After 13 months without income, here's how I'm building a food forest

The pandemic has left me with a lot of free time to plant my food forest... but it's left me without income to invest in plants. My state has completely botched unemployment and I've only gotten payments for 2 weeks out of the last 13 months. Determined to not let all of this free time go to waste, I've had to get creative about sourcing plant material without money.

Some of it's pretty basic, like trading stuff that I have for stuff that I don't. But then there are lesser known approaches, like getting free plants from the government to maximize my diversity.

This year I'm cultivating about an acre and a half on borrowed land, including a large annual garden and two large-ish fields that I'm starting to plant on contour with a simple DIY A-frame level... mostly with annual nitrogen fixers and calorie dense "annual" staples, which I'm starting to interplant with perennials. I actually haven't tallied it up, but between the annuals and perennials I'm probably approaching 100 species that have been acquired mostly for free, and the few things I have paid for have mostly come from clearance racks. With a few notable exceptions, I've never paid for more $5 for a tree (I have an almond that I paid $13 for, since they're not commonly available here, and a couple cold hardy olives that I paid full price for with dreams of olive oil in my future.)

Among the things I've gotten for free are:

Asparagus

Figs

Hostas

Mulberries

Apples

Mint

Oregano

Thyme

Rosemary

Chives

Peaches

Figs

Plums

Apricots

American Persimmon

Artichokes

Rhubarb

Native irises

Wild Chamomile

Sumac

Walnuts

Pomegranates

Beach Plums

Achira

Runner Beans

Alder

Black Locust

Pineapple Guava

Cranberry

Lingonberry

Wapato

Camas

Balsamroot

Yampah

Oca

Hazelnut

Bunching Onions

Haskaps

Goumi

Quince

and Sweet Birch

There are probably others that I'm forgetting, and that list does not even include the annuals that I'm grateful to have received seed for.

I've tried to compile a more or less exhaustive list of the ways I've been able to get free plants in the following video, though I'm sure I forgot a few.



Do you have any other techniques that you use to get free plants (so I can continue to grow my collection)? Are any of these new-to-you techniques that you plant to take advantage of?

(I didn’t watch the video) One technique is if you see a plant you want to propagate on public land you can get seeds from it, or cuttings. Putting a baggie off soil around a branch will cause it to root then you come along and cut the branch off when it’s ready and plant it. Some plants have aggressive rhizomes that you can dig up and plant without hurting the population (sunchokes, stinging nettle, etc). Some plants people don’t want on there property and might even pay you to dig them up to get rid of them (mulberry, autumn olive, Japanese quince) Anything in the bramble family can be easily propagated by weighing a branch down to the ground until it roots, then you cut that branch off and got yourself a ‘clone’ off that plant.