The Food Forest Handbook: Design and Manage a Home-Scale Perennial Polyculture Garden

by Darrell Frey, Michelle Czolba

Overview

Learn how to mix and match plants in unique combinations to establish bountiful landscapes and create genuine self-reliance in years to come.

A food forest is a productive landscape developed around a mix of trees and perennials. Rooted in permaculture principles, this integrated approach to gardening incorporates a variety of plants such as fruit and nut trees, shrubs, vines, and perennial herbs and vegetables. Food forests can help increase biodiversity, protect valuable habitat for beneficial insects, and promote food security and resilience, all while providing an abundant harvest.

The Food Forest Handbook is a practical manual for the design and management of a home-scale perennial polyculture garden. Simple, straightforward instructions guide the reader through:

• Getting started—site assessment and planning
• Tending the forest garden—maintaining soil health, succession planning, mulching, pruning and more
• The fruits of your labor—crop profiles, harvest, storage, nutrition and recipes

This timely book makes the concept of food forests accessible to everyone, offering a unique approach to low-maintenance, high-yield, sustainable food production.

“What happens if we were to drop the boundary between the built environment and nature? Wouldn’t we all be much better off? The Food Forest Handbook guides our first steps along that path.” —Albert Bates, author of The Biochar Solution

“Through this in-depth practical book you will learn the strategies for effective planning, design, establishment and management of perennial polycultures . . . I recommend this book to all those who are bringing diversity to their planting schemes.” —Jude Hobbs, permaculture land-use consultant, designer, and educator, Cascadia Permaculture

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771422116
Publisher:	New Society Publishers
Publication date:	07/14/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	259
Sales rank:	657,185
File size:	20 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	16 Years

About the Author

Darrell Frey is the owner and manager of Three Sisters Farm, a five-acre permaculture farm, solar greenhouse and market garden located in Western Pennsylvania. He has been permaculture teacher for thirty years, and is the author of Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm.

Michelle Czolba is co-owner of Pittsburgh Permaculture and co-founded the Hazelwood Food Forest. She has extensive experience in the design and maintenance of perennial polyculture.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction

1. Perennial Polycultures: Past, Present, and Future
Forest Ecology
More About Ecology
Perennial Polycultures
Agroforestry
Food Forests Through Time and Around the World
Food Forest Developments in the 20th Century
Food Forests in the 21st Century: The New Cottage Garden

2. Food Forest Design and Planning
Permaculture Design and the Food Forest
Permaculture Concepts
The Design Process
Site Analysis
Bringing It All Together
Creating a Sector Map
The Design Concept Map
Possibilities Abound: Microniches on Your Land
Plant Research
Plant Selection
Fruit Tree Polyculture

3. Food Forest Design: From Concept Sketch to Detailed Designs
Concept Sketch
Food Forest Pros and Cons
Patterns of Design
Some Other Multifunctional Arrangements
Urban Considerations
Seed Resources

4. A Food Forest Feast: Selecting Plants for Your Food Forest
Why We Eat Fruit
Nuts
Herbs
Greens
Edible Flowers
Roots
Wild Edible Plants
Fungi
Medicinal Plants
Uncommon Fruits
Soil-conditioning Plants
Nutrient-cycling Plants
Habitat Plants and Ecological Niches: The Birds and the Bees
Creating Your Food Forest Guild
Species Palettes
Choosing Your Plant Varieties

5 Tending and Growing a Forest Garden
Initial Site Preparation
Diverse Plant Life Spans
Three Steps to Creating a Dynamic Mineral-rich Ecosystem
Perennials and Biennials
Fungi
Space for Annuals
Soil Fertility Ideas
Maintaining Plant Health: The Power of Observation
Managing the Food Forest Ecosystem
Managing Cedar Apple Rust ( Gymnosporangium juniperi-virginiana )
Plan for Abundance
Planting a Tree
Pruning Techniques
Harvest
Fruit Tree Care
Maintenance Schedule

6. Propagating Your Food Forest Garden
Buying Plants
Growing Your Own: Tools and Methods
Heirloom Fruit
A Nursery Business!

7. A Tour of Food Forests in Various Climates
Drylands
Central Mexico Food Forest: El Huizachal
Food Forest Around Luis and Carla Hurtado's House
Temperate Continental Climate: Perennial Polycultures at Three Sisters Farm
For the Bees: A Bee Yard Design
Some Food Forests in Pennsylvania
Subtropical America: South Florida Food Forests
Mid-Atlantic Food Forest
Suzi's Natural Food Forest and Permaculture Gardening — Texas Style
Pacific Northwest: Beacon Food Forest
Hazelwood Food Forest Revisited: Where Is It Now?
Food Forests in the Sustainable, Regenerative Society
Closing Thoughts

Appendix: Compost Remediation for Lead Contamination
Index
About the Authors
About the Publisher

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

"Sorting out the particulars of a Food Forest can be tricky, overwhelming and seemingly complex. But Darrell Frey's and Michelle Czolba's Book, The Food Forest Handbook changes all that! Through this in-depth practical book you will learn the strategies for effective planning, design, establishment and management of perennial polycultures. I found it fascinating how this design system has been utilized through the ages in many cultures to current times with a tour of successful food forests in varying climates. I recommend this book to all those who are bringing diversity to their planting schemes."
— Jude Hobbs, Permaculture land-use consultant, designer, and educator, Cascadia Permaculture

"Frey and Czolba share the valuable fruit of their decades of experience with this carbon-friendly gardening form. But they go beyond this to tour sites around the world to reap insight and inspiration. They also do a better job than any food forestry book I've seen of reminding us of the tropical origins of this form of multi-strata agroforestry."
— Eric Toensmeier, author, The Carbon Farming Solution

"Michelle Czolba's and Darrell Frey's decades of hands-on experience in permaculture and food production has allowed them to create a unique, important, and timely book. The authors have condensed two lifetimes of experience into a beautifully presented and essential volume. The Food Forest Handbook is an outstanding work that should be in the libraries of urban planners, designers, gardeners, property owners, naturalists, and even survivalists". Save the Earth" isn't just a slogan; this book shows the reader how to make it a practice."
— Joseph Jenkins, author, The Humanure Handbook, The Slate Roof Bible, and Balance Point

"Darrell Frey and Michelle Czolba have recovered this truth from ancient wisdom: forests are successional recyclers. What happens if we were to drop the boundary between the built environment and nature? Wouldn't we all be much better off? The Food Forest Handbook guides our first steps along that path."
— Albert Bates, author, The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide, The Biochar Solution, and The Paris Agreement