Mom sent me this picture yesterday. That’s she and Dad working in their south Florida food forest.
To the upper left… cassava. In back of them… a big bunch of bananas. In front… another banana… and in the extreme foreground, a malanga.
It’s hard to believe that three years ago this yard was a patch of struggling grass, weeds and sand. In another year, there will be so much food back there it’ll be impossible to eat it all.
You can do this too. My parents weren’t gardeners until recently. Now mom is growing kale and tomatoes and Dad is tending black sapote and acerola cherry trees.
All it takes is a little push. They encouraged me a long time ago… and I got the chance to encourage them back by planting the food forest with Dad and helping Mom work on her vegetable garden.
Tell you what… this system beats the living daylights out of sand. And it’s tastier.
3 responses to “My parents in their food forest”
That's great! I keep telling my parents to plant something, anything, but they would rather buy the overpriced vegetables at the store which they believe will always be there. They even have a neighbor with a lovely garden that I keep pointing to and saying that they can do that as well. It is very frustrating.
It's really hard to break people out of their habits.
You can tell them about pesticides, monetary savings, being prepared… but they just won't change.
My parents have always been ready to try things. Once we started with a few plants, it ended up growing into an amazing system. When Dad gets going on something, he just doesn't stop. We must have 20 fruit trees in that yard now, plus piles of composting yard "waste" from the neighboring houses. The dirt is black now, too… very uncommon for S. FL.
Hey Mom, hey Dad!!
Mick