Typically Food Forest Design Problems Occur Due To Inadequate Planning. But With Care They Can Be Avoided or Cured
Table of Contents
Typically Inadequate Planning causes the following problems:
Lack of a clear design or layout, resulting in a chaotic and unproductive system.
Neglecting soil preparation and amendment, which are crucial for long-term health.
Overlooking water management, especially in dry or very wet regions.
Not Creating Proper Vertical Layers.
These can all be overcome at a later stage but it is so much better if adequate planning is carried out and the problems avoided. In the following sections I will deal with each issue and suggest the action to be taken.
Lack Of A Clear Food Forest Design Or Layout
The lack of a plan often results in a chaotic and unproductive system. But it can be overcome.
I want to start this section by saying that nature is random. Seeds grow where nature has provided space, there is no master plan. A tree falls and in the space it took new plants colonise. They revel in the light and warmth that can now reach the woodland floor and soon fill the void that nature provided. Nature abhors a vacuum … space … and makes use of it.
So let’s not be too prescriptive about our planning. We aren’t aiming to break a garden with plants growing in rows, standing shoulder to shoulder like soldiers on parade. But we still need to give some thought to the design and layout. For example if right inside the entrance we have densely planted plants with sharp thorns or spines falling over the paths then people will be reluctant to enter (of course that can be a design feature on occasion!).
And if we surround a glade where ground cover should flourish with tall plants that create excessive shade it will be detrimental.
So step one has to be to assess the site. Are there slopes, what direction do they fall and how steeply? Is there running water? What plants already grow here, where does their shadows fall throughout the year? What is the natural vegetation? Is the site facing N,S,E or W? There are dozen of questions to ask and ponder. And taking time to ponder is never time wasted. A food forest is a Time Machine of sorts. It doesn’t just exist today, it will exist for decades and we need to think forward to time when it starts to mature. Because our actions today dictate the future of our food forest.
In some senses chaos is what I aim for. I want plants randomly planted. But I do want access that suits the site and I do want to harness the energy of the sun and not limit the potential of the site.
I’ll be returning to many of the above topics in future posts. Follow the series as it is published and learn from my successes and my Food Forest Design Problems and mistakes!
Soil prep is vital for long-term health of the plot and food forest (aka Forest garden). In nature autumn leaves clothe the soils as winter approaches and over winter the soil microfauna pulls some of them into the soil. This produces an organically richer soil as well as forming soil channels that aid water and air penetration.
Starting from scratch we have no leaves to fall in autumn but can use alternatives. Any organic matter added to the surface will help but my preference is always going to be tree derived. The easiest one for me is wood chip. It is natural, often abundant if you know where to source it and is easy to handle. In my first food forest we laid cardboard and covered with a six inch layer of wood chip. This was over “weed” infested grass. The dandelions, rampant grasses etc were deprived of light and less than 1% over saw daylight again. When they did come through we just added a bit more wood chip.
Woodchips and compost attract worms that open up the soil.
The result was a layer of wood chip that slowly decreased in volume and was naturally incorporated into the soil. What was noticeable within just a few months was the increase in earthworms. They loved it.
People often avoid wood chip in the mistaken belief it will use all the nitrogen in the soil and plants will starve. If you were to rotovste it in to the soil that is a risk. But leave it on the surface for it to be naturally drawn in to the soil and that doesn’t happen. What little is in contact with the soil surface will take a very small amount of nitrogen, BUT as it decomposes it then releases nitrogen. And if you add nitrogen fixing plants to the soil there can soon be an increase of nitrogen in the system.
There are other methods that can be used to amend the soil. The simplest is to chop and drop. This is so natural. As plants die or are harvested leave the harvest “spoils” in situ to naturally decay. It is so natural.
Remember when following nature like this there is little opportunity for the “goodness” in your natural nutrient adding amendments to be washed away by the winter rains. They are produced slowly as the plants decay and immediately taken up by growing plants. In cold winter weather the process slows down and decay is very slow, hence free nutrients are there to be washed away by winter rains.
Overlooking Water Management, Especially In Dry Or Very Wet Regions
The amount of moisture in the system is a major factor in the type of plants that will go. For example, we can’t expect water loving plants to grow in a drought prone plot. And plants that love dry arid conditions will not cope with a lot of water over long periods.
So we need to either grow what sits the conditions we have OR change the conditions.
Water can be drained by adding natural or artificial drains. And swales and other water retention devices can be installed to capture seasonal rainfall and enable the growing season to be extended. Deserts can be made to bloom and food forests made far more productive when we focus on water management.
Not Creating Proper Vertical Layers
All seven layers in the food forest are important, but creating vertical layers seems to be the one that gives people most problems. I’m not sure why this is, it’s easy enough to do. Perhaps it is because we grow vertical or climbing layers less frequently in most veg gardens.
My advice here is to follow nature (it’s usually the best starting point when in doubt. In nature climbing plants grow up naturally occurring support structures such as trees or other plants. So let your vertical layer do the same.
But which plants to grow? A grape vine is always a good plant to start with. It can produce fruit for eating right off the vine or for processing into drinks. And though not a plant found growing wild in the UK it is a fruit that is familiar to most gardeners.
Alternatives can include hops, which are found in the wild here and are farmed in several counties for beer making. Hops are also edible if you want to go down that route.
Another good one is Hablitizia tamnoides, aka Caucasian spinach. It can be grown from seed and will scramble up through any sort of support it can find.
Or how about mashua? Grown for its edible roots it is related to nasturtiums and will provide beautiful flowers as it clambers over trees and low growing shrubs.
More well known are the commoner berries e.g Loganberry, blackberry and their ilk. And if we are thinking of berries and are fluid in our thinking about vertical layers not necessarily being restricted to climbers and vines (and of course we should be open minded in categorising plants) then raspberries are a “must be grown” plant. Summer or autumn varieties, red or yellow fruited, they can soon produce clumps of very productive plants.
great article – landscaper here based in Cardiff UK – Rhidian
Thanks Rhidian.
This is the first in the series I am publishing. Watch this space fro more