In early 2011, after discovering the food forest concept, we launched into action and began the process of converting the barren chook paddock into an edible, multi layered botanical paradise. Not much to see at this point, seen looking south back towards the house.January 03, 2011food forest
Details It's never too late to add another swale, it's just a matter of squeezing it in amongst the existing plantings, fences and other obstacles. The swales not only do a fantastic job of capturing and infiltrating surface runoff during rainy times but also break up the land in interesting and attractive ways.Date December 03, 2014Tags SwaleFood forestWater
When we took over the property it came with an orchard consisting of plums, almonds, cherry, apricot, apples, peaches, nashi and pears. The trees are of varying ages and were planted more or less randomly across what was once an open paddock. Slowly I have been contouring, inter-planting, removing grass, mulching and generally intensifying the productivity of the area.September 01, 2013food forestconversionprogress
Details This photos shows a young area of planting where pigs and chickens roam free. Largest trees are tagasaste, alder and almond at around 3m. An assortment of fruit trees about 2-3 meters including peach, apricot, apple, cherry. Some black currants and an assortment of flowers and herbs. Additional wind protection and nitrogen fixation from acacia (tasmanian black wood) and cape broom.Date November 27, 2014Tags food forest
Spring is here again and this almond is putting on a show. Planted just 3 years ago, this is the second year it has produced a crop. Looking forward to it. Also in the photo is Dmitry the muscovy.August 27, 2013springfood forestduck
It's high summer in 2012 and we have had a pretty good crop of nectarines from the 2 grafted trees and I was surprised to see a couple of almonds on the seedling tree. It is only 3 years old! The food forest area looks completely different now with all the sweet broom (nitrogen fixing small shrubs) and the primary swale feeding nutrient rich water down to the fruit and nut trees.December 07, 2012summerfood forest
Our 3 pigs sleep in a long concrete shed, the north side of which is 4 garden beds enclosed in plastic through which the chickens are rotated. During the day the animals are free to roam up to 1 hectare of emerging food forest which is broken into 8 sections (paddocks) of various sizes. Many of our pig fences are constructed from short log posts driven into the ground and joined by a horizontal run of old corrugated iron since there was stacks of it here. Wire fences will not contain a pig, they can force their way under and through. We find that by providing plenty of space and regulating their access to different areas means they get plenty of variety, don't over graze and start interfering with young trees or rooting up the ground.September 19, 2016pigsfood forest
