How to Start a Food Forest the Easy Way
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- Опубликовано: 25 июл 2023
- You don't need to do a lot of planning to start a food forest. Plant like nature does, and get growing today!
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Starting a food forest can be complicated - or it can be simple. I recommend planting a food forest by starting a ton of plants from cuttings and seeds, and then planting all over, selecting out what works and chopping down what fails. By progressively thinning and creating islands of fertility (i.e. plant guilds), you can build a lot of biomass quickly and get your food forest growing fast. 
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I would LOVE to do this to our backyard!!! Unfortunately, my husband has a sick addiction to grass. However, every year my vegetable garden some how gets larger and larger. (Evil laugh and smirk😏)
Think of your yard as your bank account.. It should be half yours as someday you may need to draw of of it to survive..
Also remember pretty is as pretty does.. Just trying to help.
I have the same thing going on with my garden. My garden kept growing until my husband put a fence around it. He didn't want me to get chickens and now we have nine. He finally gave in and built the chicken palace and now he likes to go out every evening to "put them to bed". He picks up every one and talks to them and puts them on the roost for the night. I think the fence around the garden will be coming down soon.
@@nancyseery2213 Yay! I'm happy for you! This brings me hope!
@@sunshinedayz2172 I agree. Hopefully, he'll get on board with that idea.
This is a liberating point of view. I think that very thing has kept me from growing lots of things for lots of years. Nowadays it’s “Let’s just see what happens” and understanding it isn’t going to look like Charles Dowding and many others I do admire but cannot emulate. More afraid of not trying than failing these days. RUclips is great for inspiration (selected channels, anyway) but at some point you just have to go outside and do it.
Analysis paralysis. We all get that way.
100% couldn't agree more, the best thing is to do something and learn from/ respond to the results and just keep going... sometimes we make a rod for our own back by worrying if whether or not we are doing things rhe 'right' way....
I needed David the Good to get in my face and tell me the hard words: it doesn't need to be perfect the first time. Thanks!😆
I wasted the first 2 years at our first homestead planning, and carefully executing the plans and setting up food zones and reedbeds and then just having nature replace everything with what it thought should have been there in the first place. So true. Understated
Amen to that
Thank you for saying this ! I started my food forest 3 months ago - it’s a wild mess ! My husband asked what the heck I’m doing out there ! You’ve given me the inspiration to continue - I have a vision no one can see but me ! Thank you !
❤💚🤍💜
I read that they have discovered that most of the Amazon Rainforest was planted. They have discovered roads and cities and say millions of people lived there. They had to feed themselves.
Thank you for this. I am a senior starting a food forest in a neighbourhood of manicured sprayed lawns. I started three years ago and almost gave up this year. The pointing and whispers hurt and I feel like the crazy lady. You made me feel better. I will continue planting, chopping and dropping and stop worrying about resale value of my property. Thank you.
I'm finding that a cleanly cut border with a ring of mulch can set things off nicely. Signage say from the Homegrown National Park (Douglas Tallamy) can make your garden educational.
Keep at it:)
keep up the great work! they'll be coming to you for something to eat!
Let them point & whisper while you eat healthy, tasty food!
Once it establishes, it's a huge asset! It's just a bit unsightly for the first few years. 😅 It's a process, right?!
I go out to the yard, dig a hole and bury kitchen scraps including seeds. I have plants growing that sometimes get moved. I love this, so much less stressful! Thanks for your encouragement of doing it nature's way!
😂❤me2! Did you know sweet potato vine can live for months in >110* heat in the compost pile? We eat the leaves and toss the vine (after the pets are done playing with the "strings")!
David The Goods primary job on RUclips is to keep us all out of analysis paralysis lol.
I want to add that the benefit of having animals makes the haphazard style all the more appealing. Animals will eat so much of what we think are garbage and an escaped goat has a smaller chance of demolishing an orchard if everything is camouflaged like this. I have started planting sunchokes near trees for just this reason.
Amen 100%
Up here in the Northeast, I use sunchokes to keep the deer away from the trees!
@@trumpetingangel that's awesome!!!! I think they're so yummy the goats and deer don't even look up at the tree a lot of times.
What on earth do you do with them? Those things are totally inedible, hahaha
@ripbbl5053 I wouldn't eat them unless in dire circumstances. However, they can be fed to chickens and pigs cooked and probably most animals. My goats love the stalks too. I could even see storing them as a type of hay possibly.
Love the very basic model that could be applied to any situation. I'm a retired biologist, and I can tell that you are 100% right that nature works in a similar way.
Also, I like your analogy of building islands and expanding, connecting to other islands. Hey, they may become continents 😅 You may call that "plate tectonics gardening" 😂😅😊
Too funny!!!😂
He's right on target that most other channels make things so complicated that it discourages folks from doing it at all.
Especially true 'biochar' production. I simply build burn pile for 4 to 6 months of tree pruning, etc., burn it down and quench it as soon as *most* of the material is charcoal. (a few stubborn big chunks can be put aside for next burn, you want to minimize gray ash to max char)
The only complication is to build the pile sort of like a teepee, taller than wide such that it requires minimal hot raking and burns fast hot and clean, minimal smoke. About 1hr is all it takes for a 10ft tall by 8ft or so wide dense pile, not mandatory just much more efficient than a random pile. It also takes small footprint in my backyard while it's accumulating this way. I get a couple heaping wheelbarrows of charcoal, crush it up as much as you bother then add to compost piles to "charge" it.
Scam with that telegram david
@Mrbfgray Also, Some of those stubborn chunks are great to put along edges of paths or beds. Once they are char in the outside, they last forever since the insects won't attack them as bad as "fresh" wood...
@ss-kz9ee Thank you! This is the third I get on my comments. I have reported it, and they took it out. 😀
A couple years ago my peach tree died! It was incredibly sad for me but I found one peach tree that was coming up near it! I was so happy to see that one tree come up! The next year I now have 6 and I am waiting to see what is going to stay! Because God knows so much more than we do! You are right about the scarcity mentality being wrong! Our daddy knows what is good for us and he gives and keeps giving!
I've been so hung up by perfectionism in the garden that it was killing me. Eventually I just gave up waiting for everything to be just right and just went out and did the best I could with what I had. Considering my physical limitations there were a lot of things like David talked about in this video. Guess what! We had a good crop. After all, it's not about me. God gave the increase. Let Him do the master planning.
@@barbs-q AMEN, my Sister!!
Wowowowow!! And This is how the best garden of Edens are created… man made ones of course ❤❤❤ what a gorgeous paradise you’ve created here @davidthegood!!
So true! I am amazed at how abundantly He provides for us. We just make things complicated.
Amen.😉
I quit mowing my acre the day I moved here. What Mom Nature did was amazing. Just get out of the way and leave it alone. About a month later, start planting fruit and nut shrubs and trees. Make guilds with a small tree then around it some small shrubs. Just go for it. Plant some garden vegetables. As David says, it's not complicated. Just start. Evolve. Flow. Enjoy. Empower!
I left an oak tree stump in the ground to rot and got another oak tree grow because of it. Five years later and the new tree is looking great.
The root mass may never die. Some call it a clone tree however it seems like the same tree to me:]
From now on, whenever somebody asks me what guerilla gardening is, I'm just going to say "gardening with a machete"
Yeaaaah… my toxic trait is planting the seed from every mango I eat… so I have 373848573727485 mango trees and I still have to buy mangos because none of the ones I planted are fruiting yet..😆
But YES, I agree with your overall point and am encouraged that my mess of mixed up plants isn’t so bad after all.
😅
That's a lot of mango trees😅
😂
I don't like mangos but that didn't mean my yard didn't need a tree however the seed rotted before it sprouted😢
You aren’t supposed to let the mango tree flower for the first few years because it’ll never have a full harvest if you let it flower early.
I think it takes time to appreciate the “mess”. On the cover it looks like chaos, but I think after you’ve actually tried your hand at gardening you can really start to appreciate this system. Love what you’re doing thanks again
The work-to-yeild ratio is incomparable.
I love the common sense in this video, making things so practical. Thank you for making it simple for those of us who like to complicate things :) the most robust veggies in my garden are the ones that just spontaneously grow out of the compost pile
I love my garden now that I've switched to GRG. I direct seed a lot of it and start some seeds in pots. When i go to transplant the potted ones I just wander around in the garden until I see an empty spot and that's where I plant. All of the plants are growing and producing better than I've ever grown. TY, TY, TY for providing this great information.
FANTASTIC IDEA!!!!!! My husband won't like the idea of me ruining the grass but he'll be happy when he gets fed, lol!
I needed to hear this. It’s so easy to get overwhelmed. I’m going to go throw some sticks and grass clippings around some trees now.
I've tried the graph paper method and spent hours planning everything out. It works for a few months and then something dies and something else takes over. I don't bother anymore. It's more fun and I learn more without the plan plus it's way less frustrating
LOL Exactly! The local police showed up at our new house last summer to give us a wellness check because I decided the lawn needed to go to seed and to produce more straw debris to build up soil on clay and rock ledge. Then in the fall I allowed oak leaf litter and branches to remain on the lawn. Later I put down cardboard and compost & mulch islands and planted zone 4-compatible edible landscaping. We are in zone 6 ( now 7) but I want everything to survive a polar vortex anomaly.
Previously the lawn was managed by a poison & chemical fertilizer delivery service. There were no insects or birds. This spring, robins showed up. Hoping we might see fireflies this June …
My most recent gardening experience began when my only resources were existing weeds, overgrown grasses in a field, and time. So I used what I had for ground mulch and filler for pots, nurtured the volunteers and planted seeds and grocery leftovers. Looking back now, it seems intuitive. Thanks for sharing this perspective.
You're a great inspiring teacher, David. Love your food forest videos.
You encouraged me to get started on my food forest. I went and started on my pineapple Guava in the front yard. I removed all the grass suffocating it. Then chopped and dropped some weeds from an unkept area of my yard. I also started clearing the ground in my backyard to start throwing out a seed mix. I already have figs from cuttings in containers, Cassava from a friend, Avocado from the store, and moringa a grew from seed. I bought a ton of cover crop seeds a while back. It's like I've been waiting for this video to inspire me. From one David to another. Thx.
Rock on.
I am my grandmothers granddaughter. She raised me up in the garden. Literally, i was crawling around while she worked then i grew to help her. I loved it. It was like what you are doing at your place. Well i thought i wanted to grow up and have a very planned garden in my front yard and my garden hidden in the back yard. All totally organized and planned, planned, planned. Well it has taken me years to come back full circle to my grandma and her way of doing things. It makes me so proud to know how wise and smart she was. She raised and fed a huge family and had a small market garden doing things her way. Thank you David and family to help me come back around.
Thank you for sharing that sweet and touching memorial on your grandma and how you grew up well because of it.
@@donnavorce8856 Thank you. She meant so much to me as well to my own children. She saved my life again and again. One of my son's paid her the ultimate honor, he named one of his daughters after her. It's an old and beautiful Spanish name, Vitalia and she is quite proud of her name. We all are.
@@diannevaldez8670 Hi Dianne, My grandma instilled a love of gardens into me. If she had flowers she always picked a bunch for me to take home. I had my first garden at age 5 and have done ever since. It's lovely that so many others had good grandmas! xo, Donna
@@donnavorce8856 Thank God for grandma's. I'm glad yours was an exceptional woman as well.
That is really beautiful.
Hey David,
I'm REALLY LIKING
the way you're talking everybody into accepting what neighbors call my gardening style!
They usually just call it "Messy."
Like you, I call it NATURAL !
Keep it up!! 👍
Using God's planting methods - who can argue with that?
@trumpetingangel
Right!
But people do.
I'm pretty sure that's the entire basis of the HOA organizations - complaining!!
Generally, the masses don't like yards that AREN'T nice & tidy.
And my yard is NOT nice & tidy!!
Especially THIS year!!
For instance,
I let things grow that have self seeded here, things like Wild Lettuce,
which is a medicinal plant used for pain.
And since I have rheumatoid arthritis,
this is a plant I use!
The thing is,
it's not very pretty.
It looks like a spindly,
5 foot tall, withering dandelion!
And there's not really a good flower show from it either!
It's definitely a plant that normally gets called a weed & pulled up A.S.A.P. !
I wonder what the neighbors will think of my goldenrod island once it starts taking off & blowing seeds into their perfect lawns!! 🤭
I also had 4 truckloads of woodchips dropped right next to the street this last Winter.
(COUNT 'EM - FOUR!!!)
They take up an area of about
40 feet long & 6 feet high along the street edge of my property!!
And right now,
those chips are
anything BUT decorative!
I'm using them to rebuild top soil that has washed away over the past decade.
(I was busy not gardening bcuz of the R.A. for about the past 14 years.
And most all my top soil went for a walk during that time!)
And now, since I'm the only one that's moving all these chips,
well, of coarse,
we STILL have a good bit of the 4 woodchip mountains looming up over the horizon over there!
And they are often spilling out on to the street! (SOOO NOT tidy at all !!)
I kinda thought I might have more of the chips moved by now = 6 months later, but I've only moved about ⅓ of them.
Still, I think that's a pretty good amount considering I have RA damage in both my hands AND both my elbows! Shoveling chips is a good way to rebuild my muscles! (My muscles also went for a walk during my gardening hiatus!)
Hey - Wouldn't that be
HANDY (pun intended!)
if my old muscles found
my old topsoil,
and carried it all back here for me!
Pffffthhh!! 👅💦
(IF ONLY!!! 😆)
So, THANK GOODNESS
I don't live in an HOA!!
Who would UNDOUBTEDLY
be ticketing me WEEKLY
for all these kinds of "infractions" !!!
Oh, and speaking of infractions!
There's my grass!
It's "in-fractioning" all over the place!
But it SURE LOOKS GOOD doing it!!!
The only grass areas we have left are in the wide pathways around the "island planting beds", just like David is showing in his yard!
The thing is,
we don't mow our grass anymore!
Like, EVER!!
Right now,
here in July,
my grass is just over 6 inches tall !
Our Texas weather is super hot & dry.
(averaging 106°f daily, in the SHADE!
And nights around 87°-89°.)
So yeah, it's H.O.T. !!
But my grass (St. Augustine) is the only grass in the neighborhood that is green & lush.
It has a nice sway in the breeze too!!
And it's super soft to walk on!
I mean, it's actually BEAUTIFUL now!!!
Most all the grass is shaded from the big trees too. So THAT helps!
PLUS - I don't water it!!
Everyone else's boring grass lawns, which are in full blazing hot sun,
have entered into what we call
Summer Dormancy.
Because it's just too hot to keep it green!
AND - they all mow it within an inch of its life!! 🤦🏼♀️
WHY PEOPLE???
WHY!!!
I just don't get the appeal of
mowing it SO short!!!
And since we're in our 3rd year of drought (a normal Texas thing some years, not all, but some.)
along with all those hoards of millions of humans who moved into our area these past few years, there really isn't enough water to keep those
"British Style Lawns" green,
AND pipe water to the millions of humans too!
It's definitely time to choose WHO gets the water - the grass, or the humans!
Water is a finite element over here.
We only have ONE lake to divide the water between ALL the humans.
My small town is semi-close to Austin, so you may have heard about ALL the millions who recently moved here...
So we now have to share our water source with them. (she said grudgingly)
It's all a bit crazy to me!
We might have the space for more houses.
But we definitely DON'T HAVE enough water to support all those families!
It seems odd to me that city planners don't take that into consideration and limit the # of people per area according to how much water is available...
Our water company just issued a new restriction on limiting the number of gallons per household!
Which I think is fantastic!!
It's about time too!
There are so many people who really haven't given the water situation a 2nd thought.
...smh...
AND GET THIS-
THEY'RE STILL BUILDING MORE HOUSES, MORE NEIGHBORHOODS, CUTTING ALL THE OLD OAKS DOWN TO BUILD THESE DEVELOPMENTS!! ARRRGGGG!!!
I just can't even LOOK at it !
It's a bit of a thorn in my side.
But that's not the subject right now.
Once again, I've jumped the tracks!
I'll get back to the point -
I suppose the point is to create whatever kind of food forest we can,
in the spaces we that we have.
(AND over here, limit our water usage.)
I'm 100% HERE for it!!
It may look like ugly gardening to the neighbors,
but Mother Nature is smiling down upon those of us willing to garden messy!!
And it WORKS so much better
than the type A gardening ways!
I'm extremely happy this idea is catching on!
Thanks for spreading the word David!!
🌱🌼🌳🌵🌸🌱☘️🌵🌻🌳🪻🍀🌳🏵🌿
Natural is where it is at! My HOA said I needed to attend to the landscape in my front yard. So I told them I purposely plant things that provides for pollinators as well as a more "natural design" ... emphasizing that my preference is NOT a manicured appearance. That instantly got them off my back. And it has never been an issue since!!
@@Katydidit WOW!
I guess you told THEM!!
Awesome!! 👍
Thank you so much for this video. I've been so overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information around growing a food forest. Everyone always starts by suggesting I create an elaborate plan, which feels like it requires knowledge that I don't yet have.
All I want to do is grow a bunch of stuff all over the place--some of it edible. And that's exactly what this video demonstrates.
Yep. You can totally do it.
@@davidthegood I am a type A personality and I can't start any kind of project without a plan. I think for me, I would have to have two areas - a mini cultivated garden close to the house for cooking veggies and whatnot and a wilder food forest somewhere else on the property. That way I have one area that I can "guarantee" a level of practical production and then an area that I can experiment in.
This is just what I needed to hear. I've recently moved to Mexico from Canada - a VERY different climate - and no resources for learning how to garden in our unique area. Now instead of being paralyzed with worry about doing it "right" I can see it's just a great adventure and have fun....Thanks!
I have a regular garden, not anything close to permaculture, however I rarely use synthetic chemicals, and I take time with spring clean up to benefit the habitat. I have gotten so many free trees and shrubs, I’ve never planted blackberries and yet I have tons of blackberries now, this week I discovered we have a mulberry tree which must have been planted by birds. It’s amazing what the environment gives you when you treat it right!
I live on my own, 70 years young and moved to the country 2 years ago. I have been planting islands using this method and it's a great way to having a permaculture garden. In the front garden I pretty it up by surrounding the circles of a shrub and other plants with bush rock and surround shrub with wood chips. As the circles get bigger I move the bush rocks further from the plants. Cheers to all gardeners out there.😊🌿
Good work, Janet.
What's a bush rock?
The island idea is a great way to turn an area with a long term plan into bite sized sections to feel accomplishments and stay motivated. Just plant stuff!
...I finally beat the squirrels to the wild beaked hazelnuts this year. Hoping to have a bunch of seedlings to plant back out with the parents next year
I did the "13 trucks of mulch all at once" for the back yard but I am doing this exact Island system for my front yard lol! The idea is the neighbors won't notice it become a food forest until it's far too late.
It's like playing tic-tac-toe. Try to hide your moves until it's too late.
lol. Yeah. Building a fence was expensive and required a permit. I quit mowing and nature built me a windbreak privacy row that's so nature friendly, gives shade, cover, habitat, privacy. AND I DON'T HAVE TO REPAIR IT OR PAINT IT. he he ha ha.
your garden looks like a young jurrasic park @@davidthegood
I always marvelled about how different stuff just grows together in a forest. I started to think this way last year with my perennial flowers. I just threw seed. But this year I started thinking outside the box for my vegetables. I was wondering why I couldn't plant vegetables/herbs in different spots throughout my backyard, not just in my patch. And I realized there was no reason why I couldn't. So that's what I'm going to do. I had never heard the phrase 'food forest' but I guess that's what I'm doing. I never angst about stuff dying; I just figure I'll try again next year. I'm 72, so no time to waste!
Wow… an hour ago I just thought, forget it, I’ll never be able to figure this out to make it good enough. And… I have a LOT of trees I already planted. I can’t give up! You’re right!
You can do it!
My husband while mowing cut the THISTLE (PLUME) (ASTERACEAE) I been watching it, as I learn to forage in my backyard. 😮. I already found Lambs quarter, Jewelweed & Goldenrod.
I've been harvesting curly dock seed, plantain seed(psyllium husk), sheep sorrel seed, etc.
Just strained off a goldenrod tincture for fall allergies.
I harvested and dried a bunch last year. Mimosa was tunctured last month. God provides❤
@@dfreak01Curly dock root is great as a spring tonic/root beer
My dumb nephew cut a baby persimmon tree and killed a king snake because he was scared. I can`t deal with ignorance. He`s almost 40 and living in rural Louisiana. His hobbies are....movies...gaming. No interest an anything else. I asked him if he wanted a fruit tree. He said they attract bugs. If there was 60 pounds of gold buried 3 feet under he`d disagree about digging it up. He says he "has no time" to plant a garden. Then he decided to try after I explained how one day he just might NEED to have food growing...in pots....in summer...and he and his lazy wife couldn`t keep 10 pots watered. He has a massive yard with rich soil but refused to plant in the ground because he thinks a garden has to look exactly like a postcard. I grew one there 4 years ago by simply sticking seeds in the lawn and mulching the grass and I stuck two poles in the ground, stretched twine between them, and grew green beans and cucumbers, but he`s too fancy to do it the EASY, QUICK, logical way. People might "see" it or something. They finally got two blueberry plants in huge pots....and killed them both by June. If I would have known they were too lazy to water them I`d have took cuttings before they died.
I certainly agree about using seeds whenever possible. And when budget allows, I enjoy buying one good mother plant and propagating it.
I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I do that mwahahahaha :D
Me too
Love your comment:)
I had some store bought dried beans. I sorted them and removed the wonky ones. These I tossed into the garden and tossed some mown grass on top. Today I have a half-dozen bean plants sprouting pods!
I appreciate that David can explain things in such a simple way that even my short attention monkey brain can understand.
Thanks. Inspirational and motivational.
I needed that. It's Winter here in Queensland, so it's very slow in the forest. Can't wait for the explosion in spring. I've planted a lot more trees and cant wait to fill in the 3 feet under them asap. 😊
Thank you, Daniel - God bless. I love spring too.
"GARDENING WITH MACHETES" That just sounds like a David the Good book😀
Love this "let's see what happens" approach to gardening. It's my mantra, so much fun.
I love showing people things that develop in the garden. Volunteer plants and unexpected wilds I come across while weeding. I add some compost around the new additions. I imagine The Father walking in the garden with Adam pointing out natures little secrets as they come and pass. Gives me a soothing comfort to ponder on our Creator.
"Let this mess grow." Lol.. I love it! After seeing your chop and drop method, I started it, and my plants have really benefited. Thank you for sharing your botanical knowledge!
Islands with your trees
That is what you've got
Give them all some mulch
Or some cover crops
Feed them all your weeds
Plant veggies in between
They will rely on each other
Ahaaa
Growing tall with each other
Ahaaa
Kenny and Dolly on vocals.
You are my favorite garden person on RUclips right now you and that Prigioni guy from New Jersey
I rooted 30 fig cuttings, gave a bunch away and planted the remaining 8 along my fence. I saved all the seeds from the nectarines, peaches, and apricots we ate for a summer and grew them. I gave a bunch away and the remaining 12 are planted in the yard. They were practically free to grow, so if some of them aren't good fruit, who cares. I grow peas and beans from the 1 pound packages from the grocery store. My chickens are shaded by a bird poop willow that I dug up from the garden and moved. I had 2 comfrey plants that I moved to 4 different houses. I divided them and planted them under the fruit trees. It's possible to grow a food forest for almost no money, but it takes a bit more work and time.
Hey David, thanks for this video. I have ADHD and autism. My autism causes me to be obsessed with logic, planning, and optimization, which isn't always a bad thing - but in nature, everything is optimized without Nature even trying. This love of planning combines with "ADHD paralysis" to create a circumstance in which I am overwhelmed and intimidated by this planning, and cannot even start.
I truly think that the best way to make a food forest is to just... throw a bunch of different stuff in the ground and see what works! Just heckin' do it! Just... do it! JUST DO IT!
Thank you.With your mind power, you'll start to see patterns in the chaos over time, and will tweak to make the organization emerge.
I can completely relate to that!
as the far-out Terrence McKenna says:
"Plants are the enveloping feminine matrix of control and refurbishment. Animals are something invented by plants to move seeds around; an extremely yang solution to a peculiar problem which they faced."
When you mentioned how nature uses squirrels and birds to spread her seeds this was the first thing that came to mind. XD
Awesome video, informative and deeply inspiring. thank you for sharing!
Your channel has very quickly become one of my favorites! I had someone walk through my garden last year and comment that they'd never seen a garden (mess) like mine before. They are not quite as impressed as I was with it. Not being sure where I want every thing yet, I've been planting in huge fabric containers I sew together out of weed cloth. Doing this has a allow me to create a mobile food forest of about 70 plants. Last year I planted a fig tree to go with the pear and pecan tree that was already on the property. Because of what you've shared, those trees (along with the new lemon, apple, nectarine, and cherry bush) are about to have some company. Thanks for all you do. Your channel is indeed a blessing.👼
You are my kind of gardener. Thank you.
Love this method! Learn as you go instead of making sure you are fully educated before, because you'll never feel educated enough!
Thank you for sharing this. Planting a food forest can be daunting 🙏🙏🙏
My first island garden happened because some perpetual spinach seeds somehow self-seeded in a patch of grass, and instead of pulling them out or mowing them down, I mulched around them and leaned into it being a deliberate patch. Basically said "Okay, I don't want to waste this free food - I guess this is a garden now." And then I built around it and planted other things. I have lots of little islands now and I'm constantly adding bits and pieces to them, filling in gaps, using edges. I planted pumpkins under my apple trees, partly to suppress the grass and partly because... why not fill unused spots with pumpkins while it's a work in progress?
I planted broad beans and flowers between the shrubs in my (very young) hedge because again, it's a work in progress - why not use those gaps to grow food and colour in the meantime? The wire fence provides structure for the broad beans, the flowers bring in the pollinators, the flowers and broad beans give wind and sun protection to the young shrubs, along with a constant source of chop and drop mulch. Plus I get cut flowers and a big pile of broad beans instead of no broad beans. Everybody wins.
I pruned my passionfruit vine one year and ended up with several wheelbarrow loads of pruned material. I composted it, but it was annoying and cumbersome, so the next year I had a brainwave and just arranged the vines around my trees as mulch. The following pruning session, I used the material to build up a new garden bed, covered it over with mulch, and then when it was time to plant into it, I created pockets of compost. I find this is a great way to build up garden beds without needing (expensive!) bulk soil. I no longer see big pruning jobs as chores but as a harvest in their own right, mulch for my larger trees or material to build my next new island garden. I've reframed my disdain for particular vigorous weeds in the same way - they are now "free and abundant biomass".
I almost always let volunteers do their thing, and they teach me about where they want to grow. I want to know which food plants will grow like weeds here, which can handle dry spells, which will/won't attract pests, etc. I want to fill spaces with food that will be vigorous, resilient, low-maintenance. Bonus points for multi-use plants, natives, self-seeders, perennials. High wind tolerance. Anything that the parrots aren't terribly interested in vandalising. Slow bolters and cut-and-come-again plants over those that I have to reliably succession plant (because I'm bad at that). I don't really want to waste time and energy on something that will bolt and be done if there is something similar that will chug along all season.
I also try to scatter the same types of plants around in different areas to see what they like best in my microclimate. Often plants will surprise me, thriving in spots that I thought they would struggle in, and vice versa. I've learned that where I am, I can/should plant some things earlier than recommended but other things I need to wait much later than recommended. I lean into the successes, adjust for or cull the failures, and fill in the gaps again. Each growing season is another chunk of data on who the stalwarts are going to be and who might end up in the too hard basket. I'm disappointed when things die, but every failure is a lesson and another step towards a more resilient and abundant garden overall, and I always have something waiting in the wings to fill in a gap and try again. Just get it in the ground and see if it works.
That's the way to do it.
Fantastic! Thanks for sharing ! 🙂
Wow! You are very inspirational.
Dude. I have more than an acre of bare earth that just got bulldozed which I want to turn into a food forest. People on RUclips are going to think I'm crazy when I follow your advice :) I've already dug 10 long trenches for future hugelkultur because we needed to steal dirt to level the home sight and we have more trees to clear. I'm going to put 100+ chickens on some of this bare earth over the winter while I clear for chicken fencing in the forest section of my land, so I'm hoping I have until spring to figure out what seeds to throw down. Now if I just throw down all the seeds I can get ahold of, I can blame you when it turns out ugly. Thank you!
Edit: Booneville, Arkansas zone 7b - I just bought some bulk seeds in case it starts raining again before I move my chickens there this fall.
Poultry pasture mix = 25% White Dutch Clover 20% Red Clover 15% Strawberry Clover 15% Crimson Clover 15% Buckwheat 10% Common Flax
And sheep fescue grass, cosmos, sweet william, and blanket flower for the ditch along the gravel lane.
This was both helpful and hilarious. I like the parts about gardening with a machette, hoarding trees and just jamming things in the ground. Thanks!
I feel so much better now ❤️
Thank you! This was exactly what I needed to hear. I had completely lost sight of this attitude, and now I remember how liberating it is to help things just grow all over the place!
Seriously, thank you for making this video. (I subscribed)
Welcome. Make it happen!
No matter what I do I tend to plant in islands. Can't do rows to save my soul. Each island starts with a mulched plant and a companion plant. The under story and canopy are fabricated as needed. I just prefer the aesthetics of islands and circles. Can't wait to start gardening in the tropics so I can try all the plants you grow in the south.
I kind of like the chaotic energy and who gives a blank, just get stuff growing attitude. I'll probably have a chaos jungle section just to see what nature does with a scattering of whatever seeds, and have more carefully curated sections of the property designed for a certain aesthetic, but propogated from the plants that did well in the chaos of stunning utter neglect. I like your thought process.
Another great example of why I love this channel encouraging people not to overthink it and get out and DO!
Love the mixed seed planting! IMA do that on one of my forrest mounds. Gosh, you have taught me so dang much!
This spring I threw a handful of kohl crop seeds in a raised bed. Survival of the fittest. And lots of variety in the bed
I've been rooting things for my friends
You saved me from my paralysis. Thank you sooooo much!!! So glad I happened across this. What liberation. Let the seed throw begin!!
I laid out some lentils on dirt that was pretty much hard pan about a month ago. Although germination and growth is very sparse I've done this on my old property using the first germinators as shade for the second germinators and so on and so forth. If you can manage to apply enough water I really believe you could grow soil on bare concrete using this method. I cleared a half acre yesterday and am loading it up with lentils and comfrey tonight. Its all glacial tilth so it can be good growing medium if it just gets some life in it. Its above a swamp so I irrigate with the swamp water which is full of nitrogen and iron. Planting a few hundred currants which I started from seed last year. The nitrogen fixers will hep fertilize the currants. I sell the seeds on Ebay and evidently a lot of people are thinking this way of moving away from cuttings and whole plants. Not everything can be started from seed but something like currants is like falling off a rock.
I have learned to embrace the madness🤣 I use to want everything perfect in it's place, but now my flowerbed is an herb garden all of our tree's have nitrogen fixers. Also to the people who are new like David said your gonna have losses, so plant extra & don't stress the small stuff. God has blessed us abundantly.
I needed to hear this. I’m in zone 10a and have 1.5 acres.
I started getting hung up on what to plant, but now I can breathe easy and realize that I just need to live and let be.
Thank you for the encouragement! 💚
Thank you for making this video. I have been trying to garden and create a good forest for the last 3 years and it's been a VERY slow process because I watched videos exactly like the ones you described where they make it way more scary and complicated than needed. I've bought so many books and watched so many videos and scared myself out of just diving in. This video gave me the confidence I needed to just do it and whatever happens happens.
Jump in!
Great video David! Can you please do a video on how to grow trees and bushes from cuttings? I tried to propagate Catulpa trees, raspberries, grapes, and blackberries but didn’t have much luck with any of them rooting. I tried some in water, some in soil, some with root tone etc . I eventually got growth on the tops of them but NO roots. Not sure what I am doing wrong 🤦♀️ A propagating video would be amazing!!
I will do one.
David, you have inspired me. I have watched your videos before but I still get aha moments from you. I have raspberries and blackberries, I have access to blueberry sprouts, I want loquat trees, and Mandarin orange, I am in zone 7be so I am willing to take a chance. I have cold hardy banana trees, I want lime trees too so I am going to attack my yard and go for it. I am 68 so I may not get to enjoy what I plant, but someone will! I want peach, cherry, lemons, and limes, I have elderberry and comfrey, 2 blueberry, a brown turkey fig, and crabapples. I want to get cuttings of the 100-year-old Celeste fig from my parent's homestead and a cutting of a hard pear that has no name that has been used for 100 years to make pear preserves or pear honey. I feel like I can plant a lot on my 2.5 acres! Awesome!💕💕
I feel very validated at a time when that midsummer weedy/gone-to-seed feeling is taking over. My yard looks like a white trash lazy hippie mess but life is happening indeed. It's good to be reminded the garden gets a vote too, and sometimes one needs to shut up and accept God's blessings in the often overwhelming forms in which they arrive.
Analysis paralysis! What a wonderful turn of phrase! It was a real thing for me too, until I found you. Thank you very much for all of the encouragement!
Thank you!
From compost your enemies to feed the weak to the strong. David the Good is going down a dark path 😂
His humor has always been a bit dark, but many seeds grow in darkness. He disarms us with his humor and suddenly we have learned new things. 😂Like dead hamsters buried beneath trees can eventually create fruit salad.
@@SouthFloridaSunshine Haha, well said. I guess that means we all technically become fruit salads too!
Too funny
@@tradermunky1998 Indeed if we return to the garden or forest naturally or in our umm bone meal form..but eew, no thanks, Yuck..
Oh my goodness.... I love this train of thought!!!! This is beyond helpful! Blessings to you my friend! God bless you and your family!
Thank you
Exactly what I do in the little front yard where I'm trying to establish my tiny food forest :-). Thanx for giving me the confidence to continue despite weird looks from the neighbors
Urg I needed to find this today! New land owner and the amount of space is so overwhelming! I’ve definitely got analysis paralysis! Going to go out and throw seeds this arvo ❤
Good morning, David. I was just at PermaPasture with Billy and suggested your book on grocery row garden. So I'm suggestion when your group is done watching you, they check out Billy. Look people, I am 70 and if I can do it, you can do it! Start your grocery row garden, food forest or what ever you want to call it, just start today. Today is the best day to start. Don't wait for tomorrow and don't worry about yesterday. Today is the day God has given you and that is what makes it the best day!!! One plant, one step, one day, TODAY!! God bless y'all and start growing. P.S. It's good for your brain and your body--Learn more and keep moving.
That's right. The "harder" way is often better for you.
@@davidthegood Any way is the right way as long as you do it!
Pumpkins on the lawn - brilliant!
David thank you for emphasizing the DOING over the PERSEVERATION !! I get analysis paralysis from time to time because I can easily over - think things. So much better to DO, even if it's not perfect, than to just stew in the planning stage. Begin at the beginning. I love all your books and videos. Miss you here in FL but glad you have your OWN land and space in AL. God bless you and your great family. And I love scrubland farmz too : )
Keep it up, must be really hot all these live streams, glad to have them!!
My kind of growing a forest
Husband is a tree trimmer and would die if he heard you say "planting locust" lol
Meanwhile in my Chicago suburb: people hiring commercial grade landscapers 3X a week to shave and vacuum their yards to barren hospital sterility. 🤦♀️ I nearly cry at the waste of space and resources.. and the heck forsaken noise. We could all be feeding each other instead! Just imagine..
Nope, pot a few Home Despot annuals instead, spray the massive sprawl of lawn with chemicals, put up a flag or sign (the more antagonistic the better, not me I hang funny and sweet signs, hoping the sentiment spreads ¯\_(ツ)_/¯)
My yard is wild and beautiful. I’ve always let things grow where they want to. Obviously I exercise stewardship, keep it from getting nuts. But Nature is a far better designer than I am. I’m endlessly grateful for her input. 🥰 okay except for certain bugs and powdery mildew. Nope. 😉
I’ve watched so many people give up “gardening” after fighting their space and losing. Stop fighting for control, let go, start loving the abundance. ❤
If you have clear pathways, the observers can see that it's intentional. That's my method. Many still don't like it. My next-door neighbor praises me every time I mow the lawn. 🙄
I'm surrounded by sterile chemically sprayed yards also and have to listen to all the noise from the machines to keep it "perfect". It's so disheartening!
@@karenjones9422 My sympathies. I have actually convinced my neighbor that we need pollinators (proof: your windshield, now and 20 years ago) and that planting flowers and trees is a good thing. He is on board with the flowers, even natives. Not sure about trees.
@@trumpetingangel It's great if you can "convert" your neighbor. Mine is so hostile she's threatened to "throw weed killer over the fence" into my yard if one of my "weeds" (which is anything other than grass in her book) comes under the fence.
@@karenjones9422 I'm so sorry. It's painful that our culture has embraced this style, which is ruining our planet!🤗
I love the way you garden! You're always an inspiration, and because of you, my husband has quit trying to eradicate all the mimosas. Thanks!
That's exactly what I did when I first moved into my current home. First goal was to plant trees and kill all the grass. cardbpard boxes then tons of mulch on top. 4 years later. My entire back yard have zero grass! Love it
I love this! Makes you feel so free! I definitely struggle with analysis paralysis and this helps with that a lot. Thanks dude!
Thank you.
I've really been enjoying your videos. Keep it up!!
Thank you for sharing such valuable information with us subscribers
I see a future DTG gameboard game here for some reason.
I have a 10000000 mimosa seedlings in my garden right now. Thanks to you, I will let one live.
“What tree do we want to bless today?” 😂😂 glad to know I’m not the only one that talks to my plants. I swear whenever I see bugs now I get super excited and know if my ecosystem is healthy or not ☺️❤️
I was thinking the same thing watching the young ladybugs devour the aphids on my loquat tree lol
@@GrowingFoodMadeEasy I think slugs are the only bug right now that I don’t see a use for me 😅 just picked a bunch of them off my string beans and spinach
agreed@@curatedmemories
We have cracked rock hard dirt full of rocks. We do our best with wood chips, leaves, compost, liquid humate, etc. We don't get rain during the summer so I hand water HOURS at a time. Next year I'd like a drip irrigation system. I can't get my comfrey to spread, one died. I think my stinging nettles are going to make it. I'm discouraged. We're zone 8. Low 40's at night & low 90's during the day. Waiting for stuff to set on. I cover my peppers every night & put my eggplants inside. I have too many tomatoes to cover. All my herbs flowered super fast and went to seed before I could harvest the leaves at the best time. 🥺 My chia & amaranth are finally 5 inches tall. I'm sad. At least we have quince, grapes and blackberries (argh) coming up EVERYWHERE. I harvest the carpet of grape hyacinth, California poppies and queen Anne's lace!
Low 40's at night
& low 90's in daytime
Sounds pretty wonderful to me right about now...
I'm in zone 8b
in the center of Texas.
It's just fricken H.O.T. around the clock over here!
I too have hard, very rocky "soil".
Actually, it's really just subsoil.
There's no top soil to speak of.
We don't get any rain in the summertime either.
Actually, we're in our 3rd year of drought.
But that's always how Texas is with water - Feast or Famine.
So I have rain barrels.
Which I sometimes have to supplement with city water.
Bcuz you know...
There's a drought on.
And
I too spend the first hour and half of the day hand watering...
On the brighter side -
I took advantage of the big ice storm we had last Winter when a good amount of the Live Oak tree branches around here broke from the weight of the heavy ice canopies.
There were so many broken trees this time, all up & down the state,
(it WAS a Texas Size storm!)
that people here now call that storm:
The Ice-pocolypse.
But I made lemonade outta those lemons!
I immediately signed up for ChipDrop !!
FOUR TIMES!!!
haa!!
Bcuz I NEED topsoil !
And now,
Right this very minute,
the extra nitrogen,
the microbes,
and the mycelium I planted
in the woodchip mountains next to the street,
are breaking those chips down,
and they're making new some FREE SOIL !!!
Soil for the TOPs
of my subsoil
food forest to be!!!
And while your tomatoes are not producing as well as expected bcuz of the cool nights...
My tomatoes aren't producing as expected because of the 106°f days.
It's just the roll of the seasons, right?
You have covers to keep yours warm at night.
I have shade covers to keep mine cool during the day.
One of my Comfrey plants died too.
I'm thinking the culprits were the earwigs...
But I've got others that are thriving! (In the shade)
And this year they don't even require water every single day!
My food forest is still quite small.
But boy-oh-boy WATCH OUT
when I've got my top soil !!!
And honestly, who can complain about blackberries everywhere!
Even WITH the thorns they're delish!!!
(We have those too! They sure do like growing in Texas!)
@@gardengatesopen So glad you're making it work in HOTexas. I'm in the opposite corner of the country; we have our own struggles but wow, it's not as hot as that!
@@trumpetingangel
Oh DO tell !
Which corner would you be in?!!
I do sometimes wonder what it would be like to NOT live in an oven during the summertime!
But then, I'm not so great with snow either...
But of you're in zone 8, it can't be a place with super snowy winters!
@@gardengatesopen I'm in the Hudson Valley in upstate NY. We have snow!
Yes.. mimosas can be a blessing if you know how to work with them, which isn't hard to do. I intentionally maintain a few throughout our gardens for the purpose of slashing and ultimately pollarding, like Geoff Lawton does with his nitrogen fixing trees. The mimosas don't mind all that much. They regrow just fine.. and each cutting releases a flush of nitrogen into the surrounding soil. Plus, you get a nice bit of mulch.
Thanks for this. I agree with your assesment. Just go out and do it. Overthinking it, like i see in a lot of compost videos, is not found in nature. What works works and what doesnt dies. If it dies, it may not be a good plant for that environment anyway. So frustrate ourselves with the exotic? Gardening is supposed to fun, simple and doable. Lets grow what comes fairly easy to our environments. Happy gardening everyone.
Please do more Livestreams! Your content is important and your family is delightful. And bonus crazy songs!
Got my landrace cucumber seeds! 🥒
God bless you for this video man. I needed the pep talk. I've been on my raw land for a year in TN. I've been hanging onto 6 trees (hybrid willow, mulberry, and hybrid poplar) in buckets because I've not figured out *exactly*where to put them. Thank you.
You can do it. Plant, then plant more!
I still get analysis paralysis to this day. Eventually I push through it. I've made a lot of mistakes, didn't really leave a lot of room for the riding mower and sometimes the grass gets too thick for the cordless push mower. Then I see new videos from David the Good and remember I'm doing it correctly after all. I've been perfecting the process of getting the kernel out of different stone fruits to get them going faster. So many sandwich bags already going and more will be added soon. Where will I plant them all? We'll figure that out when we get there. Great video, David. Are the seeds of Canna Lilies viable? I saved some last growing season and have them in a cup. They look like buck shot. If they are viable, would they need to be scarified?
I scarify them, then soak them overnight, then plant. They sprout fast that way.
David, for some of us we only have a city lot 50x140 and that lot contains the house, a shed or garage or both, a place to park a car or two before you know it there is not a lot of space left to put in what you would like and still have room to get around and work what you are growing, and heaven forbid there happen to be a low spot in the yard that floods when it rains.
Trying to find an affordable acre or two of workable land for sale is not so easy everywhere.
Even as a single person it takes some creativity and planning to grow enough of something to get you through to the next season when you live in zone 3.
I'm sure you can make it happen. We don't always get what we want, but if we're creative and thankful, we can really do a lot.
Creating a food forest on my tiny suburban property. The veggie garden is doing great. First year with a real veggie garden, I've tenderly named it my "f*** it" garden. As in "f*** it, let's try it!" I found a local guy selling young Paw Paw tree's and other natives that I'll be going to see soon. I found Wild Blue Indigo at the park, snagged some seed pods and started some. Theres a WBI in my garden that I waited 3 years for it to bloom. I also rescued two blackberry bushes from a death rack and they are rocking now.
Thank-you for this. I'm in SC 8a and a lot of what you showed in the video looks like my "project" area where I'm trying to rein in peach trees and also grow other fruit trees which are also competing with Mimosas and other fast growing trees/ weeds. I was going to cart the "chopped" portion to the curb to let the city pick it up. But now, your video has suggested, I might do better by the fruit trees to surround them with the droppings. To be on the safe side, are there any weeds you SHOULD NOT CHOP AND DROP? Before I thought you had to be somewhat selective as to what was "chopped and dropped". But perhaps that isn't as important as I thought it might be.
I chop and drop all of them.
I used to yank up all the poke weed but while waiting for my new comfrey to grow, I noticed what big leaves the poke weed (that I obviously missed) had. I let that stuff grow now and harvest just for the green matter. On the other hand, we have a vine trying to take over and kill everything. I am certain it sprang from the bowels of hell, cultivated by satan himself. I won’t take any chances on that stuff reaching it’s abominable roots back into the ground and reestablishing itself at a rate that would make Stan Lee tremble. It’s called Bittersweet vine and it’s apparently an Asian invasion.
I can add that if there are any Japanese Ligustrum bushes
(aka - privet)
creeping in from somebody's landscape design,
THOSE
are
DEFINITELY
NOT GOOD
for
chop-n-drop!
Here's why:
The leaves make their own
natural glyphosate -
aka Round-Up Weed Killer.
Those leaves,
even though they're plentiful,
and would be very tempting to
use as a chop-n-drop source,
they'll end up killing off everything around them!
Not exaggerating either!
And
The ROOTS of those bushes!!
They will definitely try hard
(and succeed!) to kill off anything growing within 20 feet of them, if they're left to their own devices!
Those roots,
they're
SUPER SNEAKY
under the ground!!
They will wind themselves around large tree roots & literally choke the trees out.
I've found the "remains" of bigger trees than the bushes with those ligustrum roots wrapped tight around the poor ol' tree's roots.
It really does looks like a murder scene!
I have them in my neighborhood.
The berries get blown in to my yard from the wind.
They get washed in from flash floods.
And the birds love to eat the massive amount of berries each bush grows too, so they also get planted that way.
Those dang Japanese Ligustrum bushes just LOVE to grow into giant bushes over here!
They're now taking over the natural parts of our city, which has a lot of nature trail areas which aren't cultivated.
If we don't do SOMETHING about it pretty soon, they'll kill off all the native flora...
Gosh, I could probably complain about that invasive plant for hours!
So I'll just stop here.
Just know,
It's not a good idea to chop-n-drop J. Ligustrum
because of the glyphosate in the leaves.
(& it's NOT good to plant it either!)
(just sayin...)
After reno my 1937 house I have been working on food forest and its very early on 1-2 years. I have spent a lot of time researching learning about native plants old growth gardening etc and all the high level research is pointing to exactly what this guy is saying. I started off trying to manage things perfectly now I throw clover seeds around throw plants and trees where ever they may succeed move plants that are struggling to random locations throwing seeds around etc. The only thing you need to do is box in with chicken wire some trees the deers abuse or veggies tht are getting eaten too fast by animals.
This is what appealed to me about food forests in the first place- the ability to go by instinct, trial and error,wait and see. If I had my way, the whole property would be food forest. My biggest challenge is the animals (wild and also pets/livestock, even plagues of bugs) that come in and dig up or eat most of what i plant before it's truly abundant and able to regenerate itself. I have to fence off anything I plant, which makes it hard to have the random, sprawling beautiful pockets of tree guilds I envisioned when I moved here. I hope that eventually I can unfence my orchatds and forests because they are so healthy and established. We'll see!
I love this thought process! Thank you for sharing it with the world! We are just starting our permaculture homestead in central Michigan. I’ve been watching several videos and reading loads of books and drawing maps, etc. This method takes all the guess work out. Thank you! I cannot say it enough: thank you!!
My red buds go wild. I'm so excited about them now. Never new anything about nitrogen fixers. I have been gardening 30 years:)