“The natural way of gardening is a big change from the traditional way. It is human nature to resist change! This change will be much easier to accept if you take a good look at a forest or natural glades.
We humans have a need to control and manipulate what is happening in our garden. We humans like to control everything in our lives. However just for a moment picture how nice it would be to let nature grow your garden without much of your help. Picture nature taking control of growing your garden the way she has been providing beautiful forest, glades and meadows for thousands of years.”
Learn more at Natural eco-friendly method of gardening
List of ideas we’re using in our forest garden:
– compost in place – feed the worms with layers of organic materials (also called lasagna or sheet mulch gardening) and soon your garden soil will be rich and black. We use low cost waste stream materials such as rice hulls, manure and sugar cane compost.
– no till gardening to minimize disturbance of beneficial organisms — why work harder than you have to? See No Dig Abundance video.
– regenerative “beyond organic” gardening – use the steps listed here and the soil will get better every year
– vetiver grass around edges of beds to minimize erosion and provide green manure: see Miracle Soil Building Properties of Vetiver Grass
– nitrogen fixing groundcovers and shrubs to build the soil (beans, peanuts, pigeon pea). Pigeon pea is said to be one of the best Permaculture Plants.
– nitrogen fixing trees
– food growing like weeds (besides producing an incredible amount of food, this method almost eliminates weeding)
– add loads of mulch – as much as you can get. Watch Ruth Stout’s thick mulch gardening video and Back to Eden wood chip mulch videos.
Two year forest garden update: https://naturalbuildingblog.com/2-year-forest-garden-update-forest-gardens-as-a-hedge-against-drought/
Our forest garden after one year: https://naturalbuildingblog.com/tropical-forest-garden-homestead-update-one-year-later/
Our forest garden in the early days and background info: https://naturalbuildingblog.com/our-tropical-forest-garden-progress/
Image credit: Toby Hemenway – The Ultimate, Bomb Proof Sheet Mulch