Most of us are familiar with forests as an ecosystem, hosting a diversity of plants, fungi, and insects. Deep in the forest, we see layers and niches. Think Tarzan swinging on three-inch diameter vines!

Imagine your forest system producing food, with the majority of elements in that system being productive.

By understanding how nature designs forest systems, they are self-maintaining and self-replicating, we can model that system with productive species to produce a food most sustainably. There would be a minimum amount of input and a maximum amount of output.

LAYERS WITHIN A FOREST

All forests have layers—canopy, over-story, under-story, shrub, herbaceous, root yield, and ground covers and climbers. Our food forest system can have each of these and give us food.

In traditional permaculture, a food forest system, one would grow a canopy cover, particularly a legume, to fix nitrogen in the soil and build under from there. As the canopy served its life, the biomass that remains is left to decay or be broken up into the soil naturally. 

In the Bee Better Teaching Garden, we skipped the canopy layer, so we didn’t need to wait for something to die as our food forest system matured. Instead, we built the soil by adding four-inches of composted leaves each year. Mind you, I’ve been doing this since 1998, and I would encourage you to begin doing so do so as well if you aren’t already adding an annual mulch. The productivity of our soil is constant, and fertility is constantly increasing. 

Our garden planting focus is based on six layers— understory, shrubs, herbaceous/annuals, root yield, ground laver, and climbers, with edibles grown in each of these layers:

UNDERSTORY

The understory in the Bee Better Teaching Garden is made up mostly of fruit trees, including:

Apple, Malus domestica ‘Honeycrisp’ 

Kousa dogwood, Cornus kousa 

Peach, Prunus persica ‘Redhaven’

Pear Asian, Pyrus pyrifolia

Pear, Bartlette pear, Pyrus communis x P. pyrifolia ‘Kiefer’

Persimmon,  Diospyros kaki  ‘Fuyu’ 

Plum, Prunus salicina ‘Santa Rosa’ 

Paw Paws, Asimina triloba

Sassafras, Sassafras albidum

Quince, Cydonia oblonga ‘Pineapple’

SHRUB

Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana

Camellia tea plant, Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

Goji, Lycium barbarum 

Goumi, Elaeagnus multiflora

Bay leaves, Laurus nobilis

HERBACEOUS/ANNUALS 

The herbaceous plants change out during the seasons, with kale and lettuce in late winter/early spring and basil and tomatoes in the summer heat. I also self sow sesame and buckwheat and have done other edibles as well. 

ROOT YEILD

The produce in the root yield also changes out during the seasons. Onions, carrots, garlic, and even peonies! But, no, I grow peonies for the flowers, although the petals can be used for a nice tea, yes, the roots are edible!

GROUND LAYER

Peanuts, Arachis hypogaea, which are technically a root yield, as well, plus rosemary, Salvia rosmarinus and strawberries, Fragaria × ananassa ‘Ozark Beauty’ 

CLIMBER

Malabar spinach, Basella alba

Muscadine grape, Vitis rotundifolia

Elsewhere on our 1/2 acre, we have: 

Apricot, Prunus armeniaca ‘Garden Annie’

Apple, Malus pumila ‘North Sentinel’

Banana, Musa spp.—use leaves for steaming food

Blackberries, Rubus fruticosus ‘Apache’ and ‘Arapaho’

Blueberries, Vaccinium ashei ‘Premier’, ‘Climax’, & ‘Powder Blue’ 

Cherry, Prunus avium ‘Stella’ 

Chives, Allium schoenoprasum

Chokeberry, Aronia melanocarpa 

Chokecherry, Prunus virginiana

Figs, Ficus carica, ‘LSU Purple’, ‘Brown Turkey’, and ‘Celeste’

Guava, Psidium cattleianum ‘Strawberry’

Plum ‘Corinthian’, Prunus persica hybrid ‘Corinthian’

Kiwi ‘Issai’, Actinidia arguta ‘Issai’

Loquat, Eriobotrya japonica—Every year, there are interesting flowers loved by bees, but no fruit. We can grow kumquat in our area, with evergreen leaves and fall to winter flowers. However, fruiting will not occur if temperatures drop to 25ºF or below. 

Passion vines, Passiflora incarnata and the tropical P. edulis

Raspberries ‘Southland’, Rubus idaeus ‘Southland’

Serviceberry, Amelanchier × grandiflora ‘Autumn Brilliance’