How to Start A Food Forest Garden! Organic Gardening 

Man, you have become so much more comfortable in front of the camera since this video was recorded, haha

Man I'm watching this video 4 years after and i have to say you have grown a lot with your presentation. Great content.

I'm here 5 years after this vid was made. I decided to binge watch your content because it's all so helpful for me and my husband. These older videos are still sooooo good, but you're much more outwardly enthusiastic now. Maybe it's gained confidence with speaking on camera...maybe it's happiness that you live in such a beautiful food forest. Either way, so many people are grateful that you're here.

"you can grow more shade; cant grow more sun" never heard it put that way before, sounds logical lol

BEST GARDENING CHANNEL ON RU-vid IN THE HISTORY OF THE PLANET AND UNIVERSE!!!!!! EVEN OUR PARALLEL UNIVERSE!!!!!!

Dude!!! I'm subscribing. Why? Because you're the first person to say, "dust to dust" in reference to what kind of wood chips. You, Sir, are an altruistic genius, and I agree and relate to those types of folks. That is not saying that I am one. Shalom

You really seem like a good human; like how God wants us to be. Good to the Earth, good to animals, to to people. That sounds weird maybe, but watching you in your forest makes me think of how the first profession/love God wanted us to have was for nature.

I was listening without qatching and this popped up in my auto play. I could tell without checking this was an older video. Your energy is so high now. Keep up the good work.

It’s so funny how the animals gather on what he works on 😂

I run your videos on my big tv with surround and every time you give me a good idea I run outside to my garden,we all need your positive influences in our lives ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

He’s organic gangster.

After watching too much of videos on permaculture, I found this very knowledgeable

James, it was such a god send to find your channel - sound advice based on evidence and you clearly study and understand the science and the biology of the plants you talk about. Unfortunately there is so much mambo jumbo talked about gardening so channels like your deserve to get the recognition. Regards Julian from Scotland

I'm in Australia and have started an urban food forest garden not long ago, I'm really looking forward to seeing this develop. I'm using newspaper to smother the grass piled up with rabbit manure, hay and woodchips. Fortunately Ive found a rabbit breeder who always has big bags of that to give away.

If there is a costco in your area.. you can ask for "Slip sheets" which are just large squares 48" x 40" (i believe, the same size as a pallet board) of cardboard used to slip inbetween levels of product, so they have plenty.... easy to overlap

Watching this from UK, I wish to thank you for this. You are an inspiration. I have actually watched almost all of your new ones and catching up on the old ones. This is my first year and I have learnt so much from you. I have grown or attempted to grow food from my heart ! I feel like I can relate to you as one of us and a genuine human being who wishes to spread the learning , joy and goodness. Thank you so much.

I have three acres and bit off more than I can chew! I put cardboard down when I have it or I use the contractor paper. I've started planting in trios with a nitrogen fixer matched with a fruit tree. I'm splitting and using a lot of comfrey. I suggest starting in a small area and getting it going and then moving out. Ten yards of chips this weekend, nowhere near enough. I'm still in the initial stages but I can see it will get easier.

Videos like this are so important for improving the environment, and the world in so many ways! I love your channel. I have a pretty established front and backyard food forest. It’s fun to see others;)

Great info on types of wood chips and when to lay them. I have clay soil in the high mountain desert, so the info about prepping clay soil was especially helpful

I look forward to starting my own forest garden next year. Thank you for this detailed information on how to start one. I've always felt grass was a waste of space.

Live your video's. But i always watch what tuck is doing 😆

James, you're so brilliant! I love watching your videos, they are so informative! I'm trying to start my own permaculture garden & I've learned so so much from you. Thank you so much!

Your helper is doing a great job of holding the cardboard down. I appreciate you sharing your knowledge and making it easy for everyone to understand. Keep them coming....

Thank you so much for a chilled relaxing video that has really encouraged me to give this a go

Tuck was a star even before the videos! ❤❤❤ Tuck ❤❤❤. Great content James!!

James, I love your channel and energy. I watch your channel regularly and would love for you to create a new version of this video with your growth as a cultivator. Do you have a course you teach? With rising food prices and the importance of personal independence I feel your wisdom is some of the most valuable information out there. Thanks for the change in human consciousness that you have sparked! All the love to you and your’s.

I have just found your channel at the perfect time. I'm planning to start my forest garden in the spring so this video was really useful and seeing your forest garden is an inspiration. Thanks!

I absolutely love the amount of updates on this channel! The garden looks so different daily!

I never had access to woodchips, so for years, i used newspaper for mulch, topped with grass clippings from my huge yard and leaves from all the trees (except the nearby black walnuts!). The first time I ever heard of this was from Fred Wiche, the local tv Weekend Gardener. He said it was a great way to start a garden with little or no tilling...folks thought he was just a wee bit nutz, but I was convinced to give it a try. I had neighbors who did not use chemicals on their yards so their grass clippings and trees were free of chemicals. they were also very happy to dump onto my compost piles. they didn't mind giving up their newspapers either... but after they saw how much success i had with my small 15x25 garden, they started using their newspapers for their own small gardens. LOL another thing I did was ask one of my neighbors for the water out of their freshwater fish tanks. Like you I started my no till garden in the early fall with a heavy layer of newspapers, some fresh and some composted grass and leaves and soaked it all down with about 30 gallons of "fishy water". The first garden of simple tomatoes, beans, beets, carrots, peppers, and squash was surprisingly bountiful. The second year, that little garden took off like a rocket. I had half a bushel of Thai peppers... I was giving the dried peppers from 4 plants away. LOL My biggest success was I grew something no one thinks to grow here, because they almost always fail, honeydew melons. I had two successful plants that sat about six fruit. I was overjoyed. I did something else. I planted a tiny 6x4 sacrifice garden. I just broadcast a handful of seed, sprinkled it with compost, and let it go. did nothing to it. no water, no attention at all. Because the plants were stressed they drew away harmful bugs and pests from the main garden. I did, however, end up with a zucchini the size of a junior-sized baseball bat and just about had hard. LOL

Tuck is the most hard working farmer..❤️❤️❤️

What a fantastic video. I'll be watching this over and over until all this info. is permanent in my brain! I love the video at 15:04 - the happy boyish grin when you say "when you water you are feeding the plants compost tea". So obvious you love what you do. Thanks. ~Sherrie

Right from the start I'm a believer. Thank you.

This is great information, now I just need to convince my daughter that this is the way to go. She would just as soon send everything off to the recycle center whereas I believe that what is in my garden stays in my garden as mulch or compost. Somewhere there has to be a happy medium right!

Thank you for making us understand the food forest. Thank you for heralding the urban back yard food forest. I Love all your videos!

I'm readying myself. Actually really excited. This is the perfect time to start. I hope I can pull this off by myself!

I watched your 2012 to 2018 video, and again it was fantastic, I was happy to see your evolution. I have difficulty bending and getting down to the ground so I had a friend build high boxes (big areas - mistake but never mind lol) and then did the walk ways and sides in contractors paper and wood chips. Every day I watch your channels and learn so much. Thank you.

I am completely new to gardening and I started getting addicted into it. love your videos buddy, keep it up.. I am learning so much from you. starting in a small way with veges and after successful stint gonna buy a big land to start food forest

I love all your videos. This particular one has your carrot-eating dog and wood-chip loving chicken dance under your rap which is absolutely adorable.

I think this is my most favorite video of yours so far. It is very helpful that you pointed out how many inches of mulch to add for planting annuals versus young fruit trees. Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

Great video! I haven’t seen many videos that really breakdown the start of the garden like you have here. Definitely appreciate the info!

So much great information! Thanks for taking time to share your video with us.

Sentence pacing is perfect in this video! Love the forestry too 💚

This was really helpful. Thanks. I'm going to do this is my back yard.

Thank you for this information! We have just acquired 1.2 acres of land that has been in my family for about 200 years. It was previously farmland, recently used to grow hay for catle. I am very excited about it because I've been wanting to start a food forrest garden for years since I first watched Jeff Lawton's channel and now is my chance. I like how you lay down the steps that make it seem easier and I will be following them come this fall.🙂

Absolutely fabulous video! Thank you for teaching and breaking it down so simply!

I'm at the beginning of my gardening. I really enjoyed the video, thank you.

been a subscriber for a couple years, this is my favorite video.

Great videos Lots of very valuable information Thanks for your effort to extend knowledge to others Really appreciated

Doggy at the end eating carrots is so cute!!

Thanks for the info. You've inspired me to start converting my woods into a food forest. I like learning from your videos but I have to admit, Tuck adds an additional layer of fun to them & his cute factor is off the scale.

Some of your videos I watch so many times, I wish I could hit the like button every time. I always learn something new I missed the first time

So much information jam packed in this video. Thank you so much James!

Thank you I'm starting my own food garden and I just needed the hows and some information on a good step to take.

I can’t wait to get started, got my cardboard today. Love your videos! You’re my teacher.

I'm starting to get it. This is great information. Kind of you to be so open and sharing. Good people.

Thanks so much for providing specific information depending on your native soil type. I'm stuck with heavy orange clay, so I appreciate the info. I hope to plan out a small garden section, so thanks for helping us get the soil back to life!

thank you, I loved this video! we have an established garden but i want to create a new bed next year and i will be following all the steps you've laid out here.

We have poor sandy soil upper midwest US zone 4 and suffocated all the grass inside our large fenced in garden over three seasons starting mostly in the fall using clean cardboard from recycle dumpsters. We needed lots of cardboard, it was free and worked very well. We wet it using the rain water we collected, topped it with compost leaves grass clippings and any other amendments we had left over in the garage and finally wood chips. I could not believe the worms we got the first spring. We get nice yields so far and have only been at this since fall 2016. Summer of 2018 I saw different mushrooms growing and that fibrous web gardeners hope to get in their gardens. We look forward to adding more garden space wherever we can find it. The focus for 2019 is medicinal herbs, a couple fruiting trees and elderberry shrubs. I love your approach to gardening. Keep em coming! TFS 😀

So simple! Can’t wait to try this out. Thank you for your tips!

FROM CARL AT THE SOUTHSIDE WALGREENS!!!!!! YOU DA MAN JIMMY!!!!!

Thank you this is super comprehensive... easy to follow and makes sense! We just bought our first home, I’m very excited to get out in the garden!

Thank you for all the sound advice. I look forward to more videos from your channel. May God bless you.

I recently started watching your channel and Love it !!! You are such a great educator!!! Thanks so much for the education. Great video!!! Btw I love you animals so cute and obedient 😁!!! God bless and hope you continue to have bountiful harvests !

This has been the most helpful video I've seen yet thank you so much

We've been watching you a while now and have wanted a garden for six years and always put it off. I finally bit the bullet and ordered plants and seeds and got compost and am gonna get wood chips and will be planting this week. So excited! Thank you for showing us by example how great it can be :)

Bro, this content is gold! Much appreciated for this!

His videos are amazingly informative. Can’t wait to plant a garden next year. I am getting ready to work on the ground this month.

Wow I'm amazed by your videos .I want to plant my own vegetable garden . thanks for sharing . God bless you .all the way from Jamaica 😍

Its really very useful... thanks for telling us this all.. i do.really love planting😊😊😊

This is what I’ve been looking for! Thank you!

I can't wait to start my food forrest. I guess I'll wait for fall but in the mean time I'm building up my compost! I love watching your videos.

I love what your doing, living the dream , great stuff , I'm starting my own channel to do with my landscaping & horticulture , I love to grow food , great to see your stuff

I love gardening .I have small garden and i spend all my time with .

Thanks for all the tips! Great info! Love that hen! So wanted to hug her!

I started my garden last spring by digging up the grass and roots in a 4’x4’ section along my fence and planting flowers. I put two layers of cardboard boxes down along the rest of the fence with rocks on top to hold it in place, it killed all of the grass and weeds which softened the soil so I continued tilling by hand a section at a time down the length of the fence. By June I had a beautiful flower garden. Now I’m working on another area of my yard using the same method. I don’t like the idea of having wood chips delivered, I’ve heard that you can bring a lot of pests and diseases into your garden from others property and also chemicals which I don’t use. I love the contractors paper idea though I’m definitely going to get that but I do love recycling all of the cardboard boxes that I get when I have things delivered from Amazon. Thank you for your videos. Robbie

Thank you for your time and effort. I love having a garden, it's just been past my first year and I have lots of vines and berries and fruit trees. Learning what I can and can't have in my area as it gets below zero in winter and up to 50 degrees Celsius in summer and my soil is poor dirt and rock haha.

Learn sutten new every time I watch this dudes videos 👌🏾

vid helped me sleep lol, i always watch ur vids before i sleep but damn ur voice is real calming in this one, thanks again james

Hi, I have been enjoying your videos. This year we were inspired by the Back to Eden garden method. This was back around the first of July. We killed the weeds and laid down chicken manure compost and then layered about 6 inches of wood chips. The woodchips were from a local farmer who didnt want them and had been sitting there for a few years, good stuff. This all was covering a 20 × 30 ft. Area. After that we thought we would let that sit till next spring. We changed our mind and decided to plant some things like squash and peppers, and okra. Everything failed. Then we thought that we made a big mistake by not adding enough soil and we started converting our area again by scraping up sections of the woodchips and laying down leaf mould, goat manure, mushroom compost and then a little wood chips on top. We have basically made 5 raised bed areas but have had to remove a lot of the wood chips and it has been a tedious process. Maybe an unnecessary one. Maybe we just needed time. What are your thoughts? We have a lot of children and would really like to grow our own food in this way. Thank you.

Great information. Thanks and happy Planting!

Thanks for the watering video. Had to buy the olive green T-shirt as gratitude. Keep on keeping on!

This is first time i am fully satisfied with gardening video , lots of info, right voice and tone just perfect . Or maybe i just liked him lol

Thanks for the fabulous tips, your garden is fabulous.

I love watching your videos. Good tips and great inspiration. Thanks :)

Excellent info and presentation. Clear and encouraging. Thanks so much

Great video as usual James. I have more wood chips coming in the next few days to expand my BTE garden to a food forest. Ordering fruit trees this winter.

Thanks for a great video. Like you say site selection is very important. A good way to kill weeds prior to planting is to lay black plastic on the ground and the sun will cook the weeds/grass on site and they will begin to compost, then remove plastic and continue as you have. The sheet of black plastic can be moved to the next section planned.

Awesome James. That was very helpful and informative. Great video my friend thank you

I love this. Thank you for what you’re doing. I’ve been wanting to do a good forest for a good 5 years now. Had lots of obstacles that are all now clear. I’m starting ASAP. 5 years of vision is about to take root. I’ll be digging through your videos for ideas, for sure.

Wow James you were so mellow six years ago! 😄

I love your channel.. your doggie look so adorable just hanging with dad haaa😁

I am pretty keen on doing gardening when I get old. Harvesting fruit and vegetable in my own garden makes me happy and is also a delightful job. I want to grow plants and rear livestock and feed them everyday.

Thanks for this wealth of info! I am preparing my area by your method now! I will be researching which trees to buy also! 👌👌

I'm jumping in a bit late, for feeding the soil. I've got an area in my yard that's ready. The grass is all dead cause there was siding laying on top of it all winter...now I just gotta get the mulch and contact paper to put there before I start the gardening itself. So happy you're here to help us greenhorns!

Hey, thanks James, new to your channel but loving your garden and what great information.

Absolutely love the Video. So much Info. We are starting our Food Forest as a Windbreak and for Privacy on the West edge of our Homestead. Thanks so much for pointing us in the Right Direction

Thanks for the important information you are always a blessing 👍

Just found your channel. Totally awesome! :)

Yes I'm doing the the back videos

I just started watching your channel - really good stuff! I must say I really like the pace of this video. It’s not as fast paced as the other ones I’ve seen which are sometimes hard to understand what your saying. But I understand you’re trying to get a lot of stuff in the video and I appreciate how detailed you are! I wish my area had easy access to wood chips and leaf mulch. We live in the country and our town won’t give it up! We just made our own when we cut down our trees. It’s a slow process but we’ll get there some day...