Where to Start? 

So, you're sold on the idea of forest gardening! You've learned some of the basic ideas and you want to rejoin this "oldest human land use" and take advantage of the easiest way to grow food that humans have ever developed.

Now, the fun begins: planning for an incredible garden!

But where to begin? 

For most people looking to create a long-term, valuable forest garden that works well with the site and soil, and fits the lifestyle you want, I recommend looking a little more deeply into Permaculture. For those who want to take a DIY approach, I recommed starting with the book Gaia's Garden, by Toby Hemenway. But you could also get the benefits of Permaculture design by consulting with a certfied designer (hey, like me!)

But, that's by no means necessary to get started on a forest garden.

The two most important things you DO need, though, are a good diverse starter set of useful plants for forest gardening, and a good place to put them! To achieve their low-maintenance stability, forest gardens rely on a large percentage of perennial plants, those that return for many years, as opposed to annuals that have to be planted each year. So, a variety of exotic, gourmet perennial vegetables such as Turkish rocket (a perennial "broccoli,") French sorrel (a perennial spinach,) and Egyptian walking onions can be very helpful and make your garden sound like a global affair. 

Later, we'll get into picking plants and organizing them into good, self-maintaining "polycultures." If you're curious, you can get ideas from our "starter set" of plants that I linked to below the article. 

But first you have to know where to put them. So today, lets start with identifying the best opportunities for locating a starter forest garden. Many Permaculture designers, going back to founder Bill Mollison, recommended starting with a few small starter garden beds, or 'first locus" as a way to start building a collection of plant material. Later, you'll be able to use many of these plants to spread your garden without having to buy $10,000 worth of plants. I recommend starting with an area between 150-500 square feet. It's possible to forest garden with less than 150 feet, but that's about the smallest size for a complete layered forest garden, organized around a small fruit tree. 

2 recommended starting points:

As a general rule, there are two best places to start. The first right outside the front (or back) door. This is where you'll see the planting daily and be assured of giving it the attention it needs to get established. 

The second best place to start is by defining the edges of the garden, usually with a hedgerow. This is especially true if you have a lot of wildlife pressures or tresspassors. In those cases, it can be difficult to establish any kind of garden until you get control of those negative pressures. 



Throughout the world, the typical "home garden" or homestead pattern is defined by this kind of enclosing forest garden hedgerow. 

 Considering those two approaches, here some other great opportunities for starting a forest garden:
 
1. Planning on putting in a fence or hedge? 
Have a problem with animals, deer, tresspassing?

Consider installing a beautiful, multi-species edible hedgerow! Hedgerows can be designed as linear forest garden systems that provide a wide variety of nuts, fruits, cut flowers, vegetables and medicinal herbs. Later in this series, we'll get more into hedgerow design, but if you'd like to look ahead, check out below for an old post on our hedgerow forest gardens at Lillie House. 

2. Have a difficult area of the yard that's hard to maintain? Steep, eroding slopes? Places it's difficult or impossible to mow? 

Consider a small dense forest garden of productive trees and bushes to stablize the slope, reduce maintenance and start a nice plant collection. 

3. Have existing flower gardens, "borders," or "islands?"

Any of these can be adapted into Permaculture gardens as a way of starting a plant collection. "Borders" and "islands" are especially crying out to become food forests. 
 
4. Already have fruit or nut trees, or are you thinking of putting in a few high-value fruit trees? 

That's the perfect opportunity for starting a forest garden. Most orchard areas can easily be adapted into forest gardens with a little good design. Adding layers of productive plants increases the yields and usefulness of a fruit tree or orchard, without adding much to the maintenance. Even those dreaded black walnut trees that kill all your favorite flowers and vegetables can be converted into productive food forests!

So, now is the time to start identifying opportunities at your site for a planting. In future posts, we'll get into selecting plants and trees, assessing our site conditions and soil, and creating a budget for the project. Stay tuned, and as always, if you have any questions, get in touch. 

Mike