“I was trying to decide where to plant these,” my gardener friend said.

We stood by a weedy island of unhappy potted trees and shrubs. Roots bulged out the side of the pots and into the ground.

They were the makings of a food forest… that never got planted.

Five years of food forest planning had gone by, and only a couple of trees were actually planted in the soil.

What had happened?

Two words:

Analysis paralysis.

In five years, a well-planted fruit tree could be bearing baskets of fruit. Blueberries could be making quarts of berries. Homegrown chestnuts could be “roasting on an open fire” at Christmas.

Instead, the fear of planting the “wrong” way had kept a food forest from being planted.

If you listen to the experts, planting a food forest sounds hard.

You might think you need:

Elaborate blueprints

A permaculture design certificate

Perfect spacing

Earthworks

A perfect understanding of final tree heights and shapes

Lots of time

…and maybe even a landscape designer to help

But guess what?

It’s not that hard.

It doesn’t even take literacy to plant a food forest. I’ve seen amazing food forests in the so-called “third world,” planted by people who would smile and shake their heads at our drawings and figures.

So why are we so hung up?

It’s because we think too much. We want to make everything perfect. And in doing so, we plant nothing.

Guess what? You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t even have to be close to perfect to plant a food forest.

Every “mistake” you might make is fixable… other than the mistake of not starting now.

If you want to have a garden of Eden in your backyard, you need to get planting. Plant with joy, with gusto, without fear, and see what happens. You will learn tons, and you will have sweet success.

You have seen my food forest projects – they are beautiful! And yet, we planted them without even drawing a single picture on a napkin.

With some very basic understanding of design, you can walk around in an afternoon and plant an entire small food forest with your family.

Don’t look back in a few years and “wish” you’d done it.

Do it this weekend, and then in a few years you’ll be picking apples and berries with your children or grandchildren.

If you aren’t confident enough to make it happen, I’m also happy to help you.

Right now I am giving away my five-part video course How to Start a Food Forest the Easy Way to anyone that joins our gardening community.

As Laurie writes:

I cannot thank you enough for all of your help and wisdom. The simplicity of your methods has helped me go from total ignorance to a passable gardener. When I heard you talk about edges and islands, I finally was able to really get started!

In my new course, I take you from a bare field to a working food forest, showing you shortcuts you won’t see anywhere else. I know you don’t have time – I don’t have much either. That’s why we need to save time in the future by planting working systems now. Easy-to-grow food in the backyard = less time at the grocery and more time with family!

Smash through that analysis paralysis – come and join over 100 other gardeners in our exclusive community! 

You’ll get:

The powerful “start a food forest the easy way” course ($397 value)

Live Zoom calls where we share life-changing gardening info and answer your questions live ($1000 annual value)

Exclusive training videos you won’t find on YouTube ($297 value)

And an active gardening community ($1200 annual value)

That’s at least $2894 worth of consultation and help.

…and right now, you can join for a tiny fraction of that price.

Come and join us!

-David