Offsite forest garden

Good afternoon folks. I have 25 heavily wooded acres with a cabin and a seasonal creek that we use as our little getaway from the real world and will be an eventual place we will move to 10+ years from now. There is no on grid electricity, there is no well, there is no municipal water. For the time being I would like to start a food forest as soon as possible so that this can be established by the time we move there. We are only there once a month at best, so this would be like permaculture zone 6 or even 7, and I am trying to figure out if this is feasible.

First thing I would like to do is start a food hedge creating a perimeter around the cabin that will be used as a form of fencing just for our dogs in a zone 1 yard area immediately around the cabin. I am very experienced with fencing to keep out wildlife so I am feeling pretty good about being able to keep the deer away while things get established, hogs we will see. My main concern is not being there to babysit and water the young plants, and only being able to be there once a month at best.

This will almost have to be set it and forget it zero maintenance kind of thing, and let nature do what nature does. Am I setting myself up for failure?


This is USDA zone 7. I am including a contour map of the property (edited to add: contour lines are on 10' spacing), and a satellite view of the property. Each box is a 5 acre parcel and we have bought it in chunks over time. I shaded out what we do not own. you can see that it is sloped in different directions. There is a 865' (above sea level) ridgeline going through the middle of the map, property to the east slopes down 170' in elevation to a full time flowing creek/small river that is about 100' off our eastern property line. West of the ridgeline it slopes down 80' in elevation to a valley where the cabin sits next to a small seasonal creek before the property slopes back upward another 45' in elevation at our west property line.

Best for "set it & forget it" is native plants. They'll largely do fine on their own. I don't know if you're in Kentucky-Tennessee, or the Ozarks, so:

Kentucky-Tennessee:
--Beautyberry
--Serviceberry
--Sourwood
--Honey Locust
--Blackhaw Viburnum
--Papaw
--Spicebush Laurel
--Persimmon
--Water Lily
--Indian Potato (Hopniss, Groundnut, etc)

Ozarks:
--Osage Orange
--Gooseberry
--Groundplum

Both:
--Black Raspberry
--Oaks
--Maple
--Currants (though, check state laws on legality first)
--Wintergreen
--Eastern Red Cedar
--Wild Kidney Bean
--Different mint species
--Different plum species
--Bergamot
--Cherries
--Ginger

That should give you somewhere to start researching, I hope.

Once-a-month maintenance and watering should be enough to keep the plants alive unless there's extreme heat and drought. Especially if you've fenced out wildlife in advance.
Good luck!