Forest Gardening in Weird Climates

  The climate in my area (Los Angeles) is somewhat odd - dry years are desert-like, average years are Mediterranean, and wet years are almost tropical. What are the best forest garden assemblies for such a situation?

Hi Kirk,

This may be a bit late for you, but I've just finished a series of posts on developing a permaculture plant palette for Mediterranean climates:

Part one can be found here:

Developing a Permaculture Plant Palette for Mediterranean climates

I hope that it it is helpful.

I would really love to hear how you've been going too.  I have a special interest in permaculture in Mediterranean climates.

Harry

Hurray! A reply! Thanks for the info. I have just undertaken a project at a school garden, which involves some extra challenges; namely, it receives an enormous amount of sunlight and bakes to a crisp in the summer. Because of that, I have acquired some plants more desert adapted than mediterranean, such as mesquite, which will hopefully provide a light shade in which more delicate plants can grow well. I also hear that mesquite can have a fifty foot taproot, which would bring up a lot of nutrients as well as water. 

Great idea Kirk,

Julie Firth in Geraldton, Western Australia recommends this approach too.  She has found that using, for example, Acacia aneura, a nitrogen fixer of desert provenance has shown much greater success in the slightly less that desert-like Geraldton.  I think that this approach will become increasingly important in the face of climate change.

I hope to keep up with your project.  Will you be documenting it on your blog?  I've subscribed to it now in any case.

I'd like to be able to use mesquite here in WA (Western Australia, not Washington but it has a tendency to rampancy here and is outlawed.

May your polyculture be overyielding,

Harry

I too live in a Mediterranean area (Southern California)...I very much enjoyed the blog... I didn't see what plant pallet you have developed, I would love to know what works for your location...

Make sure to check out these folks for low desert plant seeds

http://www.nativeseeds.org/