The EASIEST VEGETABLES to Grow from SEED & HARVEST Seed From - START YOUR PERMACULTURE FOOD FOREST!
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Published 2024-05-18
In today's video I am going to be talking about just that! I am also going to talk a little about the idea of a PERMACULTURE FOOD FOREST. It's important to remember that nature is always changing, always adapting, and nature in balance, a healthy vibrant ecosystem, is biodiverse. That diversity includes the idea of what consists of a permanent forest ecosystem that gives you food - a Permaculture Food Forest. It is not necessarily what is often viewed as a forest as a dark place full of old trees growing closely together. In the FOOD FOREST, there are many levels that all interact in balance. There are the tallest mature trees, which provide a canopy high in the air, then there are the big trees that aren't quite mature, there are the shrubs and small trees, there are the vines that grow up all those tree and shrubs, there are the herbaceous plantes (the low growing leafy plants that are so many of our vegetables, native wildflowers and herbs), there are the ground covers, like wild ginger and wild garlic, and then there are the plants whose main parts are below ground, the root, the tubers, the fungi, and so much else. All of these layers interact in balance, and they don't always look like a traditional forest. In fact, your backyard vegetable and flower garden with some trees, shrubs, vines and groundcover can be a microcosm of a Food Forest.
And there is one extremely interesting point that is the most important to remember: THE MOST BIODIVERSE ECOSYSTEMS are what are called EDGE HABITATS. These are the areas that are in the places (on the edges you could say) between major different ecosystems, like between a forest and a prairie, between a grassland and a creek, between a wetland and a lake, between a forest and a river, etc. In these EDGE ECOSYSTEMS, you have plant, animal, fungi and other species from both ecosystems that surround that edge, so you have twice the biodiversity.
A FOOD FOREST that we can create can very much imitate this type of edge habitat, and can take on many looks. There is such a diversity of ecosystems in the world, that FOOD FORESTS can have an equally diverse image.
I explain all of this in this description in order to show you how a simple vegetable, herb and wildflower garden with a few trees, vines, groundcovers and shrubs added to the mix, which can all fit in a small backyard, or even on a tiny scale, on a patio, can all be set up if you are on a journey to learn about GROWING a FOOD FOREST. You don't have to do it all at once. I've been gardening for 30 years, but I only began creating a food forest where I live 4 and a half years ago. I created food forests at schools where I worked in the past, but never at home. 4 and a half years ago, I finally had a chance to throw myself fully into this process at home. But all those years of gardening prior gave me the skills and knowledge I needed to make the process now just such a joy, so natural, and so successful.
All you have to do is begin. Plant stuff, and let those plants, let nature, teach you. Observe, look up the needs of the plants you grow, and just do it. The plants and nature will take care of the rest!
This video is about what you can easily start with, so you can easily have food, and harvest seed and keep doing it year after year while you learn more!
I hope you enjoy the video!
If you like the video and you find it useful, share it with your friends! And don't forget to subscribe if you haven't done so yet, to support our channel and watch some more of our videos!
Have a wonderful week and enjoy the video!
And by the way, the music at the end is some original music composed by a friend of ours, and we own the copywrite to the music! Please let me know if you like it, and I'll let our friend know! Maybe he'll let me share his name on one of our videos!
All Comments (21)
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Hello and Welcome to Willows Green Permaculture on this Holiday Weekend in Ontario, Canada!❤🌳If you have any questions, I'll be here to answer them for you!
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I may have missed some but this is the gist of what he went over: 1. Garlic in the Fall (not near peas or beans) 2. Walking Onions - little bulbs in Aug, harvest in spring (not near peas or beans), plant them everywhere! 3. Potatoes - they will come back and over winter in the soil. 4. Mustard leaves 5. Yarrow - tea, medicinal, can get thousands of seeds late june/july, collect seeds, fern like plant, deer don't like it. 6. Peas - on trellis 7. Calendula 8. broomcorn sorghum - 9. Amaranth 10. Millet / Corn / Rice 11. Kale that went to Flower 12. Barley 13. Curly Dock -can be ground into flour, leaf good to rub on stings 14. Swiss Chard - same family as beets without the root bulb, let it go to seed 15. Tomato (warm start in greenhouse or indoors) 16. Watermelon (warm start in greenhouse or indoor) 17. Squash - queensland blue, butternut won't give you "true" squash 18. loafa squash - not to eat, don't put near eating squash 19. Cantaloupe 20. Cucumbers 21. Basil 22. BEANS Love garlic scapes! I'm late to the planting party but I'm finally able to purchase the fruit trees, bushes, and grapes. If I had bought the smallest plants/twigs really - bareroot instead of waiting until I could get larger plants - I would have 4 to 5 year old fruit trees - baring fruit. It's true, you start when you first buy your property cause it takes time to grow!
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I've quickly learned that Calendula is my favorite flower. It just helps me feel so successful. It's easy, gorgeous, and so satisfying to save the seeds. So glad I found your content!
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Very informative, I feel like a lazy gardener when I watch you … but … you do motivate and encourage me to do better!
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I have been eating Egyptian loofah for decades, I pick them at about 8 inches long and slice them up, egg- bread crumbs - parmesan cheese - dried herbs - fry in cast iron skillet with high quality oil.
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I can follow your voice so easily and understand, pace and info is perfect
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Holy smokes! That garlic patch is amazing!!!
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Last summer I learned how much garlic needs consistent soil moisture. I grow Music. Heat and drought are tough on them. I have some garlic chives that are starting to take off after a few years. I collected some seeds and that clump will go in my back yard garden. The original is at the farm next door. I've never failed to have volunteer lettuce, tomatoes, or compost squash. I have about 4 liters of calendula seeds. It's nuts how they multiply.
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I wish you could give us a video on preparing the soil and what should be used as soil and fertilizer for the most successful gardens!!! I love the explanations of all the types of vegetations you use!!! Ty!!!
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Love that little yellow flower at end.
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Found your channel this morning. I grow most of the plants you sow and save the seeds every year. Trying Mennonite Sorghum for the first time this year. Found the seeds from Nova Scotia so should grow in my zone 4b on South Georgian Bay. Love your channel. I am doing a small food forest in my back yard in town.
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Thank you so much for all the great info! I'm a new subscriber and looking forward to going back and checking out previous videos! I have potato plants that are covered in flowers and never knew they would produce seeds later that I could harvest! I appreciate your teaching me something new!
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Could you share a video of how to make calendula cream you mentioned? Did you grow these plants in this video at the same time in the nursery? Thank you God bless you Maranatha
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When you said “fern like” plant, I thought of fiddleheads 😊
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I just finally found your channel and really appreciate it! I grew up a bit north of you (in the Upper Peninsula) but am now in the mid-Atlantic. Gardening is so good for so many reasons, and I love your passion for it. One note: I notice the large patch of jewelweed at the end of your video. I'm sure you are aware of how well it takes away stings? It's one of my favorite medicinal plants! thank you for a great channel!
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Blessings
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Nice just love It. ❤
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Thank you, I've been having trouble growing beets, and carrots
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I love the compost garden idea. I will definitely try that. I made a three sisters today and my teepee poles are from small cedar trees which i also have alot of in my woods and they were already dead. I already had corn planted and its about 10-12" high and a couple squash plants so i sowed pole bean seeds and more squash seeds. Unfortunately something ate the tops off of all my dragon tongue bean plants in another part of my garden. I don't have the perimeter secured yet. Enjoyed the video.
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Super good video! Thank you so much!!! You are awesome 😎!!!
