Build a 1/4th Acre Food Forest - PEP BB gardening.wood.foodforest

This is a badge bit (BB) that is part of the PEP curriculum. Completing this BB is part of getting the wood badge in Gardening.

This BB is all about growing a 1/4th acre food forest.


(source)

Some possibly helpful books to read include:
    - Edible Forest Gardens
    - Gaia's Garden
    - Forest Gardening in Practice

Here are a few potentially useful articles:
    - Create a Food Forest - A Step by Step Guide
    - How to Plant a Food Forest This Winter
    - Lessons From an Urban Back Yard Food Forest Experiment

Here are some potentially useful threads:
    - Let's Start a Food Forest
    - Let's Talk About Food Forest Layers
    - 3 Different Types of Food Forests for Your Homestead

Additional Resources:
    - Plants for a Future Database
    - Natural Capital Plant Database

Here are a couple inspirational videos of productive 1/4th acre food forests:

This 1/4 Acre Food Forest Used to Be a Sand Box



From the video description:
"We are on a role with winning food forests, organic gardens & groves to visit during our tour through Pensacola, FL. "

Amazing 1/4 Acre Small Scale Temperate Climate Permaculture Food Forest



From the video description:
"John from http://www.growingyourgreens.com/  shares with you an amazing temperate climate permaculture food forest near Salt Lake City Utah that comes back to life every spring season! In this episode, you will learn how to plan and plant out a permaculture food forest in your front yard so that it comes back every year without you having to do that much work."


In addition, all the perennials you start from seed must be grown outside and they can't be transplanted. While the wood badge for gardening requires all inputs be from within 500 feet the exception is for seeds. So go a head and find those amazing perennials that will boost your homestead!

Also, remember that to meet the requirements of the wood badge for gardening all systems are polyculture systems.

Tip: When working on this BB think about the other requirements for the wood badge for gardening and see if you can meet multiple requirements at once. You need to grow, harvest and preserve 1,000,000 calories from at least 30 species. So while direct seeding your perennials picking ones that either support your food crops or ones that are food crops themselves is a great way to move forward towards your straw badge for gardening.

How to Certify That Your BB is Completed

   - stake out the 1/4th acre site and post a before picture of the site
   - observe the area and write at least three paragraphs of observations
   - analyze the area and write at least three paragraphs of analysis
   - create a design for the 1/4th acre site
   - post a plan for how your 1/4th acre food forest will be implemented over time
   - post progress pictures of the 1/4th acre food forest being developed over time
   - post a 2-minute video tour of the mature food forest