How to Plan a Food Forest

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Yesterday we talked about growing plants. Today we've refined that to starting a food forest with a primary focus on fruit.


Food Forest

Here are some basic resources on beginning your food forest journey.

Articles:

Designing a Food Forest: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started

Permaculture Food Forest: How To Grow A Luxurious Garden


Books:

Edible Forest Gardens

Forest Garden Technical Manual


Preserving

You may wish to preserve some of your harvest. Even a pocket-sized food forest can produce a LOT of food.

Canning is an excellent skill. Watch for classes in it starting when fruits ripen in summer -- around here that's June for strawberries. Do note that if you wish to preserve your harvest, sometimes that means selecting different varieties than if you wish to nibble for weeks on end. Look for cultivars that say "canning" or "preservation." They will give you one bumper crop all at once, then if they are perennials they rest and if they're annuals, you pull them up and plant something new (e.g. something that will bear a fall crop).

However, there are many other preservation options. Freezing is easy if you have a freezer, albeit vulnerable to power outages. Drying is ideal if you wish to avoid added sugar, and there are budget dehydrators around $40-60. I am keeping an eye on freeze-dry equipment but the prices there still range $2000-4000 or even more. Fermenting is another option if you like pickles or other cultured foods. You will likely find that different foods preserve better with different methods.

Pressure Canning 101- The Basics

Complete Guide To Home Canning

Low Sugar Preserving


General Preservation Articles:

Food preservation

National Center for Home Food Preservation: Home Page

Ways to preserve food


Books:

Getting Started in Food Preservation (4-H guide)

Handbook of Food Preservation

Home and farm food preservation


Fruit Trees

Fruit trees are the backbone of a fruit-focused food forest. Popular choices include apples, pears, plums, and cherries. You can also grow native fruits such as pawpaws, persimmons, mulberries, or serviceberries. Mulberries actually form the lower part of the canopy in my yard.

While some apples are self-fertile, most bear a bigger crop with a pollinator. There are charts to tell you which ones go together based on bloom time. Plus you can choose different purposes, like a dessert apple and a cooking apple. So you'd likely do better with two smaller trees than one big tree, and some dwarf trees are still ladder territory, while others can be grown in a large tub. Note that smaller trees fit closer together and actually yield more fruit per area. A challenge is that all the tiny trees are made so by grafting onto a dwarfing rootstock. That makes them a lot more expensive, and also limits your choices what you can grow -- which means modern commercial varieties, and those things expect to be coddled. Heritage varieties are much more robust, but hard to find on dwarfing rootstock. I recommend that you find a nursery with experienced staff and discuss your needs; they can help you figure out what should work for you.

Fruit Trees: What to Plant and How Many

The Best Apple Tree Varieties for Home Orchards

One good way to start a food forest is with a single guild, such as an apple guild.

Apple Tree Guilds: Getting Started

Mini Fruit Tree Guild for Small Gardens

Midwest Permaculture Presents: Plant Guilds

Designing a fruit tree guild
This article has a diagram for a guild with 2 oak trees, to give you an idea of how a 2 apple guild could look.

Apple Tree Guild picture


Vines

Vines add to the vertical layer of your food forest. You don't have to bend over to pick them, and they really minimize their footprint compared to how much food they produce. They can also be trained over an arch or pergola to create shade, and they block wind, thus protecting more vulnerable crops.

9 Best Climbing Fruits To Grow On A Trellis

27 Edible Plants to Climb an Arbor or Trellis

Vining Vegetables for Vertical Gardening


Permaculture

Here you have an advantage because you can start permaculture immediately by observing your territory -- how the light falls, the water moves, etc. -- before planting. However, now is the time to plant bare-root dormant things (e.g. trees, most shrubs, some perennials). Fruit trees or bushes take time to mature so starting them this year would be helpful, if you can learn fast and decide what you want where within a month or so. Meanwhile, observe and learn for your design phase.

Permaculture Design Principles

Zones and Sectors, Efficient Energy Planning

How to Design a Permaculture Backyard: Step by Step Instructions

Permaculture

Permaculture Design: A Step-by-Step Guide


Planting Season(s)

Bear in mind that spring planting season has phases. Some people also like to plant crops in late summer for a fall harvest, and certain things like spring bulbs should be planted in fall. We're already past most of the seed-starting season which is late winter or very early spring.

* Advance -- sow summer seeds indoors (like tomatoes)
* Early -- ground thaw to leafing out (plant dormant things)
* Middle -- cool spring with chance of frost (plant cool-season crops like peas or pansies)
* Late -- after frost with warm ground (plant sensitive summer crops like tomatoes)
* Second -- late summer, cooling nights (sow for a fall crop like peas or spinach)
* Fall -- cool weather (plant dormant things like spring bulbs)

Create Your Own Planting Calendar

Monthly Garden Schedule by Zone

Planting Calendar For Fruits

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map

Vegetable Planting Schedules

When to Plant Vegetables: The Garden Planting Calendar