Our food forest isn’t even two years old yet, but this year it’s starting to come together.

Cutting pathways with the mower through the system gives it some “edge” that makes it pull together visually. The kids are in the back picking blueberries in this picture. There are quite a few species scattered through here (at least sixty) which we planted, and then there are other interlopers that planted themselves, like black cherries, black walnuts, popcorn trees, dog fennel, wild lettuce, etc.

Some of those we just let live, but the popcorn trees are a real nuisance and we eliminate them as we see them.

There’s a great big one at the back of the food forest that is providing shade to some young pawpaw trees right now. Later, though, we should take it out since it drops many hundreds or thousands of seeds per year and the seedlings come up everywhere.

Making it Easy

After planting multiple food forests, we’ve really figured out how to streamline the process and get a ton done in a short time. We’ve recorded and posted three in-depth food forest training videos over at our new Skool platform, and have at least four more videos scripted out. You can join here and watch ’em if you’re interested. Food forest design can be a lot easier than you think.

The image at the top, with the jelly melon groundcover, is an “island” we created as part of the food forest course. In it, we planted Chinese artichoke, sweet potatoes, jelly melon, eggplant, annual Mexican sunflower, zinnia, daisies and a thornless blackberry, all around the base of a Thai mulberry and a beauty berry shrub. The island (or guild) only took about an hour to put together.

It’s fun to plant a food forest… and it’s even more fun to watch it grow up and produce! Ours is now well on the way.