Eight Acres

What is a food forest? A food forest is a permaculture concept, best explained by the following quote from My Smart Garden : A ‘food forest’ is a system of gardening using a diversity of mostly perennial (long-lived species, as opposed to annual vegetables) chosen and arranged such as they compliment and support each other, minimising weeds, pests and maintenance while providing a rich variety of harvests. (What is permaculture?  Find out more here ) The more I read about permaculture and using perennial plants, the more I wanted to develop a food forest.  I also watched a DVD called The Permaculture Orchard : Beyond Organic ( affiliate link ), which shows how perennial plants and bushes can be grown amongst fruit and nut trees. I also read some books about perennial food plants ( see post here ) and have been working on incorporating perennial food plants into my garden. The only thing holding us back from starting a proper food forest or permaculture orchard was water ...

 We have been in our "new" house in Kumbia for nearly two years and thing I've missed the most is not having a proper garden ( read about our secondhand house here ).  The vege garden I had at Nanango (Eight Acres) had just hit a productive high point, with lots of perennial plants and herbs and veges that self-seeded each season.  I was watering it using greywater from our bath and washing machine, and there seemed to always be something to harvest, even it was just some herbs and leafy greens. It was sad to leave that productive garden behind, knowing that I would have to start again at our new house.  But it was also an opportunity try something different and put into practice some of the ideas I had read about and seen on other blogs.  I wrote in detail here about my inspiration .  Essentially I wanted combine raised beds, wicking beds and hugelkultur.  In the meantime, I've been growing what I can in several large pots and trays on my potting ta...