Inspiring Food Forest Tour – Turning a Grass Paddock into an Edible Oasis!

Join me for an immersive food forest tour and see the other garden projects that I’ve been working on!
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I can’t wait to take you on an adventure to discover all the changes and growth in the garden!
The food forest is bursting with growth and there is such a diverse range of plants that I’m excited to show you. This garden has been a lot of fun (and a lot of work) to create, but seeing it go through the recent growth and changes has been relly enjoyable and satisfying. I feel very lucky to have been able to create this beautiful garden and develop this land and I really appreciated the ability to share all the gardening projects, the different plants and fruits with you all.
Thanks so much for watching! 🙂

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VIDEO SUGGESTIONS FOR YOU:
4 Delicious Fruits You Can Grow In A Container Or Small Space – https://youtu.be/BF2ZWVdUUkg
Growing A No-Dig Garden From Start to Finish – https://youtu.be/i3HfAuQut0E

Books I’ve enjoyed and found helpful:

Grafting and Budding: A Practical Guide for Fruit and Nut Plants and Ornamentals
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The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Manage a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden https://amzn.to/3imbZHo

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Hi, I’m Kalem, and this channel features all sorts of unusual and exotic fruiting plants with tips of how to successfully grow them. I’m interested in all things gardening and love growing my own food and all types of edible plants.
I live on a 2 acre piece of land in New Zealand where we are turning a grass paddock into and abundant, edible paradise and food forest! So come along on this journey with me as I experiment with growing, and try to push the limits of what I can grow. I’ll share with you my successes and failures so hopefully you’ll learn from them and have a go yourself! Come learn with me and Subscribe to join this awesome community 🙂

0:00 Intro
0:21 Cardoons & Artichokes
1:02 Food forest layout
1:43 Herbs in the food forest and making dry tea
2:40 Chop & drop of support plant species
5:19 Subtropical fruits
8:03 Peach trees from seed update
8:44 Rare & Unusual fruit trees
10:56 Nectarine harvest
11:37 Polyculture gardens
14:50 Tree Growth (Gums & Natives)
15:47 Paddocks & Turkeys
16:10 Thank you for your support 🙂

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Kota welcome back to the Food Forest and
I know it’s been ages since I’ve given
you guys an update on what’s Happening
Here and there’s been so much growth
since the last update so I’m really
excited to show you around show you some
of the new fruit trees the different
things that are Fring at the moment and
some of the other stuff that’s happening
here on the property so come with me and
we’ll take a look at the food for us to
start
with one thing that draws people into
this area the most at this time of year
is these Cardon plants and these are
really high they’re probably 9 ft tall
I’m standing on a chair right now and
they are bursting right now of these
amazing flowers and they’re a relation
of an artichoke so I have some
artichokes growing here as well which
I’ve left some to flower and the bees
are absolutely loving them as well and
they just create such an amazing
structure in the garden such a talking
point at an area of interest but I will
make a full video about these cardoons
because there is a lot to like about
them a lot to use them for and good
reasons to grow them so yeah wait for
that video but for now I’m just
appreciating the beauty that these
plants have and the structure and
interest that they bring to the Garden
I’m really pleased with the layout of
the food for us because basically what
we did was create different shaped
islands that had grass paths in between
and nothing is really a straight line
they kind of curve around and lead you
to different areas of the food Frost
making it a bit more of a journey of
Wonder and Discovery As you move through
the different parts and it means you
can’t see every area of the food Frost
from one spot and as you work your way
through you kind of come across things
that you didn’t know were there plants
that were kind of hidden in a little
Nook or cranny and it just makes the
experience feel a lot more natural and
interesting and engaging at least for me
anyway I really like having a diverse
herb layer in the food Forest because
not only is it good for insects and
diversity and it looks beautiful and it
fills in spaces but when I walk around I
often like pick pieces of herbs and just
crush them up in my
hands and when you smell it it just
almost brings like a whole another level
to the experience of being in the garden
so do try that and really smell them
deeply it just makes you feel more alive
but another cool thing that I want to do
is make some dry tea from these so I’m
harvesting some pineapple sage some
orange balm some raspberry leaf as well
that can be quite good for tea this
lemon verbina is also very nice plus
some Cula petals and some
pansies you can just let these air dry
but I’m putting them in a dehydrator to
speed it up and then once it’s all dry
I’m just going to layer it into some
jars and it not only looks cool but it
means you get a bit of everything when
you take a scoop and it makes a pretty
nice looking gift as
well I’ve also been chopping and
dropping some of the support species
which I’ve planted this involves cutting
or pruning plants and leaving the
organic matter on the ground as mulch so
as this organic material breaks down it
adds valuable nutrients back into the
soil creating a nutrient Rich layer that
benefits the surrounding plants this
basically mimics the natural processes
in a forest where leaves and plant
material fall to the ground decompose
and enrich the
soil this plant here is called comrey
and they’ve got really deep roots that
draw up nutrients from deep in the soil
and pull them up into the leaves and so
if you cut the leaves and drop them on
the ground as they break down they can
feed the other trees around so this
looks kind of harsh but you can
basically just go like that and you get
all this plant material here which you
can then lay on the ground and this
plant is very resilient you won’t kill
it from doing this it will grow back in
literally a matter of weeks especially
when the weather is warmer it’s a really
simple yet powerful way to care for the
soil promote biodiversity and create a
more resilient and self-sustaining
environment in your garden for any of
you gardeners out there you’ll know how
therapeutic it can be spending time out
in your garden it’s like your own little
slice of piece right in your backyard
but let’s be real life can often throw
unique challenges our way that require
more than just spending time outside so
I wanted just to take a moment to talk
about Mental Health before we get into
discovering the rest of the Food Forest
because this is something that I think
deserves just as much attention
personally I found that looking after my
mental health is so important because it
really does affect every other area of
your life kind of like your physical
health as well and so I’m really excited
to be talking to you guys about better
help who are sponsoring today’s video
because therapy is something that has
really benefited me and my mental health
and I think that a lot of people could
benefit from it in case you hadn’t heard
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if for some reason the therapist that
you’re match with doesn’t feel like the
right foot for you that’s totally fine
it’s easy and free to switch to a new
one we SP spend a lot of time and energy
looking after and enriching our Gardens
so why not do the same for our minds so
if you think you might benefit from
therapy please consider better help and
if you use my link below you’ll be
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hope it helps you to live a happier and
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life check out this beautiful tree it is
a rainbow Valley po or papaya and it’s a
cross between a Baka and a mountain paa
I believe and you can see that it’s got
all these fruits on it and this is only
a small amount compared to what has been
on it over the last few months because
they were spanning about double this
distance or even triple all the way down
the trunk here so they tend to harvest
themselves they fall off when they’re
ready and I’ve been getting around maybe
five or so a week so like every day or
two there’ll be one or two that falls
off and if you look further up you can
see that there are more flowers forming
as well so those will also turn into
more fruit which is amazing and it’s
been great to see that these subtropical
type trees have been successful here and
part of the reason is because I’ve got
this big lucon tree that’s been growing
above it providing Frost protection
shade and a bit of wind protection too
so it’s loving it down here in the
understory as it starts to mature you
can eat these skin and oil I often will
just peel a very thin layer of the skin
off to eat them but I’ll just try it
like
[Music]
this it is really juicy and tasty and
rather than other papayas where they’re
more of that sort of buttery creamy
texture this is more of a juicy fleshy
sort of texture and it has a mild sweet
taste but it’s really refreshing and
nice that it has these two textures of
the outside fleshy juicy part and then
the middle which is this more fluffy but
still juicy area with the seeds it’s
really
cool speaking of papaya this right here
is an oaklea papaya it’s way taller than
me and it’s a decious type so it loses
its leaves in winter and it can handle
uh Frost quite well and what’s cool is
it’s covered in flowers right now and
I’ve got another tree nearby to help
with pollination so fingers crossed we
get some fruits off this this
year while we’re on the topic of
subtropical plants these here are
tamaros you can see there’s a bunch of
them along here and I planted these only
a year ago at about this height so
they’re taller than me now they’ve grown
really quickly and there’s a bunch of
flowers and fruits all over these so
they’re doing really well I planted them
here because there’s protection from the
house from the prevailing winds that we
get and these really don’t like wind and
they don’t like frost previously these
would never have survived over in the
other area where the food Forest is now
but what’s really cool is as the Food
Forest is getting bigger it’s creating a
microclimate some of the trees are
providing some Shelter From Above and so
I have been able to plant a few Tamaro
trees over there which is great because
they can be in amongst the Food Forest
thriving in that understory and
protected somewhat from wind and Frost
and still produce some fruits so that’s
been really awesome to
[Music]
see this is really exciting you might
remember a little while ago I made a
video on how to grow peach trees from
seed and this was the one that I planted
in that video so it’s only 2 and 1/2
years since I first put that seed in the
ground to get it to what it is today and
what’s really cool is that it actually
has three peaches growing on it so I’m
really excited about that they will be
ripe in a few months time and it’s just
so cool that in such a short amount of
time only 2 and 1/2 years you can take
something from a seed to producing your
own fruits and I would say by next year
there should be quite a few more on this
tree so it’s definitely worth learning
how to do and growing own peach trees
from seed especially if you can get your
hands on a Heritage
variety this is one of the new additions
to the garden and I’ve actually had this
in a while but I’m excited to show you
this finally it is a red Sichuan pepper
tree and if you look closely it has
these really gnarly Spikes all up the
trunk and up the branches of the tree
but it has also these very beautiful
leaves and these little berries on it or
little pepper corns kind of but they’re
actually a member of the citrus family
and when these are ripe they turn kind
of a reddish pinkish color what’s really
crazy about these is if you pop them in
your mouth the sensation is absolutely
wild the flavor starts out slightly mild
and then it just like starts booing and
booing and more flavors and Sensations
come in your mouth starts kind of
buzzing and salivating and almost fros
thing and you get this very sort of
distinct citrusy explosion with other
numbing feelings and things like that
it’s quite a bizarre thing to eat and
you can add it to different Cuisines to
add that very distinct kind of citrusy
note with also that numbing sensation
when I pruned this in the winter when it
had no leaves I made sure that all of
the prunings that I took off it I put in
a really safe spot because those spikes
are really insane but I went back to
that pile recently and took some of the
cuting and I actually taped it onto the
trunk of one of my apple trees because I
had possums coming in and eating the
leaves and starting to eat the unrip
apples off the tree so I’m hoping this
will be a little bit of a deterrent from
those possums from climbing the tree so
we’ll see if that works some of the new
additions to the Garden include this
myoga
ginger as well as red
pineapples two different types of banana
trees these ones are blue Java bananas
so I’m pretty excited about those I’ve
also got some tropical apricot trees
which produce a very sour little fruit
but they’re pretty cool this is a uvala
and it’s native to Brazil and it
produces a beautiful orange
fruit and my Chinese Quint flowered for
the first time this year and it’s got
some fruits on it and this tree was
grown from seed so I’m really interested
to see how they’ll turn out so I’ll
share more about those in the future as
well as some of the other new things
around the garden that I won’t quite get
to
[Music]
today Well turns out the spikes on the
apple tree did make the possum avoid
climbing it but instead he’s eaten my
nectarines so as you can see there is
Big chew marks there so I’m not going to
waste these I’ll still cut the bad bits
off and wash them and eat them but as
you can see there’s a bunch of these
early nectarines on here so we’ll go
through now and harvest them before he
comes back tonight and eats the
[Music]
rest
honestly I don’t blame the possum for
eating these These are so sweet and so
delicious so along this fence line here
which is next to my veggie gardens I’ve
made an inground Garden which is mostly
filled with edible plants so basically
what I’ve got is a blueberry plant
around every 2 m all the way along here
and then in between those I have Chile
and guava bushes which are flowering at
the moment and starting to produce lots
of fruit which is great to see I’ve also
made a ground cover layer made out of
white strawberries and different herbs
like thyme margam oregano things like
that this plant here is called a hot and
spicy oregano I saw it and I had to have
it and it actually is very spicy so when
you chew on
Ito it’s like eating a mixture of
oregano with a chili pepper it’s
definitely hot and spicy oregano that’s
um a good name for it in the mix as well
you you also see these big tall plants
these are celery and silverbeet all
along in between as well these have been
in for 2 years and I’ve gotten so much
food off those plants as they’ve just
been there the whole time giving off so
many leaves and celery stalks but
they’re now finally going to seed so
they’re coming to the end of their life
but I’ll be able to put in more of those
as well I’ve also got some annual
veggies that I decided to pop in here
I’ve got some red cabbages kale a bit of
broccoli lettuces and bunch of spring
onions as
well and then a few other perennials
like red veined soril Lage a fig tree a
lime quat tree and purple asparagus it’s
also been just a nice area where I can
feed the sheep and the turkeys because
they really like the silver beat I do
want to get a lot more flowering things
in here I do have a few but it does need
a bit more color so that’ll be the next
thing but yeah I wanted to show you this
because it’s amazing how much food and
edible plants that you can pack into a
single space and not only that it brings
in pollinators and provides habitats for
insects which is great for being right
next to the veggie
garden I really like this area too where
I’ve got a mixture of food Forest as
well as some inground garden beds where
I can plant things like root crops and
annual vegetables and perennial
vegetables where I don’t want trees
roots from above to kind of impede on
their growth and have to be affected
when I harvest root vegetables like
potatoes so over here I’ve got this
variegated lemon tree a lime quat tree
there which is another type of citrus
outer flour a fig tree and then a
lemonade tree at that end and then
there’s things like this lavender here
three big rhub buubs which are really
prolific and then the area where I’ve
got some inground beds we’ve got some
leaks some silver beet some New Zealand
yams and I’ve planted and potatoes there
as well which haven’t quite come up
yet so around the back there’s also some
room for some inground beds so there’s
some black popcorn planted there and
some pumpkins so a lot of diversity a
lot of range of things in this garden
and it’s quite good to be able to have
this sort of area that’s very protected
from the trees around it but isn’t being
affected by shading it out too much
because a lot of these plants do like a
lot of
sun some of you might remember these
eucalyptus trees or these gum trees that
we planted when they were only very
small and they’re now powering way over
me to the point where if I wanted to I
could climb them and it’s really cool to
see that the growth spurts they get now
they suddenly you know increase by half
a meter to a meter in a very short
amount of time and it’s so awesome to
have these because they’re starting to
produce some more shade for the Sheep as
well as some more wind protection for
the property and giving us more privacy
from Neighbors so it’s worked out really
well as well as that the native tree
areas are doing really well also they’re
starting to pump out the growth as well
and we’re even starting to see some more
native birds turn up which is amazing
because there’s really very few native
trees in this area so to see those birds
starting to come back is really
rewarding and I aim to be planting more
and more native trees every winter to
look after the land make it more
resilient and hopefully bring back some
of that native
Wildlife as we’re heading into summer
and it’s starting to dry out a bit the
paddocks are going to seed but the
turkeys are actually loving stripping
the seed heads off the plants and
getting all that extra food so that’s
pretty awesome to see but I’m hoping
that it’s not going to be too crazy of a
drought this summer where we end up
having very very dry paddocks so we’ll
see what
happens I wanted to say a big thank you
to all you guys who have supported my
channel this year through watching and
liking and commenting on my videos all
that kind of thing really helps me to
continue putting out more videos for you
guys and yeah so appreciated also a big
thank you to better help and I really
hope you guys have an awesome rest of
your year and I look forward to seeing
you guys again very soon all right we’ll
catch you later