No fence food forest

Is there such a thing? I'd love to grow more edible plants on my property but without more fencing I'm concerned wildlife will eat most of it. Id like to do perennial kale, sorel and other perennial veggies, herbs, mushrooms, fruit bushes and trees etc..

Sure, but it depends...

How bad is your wildlife pressure and what is it?  The answer for moose is very different than mice.

You can just plant an overabundance and share. You can encourage predator habitat (not advised if you have chickens). You can plant protective border plants, either spiky or scent based. You can do all kind of scarecrow tactics depending on the threat. You can be the predator and hunt/trap them.

But come a dry spell and those animals will do just about ANYTHING to get to the best food around.  

+1 for hunting/trapping.  Just about any critter goes well with dumplings!

While I dont know if there is a technical term for it,  that's what I'm currently working on! I dont think keeping the wildlife out is ideal, instead I'm attempting to have more food than the wildlife can reasonably eat, produced all year round. The expectation is that having lots of wildlife eating the berries and such will attract predators that will keep the populations of 'pest' critters in check.

I also will have a veggie garden that will likely be fenced in so I can have a guarenteed food crop.

In short, I hope that it works, and I'll find out over the next few years!

A good dog will run off critters as well.

Gray Henon wrote:A good dog will run off critters as well.

Dog for the bigger ones, cat for the smaller. Bases covered.

There are a lot of things you can grow that deer might rather avoid.  Personally I have many herbs (oregano, spearmint, peppermint, sage, tarragon, chives, lavender), black currants, rhubarb and horseradish outside my deer fences.  The deer do nibble a horseradish leaf or two but the plants do just fine.  I've heard from some people that they won't bother squash and there are likely others (onions?) that they won't bother.

R Scott wrote:Sure, but it depends...

How bad is your wildlife pressure and what is it?  The answer for moose is very different than mice.

You can just plant an overabundance and share. You can encourage predator habitat (not advised if you have chickens). You can plant protective border plants, either spiky or scent based. You can do all kind of scarecrow tactics depending on the threat. You can be the predator and hunt/trap them.

But come a dry spell and those animals will do just about ANYTHING to get to the best food around.  

I live in a rural subdivision of five too ten acre parcels. Not all parcels have people living there.There are very few deer but there are some. There are too many racoons and snapping turtles and an occasional coyote ( although being in the forest I want to say all coyote damage has been loose dog's as all they yote tips sound miles away in the valley where there is pasture) There are lots of non predators like wild rabbits, squirrels, birds etc that I don't really mind sharing with if I can figure out what and how to plant an abundance.

Rj Howell wrote:

Gray Henon wrote:A good dog will run off critters as well.

Dog for the bigger ones, cat for the smaller. Bases covered.

There are too many t loose dog's to let my dogs loose without adequately fencing my lot for my dogs. I have a couple our/Shepherd mixes and three cats.

Gail Jardin wrote:

R Scott wrote:Sure, but it depends...

How bad is your wildlife pressure and what is it?  The answer for moose is very different than mice.

You can just plant an overabundance and share. You can encourage predator habitat (not advised if you have chickens). You can plant protective border plants, either spiky or scent based. You can do all kind of scarecrow tactics depending on the threat. You can be the predator and hunt/trap them.

But come a dry spell and those animals will do just about ANYTHING to get to the best food around.  

I live in a rural subdivision of five too ten acre parcels. Not all parcels have people living there.There are very few deer but there are some. There are too many racoons and snapping turtles and an occasional coyote ( although being in the forest I want to say all coyote damage has been loose dog's as all they yote tips sound miles away in the valley where there is pasture) There are lots of non predators like wild rabbits, squirrels, birds etc that I don't really mind sharing with if I can figure out what and how to plant an abundance.

Fried snapping turtle is a fine meal!  

So far I have not found anything that likes rosemary.

You might try making a border like a circle and plant your food plants inside that circle. Then plant with other smelly plants between the rosemary.  

In about three years if you plant the rosemary close enough you will have a solid border protection for your food plants.  

Before the rosemary gets too big make a place for a gate so you can get in.