CENTRE WELLINGTON – Daisy Moore has a client who wants to grow food on their property, but not in a vegetable garden.
So Moore, a horticulturalist, devised a landscape plan and in early May was busy planting a food forest.
All that was worth saving on the residential suburban lot in Fergus was a Norway maple the client wanted to keep because they like the shade it provides on the front porch.
Moore also kept a few other shrubs that were planted near the house.
“They wanted a food forest,” Moore said. “So I buried the front yard with eight yards of compost last September and let the worms do the tilling.”
A food forest is an old concept that’s gaining popularity as people turn their attention to growing their own food.
There’s one in Fergus by the sportsplex and another planned in Elora by the Centre for the Arts.
But unlike the vegetable garden that generally contains annuals that have to be planted year after year, a food forest uses trees, shrubs and other edibles and is modelled on the natural structure of a forest.
That is to say the overstory, the fruit tree canopy, and the understory, which includes shrubs, herbaceous plants, root plants, groundcover and vines.
Moore has adapted the general rules of a food forest to suit the property and her client.
The plan includes a number of guilds, which are essentially garden islands, each with its own food-producing tree surrounded by other edibles.
In one guild, Moore planted a European plum tree, in another a Stella cherry tree. She also planted an elderberry bush and black currants and underplanted with asparagus, strawberries, thyme and lavender along with a variety of non-edible perennials that attract pollinators. Serviceberry and sugar maples are also good options for a food forest.
Between the guilds, Moore has planted eco-lawn, which is a mix of fescue grasses that are low maintenance and drought tolerant.
The grass areas separate the guilds and act as pathways between them.
On a sunny day in early May, the site was admittedly a little unruly. The grass needed a mow and some weeds were beginning to surface. And at that point the guilds were still just mounds of compost.
Moore was not bothered by it.
“I expected weed growth coming through,” she said.
Cutting the grass immediately made the site look better and the guilds were suddenly defined and made sense.
Once she got planting, she pulled weeds out as the plants went in. Moore mixed some of the compost on the surface into the bottom of the planting holes, “and we’re off to the races,” she exclaimed.
“When it comes to weeds, the best defense is a good offence,” meaning pull the weeds and plant something else in their place to keep them from coming back.
She used bareroot plants as they are generally less expensive to purchase, although you do have to get them in the ground quicker than plants already potted up.
The bareroot strawberry plants didn’t look like much in their packaging, but they will produce strawberries year after year.
In terms of ongoing care, the grass will have to be cut regularly and the plants might need a bit of maintenance. Trees and shrubs, for example, need to be pruned every now and again, and the beds themselves will need to be cleaned up each spring.
Harvesting the food also keeps the plants healthy as they continue to produce.
“You have to put some thought into what blooms when,” Moore said. “And you have to consider the direction of sun and shade and where to plant.
“But food forests are pretty low maintenance once established. And they can be beautiful too. Don’t be afraid to take up your lawn and produce food.”