Edible Food Forest Creation 2008 - 2015

Here is a post  showing the view of our front garden from 2015 - 2008 when we started transforming a lawn into an edible food forest garden. It has surpassed what we planned and continues to improve as we learn and grow.


October 2015 - This photo was taken today and shows the growth  the past 12 months has been far greater than in previous years for what we now fondly call the fedges (food hedges).  We think this is a combination of the plants becoming more established, the extension of the mulched area, and the greywater drip system from the Gator.
We currently have a massive crop of mulberries and our first crop of loquats ans still hope to get rid of all of the grass once we can get some more free mulch.

October 2014 - Here you can see the food hedge of fejoas and a mulberry tree that were planted in 2008. Then in front of that we have mulched and made a path that incorporates the olive, figs and loquat tree as well as rosemary, lavender etc.

 2011 -  shows the height/thickness  of the fejoa hedge  and that we still had lawn on the nature strip and around the veggie gardens. By placing down cardboard, newspaper and mulch we have significantly increased the health of the plants and reduced the amount of weeding required.

 

 2009 -  as you can see it was just lawn and the fruit hedge now has edges around each plant as we had realised quite how hard it was for the plants competing with the grass.

December 2008 - the hedge had just been planted in the hope that it would provide a screen from the westerly sun and wind which is so strong here. This series of photos show the incremental but substantial changes which have taken place over the seven years since we began.

We have learnt such a lot over that time and each small step has led to another so that we have now produced over 600 kilos of food from an average suburban block.  We are pleased with that and feel that by taking responsibility for growing some of our food, collecting and recycling water and using solar power we are making a contribution. I would certainly recommend it to anyone that can do it, just start small and learn as you go.