The Ultimate Forest Garden Guide

These times of change have fueled people’s interests in how to become more self-sufficient.  

Having a productive garden is shared by many homeowners and with more awareness of how we live is impacting the planet, people are tending towards environmentally-friendly strategies for producing their food that works with nature. 

Forest gardens can create a food-producing ecosystem that quickly becomes lush and productive.

Forest gardens, which are essentially permaculture-based agroforestry gardens, have the luxury of being more self-sustainable so the labor needed to maintain the garden will be reduced over time. 

What to Expect? If this sounds like ‘the dream’ for you, we have created the ultimate guide to forest gardening you need to know to get started on your forest garden and to establish and maintain a forest garden habitat that can feed your family for a lifetime and a beyond.

What Is a Forest Garden?

Forest gardens are systems that produce food and require low to no input while mimicking woodland ecosystems to become not only beautiful and productive gardens but also productive natural spaces:

Forage food from a forest garden

These gardens utilize trees and perennial plants in order to produce a wide variety of consumables including nuts, spices, berries, herbs, fruits, and even annual crops, which can be grown in raised beds or on frames, or up and through the taller plant and trees.

In these wild or outdoor pantries, food is not harvested but foraged, and if you are clever with your gardening, you can have food available to consume through all seasons.

Agroforestry principles

A defining feature of a forest garden is the imitation of a forest or woodland by vertically stacking or layering plants by height, preferably with native species appropriate to the location and climate.

Create a habitat where nature takes care of itself

In the forest garden, the key to success is developing a fertile natural habitat to promote symbiotic relationships with the beneficial residents of the garden: animals, insects, and plants.

This method builds sustainability into the garden, and should reduce or eliminate the need for regular tilling, chemical applications, pesticides and natural fertilizers.

The key benefits of forest gardens

If you’re just beginning to discover the world of forest gardening, the idea of making trees and shrubs the foundation of your food-producing garden can be a little overwhelming.

Also, creating a food forest takes time, so the question is, what are the benefits of developing your food forest?

A forest in your garden!

With this 3D approach to gardening, even the most flat and dull urban backyard can become a lush green paradise.

You can retreat to your forest garden and forage for berries, fruit, or leaves for hours to improve your meal.

Work with the land

The premise of forest gardening is to allow nature to be itself.

You are creating and allowing an area for plants, insects, and animals to form their own positive relationships, similar to what one would find in an old growth forrest.

This means you can let the squash vine ramble up a tree trunk or plant basil with your tomatoes.

You can also grow a nitrogen-fixing ground cover crop to both protect and add nutrients to the soil for all of the plants.

Boost the productivity of your garden 

You can still achieve great yields of fruits and vegetables, including through less intensive growing by growing both horizontally and vertically.

The variety of plants means that you can produce a wide range of crops.

And if you add a couple of ducks to control the slugs, you may be able to be fully self-sufficient!

A low-maintenance approach to gardening

A forest garden is the smallholder’s secret. A forest garden is designed to minimize the amount of work to produce food.

By planning well for which plants and trees you select, you will choose plants and trees that are hardy and suitable for your climate.

Using companion planting and intercropping will increase yields without much added effort.

Enjoy diverse crops throughout the year

The multi-tiered method to establish a garden offers natural refuge and conservation of warmth, which may lead to a longer growing season.

Forest gardeners thoughtfully design their gardens with plants that have varied harvest dates, hence a supply of food all year long.

Encourage biodiversity in your garden

A forest garden isn’t just for you.

This ecologically conscious and sustainable gardening style creates a habitat that converts the benefit of the healthy environment for all creatures that visit it.

In creating a garden that is in harmony with nature, it attracts the beneficial pollinators we need to survive: bees, insects, and birds.

Protect your soils

Forest gardening (the practice of developing productive and edible ecosystems), as part of permaculture, is a productive gardening style that prevents erosion.

The trees hold the land together while different layers of plants cycle organic matter to create nutritious humus that provides nutrients and sustains your plants.

If you ever heard of a dynamic accumulator you probably have heard about Plantago or Comfrey. Dynamic accumulate plants work for you by sending down deep roots into the sub-surface (sub-soil) right where nutrients are stored for use by your plants.

Forests? Trees? Will a forest garden work in my backyard?

You don’t need a vast tract of woods in order to create a forest garden in your space, which is a relief!

Forest gardening means the principles involved to create your garden and keep it functioning.

This means that a forest garden can flourish as a city garden or in a large smallholding.

The important thing is that the arrangement of plants and their relationships come to life to continue providing food for you and wildlife year after year.

The history of Forest Gardening

Forest gardening embodies a return to the land and the search for practical ways of making land productive without the energy input and labor intensity that characterizes contemporary crop-raising practices.

The British smallholder and agricultureist Robert Hart originated the term “forest garden” in the 1980s after a life of attempting to build a self-sustaining farm for him and his brother, who was disabled.

Hart could no longer manage the physical labor required to sustain a modest-sized smallholding and began to experiment with less labor-intensive farming.

The idea of forest gardening is not new, and some suggest it is an idea rooted in the Garden of Eden.

Plenty of cultures and communities have used forest-based polyculture for subsistence throughout history and around the world.

For example:

• The Keralan forest gardens, the term for home gardens that incorporate fruit and spice trees with livestock and arable crops:
• The lush and fertile Chagga gardens on Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with bananas, pineapple, and arabica coffee as a cash crop.

If these lush jungle-like tropical environments are strikingly different from your suburban yard remember that Robert Hart established his forest garden in the UK which is USDA zone 9.

Hart’s forest gardening was his interpretation of an ancient way of gardening as a seven-layer model that included the various layers of plants and organisms found in the forest.

After time and considerable experimentation, his pioneering intercropping forest gardening model was able to substantially be self-sufficient with little intervention.

Other supporters of forest gardening have emerged from the permaculture movement, Bill Mollison and Graham Bell were among the first few pioneers of forest gardening.

Setting up a forest garden: the seven layers

Keep in mind that with a forest garden you are not planting a garden, you are building a living system.

Forest gardening is popular in permaculture and shares many principles and processes with permaculture as well. Let’s take a look at the seven layers of a forest garden.

1. The upper canopy 

The upper canopy of a forest garden consists of mature fruit trees.

This would be considered the foundation of a forest garden.

These trees are usually the first trees that were originally on the property or grounds and may include cropping fruit or nut trees.

The crowns of these trees become the highest layer of vegetative crop production in the forest garden, but should be omitted in a smaller garden.

2. The lower canopy or sub-canopy (Crab Apple)

Other names for this layer are the low-tree layer, understorey, underbrush, or undergrowth. It is just beneath or in front of the canopy layer.

This layer contains dwarf fruit and nut trees and can become extremely productive fairly quickly compared to the upper canopy.

In much of the world, cash crops such as coffee or olives are grown here.

3. The vertical layer (vines and climbers) 

The vertical layer consists of vining plants and climbers.

This can be an extremely useful part of any forest garden and takes up a tiny footprint.

By using the vertical space in your garden you are able to grow even more food at multiple layers.

Forest gardeners use structures, tipis, and even other plants and trees as a frame to support the vines and climbers.

Just make sure to have a ladder handy when you harvest!

4. The shrubs, and bushes layer

These perennial plants are low growing, and typically only need pruning back if they become exuberant.

Most plants in this layer (most berries fall into this category) won’t grow larger than three meters.

In addition to food plants, some forest gardeners will incorporate some herbaceous plants which have medicinal properties in this layer.

5. The herbaceous layer (perennials and annuals)

This layer encompasses more traditional garden options.

These cultivars are non-woody and will grow, flower, fruit, and die back every year.

With thoughtful selection and planting, many of these plants can be grown with quite low input and relied upon to produce well.

The herbaceous layer also provides soil protection from erosion, and the nitrogen-fixing leguminous plant species will contribute back nitrogen to the growing area.

The herbaceous layer is also a draw for the native pollinators, beneficial insects, and birds that will do the heavy lifting of pollinating your plants and trees fully.

6. The ground cover layer

Forest gardeners continue to maintain this growing area with spreading, edible plants that create a forest floor.

Naturally, they must be shade-loving, and most ground cover plants are low-growing, ideally covering all exposed soil that was in the garden.

It will also often overlap with the herbaceous layer as the two layers will often combine into one layer to garden.

7. The roots and rhizosphere layer

The productivity of a forest garden extends below the soil level, with plants that have edible and nutritious storage organs growing beneath the soil.

There is a wide diversity of plants that provide edible roots, and some of these species may be cultivated by gardeners as part of the herbaceous layer and or ground cover layer.

Optional or additional forest garden layers

Depending on your land and natural conditions you may add or remove layers from this model to achieve the forest garden effect.

There are another two layers that you may want to introduce to the forest garden if your land permits.

8. The fungal layer

Forest gardeners grow mushrooms and other fungi like Chicken of the Woods and fungal species that take up residence in the soil.

This is yet another layer that acknowledges the beneficial effect of fungi on soil and plant quality in a forest garden.

The wild fungi growing spontaneously are an indicator of a vibrant forest garden.

9. The aquatic layer

Streams or ponds can be used in a forest garden as the aquatic or wetland layer.

Not only does water provide irrigation, it is also an ecosystem that will yield food plants and also habitat for all kinds of local wildlife including ducks if you elect to keep them for slug control!

80 trees, plants, and crops for a food forest

Building a forest garden involves the cultivation of food, but more importantly, its creation is about establishing a healthy ecosystem based on benefiting the local wildlife and plants similarly as providing food for humans.

This type of organic gardening requires a bit of a paradigm shift, in that you are gardening with the expectation of harvest that happen over long time frames, because plants established (especially in the upper layer) may produce fruit for generations to come.

Here is a list of 100 plants to consider within any forest garden.

Rhizosphere layer plants

1. Potatoes
2. Carrots
3. Parsnips
4. Yams
5. Tarrow
6. Jerusalem artichoke
7. Beets
8. Turnips
9. Kohlrabi
10. Radishes

Groundcover plants

11. Creeping raspberry
12. Wild garlic
13. Wild strawberries
14. Dwarf comfrey – a dynamic accumulator
15. Russian comfrey
16. Lambs lettuce 
17. Sweet potato
18. Kale
19. Nasturtiums
20. Lemon balm
21. Walking onions 
22. Garlic
23. Dewberry
24. Oregano

Herbaceous layer plants

25. Mint
26. Caucasian spinach
27. Globe artichoke
28. Horseradish
29. Rhubarb
30. Lovage
31. Lupins – nitrogen fixing
32. Perennial leeks
33. Welsh onion
34. Chinese chives
35. Daylilies
36. Sweet Cicely
37. Sea beet
38. Celery
39. Asparagus crowns

Shrub layer plants 

40. Gooseberry
41. Blackcurrant
42. Blackberry
43. Redcurrant
44. Barberries
45. Mahonia, 
46. Gaultheria shallon
47. Chinese dogwood
48. Chokeberries
49. Broom – nitrogen fixing
50. Elaeagnus – nitrogen fixing
51. Beech 
52. Lime

Vertical climbing plants

53. Runner beans
54. Loganberries
55. Grapes
56. Hardy kiwi
57. Magnolia vine
58. Passionfruit
59. Mashua
60. Hops 
61. Malabar spinach

Lower canopy plants

62. Hazel
63. Mulberry
64. Crab apple
65. Medlar 
66. Fig
67. Greengage
68. Miniature cherry
69. Lemon
70. Hazel
71. Olive

Upper canopy trees

72. Apples
73. Pears
74. Plums
75. Chestnut
76. Kentish cob
77. Beech 
78. Lime
79. Almond 
80. Walnut

How to create your forest garden

Establishing your forest garden layers and having them work together is all about the labor of love. Get ready for plenty experimentation, as things may not happen the first time you try it!

It can take years of working on a forest garden to have it be sustaining by the right relationships between the plants, but when you have these relationships, the payoff of having a constant source of ready-foraging food will be well worth the wait!

This is simply a starting list of the most important steps for starting a food forest in your garden.

Research

Knowing, or repeating knowledge, is an enormous part of forest gardening and is necessary if you ever expect to be successful in pursuing an ongoing conversation about forest gardening, and permaculture.

Fortunately, the more advanced learners along the journey in forest gardening, are eager to share with those in your position.

Look at books, look at videos, and reach out to agroforestry organizations to consider ideas and explanations to get your plans going.

Plan

A food forest is a long-term project that you set into motion.

Deliberate planning is important to get results that are productive, useful and visually appealing.

You may want to consider helping from an appropriate professional, such as garden designer, landscaper or agroforestry expert, to help you to frame your ideas and possibilities in relation to your food forest.

Soil testing and other measurements will in combination help you determine which plants are best suited to your particular land.

Food forest expert James Prigioni has some great advice about how you can set this up:

Source

Whenever you decide you would like to add fruit trees in your forest garden, make sure to buy the best quality saplings from a certified nursery.

Perennials can also be bought or planted from seeds.

Again with perennials such as asparagus crowns, investing in higher quality plants will ensure reliable cropping year after year.

Plant

The varying heights of the layers in your garden will create a stepped effect.

However, there are still a number of ways in which you can be creative with your plantings.

Below are some suggestions you can try:

• Elevated plantings for groundcover and herbaceous plants
• Protection for young trees
• Tipis, frames, or trellises for climbing plants (they can also climb trees)
• Terracing, to use natural gradients in your garden to hold light and heat.

Wait

With forest gardening, patience is a virtue.

The gardens shy away from large amounts of weeding, tilling, and other forms of interference.

Let the plants establish themselves and the relationships that will allow your garden to thrive.

5 amazing forest gardens to inspire your forest gardening journey

1. Tim and Maddy Harland of Permaculture Magazines ⅓ acre forest garden

Since the 1980s, permaculture pioneers Tim and Maddy Harland have been working on their evolving forest garden, producing a rich food forest that illustrates all elements of creating a food forest and the many benefits of this wonderful type of garden you will enjoy.

2. Edible Landscapes

Edible Landscapes are designing beautiful and useful forest gardens in London and providing people of London with instruction on how to take advantage of this new, low-maintenance gardening practice to become self-sufficient.

3. US Eastern all-native edible forest garden

• Pawpaw
• Nannyberry
• Persimmon
• Sunchokes
• Hickory nuts
• Black-capped raspberries and more…

4. The largest food forest in the US

A food forest is capable of feeding much more than one family. The concept scales up, and many non-profits are now creating these highly productive gardens that feed and provide enrichment for communities.

The city of Atlanta, Georgia, has created the largest free food forest in the United States on a 7-acre parcel of land in the socially disadvantaged Browns Mill area.

5. The Agro-Forestry Research Trust Garden

This outstanding educational garden was created by Martin Crawford in the 1990s in Devon, England, and demonstrates the principles of forest gardening on a 2-acre site.

Because it is a mature garden, it is self-sustaining, with management according to permaculture principles.

Forest gardening organizations and resources

As a food forest gardener, you’ll be continuously discovering new things, experimenting, discovering improvements to your land.

Begin the journey with these fantastic, websites, blogs, and Youtube channels about forest gardening.

Reach out to these forest gardening organizations for information and advice

• The National Forest Gardening Scheme serves as a valuable source of information about the benefits of forest gardening and how you can get started with establishing your own.
• The Agroforestry Research Trust provides the technical information needed to create a food forest out of your garden. They offer courses and offer an international symposium.
• Trees For The Future is an international agroforestry charity that offers information on the advantages of agroforestry for diverse communities around the world.
• The Food Forest Project is a grassroots US organization dedicated to feeding communities across the US with food forests. If you do not have a garden, but are interested in participating in forest gardening, this is a great organization to get in touch with.

Check out these awesome bloggers who have all the know-how on food forests

• The Gardening Channel with James Prigioni is one of the world’s best known forest gardening vloggers – straight outta Jersey!
• Huws nursery: Wales’ own Huw Richards is a forest gardener, and permaculture expert, and can share amazing ideas
• Food Forest Permaculture: A Canadian food forest channel that is full of ideas and tips.

Browse these informative forest gardening blogs for ideas and inspiration

• Mother Earth News: If you are contemplating self-sufficiency seriously, you will find information about forest gardening and a variety of different sustainable livings to consider, and it is a well-respected publication with plenty of information and experience in this arena.
• Modern Farmer: Similar to Mother Earth News, but it explores lots of alternative forms of agriculture and growing, including forest gardening.
• Permaculture magazine: This is a leading publication for a long time now, on permacultre and forest gardening with contributions from all over the globe, and contributions from experts and non-experts.

Rounding Up

Forest gardening turns growing your food into an adventure, and you will be amazed at what even a small garden can produce.

These simple principles are straightforward to understand and practice, and great experiments and adaptations will also emerge naturally as your garden grows and changes.