Build a 1 Acre Food Forest - PEP BB gardening.iron.foodforest

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

Permaculture encourages us to develop low maintenance, perennially focused systems.  Food forests are a way of mimicking the diversity and density of a wild forest only with plants that generally provide food or other benefits to people.  This BB is all about growing a 1 acre food forest.



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."

Minimum requirements:
  - 1 acre of contiguous food forest
  - Plantings spaced to account for future growth.  Some open areas are fine when it's young.
  - The food forest can have some non-food forest spaces in it as long as the growing area still adds up to an acre
       - Total area can be up to 1.25 acres
       - Perhaps a living space, teaching area or playground
  - Fenced to exclude deer
  - All 7 food forest layers present
  - Full polyculture
       - Similar trees and shrubs can occasionally be near each other but there need to be more dissimilar plants in the mix
              - 5 apples in a row doesn't work
              - Apple, cherry, locust, apple, plum, mulberry, apple, chokecherry, etc is ok
       - At least 15 species of shrubs/bushes
       - At least 7 species of trees
               - Multiple stem plants that get to 12' high count as trees (serviceberries, etc)
       - At least 25 species of perennial herbaceous plants
       - At least 10 species of perennial ground cover plants
  - Paths and general access routes defined
  - At least 1 sun scoop area
  - At least 1 frost pocket
  - Doesn't include previously created food forests but can adjoin them
  - Nurture until it's "established"
        - 4 different tree species that have:
               - Grew in size by 6' from when they were planted
        - 7 different shrub species that have:
               - More than doubled in size if transplanted, or
               - Grew to 3' tall if direct seeded or stuck as cuttings
        - 1/2 of the food forest is covered by the Groundcover or Herbaceous layer crops

Provide proof of the following as pictures or video:
   - View from 4 spots (ideally each corner) of the 1 acre site staked out
   - Design artwork for the 1 acre site
   - Progress of the site at two times per year as it develops
   - Some of the trees and shrubs when planted (minimum of the 4 trees and 7 shrubs for which you will be proving establishment)
   - Trees and shrubs showing they've grown to the point of being "established"
   - 5 minute video tour of the established food forest showing:
         - Required types of plants of each food forest layer
         - Proof you met the requirements