My Front Yard Food Forest: Does it Really Feed People? Are Food Forests a True Solution?

Do Food Forests really live up to the hype? Can they really produce significant quantities of food? Is there a place for them in the toolbox of regenerative agriculture?
Restoration Agriculture (I love this book!)
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[@davemiller3947]

Re: manual harvest vs. monoculture automation - I think of harvesting in my food forest as part of grocery shopping. The time I spend harvesting means less time grocery shopping. And as you point out, harvesting is therapeutic. I cannot say the same about grocery shopping. Also I grow varieties that aren't available in any store.

[@tmzumba]

I personally love grocery shopping, but I know I’m not the norm. 😂

[@alexriddles492]

Think of the fuel not burned and CO2 not put in the atmosphere when the food is grown outside your door.

[@dustinabc]

I think the issue here is harvest levels for commercial production and selling vs. personal use. If you were grocery shopping for a thousand people you would modify the way you did it, and some level of automation would be beneficial. just as you wouldn't grow and work in a personal food forest the same way as you would a commercial one, where finding ways to automate would really help productivity.

[@heal-thylife77]

Haha yes literally all I want is to therapeutically reduce grocery shopping time I genuinely hate grocery shopping.

[@heal-thylife77]

@@tmzumba really why haha? Teach me how to enjoy it

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

Rob Avis had a very early video (something like 10 years ago) which really started to unplug me and wake me up. It was just him walking around his suburban property. I kept thinking "this guy is insane" just looking at the craziness on his front lawn. But that video was so important in my transition from suburbanite lawn lover to replacing my lawn with a permaculture food forest ecosystem. This video here reminds me of that video so much and I hope it has the same effect on many others that Rob's video did on me. Your shots of your son foraging in his suburban lot... the diversity and production on your front lawn.... I wonder what your neighbours think of your property, and if they see the absolute treasure that you have created there. And for anyone watching this for the first time, reading my comment when you haven't yet started your journey: doing something like this is literally life changing. You will never be the same person again, and you will change in SO MANY WAYS for the better. Not just growing food, but being more at peace, having a connection to our planet, to even having a deeper connection in your relationships and your community. Infact, your neighbours will likely change because you started your journey, and inspired change in them. That was a fantastic watch - I hope many more people get a chance to see it.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I have great neighbors! The neighbor kids used to come over and graze the raspberries and strawberries when they were little. My neighbors put up with my eccentricity and are really lovely folks.

[@brunobeaurivage1179]

My interest in Perma culture began in 2016 when I decided to travel across Canada with my RV. I had to figure out how to reduce weeding in our organic garden. We put a thick layer of newspaper down around our blueberry bushes, apple and pear trees, raspberry plants and covered that with wood chips. We hoped it would keep the plants moist and reduce weeds while we were gone. When we returned 3 months later there were minimal weeds and the biggest surprise was how it improved the soil. I have stopped tilling/ disturbing the soil and increased compost production and use mulch to cover the soil. Mulch prevents a lot of weed production and feeds the soil at the same time. We don't have a food forest but we have an edible landscape in our front and backyard. We have added to it slowly so we don't get overwhelmed with harvesting the food. We now have 22 different varieties of perennial edible plants and have now added a vegetable garden. I love to see your food forest and learn more about the relationship between the different plants. Beautiful garden!

[@etiennelouw9244]

I planted 6 trees (mulberry, avo, lemon, guava, fig, moringa) and am planting Cape Gooseberry as well. I started my garden in 2021, had no mulch so I covered the dug up lawn with cardboard and cut holes in the cardboard and inserted grow tubes in the holes and planted my veggies in the grow tubes. Had a bumper crop that has not stopped yet.

[@baneverything5580]

I`ve planted most of those. But a terrible drought wiped some out. My luck!

[@praveenJacksport]

Very informative video. great work . If more people could adopt this model of food and forestry, this world would be a more peaceful and better place to live in harmony with the nature.

[@karlsfoodforestgarden6963]

I love what you've done here. I'm only 3 years in with my current site but am starting to see lots of yield from the smaller perennial plants in my yard. The trees are still very young, Looking at your site, I am realizing that I can introduce more density to my own site. That's cool! It's kind of silly that people disparage food forests because they don't conform to the standards of conventional gardens. Growing a fruit tree will eventually be more efficient than planting and fertilizing, say, tomato plants. There's just no question about it. And growing things under the fruit tree will often make sense, so long as they don't act as vectors for disease. A fruit tree takes longer to pay off, and an annual plant offers a quick yield. That doesn't mean tomato plants are better or worse than pear trees. They're just different. If someone wants to grow a purely conventional garden, that's great. Personally, I prefer a little of both - with emphasis on perennial foods.

[@aliciavalentyn5889]

Diversity in the garden is great. We live in an apartment House in Portland. We are thankful that our landlord had already had many mature fruit trees... and we were granted the backyard and side yard to put in Seeds and Starts in pots and in garden beds. I’ve notice with our diverse crops of tomatoes, eggplants, cucumbers, Patty Pan squash, and Kajari Melons that our plants aren’t being attacked by insects. We love the many bees that are showing up everyday. I find myself everyday outside in the garden, as I garden I meditate. We love to share our harvest with our neighbors. You have a wonderful Food Forest. Thank you for sharing.

[@faehollowhomestead19]

A food forest answers every question 🥰 the start of mine filled something inside me I didn’t even know I was missing. As someone who can lose interest in hobbies quickly, this is also something that is so different every time I visit the garden and there is so much that can be added and learned all the time I don’t think I’ll ever get enough.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Same! Always something new and changing and always new challenges so I never get bored!

[@ferngulleyhomestead]

I definitely understand the appeal of both traditional and non traditional gardening. I’ve grown both ways in my vegetable garden. And I now go for an in between approach. Harvesting a huge amount of a single food in a jungle like setting is kind of a nightmare. But for foods that can be picked in a grazing and mostly fresh eating fashion, polyculture works fantastic. You can definitely grow more way more food per square foot but you’ll have less room to work.

[@KatBurnsKASHKA]

My food forest challenge is building up biodiversity and food next to one neighbour that uses pesticides on their weeds, and other side neighbour harbouring extremely invasive plant (Himalayan balsam). It's a never ending battle and stress but I am hoping that my little food forest continues to bring me peace

[@palliaskamen5722]

Focus on building the soil

[@KatBurnsKASHKA]

@@palliaskamen5722 absolutely that's what I do! :)

[@mlindsay527]

We probably grow around 20-30% of our (family of 4) own food on 6 acres. Garden, livestock and fruit/nut trees. What kills me is the kitchen work preparing, preserving, and cooking the all the food after we grow it. It takes longer than the time spent planting, pruning, and harvesting. Preservation is a large part of temperate climate food production that may not be needed as much in a tropical climate. I also believe there may be more shade tolerant fruiting plants in the tropics. COVID gave us all the time in the world to farm our property, and I can honestly say I’d be very worried if I had to grow even 60% of our food, as it would be an all day, everyday, endeavor. That said, anyone with the inclination (many do not) should be growing food. Good for the body, good for the soul, and every bit counts.

[@terrycarkner1698]

Love your choice of music here. I just harvested my first hazelnuts! I'm slowly building a good forest on our five acres.

[@jennyfern]

Great video, Angela. It's nice to see your yard as a real life example.

[@ladybug4734]

Amazing💚 I'm slowly getting there ... love how the bigger plants shade the smaller plants and something is always available to harvest

[@TheWeedyGarden]

Just found your channel. Thankyou so much for sharing your knowhow and your love for nature. This video was nice inspiration. New sub here 🙏🏻👍🥕

[@gardenweedsgrower]

I love your garden and your education. I hope more see this. Creating shade in never mentioned or mentioned as negative. I strive to create shade and appreciate shade in my garden because it gives me more time in the garden and in nature avoiding the blazing global warming intense heat and sun. Some plants can’t take the our Florida summer heat and need some shade too.

[@PedroReisR]

Congratulations, you indeed have a pleasant forest garden. Are those who say a forest garden cannot feed people confusing it with a lawn garden?

[@debbieschaffner2581]

I love the info and your Food Forest! I have a large garden. It's quite wild, but not permanent culture. Since we rent, I am learning and studying so I can develop a food forest when we buy in 2 years. I'm so looking forward to that goal! Thank you!

[@keystonecop2005]

What I love about a food forest, is that year round, you can experience the joy of being able to eat a wide variety of foods while they are still screaming.

[@myronplatte8354]

YES. Underrated comment. Speaks to the sadist in all of us. Did you know that there are certain enzymes with important functions for your body that you can only get from extremely fresh greens, and these enzymes stay in your body for only about 24 hours? So eating your food while it's still screaming can be very good for you.

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

@@myronplatte8354 LOL I was just browsing Angela's channel and came across this comment! So funny!

[@baneverything5580]

I love the wild birds and I planted extra fruits & berries to have enough for myself and them and people in the future.

[@fleurettewoods6080]

I have been enjoying your videos. They are very informative, full of peacefulness, and hope for me. Thank you for your easy way of taking us through each aspect of your garden and journey.

[@xyzsame4081]

For developing countries - on a small area it is possbile to manage water and fertility even w/o capital, chemicals, machines etc. That makes it IDEAL for developing countries. Geoff Lawton brought the example of a Melbourne urban gardener he had 60 square meters that is 645 square feet. Highly productive (admitted lots of sun, long growing season). He uses a special pruning technique to cut the fruit trees, to keep them small enough (4 times per year pruning). He was so successful that he was hired by the city as consultant. after the system was set up he needed 2 hours per week (most I guess for harvesting). But that is a rather high input, considering he had many fruit trees and berries (that make little work overall) and it amounts to 2 minutes per week per square meter (10,8 square feet). Geoff Lawton put it that way: 1 square meteris the most productive unit. in that backyard every small spot got a lot of attention, it cannot be the same for a homestead, let alone a farm. So the extra attention and input can produce higher yields per area (if there is good design). W/o machines or fossil fuels.

[@dupajasio4801]

One day there will be no fossil fuels ..

[@MosaicHomestead]

Great video, my father had a food forest in the back of the house, Hurricane Maria did a number on the trees, then it got taken over by weeds, I have been slowly cleaning the property to put it to produce again.

[@jeffmaul7999]

This is a wonderful garden - I am full of admiration for what you have achieved here. (And for all those commenting that grains can't be grown in such a system, there are other agroforestry methods such as alley cropping that benefit from species diversification, reduced reliance on chemical fertilisers, high protected yields and the ability to mechanise).

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Very true! Alley cropping is a great strategy! I don’t really have enough room to do it here, but that’s a great point!

[@lisalph8922]

Grains are really about calories and less about nutrition anyway. If you want more nutritious food, grains aren't a great choice.

[@debbrumley5623]

that you so much for your video's I learn and enjoy them !!

[@elsabadenhorst9746]

Greetings, from a small coastal town in South Africa. I have a small property and planted 200 banana trees with a ground cover of sweet potatoes. Between the bananas i have pawpaw trees and cassava and tarro and 5 Bee hives. I also have one apricot and one guava tree. The fence around is overgrown with passionfrute and gringadela vines. I have 5 rabbets and 5 chickens.I have a pach of shugar cane 60 metre square. Then i have a small vegie garden. I can produse food to sustain my self on 800 squere metre garden. I am off grid with solar and rain water.

[@MyFoodForest]

looks beautiful your food forest garden and I can hear in your voice the dream. I think to grow our own food is just something soo beautiful and astonishing and such an adventure!

[@bambigrage8464]

New to permaculture. Thank you for all you share. Super excited! 🙏❤️

[@juanitathomas9702]

I love your video's. You are an excellent teacher. I have learned a lot from you. But most of all I have gained confidence to work through decisions I need to make in the gardens I am involved in Keep up the good work.

[@rebeccarekward251]

Videos

[@patrickjanssen6652]

Thanks a lot for this very inspiring video and also for all your other videos about permaculture and food forests!

[@frenchiepowell]

Great video Angela! Place is looking great :)

[@jamaicanagriboss1]

It's so relaxing watching this video and the information great#supervideo,I didn't even remember that I should be working, wow!!!

[@ecocentrichomestead6783]

The first time I came across the concept of a food forest was before the internet. It was an article by Bill Mollison. I thought "I can grow a forest with food producing plants? That would be awesome!!!" I was officially deeply hooked!!

[@ernestinewatson4444]

You blog is valuable, please continue I have found this inspirational. Thank you.

[@delasantos]

I love your channel Angela - you are so good at explaining your passion for permaculture. Keep it up!

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Thank you!! What a kind thing to say!

[@saltriverorchards4190]

Very nice video. Thanks for posting.

[@sergio34410]

Angela love 💕 your voice I’m glad you are doing what I like! You are truly angelic,adiós Bella.

[@irenesgardenandmore]

😁😘😁 I ~ love , love , love your channel , my new friend ! So glad I found you …. Keep growing more trees the permaculture way ! Don’t listen to those🙉 people who don’t get it ! Thanks for sharing friend !

[@northwoodsdad7506]

The concept of the food forest is too overwhelming for the average person. There are lots of garden theories out there. I always just encourage people to put some seeds or plants in the soil and go from there. There is a lot of fear of failure that discourages people. The first thing we did when we purchased our house in the cities was put raised beds in the front yard. My wife did home daycare then. The kids and parents walked through it all the time. It encouraged the parents to garden and the kids loved it. We allowed the parents to grab tomatoes etc when they came. The kids got fresh vegetables with their meals. They saw the progression though and that is what got some of them to start. Don't push a forest on people that don't garden already. I am glad to hear her talk about the forest concept as one solution to a complex issue.

[@mollykuslikis6007]

If people got off their phones or in front of TV, they would have time to grow some of their food.

[@tjheato914]

I have two Asian pear trees (hosui and nijiseiki) here in SE Portland and they have set lots of fruit. I would absolutely love to crop trade to be able to try a paw paw, medlar, or another lesser known and harder to source fruit for the first time as we decide what other fruit trees we want to plant next year in our 1/5 acre space. That is if you have extra to be able to share of course. Very inspired by your channel, thank you for sharing your world with us.

[@bambam76]

Fantastic! So inspiring. Thank you 🙏

[@MatthewSherriff85]

Hey, just subscribed. I have a small vege patch and container fruit trees as I'm renting i think your place is awesome hope to have something similar in the future, also started sharing videos of the garden here in Australia, also limited to a small space in terms of growing space as the owner isn't too keen for me to completely dig up the yard, I'm hoping some instant raised beds will be a good workaround for that, hehe. It is no dig. Anyway great video

[@aliciamarana]

Thank you for sharing

[@peterlawrence738]

Magnificent work that just might save the planet.

[@lucibrdf1]

I love the content of this video, very informative! And I just happened to learn by watching it, that what I have growing wild is Verbena bonariensis. What is it good for?

[@henrycordero8265]

Great video!

[@cathrinpeets2232]

I watched this video two or three times by now, and somehow I never quite catch all that you are saying, because my eyes are drawn to all the green beauty, and my soul just says "ah". Your Eden is so restful!

[@TheEmbrio]

Very interesting thank you

[@seane6616]

Absolutely beautiful!

[@lilspittin313]

Those goji's growing up with the pawpaw or whatev that's called look lovely!

[@nima16042]

thanks for the book recommendation! great point that individual yield plant does not reflect the abundance of the total yield of an intensively planted food forest!

[@DamsLifestyle]

You got a lovely garden

[@okwaleedpoetry]

"multiple kinds of yields" then i love how you went into talking about them.

[@gordonspears6320]

I have created a front yard food forest on my quarter-acre property near downtown Orlando. Borderline zone 9/10, although with climate change I believe my garden will soon be solidly zone 10. I have about 35 or 40 fruit trees and other fruit-bearing plants, as well as numerous annual and perennial vegetables. For me, efficiency of harvest and management and high productivity are secondary to my goal of providing the greatest diversity of high-quality food possible in the smallest area with the least effort. Given that my goals are very different from a commercial grower, using a regenerative permaculture forest gardening approach is perfect for my needs. If i were a commercial grower, I would probably use a different approach.

[@Iamam313]

Hi, could you maybe please elaborate on how would you do it differently as a commercial grower?

[@gordonspears6320]

@@Iamam313 I'm not a commercial grower, so I'm not someone you should trust about that. But, I can imagine that commercial growers would be concerned with things like maximizing productivity, consistent harvest date, and reduction of labor costs.

[@peterlawrence738]

A reminder that many fruit trees can accept multiple variety grafts to broaden the duration of fruiting

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Very true! Good point! I tend to plant two trees in one hole rather than graft multiple scions on one rootstock bc I’m lazy like that. But grafting can really increase diversity!

[@uthrones]

Whoa!!! Amazing. Bill Mollison would be so proud. U're at the tip-of-the-sword :-)

[@hhwippedcream]

Don't forget the wonderful seedbank you are building as well, the self repairing earth-dermis that is your rhizosphere!

[@crazymonkeyVII]

Thanks for the video, your garden looks amazing! I've recently become interested in Syntropic Agroforestry and I'm researching it at the moment, hoping to start a (very small) one in my mother's unused backyard (I live in an apartment so I don't have space for it). She loves the idea, now I need to figure out what consortium to pick (we're in the Netherlands). It's surprisingly difficult to find the data that I need (grow profiles, life cycle info etc. for every plant or tree all collected into one database/table would be awesome). Where did you find your info, just looking it up plant by plant?

[@michaelg8642]

I used to think I'll eventually be able to grow all my own food in the garden/my food forest... but this year its been a major bust for me... already about to hit record annual rainfall halfway through the year here in Louisiana. Fruit keeps splitting before its ripe, have all kinds of fungal issues, drowning plants, etc... the annual stuff that does alright with the daily rain has such shallow roots from not having to reach for water, that the moment it stops raining they want to wilt. My chickens have all died from a mosquito borne virus, my bees cant forage for nectar because of nonstop rain all year, and part of me is like thank god I have the grocery store lol.. Probably need to do some major earthworks projects or haul in a bunch of dirt to do big raised beds for trees.. Keep trying to just woodchip the hell out of everything and the stuff keeps floating off!

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

The weather this year has been so challenging! I’m so sorry your year has been so difficult. :(. It’s so hard to invest so much and sometimes the weather obliterates all our efforts.

[@tdewtx]

gratz on your food forest and good food couldn't watch to preachy god luck.

[@busker153]

If you subsist on processed foods, it is impossible to imagine eating only from one's front yard. Well, when this meat and potatoes guy discovered that plants can fill and satisfy one so amazingly well, it is easier to imaging growing enough greens to feed myself.

[@calebfuller4713]

Wait until you discover you can grow potatoes too! 😁 Actually, potatoes are really easy to grow and give a very high yield - I can get 4kg+ per square metre and two crops a year.

[@flowerpixel]

I'm completely new to permaculture. My instant critique though is the emphasis on fruit/sugar/fructose/carbs. I love how whimsical it is but I do wonder how much fruit is being consumed? I have major blood sugar issues regardless of whether the sugar is "natural" or not, tested with a glucometer. And a *lot* of people do even if they're unaware of it. I think there needs to be an emphasis on nuts, greens etc because it's a mistake to assume it's healthy to eat large quantities of fruit

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I don’t believe that criticism matches the design and implementation of permaculture, though. There isn’t any emphasis on fruit and carbs over other foods. It’s about having everything in balance - both in the garden and in our bodies. I have a hazel and I get more walnuts than we can eat growing on my nextdoor neighbors driveway and at my dad’s house. The emphasis on fruit is because it’s expensive and usually not ecologically responsible to purchase. Nut crops are always emphasized in a food forest, but can be difficult to grow on a smaller scale bc most nut trees are massive. Greens are hugely emphasized. If you’re new to permaculture and this channel, I’d encourage you to look around a bit and learn more, because permaculture is about good design and having all things in balance. And food forests (as I mention in the video) have many layers, not just fruit trees. I don’t have any blood sugar issues, and a healthy mix of fruits and veggies are important for growing children - kids are evolved to crave fruit. Societies that eat whole unrefined foods including ample quantities of fruit don’t have reduced glucose tolerance. It’s us here in the US eating highly refined white sugar, refined carbs, and corn syrup. Thanks for visiting! I have lots of videos on greens you might like to check out. I love my tree collards!

[@flowerpixel]

@@ParkrosePermaculture the collard trees sound cool! I agree, societies who eat high carb diets haven't had our level of exposure to chemicals/processed foods/etc which are prob damaging our genetics (t1 & t2).

[@hhwippedcream]

Food forests (forest horticulture) is the historic norm. Its easy to forget how recent the current paradigm came about.

[@Big-Government-Is-The-Problem]

if everyone that had a yard had a food forest or even a normal garden and some fruit/nut trees then we could dramatically decrease the number of large scale grow operations. pretty much they'd only need to exist to feed the urban populations. during WW2 the victory garden was a huge thing and home gardeners produced more food than big agriculture did. its certainly a real and viable thing, and the only reason there is push back is because big agriculture doesnt want to lose like 100m+ customers that could easily grow their own fruit, veg and nuts in their yards.

[@stefc7122]

I agree. It was so disappointing that we did not have a coordinated victory garden movement last spring when outside was relatively safe to be working together on something productive. To me, this is the one “protest” that will get the attention we need while bringing people together instead of dividing us. It can be done all over the world in a way that doesn’t bring the wrong kind of attention to distract us. In actuality we probably don’t have time to heal the planet. For example, she said this is her 13th(?) year. It takes some time to get to this level of production. However, I think it is worth a shot and as individuals we will be a lot healthier and I believe happier as well. Everything else we do to try to change our government and society seems to be making them worse.

[@Big-Government-Is-The-Problem]

@@stefc7122 agreed, its a shame everyone with land didnt see Covid as a realization that we all need to be more food self sufficient which is better for all of our health and the environment.

[@baneverything5580]

I`m always experimenting here in Louisiana by planting anything I can discover that my parents never grew whether it`s trees, berries or garden crops looking for things that thrive and produce abundantly without a lot of help. Just in case. Anyone who has gone hungry understands why. You never know what lies ahead especially if your job isn`t a sure bet or you`re on a low fixed income. Years ago I was forced to gather pecans like a squirrel and hunt berries in the mornings. I got some dry beans from a food pantry and planted 1/5th of the bag and cooked the young pods. And the entire time there were edible tubers galore in my yard called rattlesnake plants because the white tubers somewhat resemble their rattles. I had never seen them before and figured they must be toxic. Now I wish I could get some to plant.

[@--Paws--]

Most of my neighbors have done this for years way before it became a trend. Luckily even as they are renters, the landlord allows them to grow on the frontyard. I just hope to be allowed grow my own.

[@annadreamsart9756]

I want to set up a food forest. I'm amazed your city allows this in the front yard. Just having wild looking bushes beside my house on an empty deadend got me a ticket.

[@deniserosburg9663]

That is absolutely horrible!

[@annadreamsart9756]

@@deniserosburg9663 Thanks. I was upset

[@williammcduff6531]

The production level in a food forest or square foot method is approximately 10 times traditional modern farming. The manual imput is quite a bit more, however, you are saving a fortune in chemical imputs, machinery, etc...

[@beccam9854]

the only problem is you can't produce staple crops in the amount you need like.. you need am acre just to feed one person. but it's very sustainable for small family on a few Acres

[@Lochness19]

I assume that's mostly for vegetables which are often pretty excessively spaced in typical modern farming (and probably without relay farming?). For the more typical grain crops I would except the difference in yield is smaller?

[@jamesfrederick.]

For grain crops this wouldn’t work of course because you can’t just produce a acre of soy or something underneath a bunch of peach trees but having a diverse food forest with tons of nuts and fruits it a dream for the person who owns it...

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

The best thing about Angela's garden is where it is. So many people see postage stamp human settlements as the death knell of the human race. They don't have to be. I wonder what Angela's neighbours think about her place, and if they actually understand the treasure that her land is.

[@dogslobbergardens6606]

We need to start re-considering what we call "staple" crops in the first place. Just because wheat and corn have been relied on so heavily for so long doesn't mean we always *have* to build our entire diets around them.

[@rachelk4805]

Harvesting is the best kind of labor for someone who is growing for food. 🤤 There is a reason people use the word as a synonym for reward.

[@jameskniskern2261]

The reason that many people downvote the food forest concept is... You cannot automate/mechanize harvest a food forest. You must use human labor to harvest it. At least so far. Oh, there are some attempts to industrialize the food forest, but for the most part, it only works for human harvesting. Mark Shepherd did a great job of laying it out for automation. But there is still a lot of human labor involved. Also many people do not want to change their diets. They want those convienience foods. They want the ease of not having to do the work. (sigh). I've encountered so many folks that are indifferent to the idea of it. I loved the "It's too beautiful to be true" example of the pan shot! :) It isn't too good to be ture, because it is true. :)

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Yeah, it's VERY hard in fast-paced modern life where time is $$$ to think about needing to take time to harvest food. We want instant gratification and we don't want to take the time to hand-harvest. I realize it's idealistic, but I think about community food forests and the potential for harvest parties and how that not only makes harvesting more efficient but also builds community connections

[@rileynicholson2322]

Cooking is the same. I remember watching Cooked with Michael Pollan and he said something about how we all love a good home cooked meal but we all want someone else to do the cooking. We should all cook more for our health, budget, and enjoyment, but humans naturally avoid work when we can. The labour intensive nature of food forests makes them fine for a family garden or a small farm with limited land, but less practical for feeding modern populations without completely reversing urbanization. It's just simply not possible to have only 1% of people involved in agriculture and food production if we use highly labour intensive farming methods. We might get there eventually, as we try to reduce land use for environmental reasons, but unless something major changes it will require a lot more farmers or land to be a limiting factor.

[@user-et7fv6fz6q]

I think about my planting methods similarly. I have a good start but need fruit snd more berries

[@sbayles]

There is no way our homeowners’ association would allow this but how cool!

[@jakemeeker4660]

love it

[@torin1453]

Hey! How did you amend your soil? In NE PDX, my soul is so clay heavy I can barely get anything to grow in it!

[@CanadianPermacultureLegacy]

"The peach tree keeps eating my hair" LOL

[@abculattera4446]

Since you're a fan of Mark Shepherd's Restoration Agriculture, I'd recommend you read Steve Gabriel's work, especially Farming the Woods, though his more recent Silvopasture is also a great read!

[@abculattera4446]

Also, while I agree that people shouldn't be poo-pooing on forest gardening as a legitimate way to make food, my understanding is that the primary reason for most of the people who do so is not because it's overly pretty or too good to be true. It's more about the energy economics of it vs large-scale agriculture. The smaller and more intensive scale of forest gardening leads to less yield per unit of human labor, making it significantly less viable as a means of producing a good living in the economy. However, that's generally not the point of forest gardens; the purpose of forest gardens are generally to provide food for a relatively small number of people on an even smaller plot of land, often with the many challenges of an urban setting. In this way, it is incredible, providing stupidly high yields-per-acre, even if the yields-per-labor may be lower. In other words, it's more a matter of differing goals and values, and people being overly simplistic and closed-minded with their thinking and the great diversity of challenges that you can be faced with in different settings.

[@josealeman332]

So pretty , so much green I am surprise you have bees .

[@cholcombe973]

Your food forest looks amazing! Which feijoa variety are you growing? I thought they didn't ripen until the winter here (I'm also in Portland).

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

They will ripen in late fall. I have two seedlings and two named varieties which are escaping me at the moment. I’ll have to go look them up!

[@kevanhubbard9673]

That plane flying over was rather stentorian but at least we did get to hear the neighbour truck!

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Life in the city!

[@okwaleedpoetry]

15:38 my question though, is there a overflow in the forest, at some point do branches hang over your neighbors, or even roots?

[@judithaamoramarinay6970]

Support you

[@davidowen7064]

My Leatherman comes from Portland Oregon. My best tool ever

[@margaretd3710]

I (unfortunately) live in a HOA where there are rules for everything. This is my first HOA; it will also be my last! We can't have any type of food growing in our (large) front yards - not even a single, solitary fruit tree. We can be fined if we even try. However, I don't have the typical sod that all of my neighbors have - I live in Florida and the law here is that all homeowners (including those in HOAs) can replace their sod with "Florida-friendly landscaping", e.g., water-saving plants. So I'm growing a ground cover that, hopefully, will one day fill in completely - it takes very little water, no fertilizer, and very little upkeep: once or twice a year you weed-whack whatever's too tall so that it's nice and even. It's great as I'm in my 70s and don't have the energy to mow and take care of a standard lawn. Sure wish we could plant some fruit trees, though! [My back yard has 2 large raised veggie beds and several fruit trees.]

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

HOAs are SUCH a hindrance to sustainability! UGH. I'm so sorry. I know Florida is notoriously bad for them.

[@xyzsame4081]

You could change your HOA - it is elected.

[@margaretd3710]

@@xyzsame4081 We did that a few years ago and went from the frying pan into the fire!!! One problem is that no one wants to be on the HOA Board -- it's a thankless, unpaid job and it seems that, for the most part, people who want to be on it are bossy people. Or if they aren't, they end up being pushed around by those who are. I wish we could simply abolish the Board, but enough people seem to think that without a HOA no one would keep their property up and the neighborhood will end up looking like a war-torn area. Crazy, yes, but that's the way it is.

[@hippiebits2071]

@@margaretd3710 The only way I see HOAs being of real benefit is if a neighborhood is plagued with many investor owned rental properties, otherwise they really are quite unnecessary and add very little. Smh buyer beware, some of these people are power hungry crazies.

[@msnina5379]

I think in the end you need to ask a question, do you grow for yourself or for commercial? If you grow for yourself, the food forest is ideal coz you have variaties of Harvest, but if you grow as a source income, I think you Will choose traditional farming as the most ideal

[@zoeward4555]

I would love to see diagrams of your plot, showing spacings. I have trouble visualising how it fits together from the videos.

[@chandrikatilwalli4741]

Like your videos. Your videos are as always very informative.When you show closeups, in reference to smallness of your property , it does not give any idea, to me as a viewer as how the plants are situated . In the front or back garden. If you she how close they are planted to you street or front door or your neighbor’s property , it would help to visualize and learn from your videos. Just my opinion.

[@FawnontheLawn]

It would be interesting to see you speculate what might happen on your permaculture Yarden without any human attention. Isn't that one of the benefits of food forest style is that the plants protect and sustain each other much longer than if they were not together? Would it last another 10 years in some wild overgrown iteration? 60 years by self seeding new plants?

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Oh I find this topic fascinating! In the past ten years my garden has experienced significant periods of “neglect” on my part: once due to a catastrophic leg injury that required three surgeries and a year to fully recover from. Once bc I had my 4th baby and was very very ill for 20 weeks at the beginning and had a complicated recovery after. My garden took only a small amount of “tidying” each time and basically took care of itself. I am really interested in the question of what happens with longer periods of no human management, though.

[@peterlawrence738]

Remember deep taproot growing, mineral mining plants for chop and drop….tagasaste, lucerne, comfrey

[@iris.inspired]

I would love to have you come visit my brand new beginning food forest & other gardens/landscape to help me see where I can include more layers

[@jacobspranger1267]

For colder climates check out the seaberry

[@okwaleedpoetry]

your food forest has a designed spacing between all plants? or is it just a walking space planned out first

[@krissycus]

I have an area in front of my home that I'm not quite sure what to do with. Currently it's covered with pig waste, cardboard and woodchips in preparation for whatever comes next. I was thinking of just doing a low-water lawn or groundcover, as I don't want to block our spectacular mountain view, but is it possible to do a very short food forest without the canopy/shrub layer? I suppose it wouldn't be forest per se.

[@kalirussell5982]

Why not? :) You could put in berry bushes, flowers, squashes, herbs, etc. There are tons of short plants to choose from!

[@austenhead5303]

May I direct you to the most charming (and possibly the most experienced) gardener on youtube, Charles Dowding, and his no-dig gardening. If you don't get inspired there, I'll be very surprised.

[@OhavYisrail]

One of the things I wish permaculture channels would go more into is actual numbers instead of catch phrases like "more abundant" or "thousands and thousands of pounds". This one change would make it seem less like pie in the sky and more worthy of serious discussion. I'm a permie newbie but literally every channel I've found has had this problem.

[@anniehope8651]

I think I understand what the big farmers are saying. They see productivity more in the sense of what you can produce for a certain amount of money. Having a food forest is just very labour intensive. That isn't a problem for us food foresters, because we don't see the time it takes us to pick our berries as 'costs'. It's free labour, basically. But larger farms do have those costs and so for them it's important to make everything as efficient as possible. If they don't, they can't produce for a reasonable price. I think you just can't compare the two. They shouldn't critisise us, and we also shouldn't pretend that we know better and we can feed the world this way. We can feed ourselves this way, because we are willing to put the free labour in. That's perfectly fine but the big farmers are right in their own way.

[@myronplatte8354]

Can you show us your zone 1 garden and explain how you handle it and the benefits it gives compared to a food forest, and show the interactions with and the way it transitions to the food forest.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

yes! Thanks for the suggestion!

[@masterofgarden3472]

I think having food forest save money because you can lower the cost of buying from the grocery store. I'm starting out small and it will take times. Have you every try growing mushroom? I trying growing Bluegill but having fish cost a lot of money buying quality pump and filter.

[@amyjones2490]

Just think if everyone had fruit bushes and trees and some veg yards instead of wasteful lawns. South Korea has made lots of farm machinery for small holding farms. The technology is out there but big ag chemical corporations are pumping out tons of propaganda against organics and regenerative ag.

[@blankslate6393]

Eloquent defense of permaculture. Just wondering what are your inputs (manure etc.) into this food forest? After all you can not harvest indefinitely from a limited resource. You may restore N and C from air but what about K etc ? Anyway really enjoy your channel. Subed and going to learn more from you. Thanks!

[@carlymajor1032]

Did I see feijoas in there???? Im from new zealand now living in vancouver , wa and we totally miss feijoas. Where do i get feijoas trees.

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

Yes! I have three of them and this is only the second year they will be producing. They are slow growing here…you can get them at one green world in outer SE- they carry several varieties. Someone in my neighborhood has one that has to be 30 years old. It is enormous they do very well here, but ripen quite late.

[@xyzsame4081]

The single plant may have less yield BUT the whole place uses the HEIGHT as space to grow. And plant that has let's say have the apples or half the pumpkings STILL harvests and stores rain, carbon, part of them can harvest nitrogen and the trees may even mine for minerals. They have the biomass even if they do not have the fruit and that creates soil. Never mind the contribution to carbon sequestration. And funneling water into the soil when it rains. The top canopy also gets the brunt of heavy rain and hail so it protects the layers under it. A hail might pummel the trees but the rest of the plants stand a chance. The plants were better protected from the extreme heat and most likely created a cooler microclimate around the house. They also mitigate extreme dryness or wetness. Plus the "non-productive" biomass (leaves, stems, roots) fees soil life and insects and repitle above ground. That is not only an ecological value, they also act as pest control.

[@ryanlove8242]

Layers are an important aspect of food forestry. What kinds of root crops do you have in your system if any? I know a lot of food forests include a root layer. Also, what kinds of nitrogen fixers do you use to boost the fertility for your fruit trees. They are looking pretty healthy. 😁🌻🌼🍀🌲🦋🌱🌞

[@ParkrosePermaculture]

I grow lots of root crops from horseradish to Sunchokes to sea kale to annuals like beets and rutabaga. I have clover, Goumi, peas, vetch, locust, and many many other legumes to fix nitrogen.

[@gordonspears6320]

I avoid planting root crops within the dripline of my fruit trees because I don't want to disturb the tree's roots while harvesting the root crops. I do grow root crops in beds seperate from my fruit trees. In my climate, root crops such as raddish and sweet potato are good summer cover crops in beds that will be planted in leafy green vegetables in our mild winters. This practice of mine may be contrary to standard permaculture practice, but following standard practice is not my goal.