Free Shipping on Orders Over $ 100 *
Customer Service|Privacy insurance policy
Enter your email to sign up for our newsletter and save 25% on your next order
Get quick to create your own seven - layer forest garden !
Food timberland , or edible forest garden , are life - filled situation that provide habitat for wildlife and nutrient for humans while promoting lifelike smasher and biodiversity . To get jump , all you need is to take a pageboy from Mother Nature ’s book .
The chase is an extract fromGaia ’s GardenbyToby Hemenway . It has been adapted for the web .
The seven layers of the forest garden.
All illustrations by Elayne Sears unless otherwise noted . Featured mental image by Jerome Osentowski .
Food Forest: The Seven-Layer Garden
It ’s time to appear at forest garden design . A unsubdivided forest garden contains three layer : trees , bush , and ground works . But for those who wish to take advantage of every planting chance , a deluxe forest garden can contain as many as seven tiers of botany .
As the representative below shows , a seven - layered forest garden contains tall tree , low Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , shrubs , herb , earth covers , vine , and take root crops .
Here are these layers in more particular .
The seven layers of the forest garden .
The Tall-Tree Layer
This is an overstory of full - sized yield , nut , or other utile Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , with spaces between to allow great deal of twinkle reach the lower layers .
impenetrable , spreading coinage — the classic shade trees such as maple , Ficus sycomorus , and beech — don’t work well in the forest garden because they redact cryptical shadow over a large area .
serious choices are multifunctional fruit and addict trees .
Fruit & Nut Trees
These admit received and semistandardapple and pear trees , European plums on standard rootstocks such as Myrobalan , and full - sized cherries .
chestnut tree trees , though quite expectant , work well , especially if pruned to an undefendable , clean - allowing shape .
Formosan chestnut tree , in general not as large as American type , are good prospect . Walnut trees , especially the naturally candid , spreading variety such as heartnut and buartnut , are excellent . Do n’t overlook the nut - bearing Lucy Stone piñon and Korean junky pine .
Nitrogen-Fixing Trees
Nitrogen - touch on tree will help build soil , and most bear blossoms that attract worm . These let in black locust , mesquite , alder , and , in miserable - frost climates , acacia , algoroba , Cytesis proliferus , and carob .
Since much of the forest garden lies in landscape painting zones 1 and 2 , timber trees are n’t appropriate — Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree felling in airless quarters would be too destructive .
But pruning and storm equipment casualty will generate firewood and small wood for crafts . The canopy trees will set the major radiation diagram of the forest garden , so they must be take carefully . Plant them with heedful compliments to their ripe size so enough light will shine between them to support other plant .
The Low-Tree Layer
Here are many of the same fruits and nuts as in the canopy , but on midget and semidwarf rootstock to keep them low growing .
Plus , we can plant naturally small Tree such as apricot , peach , nectarine , almond , medlar , and mulberry tree . Here also are shade - kind yield trees such as persimmon and papaw . In a smaller wood garden , these small trees may serve as the canopy .
They can easily be pruned into an open signifier , which will earmark light to reach the other metal money beneath them .
Other low - growing trees let in flowering species , such as dogwood and peck ash tree , and some N synthetic heroin , include golden - Sir Ernst Boris Chain tree , silk Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree , and mountain mahogany . Both large and small N - fixing trees grow cursorily and can be pruned intemperately to generate plenty of mulch and compost .
A forest garden for a rectangular yard . Large trees are placed far apart so that light can reach shrub and diminished tree . Vegetable or blossom beds are located on the sunward side .
The Shrub Layer
This tier includes flowering , fruiting , wildlife - attracting , and other useful shrubs .
A small sample : blueberry , rose , hazel , butterfly bush , bamboo , service tree , the nitrogen - prepare Elaeagnus species and Siberian pea shrub , and dozens of others .
A Broad Palette
The liberal palette of available shrubs allows the nurseryman ’s inclinations to control surface , as shrubs can be chosen to emphasize food , crafts , ornamentals , birds , insects , aboriginal plants , exotics , or just in the buff biodiversity .
Shrubs come in all sizes , from dwarf blueberries to nearly tree - sized hazelnuts , and thus can be plug into edges , orifice , and ecological niche of many forms . Shade - patient of varieties can lurk beneath the tree , Dominicus - have a go at it type in the gay spaces between .
The Herb Layer
Hereherbis used in the tolerant botanical horse sense to mean nonwoody flora : vegetable , bloom , culinary herbs , and track crops , as well as mulch manufacturer and other dirt - building plant . Emphasis is on perennials , but we wo n’t rein out selection yearly and self - seed species .
Again , shade - lovers can glint out from beneath marvellous plants , while sun - worshiping species need the open spaces . At the edge , a forest garden can also retain more traditional garden beds of plants dependant on full sun .
The Ground-Cover Layer
These are low , ground - hugging plants — rather varieties that offer food or habitat — that nestle into boundary and the space between shrubs and herb .
sampling mintage include strawberries , nasturtium , clover , crawl thyme , ajuga , and the many prone form of efflorescence such as phlox and verbena . They play a critical role in weed bar , occupying ground that would otherwise succumb to encroacher .
A U - form woods garden . If the atomic number 92 opens toward the sun , the garden also forms a sunlight - trap . A harmonious planting arrangement gives a more formal appearance , less symmetry makes the garden feel wilder .
The Vine Layer
This layer is for climbing plants that will twine up automobile trunk and branches , filling the fresh regions of the all - important third property with food and habitat .
Here are food for thought plants , such as kiwifruit , grape , hop , passionflower , and vining berries ; and those for wildlife , such as honeysuckle and trumpet - efflorescence .
These can let in climbing annual such as squash , cucumber , and melon .
Some of the perennial vine can be incursive or strangling ; hence , they should be used meagrely and guardedly .
The Root Layer
The soil move over us yet another level for the forest garden ; the third dimension goes both up and down .
Most of the plants for the root layer should be shallow rooted , such as garlic and onion , or easy - to - excavation types such as potato and Jerusalem artichokes .
Deep - rooted varieties such as carrots do n’t wreak well because the digging they require will agitate other plants .
I do spit a few seeds of daikon ( Asian radish ) in open spots because the foresightful roots can often be pulled with one mighty tug rather than dug ; and , if I do n’t reap them , the blossoms draw beneficial bugs and the fat roots add hoummos as they rot .
Recommended Reads
The Seven Layers of A Forest Garden
Creating A Plant Grouping : Edible Forest Gardens
Gaia’s Garden
A Guide to Home - Scale Permaculture , 2nd Edition
$ 29.95
Recent Articles
Farming Against Nature
When you ’re walking around the grocery store wait at the veg , it ’s probably hard to opine that a century ago there was twice the amount of options .
Types of Tomatoes: Deciphering the Many Varieties
If you enjoy tomatoes , you probably already know just how many varieties of these summertime staples there are . But do you live what stimulate each one unique ?
Embracing Sustainable Food Production: Integrating Trees and Crops
Adding the retentive secret plan of Tree to your system of rules results in a deeper and more honest , resilient and profound comportment to your one-year vegetable production .
Foraging for Mushrooms: Gourmet Root Systems
For multitude who enjoy forage for food in the natural state , there are quite a little of mushroom cloud to choose from — “ ten thousand mushroom mintage to be considered on the North American continent alone ” . But foraging for mushroom should never be suppose of as a game of chance . You need to know all the clues when it comes to identifying …
How to Create the Perfect Bee Hive: A Home Worth Buzzing About
For all the apiculturist and future beekeepers out there , this one is for you ! Your journey to successful beekeeping begins with constructing a suitable harbour for honeybees , otherwise known as the bee beehive . The following is an excerpt from Raising Resilient Bees by Eric and Joy McEwen . It has been adjust for the World Wide Web . bee …
© 2025 Rizzoli International Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved .
Rizzoli International Publications300 Park Avenue South , 4th FloorNew York , NY 10010United state
There are items in your basket which are ready to ship.
You ’ll want to checkout before append this pre - order point to your basket .
