How to Design a Backyard Forest Garden

By Toby Hemenway
Published on June 13, 2014
article image
Illustration by Elayne Sears
This backyard forest garden is comprised of seven layers, creating a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening, which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants, can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As award-winning author Toby Hemenway demonstrates in Gaia’s Garden (Chelsea Green, 2009), it’s fun and easy to build a backyard ecosystem by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions. In the following excerpt, learn how to use permaculture landscape design to create a lush seven-layer forest garden.

Buy this book from Chelsea Green. Gaia’s Garden

The Seven-Layer Forest Garden
It’s time to look at forest garden design. A simple forest garden contains three layers: trees, shrubs, and ground plants. But for those who like to take advantage of every planting opportunity, a deluxe forest garden can contain as many as seven tiers of vegetation. As the illustration above shows, a seven-layered forest garden contains tall trees, low trees, shrubs, herbs, ground covers, vines, and root crops. Here are these layers in more detail.

The Tall-Tree Layer. This is an overstory of full-sized fruit, nut, or other useful trees, with spaces between to let plenty of light reach the lower layers. Dense, spreading species — the classic shade trees such as maple, sycamore, and beech– don’t work well in the forest garden because they cast deep shadows over a large area. Better choices are multifunctional fruit and nut trees. These include standard and semistandard apple and pear trees, European plums on standard rootstocks such as Myrobalan, and full-sized cherries. Chestnut trees, though quite large, work well, especially if pruned to an open, light-allowing shape. Chinese chestnuts, generally not as large as American types, are good candidates. Walnut trees, especially the naturally open, spreading varieties such as heartnut and buartnut, are excellent. Don’t overlook the nut-bearing stone piñon and Korean nut pines. Nitrogen-fixing trees will help build soil, and most bear blossoms that attract insects. These include black locust, mesquite, alder, and, in low-frost climates, acacia, algoroba, tagasaste, and carob.

Since much of the forest garden lies in landscape zones 1 and 2, timber trees aren’t appropriate, because tree felling in close quarters would be too destructive. But pruning and storm damage will generate firewood and small wood for crafts.

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