An Orlando Food Forest

A few age ago I help some friends pop out a food forest near Orlando .

Last hebdomad the owner sent me some photos from this project and said I could share them here . thing are really starting to grow up – it ’s amazing what a scrap of time can do , particularly when you start a food forest on adequate dirt with lots of mulch .

The area where this nutrient woodland is settle is surrounded by citrus groves and swamp . The grease has a good organic subject subject matter with black gunk mixed into the sand wherever you dig .

It ’s hot and the air is still , however , so despite the decent ( though sandy ) land , it ’s not the well-heeled place to grow a food forest . The area is in between tropic and temperate , with at least a few freeze each winter that keep the owners from grow great tropical yield like sapotes and mango … but not enough shiver hour for good temperate fruit Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree like apple and pear .

That said , the few freezes in wintertime have n’t hurt their banana crops too much :

Those are “ Dwarf Cavendish ” banana trees . They also have some of my premature aggregation of bananas , let in “ Raja Puri , ” “ 1,000 finger , ” “ Ice Cream ” , “ Orinoco ” and evenCheeseman ’s Banana , which is a wild eccentric that ’s more of an ornamental than edible .

Orlando Food Forest

Another difficultness when growing a food forest near Orlando is the brutal summer heat . To manoeuvre off the weeds and the hot sand , the householder dumped wads of mulch from a local tree company .

The mulch adds constitutive subject , keep roots cool and husband wet . It just took a circumstances of workplace to learn and then go around around , particularly considering the half - Accho size of this food for thought forest labor .

Right now the food forest is at what I call the “ bad haircut ” phase , where it ’s in between being arrant little Tree surrounded by an ocean of mulch … and a full - on , coolheaded timberland with a close - to - closed canopy .

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If you ’ve ever decide to grow your tomentum long from a brusk haircut , you have it away what I signify . Nothing quite looks how you want it to until it reaches the right distance .

By next springiness , this system is go to really seem awe-inspiring . assure out the fruit that ’s come in now :

dish , nectarine tree and mulberries in copiousness .

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When I plan out a food forest for a client , I always like to include some tight - grow trees as boost . Mulberries , figs , nectarines , peach tree … these will start paying their snag cursorily . At the same time , I try not to overlook producers that take their time , like pears ( 6 old age ) and pecan tree ( 8 - 10 years ) . When fresh fruit come in every twelvemonth , it builds exuberance . I really ca n’t hold back to see where the progress will take a nutrient wood next .

This Orlando solid food forest is one of seven food forest projects I ’ve provided assistance or flora for , not counting the many others I ’ve help indirectly through my books and this site .

There ’s a reasonableness I name my business “ Florida Food Forests ! ”

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I hope to enlarge my food forest reference into some new climates , too . I think it would be astonishing to make one in the waterless Southwest … or one in Quebec ! The possibleness for coinage … my goodness …

More Pictures from the Orlando Food Forest Project

I bid more yard looked like this :

mulberry tree , bananas , native sens …

And here – check out this yautia growing along withBidens albaandCaesarweed :

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Here ’s a patch of beautiful variegated ginger :

That ginger make a very skillful herbal teatime – great flavor – though the roots are n’t big enough to use for anything .

Here ’s another “ big haircut ” shot :

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I like this lush patch of green with peppiness and bloom :

take lots of coinage growing together helps fight pests . you may bet there are good insects , amphibian and reptile all over the place in these un - mown places , just waiting to come in and gobble up evil aphid and cat !

Here ’s another shot of some producing bananas :

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Check out this kale and ginger growing in the shade – it almost seem like a watercolour with the splashes of sparkle dancing through the canopy :

Here ’s another honorable mix of plants next to the nursery :

In the exposure above I see guava bush , nopale cactus , rootbeer plant , Surinam cherry red , papaya and mango . look like a pleasant little microclimate to me .

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Here ’s another blastoff of the thrive root beer works settlement :

And more screwball growth :

Now go over out this sugarcane , with a cassava in the foreground :

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And a beautiful loquat , encircled by uncivilized blackberry :

With some enviously , I notice that their moringa trees are setting pod :

Truly beautiful . This area was just red-hot , empty pastureland a few years ago and now it ’s rapidly being transform into a cool , moist wood of beautiful and useful species .

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I ca n’t hold off to see what happens next !

If you live in Florida and desire to engraft your own nutrient timberland , I have helpful specie lists and encouragement in my curt bookCreate Your Own Florida Food Forest – you ’ll enjoy it .

This level of softheaded gardening may not invoke to everyone , but I toast those of you who are create solid food forest across the land . Florida wants to be timber – produce with nature , rather of against it , and you will have more food for thought than you have it away what to deal with . That ’s a great place to be .

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