Believe it or not, the best time to start a food forest is in the winter. You may be wondering how that could be. Aren’t you going to double your work? Actually, it’s the complete opposite.
Food forests are becoming more common as edible landscaping and neighbourhood community gardens have gained popularity. While standard gardens require continuous labour and care — turning over the soil every spring, weeding, and fertilising — food forests that are layered correctly can cut back on much of that hard work.
What Is a Food Forest?
If you can imagine walking in a forest of edible canopies and bushes that you could pull fruit or vegetables off, that’s precisely what food forests set out to do.
Food forests are a sustainable method of producing plant-based food while mimicking natural forests with a wide variety of trees, herbs, shrubs, and other types of plants.
Also known as “forest gardens,” food forests don’t require tilling, fertilisation, or pest control. It’s essentially a manufactured ecosystem designed to care for itself — or, at least, requires very little human care.
As part of the permaculture movement, food forestry can yield edible plants without depleting vital soil nutrients, allowing natural resources like rainfall and sunlight to promote year-round plant growth.
How to Build a Food Forest in the Winter
But why build a food forest in the winter?
Many edible plants, trees, and herbs can be bought in their “bare root” form and planted while dormant. In this form, plants can more easily adapt to colder temperatures and withstand winter weather. When temperatures rise to the mid-40s again in the springtime, plants can begin growing.
1. Choose Your Plants
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