Reddit reviews Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops
We found 7 Reddit comments about Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
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We found 7 Reddit comments about Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Resources:
Creating a Forest Garden by Mark Crawford.
Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier
Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
Try to get your hands on Edible Forest Gardens ( vol 1 and 2 ) by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. It's the premier work on Eastern North American ecological agroforestry.
Martin Crawford's work is also very applicable since he's in a humid zone 3-5 ish British climate. His book is an amazing resource.
The Bullock Brother's have done a lot of work in Cold climate permaculture but they're in Washinton so it's still more humid.
Great Plains ecology is an interesting biome though and I'm not sure there's been a lot of work done on food forestry in that particular climate. I know a fair amount of work has been done on perennial grasslands but it gets more complicated since you are dealing with elements of dryland design and cold climate design. Some tropical techniques for water retention aren't going to work since frost is going to be a factor. Probably the best technique would be to follow the ecology and design around coolees since that's where great plains deciduous forests tend to thrive.
I'd consider having the field plowed and sowing a mix of seeds to create a ground covering that doesn't grow as high, doesn't need cutting at all, and is a net adder of nutrients to the soil. Martin Crawford's book on forest guardening has a few interesting ones. The one I found most interesting and have been meaning to try is:
According to the book you should plant 3kg+6kg+2kg of seeds per acre anywhere from April to August, and the ground cover will last 10 years or more without management.
The whole book is probably interesting for your situation as you can go and select a few base trees to plant right now and then leave them alone while they grow and you're otherwise busy. By the time you have some time again you'll have a head start. From the book I'd suggest you look into besides the ground covering I've already mentioned some large trees like alders that also add nutrients to the soil. You could just plant quite a few of them in all the acres you left wild and by the time you get around to it you can select which ones to keep and put the other down for firewood.
Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops
https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Forest-Garden-Working-Nature/dp/1900322625
Creating a Forest Garden: Working with nature to grow edible crops https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1900322625/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_BG0mDbTHGDF7F
Definitely second David Jacke's books - they're incredible! This one is also supposed to be good: http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Forest-Garden-Working-Nature/dp/1900322625/
Jacke is also working on a book about coppicing, which I'm really looking forward to: http://www.coppiceagroforestry.com/
Along those lines, OP may also find these guys inspirational: http://www.badgersett.com/info/woodyag1.html
I've collected many books on gardening from second-hand stores like goodwill. The Rodale's and the Home and Garden books are thorough, currently I'm using "The New Victory Garden" by Bob Thompson to plan my garden which organizes the chapters by tasks for each month. I'm also interested in edible perennial gardening; my favorite book is "Creating a Forest Garden" by Martin Crawford which has a great plant encyclopedia with ratings and guides for design and planting. If you have a little extra room and want to incorporate beautiful landscapes while growing food, it's well worth a look.