Edible Forest Gardens2

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www.cog.ca18 Fall 2010 The Canadian Organic Grower

Within a few years, however, Hart realizedthat neither he nor his brother had thephysical stamina to manage the intense

needs of the annual vegetable cropping systems thatthey had developed. An avid reader and cross-cultural researcher, he turned his attention to otherless labour intensive agricultural models, particularlythe famed home gardens of Kerala state in India.

In his visionary book, Forest Gardening: Culti-vating an Edible Landscape, Hart notes that Keralaboasts an estimated half million small-scale forest

gardens managed for subsistence and income by themillions of people that live within them. Harts re-search revealed that these tropical gardens, typicallyhalf an acre (0.8 ha) in scale, had up to 23 youngcoconut palms, 12 cloves, 56 bananas, 49 pineap-ples, 30 pepper vines and numerous other herba-ceous perennial plant species and small livestock.With little or no outside inputs, such intense pro-duction could supply most of a familys food needs

plus medicine, animal fodder, building materials,feedstock for micro-biogas digesters and fibre forcrafts. Similarly, Hart discovered that forest gardenson the island of Java of just over an acre in size wereroutinely supporting families of ten or more persons.

Over the next thirty years, Robert Hart and hisbrother began to transform their own property intoperhaps the first known temperate forest garden inthe west. Although Hart passed away in 2001, hisgarden remains an inspiration to would-be forestgardeners around the temperate world as he has dem-

onstrated that the agro-forestry principles practicedfor hundreds, if not thousands, of years in the tropicscan be successfully adapted to colder climates.

In the past decade or so, interest has been grow-ing in the forest gardening model throughout NorthAmerica with many exciting examples coming tolight. While much of this work is still experimental,American David Jacke, in Edible Forest Gardens:Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Cli-

EDIBLE FOREST GARDENS

A PERENNIAL AGRICULTURE ALTERNATIVE

By Ron Berezan

When English horticulturalist Robert Hart set out in the mid-1960s to

create a healthy and self-sufficient lifestyle for himself and his handi-

capped brother, he purchased a few acres of land in Shropshire near

the Welsh border and began to farm.


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www.cog.ca Fall 2010 19Our Nature is Organic

mate Permaculturehas effectivelypresented both the possibilitiesand the technical requirements forforest gardening in the northernhemisphere.

Intrigued by the work of pio-neers like Robert Hart and David

Jacke, I became determined todevelop my own forest garden forour Edmonton home. In partner-ship with my neighbour, we haveconverted approximately 2200square feet (204 m2) of our yardsinto a joint Zone 3 edible forestgarden. The work began in Juneof 2008 with the sheet mulchingof large areas of lawn and formervegetable beds with layers of or-ganic matter including cardboardand newspaper, compost, grassclippings, leaves, straw, alfalfa pel-lets and bark chips. Then the workof planting began.

The principlesSuccinctly put, edible forest gar-dens are perennial polyculturesof multi-purpose plants poweredby the sun. Following the pat-terns and ecological functioning

of established forests, we are at-tempting to create stable, resilientand diverse systems that requirefew outside inputs and are highlyproductive in relation to theamount of labour required. To beclear, these gardens are not an at-tempt to replace existing natural

forests. Rather, we are developingparallel forest systems that can pro-vide a wide range of yields to peo-ple, while at the same time

offering back numerous eco-system services such as carbonsequestration, wildlife habitat, soilbuilding, the creation of micro-climates and water retention.

Forest garden design dependson the careful mimicry of naturalforest systems. One of the core

principles articulated well byRobert Hart is that forest archi-tecture is typically multi-layeredwith a variety of plants occupying

niches at different heights: talltrees, small trees, shrubs, herba-ceous perennials, ground covers,vining plants and the root zone.There is a careful selection andplacement of all species such thatfunctional communities, or guilds,of plants that support each other

A well-designed forestgarden can eventuallyout-produce an annual

cropping system in foodcalories per unit of areawith far less labour.

The work began in June of 2008 with the sheet mulching of large areasof lawn and former vegetable beds with layers of organic matterincluding cardboard and newspaper, compost, grass clippings, leaves,straw, alfalfa pellets and bark chips.


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Trees

Evans Cherry (Prunus cerasusEvans)

Brook Red Plum (Prunus salicinaBrook Red)

Filazel (CorylusXhybrid)

Honey Crisp Apple (Malus domestica Honey Crisp)

Ure Pear (Pyrus ussuriensisUre)

Espalier fruit trees

Norda Apple (Malus domesticaNorda)

Fall Gold Pear (Pyrus ussuriensisFall Gold)

Golden Spice Pear (P. ussuriensisGolden Spice)

Brook Gold Plum (Prunus salicinaBrook Gold)

Evans Cherry (Prunus cerasusEvans)

Shrubs

Saskatoons (Amelanchier alnifolia)

Red Currant (Ribes rubrum)

Black currant (Ribes nigrum)

Missouri Currant (Ribes sativum)

Gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa)

Josta Berry (Ribes nigrumX uva-crispa)

Honeyberry/Haskap (Lonicera caerulea edulis)

Romance Cherries (Prunus cerasus X fruticosa)

Western Sand Cherry (Prunus besseyi)

Raspberries (Rubusspp.) contained area

Herbacious perennials

Bee Balm (Monarda fistulosa)

Giant Hyssop (Agastache foeniculum)

Meadow Blazingstar (Liatris ligulistylis)

Betony (Stachys officinalis)

Garden Sorrel (Rumex acetosa)

Good King Henry (Chenopodium bonus-henricus)

Lovage (Levisticum officinale)

Sweet Cicely (Myrrhis odorata)

Valerian (Valeriana officinalis)

Comfrey (Symphytum officinale)

Stinging Nettle (Urtica dioica)

Bloody Dock (Rumex sanguineus)

Salad Burnet (Poterium sanguisorba)

Garden Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis)

Chives (Allium schoenoprasum)

Garlic Chives (Allium tuberosum)

Welsh Onions (Allium fistulosum)

Egyptian Onions (AlliumX proliferum)

Wild Onions (Allium canadense)

Sage (Salvia officinalis)

Lupins (Lupinus polyphyllus)

Alfalfa (Medicago sativa)

Self-seeding annuals

Borage (Borago officinalis)

Calendula (Calendula officinalis)

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium)

Bachelors Buttons (Centaurea cyanus)

Orach (Atriplex hortensis)

Dill (Anethum graveolens)

Caraway (Carum carvi)Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Cilantro (Coriandrum sativum)

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)

Assorted lettuces (Lactuca sativa)

Ground covers

Wild Strawberry (Fragaria virginiana)

Domestic Strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

Creeping Thyme (Thymus pulegioides)

Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)

Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)

Mints (Menthaspp.)Canada Violet (Viola canadensis)

Oregano (Origanum vulgare)

Fungi

Oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus ostreatus)

Shiitake mushrooms (Lentinula edodes)

Horse mushrooms (Agaricus arvensis) * volunteer

Ron Berezans Edible Forest Garden

in Edmonton, Alberta


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are created. These guilds may in-clude: soil-building species, such aslegumes (clovers, alfalfa, lupins,vetch, caragana, sea buckthorn,buffalo berry), dynamic accumulators (plants

such as comfrey, valerian, dande-lion, nettles, yarrow, linden treesand others known to accumulatesub-soil nutrients),

insectary plants for attractingpollinators and other beneficials, aromatic species to confoundpests, and nurse plants that grow upquickly to shelter younger morevulnerable species.

Our forest gardenIn our Edmonton garden, the lay-

out centers around five key guilds,each comprised of one tree, fourto six shrubs, numerous perennialground covers and self-seedingannuals. These nodes are ar-ranged in a large semi-circle open-ing to the south, thereby creatinga warm, sunny micro-climate inthe centre for annual vegetablesand herbs.

A sixth node occupies a par-tially shady area on the north side

of the house. Several currants,gooseberries and josta berries,along with shade-tolerant peren-nials and ground covers (lemonbalm, mint, Canada violet), makeup this guild. In this moist, shadyarea, we have also inoculated themulch with oyster mushroom

spawn. Other areas of the gardenhave been inoculated with shiitakemushroom spawn. A line of espal-iered fruit trees with a diverseunderstory forms the western bor-

der of the garden.Temperate forests, like all land-scapes, are not static and movethrough a series of stages orsuccessions over time. What beganas a meadow will evolve into athicket, followed by early, mid andlate succession woodlands, and fi-nally old growth forest in which a

few tall species dominate until firestarts the process all over again.

David Jacke observes that forestsin the mid-succession stage offerthe greatest diversity of speciesdue to their mosaic texture andthe fact that there is still sufficientlight penetrating through the

We designed an edibleforest garden to mimic

the mid-successionwoodland.

A line of espaliered fruit trees with a diverse understory forms thewestern border of the garden.

Forest architecture is

typically multi-layered.


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canopy layer to support a lush understory. Hence, we design an edibleforest garden to mimic the mid-succession woodland in which the treelayer covers only 5075% of the overall surface area.This means that the spacing between trees in a for-est garden will usually be farther apart than in anorchard, which is not typically concerned with a di-verse and productive understory.

In the early years of forest garden development,

there will be larger open spaces which allow for theplacement of annual vegetable crops and self-seed-ing annual species for other purposes. Many of thesespecies will recede from prominence as the wood-land evolves towards mid-succession resulting in moreshade. Once the guilds have been planted, the roleof the forest gardener is to ensure that the moreaggressive species do not overwhelm the slower grow-ing ones. Hence in our two-year old forest garden,the main labour is currently to chop and drop thefast-growing species such as alfalfa, clover, comfrey,valerian, borage and orach, adding to the mulch

layer as we go.

What was once a rather sterile lawn is fast becominga diverse ecosystem and an oasis of biodiversity for

countless soil organisms, bees, butterflies, birds,fungi and other life forms that dwell on the site.

Biodiversity and bountyDuring our first season, harvestswere limited primarily to fast-growing edible perennial greens,some strawberries and herbs, andannual vegetables planted in openspaces. Two years later, now ourthird season, we are also enjoying

a substantial harvest of berries,

fruits, medicinal plants and ediblemushrooms. The beauty of thismodel is that we are harvestingsomething from the garden fromlate April until early October. Thefuture productivity of this system

Forest garden designdepends on the careful

mimicry of naturalforest systems.

Functional communities, or guilds, may include insectary plants forattracting pollinators and other beneficials.


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is fascinating to contemplate andforest garden advocates like Hartand Jacke suggest that even intemperate zones, a well-designedforest garden can eventually out-produce an annual cropping sys-tem in food calories per unit ofarea with far less labour.

Perhaps the greatest delightthus far, however, has been to ob-serve the evolution of ecologicalactivity within our now thrivinggarden. What was once a rathersterile (and struggling!) lawn isfast becoming a diverse ecosystemand an oasis of biodiversity forcountless soil organisms, bees,butterflies, birds, fungi and otherlife forms. This is the beauty of

the forest garden model: whileproviding for our own needs, weare simultaneously regeneratingsoil, capturing water, turning car-bon dioxide into biomass and cre-ating habitat for a host of othercreatures. As Robert Hart ob-serves, The forest garden is farmore than a system for supplying

mankinds material needs. It is away of life and it also supplies peo-ples spiritual needs by its beautyand the wealth of wildlife that itattracts.

While it is unlikely that for-est gardens and other forms ofperennial agriculture will ever

completely replace our annualcropping systems, they representa promising complementary vi-sion for a truly sustainable andregenerative approach to meet-ing our essential needs and re-generating ecosystem health.From urban yards to acreageand farm- scale installations, wehave only begun to explore thepossibilities for forest gardens as

a model for reweaving ourselvesinto natural systems.

Ron Berezan operates The UrbanFarmer, an organic gardening,edible landscaping andpe rmaculture de sign servi cese rv ing we st ern Canada(www.theurbanfarmer.ca). Ron

ha s a part icular in te rest inalternative models for growing foodin cities and has compiled a databaseof over 200 species suitable for Zone3 forest gardens. In the winters, Ronorganizes trips to Cuba for Canadianfarmers and gardeners to vi si torganic farms and urban agricultureprojects (see ad below).

Photo credits: Ron Berezan

ReferencesForest Gardening: Cultivatingan Edible Landscape, RobertHart. Chelsea Green PublishingCo. 1991.

Edible Forest Gardens: Eco-

logical Vision and Theory forTemperate ClimatePermaculture, David Jacke withEric Toensmeier. Chelsea GreenPublishing Co. 2005.

The forest garden...supplies peoples spiritual needs by its beauty and thewealth of wildlife that it attracts. Robert Hart

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Edible Forest Gardens2