Whether you have a small space or a large lot, you can have a beautiful garden and eat it too. Edible forest gardens mimic natural forests, but edibles are prioritized in plant selection. They're a natural, sustainable method of growing food for yourself, providing a habitat for wildlife and beautifying your home.
8. Kuhikugu is a complex
network of over 20 cities.
Silnei L Andrade
“Many present Amazon
forests, while seemingly
natural, are domesticated…
The Indians were in the process of
terraforming the Amazon when
Columbus showed up and
ruined everything.”
~Charles C. Mann
9. Mayan Milpa Cycle "is one of the most
successful human inventions ever created"
MesoAmerican Research Center
10.
11. Chagga home gardens carpet the slopes of
Mount Kilimanjaro
Ulrich Doering/Alamy
15. IMAGINE
Susanne Nilsson
“The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings.”
~Masanobu Fukuoka
34. Little life
Transform the site
Low species diversity
Higher conventional yields
Simultaneous ripening
Bare soil
Ongoing soil amendments
Nurture the plants
Garden for vegetables
Closely monitored pest control
Flat land
Single climate
Two dimensional plantings
Mostly machine or human labour
Fighting animals for the harvest
36. Teaming with life
Learn from the site and choose plants to suit
High species diversity
Higher diversity of yields (nuts, fruits, medicinals...)
Constant harvesting
Living mulch
Self-sustaining, building soil naturally
Nurture the soil
Garden for food, fuel, cooling, windbreaks, water
Designed for natural pest management
Contoured swales
Designed microclimates
Three dimensional, densely layered plantings
Mostly plant, insect, fungi, and soil labour
Sharing harvest with wildlife
37. “A tree can be only as strong as
the forest that surrounds it.”
~Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees
Tim Vrtiska
40. If you plant that way [polyculture], it becomes so
much easier… so much more interesting and,
overall, less work… Take a step toward nature
and nature will always take ten steps towards you.
~Stefan Sobkowiak
Peter McCabe/Montreal Gazette
46. Listen to your inner gardener
Ask what matters
Look to nature
Sculpt the land
Cultivate relationships
Play & have fun
Practice zen & the art of editing
47. LISTEN TO YOUR INNER
GARDENER
Discover the magic in expressing who you are
ASK: Why do I garden? When do I lose track of time?
Experience moments of joy? Peace? Pleasure?
48. “To establish a natural orchard,
one should dig large holes here
and there among the stumps of
felled trees and plant unpruned
saplings and fruit seed over the
site, leaving these unattended just
as one would leave alone a
reforested stand
of trees.”
~Masanobu Fukuoka, “do-nothing” farming
49. “Miracle” apples, Akinori Kimura
"When everybody is going the
wrong way, are you
brave enough to go the
true way? A man can transform the
world's agriculture from
what he learns from
an apple tree."
~Akinori Kimura, What I Learn From The Apple Trees
50. "a way to recover a lost relationship I had with
wildness”
~Thomas Rainer
51. "If should look as if it has always been like that, as if
Nature made it that way. That’s good design.”
~Sepp Holzer
52. ASK WHAT MATTERS
Tidy or natural? Plentiful harvests or shared
sanctuary? Doing or not doing?
ASK: What’s important to me? How do I want to spend
my time? What do I like to cook? Eat? Make?
57. LOOK TO NATURE
Practice the art of observation
ASK: What is here? What will nature
help me do here? What sparks my imagination?
Peter Power for The Globe and Mail
70. CULTIVATE RELATIONSHIPS
“One plant is just a single note”
ASK: What does a plant want? What functions
does it serve? How can I honour its essential nature?
71. “One plant is just a single note; no matter how beautiful on
its own, it needs other notes to form a melody.
That’s where the real music can begin.”
~Roy Diblik, The Know Maintenance Perennial Garden
72. What is its structural character?
How sociable is it (how does it spread)?
What does its life underground look like?
How does it compete?
How does it tolerate stress?
What’s its growth habit?
What does a tree want?
Carol Von Canon
73. needs
attributes
behaviours
high water table
endomycorrhizae
Juglone suppresses competition
rounded, spreading canopy
deep, rich, fertile soil
late to leaf out
drops leaves after first frost
gold fall colour
Black walnut
(Juglans nigra)
delicate apical bud
deeply furrowed black bark
long, brittle taproot, deep
wide spreading roots
strong limbs
sun
pioneer species
bole sprouting
companions
protection from
pests & disease
pollination
nutrients
74. Can I eat it? Use it for medicine? Harvest for other uses?
Does it add beauty? How? In what seasons?
Can birds or other wildlife eat it? Use it as habitat?
Does it fix nitrogen? Serve as a living mulch?
Does it provide nectar for pollinators?
Can insects, moths or butterflies feed off its leaves?
Does it deter pests?
Does it serve as support structure for other plants?
Can it lower my energy costs?
Does it tolerate drought?
Is it native?
Will it filter and clean runoff?
Does it provide other ecosystem services?
What functions does a tree serve?
75. gifts
shade & cooling
purifies air
nuts
syrup
valuable timber
medicine
juglone
dye
wildlife
neutralizes carcinogens
Black walnut
(Juglans nigra)
sedative
inhibitor of fungal growth
pH indicator
food
shelter
sequesters carbon
windbreak
attributes
behaviours
rounded, spreading canopy
gold fall colour
deeply furrowed black bark
strong limbs
pioneer species
late to leaf out
abrasive
abrasive
87. “My green thumb came only as a result of the
mistakes I made while learning to see things
from the plant’s point of view.”
~H. Fred Ale
88. PRACTICE ZEN & THE
ART OF EDITING
Allow your garden to express itself
ASK: How is it evolving in space & time? What do I
need to tweak? What can I not do?
95. Black cherry
(Prunus serotina)
Hackberry
(Celtis occidentalis)
Oak
(Quercus spp.)
Hickory
(Carya spp.)
Sugar maple
(Acer saccharum)
American basswood
(Tilia americana)
American beech
(Fagus grandifolia)
Chestnut
(Castanea spp.)
Heartnut
(Juglans ailantifolia var. cordiformis)
Ultra Northern Pecan
(Carya illinoensis)
Korean pine
(Pinus koraiensis)
Walnuts, Butternuts, & Buartnuts
(Juglans spp.)
Trazel
(Corylus spp. avellana x colurna)
Swiss stone pine
(Pinus cembra)
Chinese elm
(Ulmus parvifolia)
111. Carrot (Apiaceae) family Daisy (Asteraceae) family
Wild arugula (Diplotaxis tenuifolia)
Mustard (Brassicaceae) family
Sunflowers (Helianthus spp.)Cow parsnip (Heracleum maximum)
Plants with small flowers in clusters attract
the most beneficials
122. “Few of us are in a position to restore the forests...
But tens of millions of us have gardens, or access to
open spaces such as industrial wastelands, where
trees can be planted.
And if full advantage can be taken of the potentialities
that are available even in heavily built up areas, new
‘city forests’ can arise.”
~Robert A.de J.Hart