This month I wanted to share a property that's close to my heart, because it's the first one I've ever owned! Technically it's my second experimental food forest. But it's the first I've ever had full control over. It's a recreational property that is a beast to get to (a 4 hours drive from the nearest airport). But it's given me acreage and a vast swath of untouched forest to learn all the most important eco lessons I know from. I am about to sell this modest gem of a homestead and it's feeling quite emotional, a little like a break-up....
So while it may not look like much, I wanted to share how this piece of land has grown in this article. I've spent many many years in the vast pristine interior rainforests of British Columbia, Canada. It's where I've studied and self-educated in environmental and ecological issues: from sustainable agroforestry to hippie homesteading, forestry management, indigenous land practices and all around ecological design. The area is known as the central Kootenay mountain region or Ktunaxa in indigenous spelling. It's vaguely North of Spokane.
Temperate regions of Western Canada like this one are ideal for growing pears, apples, plums, grapes, berries and more. In the 'wild' forests around this area (I say 'wild' because many of them were stewarded by indigenous cultures for thousands of years) you can easily find more than 8 different kids of wild berries to snack on in early August: wild raspberry, black raspberry, thimble berry, huckleberry, watermelon berry, twin berry, strawberry and lots of other kinds of ground berries. Of course you want to keep an ear out for the berry-patch loving bears! But with a good dog you're usually pretty safe...
Cool Temperate Food Forest Plan
In the plan above, you can see the food-producing species that thrived here. There were many more that didn't. Pears and cherries are especially susceptible to bear forage (they often smash the trees while gorging themselves) while apples, plums and berries are somewhat less so. Many flowers and herbs didn't survive the deer and gravelly ancient river-bottom type soil. Goji berries and heather found it a bit too wet. Dogwood and cranberries didn't find it wet enough. Lillies usually get eaten by deer before they even fully sprout. Strawberries were too small to outcompete the native running grasses (but they do just fine in managed beds).
Biggest Successes
Iris, lavender, oregano, hardier thymes and bulb flowers thrive with little care. Honestly if I wanted a no-maintenance farm I would just be growing raspberries, grapes & oregano. They LOVE the sandier soil and can withstand the lengthening dry seasons of summer well. Plus currants, gooseberries and rhododendrons do great with little care in tree shade.
When you’re gardening in a rain forest you can’t stop something from growing. You have to take hold of bare soil the second it opens up. Otherwise the quack grass, ferns or wild grapes get in. If you're on a shady or slightly moist slope the horsetail and buttercup will take over. But your blueberries will thrive. Getting what you want to grow takes some tricks. But if you keep nursing your soil well with mulch, compost and beneficial mushroom spores you'll win out after several years.
Beauty Matters
While I originally wanted to grow only food and soil-improving species (lupin, sea buckthorn, hazel) after several rough summers of wildflower smoke I decided I needed to incorporate lots of ornamental flowers too. They're often easier to grow than vegetables and nothing sets the season like a big basket of colorful flowers. Even when skies are indescriptly grey for weeks at a time. Dahlia's, mums, black hollyhocks, giant alliums (bee's LOVE these!) and all kinds of tulips are some of my mountain garden favorites. Crocuses and snowdrops too of course.
MAINTENANCE TRICKS: HEAVY mulching was the only way to slow down grass (unless you want to spend hours weeding every two weeks). Plus slowly developing part-shade zones to outcompete them with bigger stronger species. I've gradually built up a lot of companion plants with fruit bushes to help keep grasses out: rhododendrons and day lilies work well with blueberries. Around fruit tree bases lots of bulbs and herbs like: Lemon balm, bee balm, yarrow and others can slowly build a boundary. The running berries do just fine on their own. But also enjoy having iris, violets and other flowers nearby.
WORK WITH THE GRASSES
In areas where the grasses are too competitive, mixing in taller more beautiful ornamental grasses and bulbing flowers offers a beautiful solution. Calamagrostis, Miscanthus, and Panicum's all make beautiful meadow-mates.
MULCH MULCH MULCH
Seeding mulch with King strofaria mushroom has been my biggest success in building up soil quality. As well as continuing to feed it by adding several yards of woodchip mulch every 2 years. Straw and compost every fall would be better. But that's too much work for me. The dirt here ended up being much worse than I ever imagined. With many rural properties like this logging and then scraping off and selling all top soil when being developed was the most common practice. Which means the yard itself is basically just nutrient-less builders fill.
