The topic that we concern today is: Forest gardening for personal food security. The crash of the U.S. economy in 2008 marked the beginning of a long-term economic recession that some commentators predict could lead to another Great Depression. Unemployment above 10%, slashed IRA balances, and rising food prices have many families wondering how they can stretch their food budgets and become a little more self-reliant by planting a garden.
Sales at seed companies ballooned in 2009 in response to these immediate fears. However, for those with an eye on larger issues such as the approaching end of cheap supplies of oil—which will impact the transportation of food to grocery stores, not to mention the delivery of those hybrid, one-season seeds—a longer-term solution is critical.
For Gardening will help you know more about forest gardening for personal food security; follow the article.
Legacy Food Forests – The Ultimate Hunger Solution
It comes as a surprising idea to many people, but if the goal is to feed a family there are more convenient and natural ways to grow food than the traditional one-crop-a-year garden plot of annual vegetables that requires so much time and labor to establish and maintain. Imagine instead walking out the back door and finding that every plant either provided food or supported those that did in a natural, cooperative ecosystem that basically took care of itself.
Not only that, but imagine that this little Garden of Eden is a literal perpetual food growing “machine” that with very little maintenance can sustain the gardener in his old age and his children after him, a genuine legacy to be passed on to future generations.
That’s the idea behind a legacy food forest.
What is a Food Forest?
Food forests, also called forest gardens, are based on permaculture concepts. The gardening approach is holistic and imitates nature’s system of creating self-sustaining, inter-related, and multi-layered ecosystems in which trees, shrubs, plants, insects, and the geography of the area all work together to produce a balanced food-producing system.
Each species in the forest garden fulfills a specific need and contributes to the heath and productivity of the whole. Daffodils around a pear tree, for example, suppress grass that competes with the tree for nutrients, while comfrey attracts bees to the pear tree for pollination, artichokes add mulch, and clover fixes nitrogen in the soil. A fantastic value plant is the perennial begonia plants.
The process of creating these beneficial plant and insect relationships may take a few years, but soon the perennial forest garden produces fruits, nuts, vegetables, and salad greens for years with a minimum of ongoing labor and effort.
The forest garden itself takes care of most of the maintenance chores. Fertilizing is done by nitrogen-fixing plants and plants that bring up nutrients from deep in the soil. Pest control is taken care of by flowers that attract the pest’s enemies or by design – interspersing garden plants with other types of plants, for example, makes it more difficult for pests to find their food.
Weeding is done using plants that shade the soil, making it difficult for weeds to thrive. The forest garden can even mulch itself with nutrient-rich leaves that drop to the ground at each fall and decompose.
Some adjustments do need to be made to the garden as it changes from a new planting to a maturing environment—for instance, trees will begin to shade out plants that used to do well in a sunnier environment, and those earlier plants will need to be replaced by more shade-tolerant varieties to keep harvests high. But compared to the amount of labor it takes to maintain a traditional garden, the work involved is minimal.
Legacy Forest Gardens for a Secure Future
No one can reliably predict the future, but one thing is certain—everyone needs to eat. Growing a forest garden as a legacy to be enjoyed in one’s old age or to pass on to others provides a measure of independence from rising food prices, recalls due to unclean food processing, and uncertainties about the future. A food forest garden is a great way to provide some peace of mind in these troubled times.
Taking Care of the Garden within the Food Forest
Gardens that are designed in the style of food forests are self-sufficient, meaning they are able to take care of themselves without the need for human intervention, in contrast to traditional vegetable gardens. A forest can maintain itself with a minimum amount of attention as long as the ground is consistently covered in a thick layer of mulch. In addition to assisting in the plants’ ability to keep water for extended periods of time, the mulch also supplies them with nutrients.
As activists for the environment, it is essential for us to have a solid understanding of the distinctions between plantations and forests. This is due to the fact that large-scale commercial monoculture plantations have a negative impact on the surrounding environment, whereas forests help to maintain and improve the environment.
FAQs
What is the minimum required space for a food forest?
A food forest might be as little as an eighth of an acre or as large as 200 acres. The imagination is the only thing that can limit the possibilities.
How do Forest Gardens support the ecology and improve the land?
Beautiful plants like trees can help mitigate the effects of climate change. In addition to many other things, trees provide habitats, food, fuelwood, and animal fodder.
Utilizing all of these advantages, Forest Gardens help farming families and degraded land recover sustainably. Our Forest Garden Approach has demonstrated that including trees in farming and landscaping can assist farmers in improving the fertility of their degraded soils, increasing water penetration into underground aquifers, preventing wind and soil erosion, and trapping moisture and nutrients in the soils so that crops can flourish.
What kinds of plants and fruits are growing in the Forest Gardens?
In their Forest Gardens, farmers are producing a variety of fruits, vegetables, and trees. It all relies on the setting and the requirements of the farmer.
Conclusion
We sincerely hope that reading this material about developing forest gardening for personal food security will help you understand more about food forests in general and provide you with some great ideas for growing forest gardens. If gardening is something you’re interested in learning more about, For Gardening provides a number of articles that can help. I appreciate you reading this, and good luck!
