Food Forest, what I see in my mind.

In my mind I see me transforming my forest into a wild food forest, but of "normal" veggies.

Imagine Squash plants growing up trees, (I tried this, but did not have enough good soil for them to grow in. Next year I will plan better.), carrot, potatoes, cabbages, berries, tomatoes...  Can you see it ??

Just a wild abundance of veggies doing their own thing.

This next spring will see a few different plants in the forest by me.  Worse case is a lot of happy deer.

I envision something like this as well. I love love the idea of a "wild" yet edible forest.

A few 'normal' crops will thrive in a forest garden but most won't. Our annual crops are mostly early successional stage plants, adapted to making use of short lived open spaces but then outcompeted by perennials. They only thrive because we continually reset the system by digging, ploughing and weeding. Forest gardening works mostly with perennial plants of later successional stages, making use of the growing tips of these plants to get tender vegetables.

I`m slowly making my treefield into a forager`s paradise by propagating the edible plants that thrive on neglect here (marsh woundwort, sorrel, pignut (conopodium majus). I`m also adding more fruit bushes and trees that seem to like our climate (currants, raspberries, aronia, elder, apple (pushing it a bit but so worth it!)) and am slowly making progress.

blackcurrant newly mulched with grass cuttings

I`m also going to try annuals again for the first time there, but as a larger patch, where I had to clear some ash because of dieback. I`m hoping I can get a simple `natural farming` system going but we`ll see...
I wish I knew more about fungi though, there is an orange mushroom that looks like a sort of bolete so may be edible, but I don`t dare try it without a second (preferably expert!) opinion.

'A forager's paradise' is a good description of s forest garden, and a better way of thinking about it than a conventional veg patch run wild. Your orange mushroom might be orange birch bolete, which is very nice. Does it have black flecks on the stem or can you post a picture?

Thanks Alan, I didn`t notice any brown flecks on the stems, I`ll see if I can find a photo later. The stems were a bit shorter than the photos I`ve seen of boletes

Theory says that if you leave open areas for full sun, it *may* work out. Most veggies won't grow with less than full sun. Depending on your site you may combine forest and veggies patch, be smart on the (smaller) species you leave south and west of the opening, to ensure you get south and sunset light.....

fernando ribeiro wrote:Theory says that if you leave open areas for full sun, it *may* work out. Most veggies won't grow with less than full sun. Depending on your site you may combine forest and veggies patch, be smart on the (smaller) species you leave south and west of the opening, to ensure you get south and sunset light.....

This is another of these "it depends" subjects - the amount of sun, heat and rain you get makes a lot of difference as to the amount of exposure a particular plant will withstand. What prefers full sunlight here with me in a damp and cool climate may need at least part shade somewhere where it is hot and sunny.  This is one of the reasons for our 'be nice' rule - what definitely would be a bad idea for one person could be a good idea for someone somewhere else in the world.
Some suggestions for veg that may prefer it shadier in hotter climes are lettuce, and leef beet, also some leafy brassica. Comfrey is fine in full sun here, but others on Permies need to give it shade, since it wilts in dry hot conditions. I'm finding some of my Japanese perennial vegetables are slow to grow in the shade and I'm thinking of moving my Mioga to a sunnier spot before it dies altogether!