At the back of the farm, to the left of the wash-station, is a bed full of a huge variety of plants; fruit trees, rhubarb, beans, herbs, flowers, guavas plus pumpkins running through!
Our forest garden
This is an example of a Forest Garden - diverse planting of edible plants that attempt to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. Its less than a year old and will grown into a wonderful little ecosystem!
Food Forests are three dimensional designs, with life extending in all directions, up, down and out. Generally, seven layers are recognised:
tall canopy tree layer
lower canopy tree layer
shrub layer
herbaceous layer
ground cover layer
root layer
vine layer.
Growing at each of these layers, means we can fit more plants in an area, without causing failure due to competition. As our sample plot is relatively small, we chose to skip the tall canopy layer and opted for dwarf apple, peach and cherry trees as the lower canopy tree layer. Shrubs include guavas, rhubarb, cape gooseberry, comfrey, achillea and calendula. The herbaceous layer includes chamomile and pumpkin. For ground cover we had garlic and more recently dwarf beans, also chives as root crops plus runner beans and sweetpeas as the vines.
Garlic from the forest garden
Preparation is key to establishing a forest garden i.e. removing grass - pasture tends to consist of bacterial-dominant soil and for a forest we want fungal-dominant soil. For a large area it is best to cover with tarps etc to kill the grass and then cover with woody mulch (at least 10cm thick) before planting.
Wellington City Libraries have several books on Forest Gardens. An excellent resource is the book Temperate Food Forests for beginners by Dana Thompson. Start with her wonderful website, full of information and resources: https://foodforestplants.co.nz/