forest garden

Update on our Recycled Wood House

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Today is our slow day and so I thought I’d pull together a short blog post about our recycled wood house. It’s coming along nicely as you can see in the photo above. The walls are mostly done now. My favorite feature is the wide porch that overlooks the front gate and forest garden. There’s … Read more

Secret Garden of Survival – How to Grow a Camouflaged Food Forest

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Secret Garden of Survival by Rick Austin: A forest garden produces 5x more food per square foot than a traditional garden.
Secret Garden of Survival by Rick Austin: A forest garden produces 5x more food per square foot than a traditional garden.

“Imagine a food garden that you only have to plant once in your life-time, that takes up very little space, that will provide food for the next 30 years; that can grow five times more food per square foot than traditional or commercial gardening; and where you never have to weed, never have to use fertilizers and never have to use pesticide– ever. All disguised as overgrown underbrush, so nobody knows you have food growing there! This book will show you how to do it in one growing season!”

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Our Tropical Forest Garden Progress

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Current progress of our tropical food forest. Much work remains to be done amending and building the soil, and planting additional small plants.
Current progress of our tropical food forest. Much work remains to be done amending and building the soil, and planting additional small plants.

I want to first thank all those who have pioneered the way for growing forest gardens. Special thanks to Geoff Lawton, Robert Hart, David Holmgren, Bill Mollison and Sepp Holtzer. Their permaculture books and videos have been immensely beneficial even though our food forest is unique, as partially explained below. I also want to emphasize the importance of permaculture and encourage readers to learn as much as possible in order to develop more sustainable practices.

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Mixed Agroforestry and Aquaculture

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Integrating fruit trees with fish ponds reduces the need for irrigation.
Integrating fruit trees with fish ponds reduces the need for irrigation.

A basic tenet of permaculture is for everything to have more than one use. In the example shown here, instead of having a fish pond separate from an orchard, agroforest or forest garden the two are integrated for increased efficiency. I’m starting to see this type of agricultural practice here and there. I imagine the idea sprang from growing fruit trees next to a lake or pond. If the surrounding land is about 6’-8’ (2m) above the water table, the tree roots can readily reach the water so no irrigation is needed after the first few years. There are lots of possibilities with this basic concept. The ratio of land to fish pond can be changed depending on what you want to produce the most of. The height can be adjusted according to the type of trees. And the overall size and shape can be adjusted to fit your homestead or farm.

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