The Essential Forest-Gardener – where to start

12 comments on “The Essential Forest-Gardener – where to start ”

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1. Jenny Kirk 1

   30 October 2016 at 9:15 am

   We’ve just bought ourselves a wood chipper. Cost about $360. Less than the cost of a Big Bin to take all the rubbishy bits of branches, remains of swan plants, prunings etc which have been building up against the side of the house (and in other places) since we moved in a year ago. We now have a pile of mulch which we’re using to retain moisture in the soil around our fledgling orchard trees and other plants during the dry summer months here in the north.

   This is the second garden we’ve started – more-or-less from scratch – and we now know (more-or-less) what we’re doing – having observed over the last 12 months as you have suggested, Robert G, where the shady spots will be in summer, and where the frost bites in winter.

   We haven’t got it quite right, of course – some plants don’t like where we’ve put them – too sunny or too exposed to the wind, so will have to be moved to a more sheltered spot.

   But all the same, it feels very satisfying.
2. Robert Guyton 2

   30 October 2016 at 9:42 am

   Nice. Mulch is an environment in which uncounted organisms thrive. The more wood (lignin) you lay on the soil’s surface, the richer your subterranean life will be, especially the fungi kingdom. I let branches lie, though it was difficult to do initially, as I haven’t a mulcher, aside from my loppers and saw.
3. save nz 3

   30 October 2016 at 10:17 am

   Beautiful images and really enjoyed the video of the oldest food forest. Is there any good links you can share how to make a food forest from scratch or adding in a food forest to existing native bush?

   Sadly many people grow up in an urban setting and a lot of the knowledge is lost or never been passed down. It’s great to see the images but sometimes hard to work out how to start your own if you have not grown up with that background.
4. Robert Guyton 4

   30 October 2016 at 10:50 am

   Hi save nz. Thanks, and your question about integrating edibles into native forest really interests me. I planted my own “native forest” occupying about 1/3th of my property when I first began converting broom, gorse and cocksfoot to trees and shrubs. My thought was to “put back” what once grew there, to recreate habitat for native birds, insects and fungi etc, as well as clothe and shade the creek and spring. Almost 30 years later, I’m changing the mix by adding exotics, to the horror of my conseravationist/nativist friends. At the edges, I’m growing light-loving native medicinal plants (kawakawa, koromiko etc.) mixed with exotics (elecampane, comfrey etc.) Deeper into the shade, I’m planting Japanese aralia (Tengu’s fan) and other plants that produce extra-beautiful leaves and flowers in low-light situations. Because I love plants, my ideology bends in their favour, rather than any other. It will look different from “natural” native forest, but it did already, having been designed by me. Starting a forest garden from scratch is also something I think about alot, in that there is a great advantage to having a formula, if speed and efficiency of development is that aim. Anyone can bumble on, as I did, and achieve a forest garden however working to a plan will be far more effective. I’d recommend to anyone with a paddock they wish to convert that they should cultivate once and sow a thick combination of cereals and legumes to create a living mulch that will be the platform on which to rapidly build a mixed shrub, tree,vine,herb, etc. environment. Shelter from the wind is paramount and freedom from competing plants, usually grasses, close behind.
5. greywarshark 5

   30 October 2016 at 11:05 am

   Hello Robert
   1. But what about diseased branches being left around and with possible spores? My hebe has dead branches which I don’t want to put into the Greenwaste bin to be taken away for compost because it might be spreading something bad.
   Also with the silverleaf dieoff that was on my escallonia hedge plant. I am told it is spread by bugs but once it is there apparently it is in the plant and I am told that it then needs to be pulled up and thrown out. Again I don’t put it out in the Greenwaste for fear of contaminating the compost.

   So I would be doing the right thing there wouldn’t I? To be precautionary for the health of the compost.

   2. Do you keep track of other bright sparks in the NZ ecological field like yourself?
   I heard on Radionz on Country Life an item on Regenerative Farming – the farm taken on had about 1-2 cms of topsoil much of it pugged, and in 12 years had increased this to 15-20 cms. Quote “So you can grow topsoil really fast if you are managing your land in a sympathetic way”. This from Bev Trowbridge in Northland, from Uk, worked as ecologist for 20 years and says there, organic/biological farming is considered much more mainstream than here.
   http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/countrylife/audio/201821682/treading-lightly-on-the-soil

   3. Some interesting words by a Professor who knows stuff about climate change
   Andrew Guzman and he talks about growing food and declining water and the climate change refugees who go to the city as the only way to survive. And the cities will burst at the seams. Huge numbers of people will be on the move.

   Already huge numbers are on the move because of callous, calculating political wars, not just from climate change, but connected. The warmongers are ready to adopt the ugly motto of ‘Destroying the village to save the village’. Which means destroying the people’s living in order to stop the ‘enemy as seen by the invaders’ from occupying it and staging further attacks from there. I think we should pay attention if only to watch that we don’t end up being victimised by the callous, ie having our water stolen by the operators of farms requiring large amounts of water for their ventures that are at present very profitable to them.

   Latest from Andrew Guzman
   Climate Change : Time is Running Out
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeh3vOJDXz8
   and
   Climate Change: More Than An Environmental Challenge: Prof Andrew Guzman
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7xoM7v0QUk
   and
   Climate Change: More Than An Environmental Challenge: Prof Andrew Guzman
   NASA has a great site about the facts: http://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/. Read more. Show less …
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7UL_HlP_cM
   and
   Professor Andrew Guzman on Climate Change
   (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMhM8M4Kiu8 (on book Overheated)
6. Robert Guyton 6

   30 October 2016 at 12:36 pm

   Hello greywarshark. You’ve many interesting thoughts.
   Disease is best managed garden-wide, in my view. Hedges are usually monocultural and there’s the issue right there. I’d be replacing ailing plants with other types to create a hedgerow. Hedgerows are superb examples of managed “forests” long and thin admittedly, by diverse and fruitful. I’d love to see hedgerows across rural New Zealand. A serious plant disease calls for burning, traditionally. The ash can then serve as a bonus to other plants. I don’t compost. All of the plant material etc produced here, pruned and otherwise felled, stays put. I do try to reduce it to the smallest size by breaking or cutting but not to the chip or saw dust size which is unnecessary here. I try to “process” materials in a wild way, rather than industrial, that is, no machines, noise, angry postures and fumes 🙂 Pathogens are best managed in the way weeds/unwanted plants are managed, that is by crowding them out, corralling them with beneficial organisms. Soil shouldn’t be pathogen-free just as roses shouldn’t be aphid free. Where will the predators feed if there’s no prey at all? Management, not annihilation.
   I do meet and talk with other enthusiastic people such as you are describing, surprisingly large numbers of them in all walks of life and situations. Today, I spoke with a Swiss cheesemaker about the beginnings of agriculture and the effect that has had on the wild world. Yesterday I was visited by two Australian forest-gardeners who talked about xeriscaping, two Canadian orchardists who knew all about tropical fruits (?) and a couple of children who called themselves “half Canadian, half Kiwis”. We get a lot of informed visitors to our garden. In a fortnight’s time I’m speaking in Tauranga about all this and I’m sure to meet interesting folk there. And so on. There is a lot of cross-pollination of ideas in this field. As well as talking though, it’s important to have something to say 🙂 That’s why I spent the morning in my garden. The weather is perfect – it’s sunny and warm and in any case very sheltered in here.
7. greywarshark 7

   30 October 2016 at 12:56 pm

   Hi Robert
   You and your wife too could be said to be in a beneficial symbiotic relationship with your garden, each thriving and vital and in a living relationship with each other. Reading your plans is in itself very invigorating to me and to the others here. Ata maarie.
   Kia pai te haere to Tauranga.
8. Robert Guyton 8

   30 October 2016 at 2:03 pm

   Kia ora mo tena e hoa. Ka pai ki ahau i ou kupu tautoko.
9. greywarshark 9

   30 October 2016 at 4:03 pm

   @Robert
   Kapai. He pai to koutou reo Maori. Oku mihi ki a koutou. (I had to look this up – I’m not onto phrases.)
10. Robert Guyton 10

    30 October 2016 at 4:46 pm

    Mine’s fairly new-entrant, greywarshark but I like to have a go. Tomorrow, I’m reciting my councillor oath in te reo tuturu o enei motu and that’ll stir up the others one way or another. I remember when Hone Harawira tried that in the House and was shut down by the Speaker. Given that ex-Deputy Speaker Eric Roy will also be intoning the oath in our chambers tomorrow, there’ll be fun 🙂 He’s been offer the same opportunity, so perhaps he’ll surprise.
    • Karen 10.1

      30 October 2016 at 5:14 pm

      Tino pai, Robert!
11. greywarshark 11

    31 October 2016 at 2:53 pm

    @ Robert
    If you’re around, tell us how the speech turned out will you? You’re putting the kaarearea amongst the kereru!

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