If you'd like a step-by-step guide for designing your food forest, check out my free Food Forest Design Workbook: erin51.podia.com/food-forest-design-workbook
It would be so cool to see a Central Coast collab about food forests, permaculture, urban foresty, and urban design, with Goldifarms and City Beautiful!
I love these videos girl! It’s really refreshing to see a California permaculture RU-vid page. I’m zone 9b, and I’m taking the plunge to convert my large yard to a food forest too. Definitely incorporating some of your ideas in to mine. Thank you for sharing and creating!
Same! SoCal, zone 9b. Just finished sheet mulching about 1/4 acre with cardboard, 2 commercial dump trucks of compost, & 2 commercial dump trucks of mulch. Best of luck!
Best advice I've heard is to not feel pressured to get it all put together all at once. Get your free arborist wood chips (or from ChipDrop), start a few fruit tree guilds and learn how to propagate those for free over time. Guilds are basically some combo of the tree, a couple bushes , ground cover, herbs/roots, etc. that is repeatable or different in "pockets" of the garden. It's been so rewarding for me, I feel really talented now that I can take a cutting of almost anything and make a new plant of it!! 😊 Happy growing to both of you guys!
@@JaySully_ absolutely, love to hear more joining this movement!! Retaking our health. Don't forget, grow what grows like a weed in your area! If you force it, it's going to struggle and take lots of time & labor from you
I recently found your channel and you’ve inspired me so much, I’ve watched all your videos. I got to the end of the list the other day so am so excited to see a new one posted today! Thank you so much for sharing Goldifarms with us 🌻
Hello Erin. Enjoyed this video, showing all that can be grown in a small area. Really like your keyhole approach. Thank you so much for your inspirational videos. Keep up the great videos!
Absolutely love your page! Please keep posting videos as much as possible. It’s a great inspiration for someone on the same size property & in the same CA zone (9b) as you. Very, very well done 👏 👏 👏
Wow! This is the video I needed, I was wanting to make cozy garden paths but didn't know how!!!! Plus your voice is like the Holistic Habits of gardening!😊
Hello, I really enjoyed watching your video. I’ve done much the same thing, 40+ years ago, except I’ve now downsized my fruit trees only 23-25(?) - bc I literally got tired of all the rodents coming into my yard!! Plus, we aren’t 4-5 people anymore - so it becomes overwhelming to keep up & harvest. My exception is that my yard doesn’t look like a forest. I also have zero grass anywhere on my property, but it looks well maintained & it’s been great for my grandkids to run around in, ride their bikes, scooters, etc & entertain/dine under a nice patio. Best of luck!
I started planting trees, bushes, cover crops etc. around 8 years ago, mostly on about a quarter acre of fairly open space with a few tall pines. It's kind of experimental, I'm telling myself, since I'm learning by experience as I go more than anything, and I really didn't do enough research or observation of the land before I started. I lean more toward the East in general, so my approach is trying to be more like a "natural orchard" than a "forest garden". Also, there're several acres of woods on the property which I've started "editing", trying to use a minimalist touch. And the edge of those woods adjacent to the open orchard area is south-facing, so that's a useful area. I'm on a shoestring budget, so I make compost, harvest bark from the woods for mulch, use only hand tools, a hose, watering can, wheelbarrow and self-propelled mower when it's working. I'm not throwing cardboard down or anything, though I've tried that. There's a lot of grass and all kinds of herbaceous plants and suckers popping up everywhere right now, since the lawnmower's taking a break from working. And of course the vines that want to pull it all down. Some vines, they're just not that cool. Yeah, I could prattle on about it for much longer than that. My results have been mixed so far. The site, soil, and climate are all definitely less than ideal in my mind, but as the years go by and the painfully slow growth happens, it starts to look better. Main food so far has been a bunch of goumi berries, a bunch of blueberries, and whatever dewberries I can get before some unidentified force comes in and cleans them all out overnight or whatever. I do have a few serviceberries on my one tree of that kind this year. Never ate one before. I'm not just a berry farmer, but it seems all kinds of berry trees and bushes generally pay off before larger fruit or nuts. Time will tell. I'm in the U.S. in the South, about the border between zones 7 and 8. Winters get down to single digits sometimes, summers can get over 100 with somehow both drought and high humidity. Soil is sandy loam with reddish clay underneath and very acidic, hence my focus on blueberries. Apparently, nitrogen-fixing doesn't work very well when you get down towards 5.0 PH, which I only learned a couple years ago. I'd be interested in hearing more about your situation, your trees/plants and general location/climate, if you're interested in sharing. Also, do you have cats, for the fruit-raiding rodents? Or is it just too many rodents and would require too many cats?
We live in a similar climate in Australia. We have quite a few acres , so we don’t uterlise our land as well as yourself . But we follow similar principles. A great video to encourage people to produce what they can.
Wish i found this channel earlier, i live in THE BAHAMAS 🇧🇸 and we have almost the same climate, only difference is we do get some rain during summer months. I wanted to plant more berries but not sure exactly what i could, now thanks to you I'm starting up my list of fruits I'd love to incorperate😊
This is amazing! So excited seeing your food forest thriving. I’m at the beginning of my planning/dreaming journey in Sacramento. And wow, I am thrilled you shared your Google sheet plant list! It’s amazing and will be so helpful for me!
I planted a passion fruit vine in the ground behind my spineless prickly pear cactus, next to a pigeon pea tree in a giant pot, next my steps and porch. I added a simple trellis up and over my front door. Now I have a living wind/ sun/ privacy screen around and over my front door that I'm reaching up and picking passion fruit from. The vine grew up the cactus to the pea then up it to the trellis. Go vertical, maximize space and when possible let nature work for you.
I’ve already ordered several Goldie glows and love them! And your tea is absolutely delicious. Thank you for sharing all of this with us it takes us to another world. ❤❤
Hi! It's exciting to see such a diverse and happy foodscape! Do you cut back your NFTs to bring the nitrogen to the soil (ie, the trimmings eventually decompose)? My place has an acacia and am wondering how to do this. I'm hoping this would take place before they set seed since they are technically invasive here in CA
Great vid, impressive garden and use of the space. Thanks for mentioning goumi leaves are edible. Why did I not know that? Claude AI says you can even eat the young tender leaves raw.
I want to learn how the annual plants (like carrots, cabbage, corn) spread/expand and what kinds of plants are the best to plant together in a pretty cold middle european climate,
Where do you get your mulch paths? I have places to get it but I am affriad of maybe chemicals on it. Also Where would you suggest buying plants for a zone 10? Thanks!
The food forest is 0.03 acres 💛. Thank you, always wonderful to hear that from someone who understands what it's like to garden in such a hot dry climate 🙏
Hello, I see you were growing mint in your food forest. Do you have a hard time keeping it confined to certain areas, or does it try to take over everything in sight?
Thank you, yes great question ✨Mint can be very invasive. Where we are, it’s very hot and very dry and we use very little water, so we aren’t concerned about it taking over. But if your garden receives more water and it’s a concern, it would likely be best to keep in containers 🪴 💚
No it’s 0.03 acres alright. One acre is 4046m2, so 0.3 acres will be around a third of that, more than 1000m2. Do the math before trying to point out someone else’s nonexistent mistake mate.
