Photo by VINVIVU ®: https://www.pexels.com/photo/fruit-in-basket-in-orchard-17326506/
I design food forests and vegetable gardens. To me, a food forest is a magical place. Whether you are growing up a 10 x 10 meter forest in your back yard or growing hectares, the magic stays the same.
The first thing that magically dissapears in a food forest is pests that swarm in and destroy your harvest. The only biodiversity created in a food forest brings with it creatures that kills off pests. In a natural system there will be something gnawing at some of the your harvest but never enough to destroy a crop.
Another thing that dissapears as if by magic in a well planned food and forest is the need to continually use chemical fertiliser. Because there are no artificial substances introduced to the soil there is an abundance of organisms in the soil working day and night to create food for the plants. This not only keep the plants growing, plants growing in healthy soil is in fact more pest resistant.
A well planned forest also magically creates it's own water cycle. This means that in most areas your forest will grow and produce with only your normal anual rainfall to keep it going.
In very dry areas, you may have to water for the first year or two but careful planning with swales and adapted heugelkultuur your forest will survive without extra watering most years.
The best magic the food forest produce is that it does the work itself. You have minimal maintenance in a well planned forest. No replanting every year. The plants in your food forest are either good volunteers that replants itself every year or plants that last and produce for years.
It takes a bit of thinking and planning to create a masterpiece that works. Just imagine how you will feel every time you just take a walk in the forest to get something for dinner.
Please join me on Peakd using this link:
https://peakd.com/register?ref=diziette
Thank you for reading my post.
I appreciate your support.