Chuck, I completely agree! My primary residence is 2 stories of 2200 sq ft on 0.34 acres; zoned R-1. We’ve had a common garden consisting of raised beds and a tilled plot since our second year here.
I’ve learned much since, and this year we are no-till planting and we’re using the “dead space” of our yard to begin a mini food forest. It will lack the true canopy trees, and realistically it will be 5 years before it will be producing significantly with a lot of work on the front end. The goal is high production with minimal effort once established. This should be accomplished by a balanced compliment of plants throughout the tiers, which should then only require a few weeks of maintenance with most time spent enjoying the harvest.
I spent the last several months working on soil conditioning and my plans were derailed slightly when I adopted some orphaned blueberry bushes. Despite the derailment the objective remains.
If anyone has experience or insights on developing a food forest on ~1/10th of an acre please contact me!
