like wild turkeys), squirrels, raccoons, and deer that also love forest gardens as much as I do! Good thing I'm not a vegetarian.

Because of my hands-on experiences, one of my passions is to show how everyone, no matter where they live, can create as close to continuous as possible, an abundant harvest of fresh food. In yesterday’s post, I wrote about why I believe that this need not require lots of time, effort or expertise.

What it DOES require is a true desire to live as Nature intended, with minimal interference between ourselves and the Earth. For each person, as this connection becomes familiar, I believe that it will facilitate the restoration of our innate intelligence about how to live in harmony with Nature.

It seems to me that these kinds of gardens are probably the basis of our human evolution. Long before homo sapiens began deliberately cultivating food crops, our ancestors were probably foraging food and medicines from the forests, just as they do today in remote parts of the world.

Years ago, I saw a documentary about aboriginal peoples in different parts of the world (from the desert nomads to the arctic Eskimos). This documentary made the claim that people in aboriginal cultures typically only spend about 3-5 hours a day on average "working" to provide ALL of their needs of water, food, shelter, medicines, arts & crafts, etc. I say "working" because during those 3-5 hours, they are chatting, laughing, gossiping and connecting with each other on a deep level.

Not exactly a stressful day job.

To be clear, I am not romanticizing their bare subsistence lifestyles. They are obviously much more vulnerable to disease and predation by beasts. I think however, that we should be able to improve upon their example and create well-balanced lifestyles and food production systems that don't require chemical fertilizers, GMOs, pesticides, fungicides, or long-distance shipping.

Of course, as a densely planted area with diverse species, forest gardens are very good for the natural environment -- flora and fauna thrive in them. Traditionally (and optimally) these gardens ALWAYS have animals integrated in their design. Chickens, guinea fowl, rabbits, guinea pigs (yes, they ARE tiny pigs from New Guinea -- and like pigs in the west, they are often put on the table in their native land) goats, etc. are ideal livestock to integrate into your garden's long-range design. But don't worry -- if you are vegetarian, your garden design will do just fine WITHOUT integrating livestock.

I predict that food forests will serve as a major axis through which communities express their well-being, economic prosperity and livelihood in the 21st century.

This is because they have the potential to preserve and develop:

- Food and water security
- Knowledge of natural medicines
- Valuable traditions, creative social structures and increased community-engagement
- A transformation of consciousness in complete harmony with Gaia

It is becoming apparent that these elements are at risk, and may even be under siege in the new millennium due to the transformation necessary to shift away from the Industrial Age to the Information Age.

Forest gardens also have the capacity to unite communities. They can create opportunities which can be developed and leveraged to create ultimate resilience in our lifestyle, financial stability and community engagement via integrated Permaculture and Social Enterprise.

Let's say that I grow a dozen highly desirable food plants in my sunny garden. You happen to be my neighbor, but you have a moist, low-lying, shady spot that grows completely different, but also highly desirable foods. We can trade our harvests throughout the year so that we both have more of what we want in every season. And you know the way people are -- it won't take long before other neighbors are playing our game, especially once they see how much fresh, tasty, garden produce we are trading back and forth. You might get lucky and have neighbors with crops and livestock that can supplement what you grow in your garden.

Take a look at this short but awesome video by Geoff Lawton, who is a fellow Permaculture Designer. What I like about this video is that it hints at a vision of what forest gardens might become for humanity in the 21st century.

300 Year Old Food Forest in Vietnam [http://youtu.be/-5ZgzwoQ-ao] (video)

What resources do YOU need to get started with a Forest Garden?

(originally posted @ http://www.empowernetwork.com/gitaneros/forest-gardens-the-future-of-rea...)