Forest Gardening
Forest gardening is a concept that was developed in England by Robert Hart. It is related to permaculture but was developed separately. The goal is to make a food producing area as self sustaining, beautiful, diverse and productive as possible, while also allowing for animal and human uses.
What Hart (and others all over the world) have done is to modify the prevailing wisdom about tree spacing and removal of competing plants from under trees. Instead what they do is create a system which mimics a natural forest’s “stories” or layers, with designers using anywhere from three to seven stories, such as canopy, understory trees, shrubs, herbaceous, ground cover, root crops and vines.
By densely planting the forest garden, weeding is minimized once it is established both because the area becomes self-mulching with dropped leaves and because the densely planted area shades out weeds.
Although each component of the forest garden will probably produce less, the total productivity of a given area is much higher. The plants are selected either because they directly benefit humans or because they support the ecosystem of the forest garden, such as plants that fix nitrogen. They are beneficial because of their ability to host bacteria that pull nitrogen from the air and make it available to plant roots of nearby fruit trees and other plants.
Other plants are selected for their rooting depth, which minimizes competition with fruit tree feeder roots, for their ability to limit grasses, for their blooms which expand the food availability for pollinating insects, for their attractive scent or appearance.
Imagine turning an old orchard into a forest garden. It is actually a fairly good place to start. Standard size fruit trees form the tallest layer, the canopy, and in an old orchard the spacing will already be established. If you don’t have these trees to work with, plant new standard trees at 20’ intervals.
The permaculture forest should include a variety of fruits, and as long a season (early, mid and late, plus good storage fruit varieties) as your climate will support. Underneath, halfway between the full size trees, dwarf fruit trees are then planted, forming the low tree layer (or a dwarf orchard could have standard size trees added). Fruit bushes go between the trees to form the shrub layer, with herbs and perennial vegetables forming the herbaceous layer.
For ground cover, use dewberries, other Rubus species, sorrel and lady’s mantle or use chamomile as it can be walked on and mowed. For the vertical layer Hart suggests using grapes, nasturtiums and runner beans up the trees, and caneberries on the fence around the edges, but Whitefield says to keep the climbers to the fences except for hops or a rose climbing in a fruit tree’s lower branches.
In Whitefield’s book, he recommends that this concept not be used with apples on M9 and M27 or plums on Pixy, as these extreme dwarfing rootstocks can’t take the competition. He also says that for the first 5 years young fruit trees shouldn’t have anything growing within their drip line, but especially no grass! Fruit bushes can be planted the distance of their own diameter from the young fruit trees, with mulch covering the fruit trees feet.
If you have space, adding one or more of the nitrogen-fixing trees is recommended. The alder (Alnus glutinosa) tree can be planted as a wind break, coppiced and shredded for nutrient rich mulch, and add nitrogen to the soil. The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) doesn’t coppice well, but offers excellent bee forage.
Trees to avoid include poplar, willow and ash - the latter is a nutrient hog, the first two take the water. While not a nitrogen fixer, birch is recommended because it has a light canopy which allows light to reach the understory, and it also is excellent for wildlife and can be coppiced.
Some of the multi-function plants recommended for planting under apple, pear and plum trees are the familiar edibles raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, celery, parsley, chives, onions, shallots and garlic. Perhaps less familiar edibles include dandelion, nasturtium and horseradish, Japanese wineberries, elders (Sambucus spp).
Also recommended are the medicinal and ornamental mullein and herbs such as oregano, thyme, marjoram and mints. For nitrogen fixing, alfalfa and vetch are especially suggested, and for flowers try yarrow, lupine, wallflowers, tansy and a wildflower mix.
Whitefield’s book is full of details of plant types and garden designs. He gives a very complete example, with installation timeline, costs and development process, so you can follow the whole process.
For additional ideas for orchard planting here is a list to try.
•cover crops for beneficial insects
plant bush beans or soy beans for summer
plant hairy vetch, crimson and arrowleaf clovers in fall
•plant grapes under fruit trees
•plant sweet white clover as cover crop
•grow alfalfa and cut for mulch
•grow spinach as compost crop
•grow comfrey at the fence line as a barrier to grass and for mulch
References:
Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
Good Neighbors: Companion Planting for Gardeners by Anna Carr
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield
What Hart (and others all over the world) have done is to modify the prevailing wisdom about tree spacing and removal of competing plants from under trees. Instead what they do is create a system which mimics a natural forest’s “stories” or layers, with designers using anywhere from three to seven stories, such as canopy, understory trees, shrubs, herbaceous, ground cover, root crops and vines.
By densely planting the forest garden, weeding is minimized once it is established both because the area becomes self-mulching with dropped leaves and because the densely planted area shades out weeds.
Although each component of the forest garden will probably produce less, the total productivity of a given area is much higher. The plants are selected either because they directly benefit humans or because they support the ecosystem of the forest garden, such as plants that fix nitrogen. They are beneficial because of their ability to host bacteria that pull nitrogen from the air and make it available to plant roots of nearby fruit trees and other plants.
Other plants are selected for their rooting depth, which minimizes competition with fruit tree feeder roots, for their ability to limit grasses, for their blooms which expand the food availability for pollinating insects, for their attractive scent or appearance.
Imagine turning an old orchard into a forest garden. It is actually a fairly good place to start. Standard size fruit trees form the tallest layer, the canopy, and in an old orchard the spacing will already be established. If you don’t have these trees to work with, plant new standard trees at 20’ intervals.
The permaculture forest should include a variety of fruits, and as long a season (early, mid and late, plus good storage fruit varieties) as your climate will support. Underneath, halfway between the full size trees, dwarf fruit trees are then planted, forming the low tree layer (or a dwarf orchard could have standard size trees added). Fruit bushes go between the trees to form the shrub layer, with herbs and perennial vegetables forming the herbaceous layer.
For ground cover, use dewberries, other Rubus species, sorrel and lady’s mantle or use chamomile as it can be walked on and mowed. For the vertical layer Hart suggests using grapes, nasturtiums and runner beans up the trees, and caneberries on the fence around the edges, but Whitefield says to keep the climbers to the fences except for hops or a rose climbing in a fruit tree’s lower branches.
In Whitefield’s book, he recommends that this concept not be used with apples on M9 and M27 or plums on Pixy, as these extreme dwarfing rootstocks can’t take the competition. He also says that for the first 5 years young fruit trees shouldn’t have anything growing within their drip line, but especially no grass! Fruit bushes can be planted the distance of their own diameter from the young fruit trees, with mulch covering the fruit trees feet.
If you have space, adding one or more of the nitrogen-fixing trees is recommended. The alder (Alnus glutinosa) tree can be planted as a wind break, coppiced and shredded for nutrient rich mulch, and add nitrogen to the soil. The black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia) doesn’t coppice well, but offers excellent bee forage.
Trees to avoid include poplar, willow and ash - the latter is a nutrient hog, the first two take the water. While not a nitrogen fixer, birch is recommended because it has a light canopy which allows light to reach the understory, and it also is excellent for wildlife and can be coppiced.
Some of the multi-function plants recommended for planting under apple, pear and plum trees are the familiar edibles raspberries, blackberries, currants, gooseberries, strawberries, celery, parsley, chives, onions, shallots and garlic. Perhaps less familiar edibles include dandelion, nasturtium and horseradish, Japanese wineberries, elders (Sambucus spp).
Also recommended are the medicinal and ornamental mullein and herbs such as oregano, thyme, marjoram and mints. For nitrogen fixing, alfalfa and vetch are especially suggested, and for flowers try yarrow, lupine, wallflowers, tansy and a wildflower mix.
Whitefield’s book is full of details of plant types and garden designs. He gives a very complete example, with installation timeline, costs and development process, so you can follow the whole process.
For additional ideas for orchard planting here is a list to try.
•cover crops for beneficial insects
plant bush beans or soy beans for summer
plant hairy vetch, crimson and arrowleaf clovers in fall
•plant grapes under fruit trees
•plant sweet white clover as cover crop
•grow alfalfa and cut for mulch
•grow spinach as compost crop
•grow comfrey at the fence line as a barrier to grass and for mulch
References:
Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
Good Neighbors: Companion Planting for Gardeners by Anna Carr
How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield
