It enhances our strength, promotes healing and empowerment, betters mood and memory, reduces stress, and aids in disease prevention. The coronavirus pandemic has raised numerous concerns and limited social interactions, prompting many to take up gardening. This trend is commendable, and continuing to read will reveal strategies to increase your harvest while reducing your labor.
Have you ever wondered why some plants thrive better in forests, on their own, without any special care, than in our gardens? For example, wild vegetables grow without being trimmed, nourished, or watered, yet they flourish better than our garden plants would without our constant attention.
It appears we might be approaching gardening incorrectly. The forest's diversity provides plants with the necessary resilience to withstand harsh climate conditions and environmental factors that affect their growth.
This diversity is a key element in sustaining a productive ecosystem with natural stability.
Our monoculture practices deplete the soil's fertility for agricultural use after just a few years. Specifically, repeatedly planting the same crops in one area exhausts the soil of vital nutrients and leads to the accumulation of compounds that can hinder growth and yield.
Additionally, a lack of diversity can increase disease risk. Crop rotation is an effective method to prevent this and assist in replenishing the soil's nutrients.
However, the variability in yield renders this method unsuitable for many commercial farmers. To combat the issues associated with monoculture, the concept of forest gardens has been developed.
These gardens mimic natural ecosystems and incorporate numerous plant varieties and species to enhance both diversity and yield. Martin Crawford, a trailblazer in forest gardening, is a British author and the founder and director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a non-profit organization dedicated to agroforestry in the UK.
He argues that monoculture gradually depletes the soil of its nutrients.
“What we think of as normal, in terms of food production is actually not normal at all. Annual plants are very rare in nature, yet most of our agricultural fields are filled with annual plants. It’s not normal. What’s normal is a more forested or semi-forested system.”
In 1994, he began cultivating an expansive forest garden, planting numerous stems and seeds from a variety of plants. With each passing year, he introduced more species, and today, his garden boasts an impressive ecosystem with over 500 different edible plants.
He explains there are two categories of plants in the food forest:
- directly useful plants, which include fruit trees, veggies, all types of nuts, tuber plants, timber, and logs on which mushrooms grow.
- indirectly useful plants, or system plants, which boost the function of the system, such as flowers that boost pollination, mineral-accumulating plants, and nitrogen-fixing plants
He says:
“With such a diverse system, whatever happens with the weather, most of your crops will probably do fine. Some may fail, some may do better. That’s very important going into the future because we don’t know exactly what’s going to happen to our weather. So by having a diverse system, it gives you maximum resilience.”
A forest garden typically features seven vertical layers of growth, which are:
1. Canopy trees
2. Smaller trees
3. Shrubs and bushes
4. Perennials
5. Groundcover layers
6. Root crops
7. Vines (climbers)
These layers support each other, offering diversity, shade from the sun, and protection from wind and storms. The food forest's primary benefit is its low maintenance requirement; for instance, Crawford dedicates only a few hours each month to its upkeep.
Like wild forests, a food forest is self-sustaining. The variety of plants contributes to disease resistance and climate change adaptation. Although it may initially seem challenging, a food forest is ultimately more efficient and rewarding than traditional gardens over the long term.
Initially, establishing the garden will demand more effort and may incur higher costs. However, over time, your food forest will become largely self-maintaining.
As Crawford notes, the forest plants are “more like being out in nature than being in a cultivated garden”, and adds:
“It can seem overwhelming, there are so many species. You shouldn’t let that stop you from starting a project, because you don’t have to know everything, to begin with. Just start, plants some trees, and go from there.”
Watch the documentary below to learn more about forest gardens:
The short film garnered significant attention, reflecting the growing interest in food forests in recent years. Consequently, a full-length documentary is currently being developed.
"Edible Landscapes: The Food Forest Revolution" is a documentary film designed to motivate individuals globally to discover and cultivate food forests.
