Hey guys, I wanted to write a bit about 'stage 2' (the second year) of the food forest establishment. I had a huge amount of lantana at around 3 metres high that had been undisturbed for decades. I cleared the lantana and build a path through the area (around half an
acre) and then planted a few
fruit trees.
Nature being the incredible healer that it is, sprouted many 'weeds' to protect the bare earth and I was at the time overwhelmed by all the weeds everywhere. Throughout the first year I kept planting fruit trees and now have perhaps 50 different varieties all growing well.
Now it is the second year and I realise that the weeds are there to help us, simply chop and drop every 6 months or so and when you are ready to plant, choose the size of ground you need (ie: 1 metre x 2 metres) and pull out weeds by the roots in that area and turn soil if needed. Then plant in that section and
mulch. Work your way around the entire food forest like this.
I have done many different experiments to see what works best.
For example:
I have taken down a number of large camfer laurels and had a giant ice cream bean come down in the wind. I used the branches of the Camfer to build a
trellis entrance tunnel which now supports beans and grape vines.
I used the ice cream bean leaves,
seed pods and branches to fill in a large hole which I then covered in cow manure and then replaced the soil on top and planted 40 pepper seedlings on top. These seedlings are now doing great! I also have a little yacon garden, a rock melon garden, etc.. all these micro gardens within the food forest. By planting a few things together I have found it is easier to take care of that section until it gets established.
So if your soil is good enough that weeds pop up in your cleared food forest space - count yourself lucky! The weeds are there to continue repairing the soil and to protect it until you are ready to plant.
And... don't think a food forest is just about fruit trees! Plant pepper gardens, plant root veggie gardens (ie: yacon), have sweet potato and pumpkin and other runners going through the forest. Plant beans climbing up trellises, throw down edible green manure seeds before a big rain, anything that can go in the veggie garden can go in the food forest!
Another thing I wanted to mention is paths... putting paths through the food forest is a very worthwhile activity! Once we put in more than just the main path we felt the whole area opened up to us and we were able to reach more areas of the food forest and started planting a whole lot more.
How we built the paths:
1. Chopped down large camfer laurels that were blocking sun in the food forest and placed the logs where we wanted the paths to be.
2. We dug up the path slightly to try to level out the path a bit so it was more flat
3. We put down
cardboard and then tea tree mulch (which breaks down super slowly).
Now we are finding that the tea tree mulch is attracting bandacoots and other animals who are digging for insects which is great as it keeps them from digging up the fruit trees!
