Hi all! I'm going to be living with my parents for a few years to save money while attending college. I want to garden during that time- they have an entire acre of yard to play with!- but I don't want to leave them with a lot of work or an unsightly mess a few years down the line. I was thinking that a forest garden would be a good fit for this. They've given me the go-ahead to plant whatever I like in the back yard, but my preference is for plants that are unlikely to poison dogs, children, or livestock. We're in the Piedmont district of New Jersey, hardiness zone 7a, and I hope to use mostly native plants (though I'm willing to use non-native alternatives for plants that are no longer able to survive long here- chestnuts, for example)
I know that I'm not going to get much return from a forest garden in just a few years. Gardening is fun- the food at the end is just a bonus. Planting some trees and long-lived or self-seeding perennials will still benefit me in the long run, but I'm more interested in investing in the land than seeing the returns.
So far, I'm thinking I want a couple of chestnut trees. I'll build up guilds of shorter, shade tolerant trees around them, and plant some nitrogen fixers to keep them happy. New Jersey Tea and American Groundnut both look interesting to me!
What are your thoughts? If you were building a "set it and forget it" garden, what would you prioritize?
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