Food ForestsTrees

Temperate Food Forest Growth Video Project (Victoria, Australia)


Almonds

A food forest is a lovely and interesting place to visit. Unfortunately, visitors only ever see the food forest as it is on that particular day when they visit. For example, if a person visited the food forest here today, they would see lots of ripe citrus, almonds, pears, plums, apples, peaches, nectarines and apricots. However, things would be quite different if their visit was a month later. This is because it is still early days in the growing season and many fruits have yet to ripen. January and February are the months for serious growth in the fruit trees however it can be quite variable depending on the weather and rainfall. The only thing that can be certain, is that there is no such thing as a normal season in Australia.

It occurred to me that it is hard for visitors to see the growth and effects of the climate here on the food forest over a period of time.


Apple gala medium

At the start of spring, I started taking a series of photos of the food forest. This video clip is the outcome of this experiment and so far it shows 122 days of growth in the food forest in just over 4 minutes of video footage (early September to the start of the next year). This allows you to enjoy and observe the growth in the food forest as it occurs during the season.

My intention is to record this entire season’s growth and present it as a video clip. If there is enough interest, I may even extend the footage into the following growing season, thus showing tree growth over a period of time.


Apricot Newcastle Early


Gooseberry Captivator

The pictures in the video show a small portion of the “shady food forest” looking towards the south east from near the chicken enclosure. It is predominantly comprised of fruit trees such as pears and apples. Some of the fruit trees in the food forest at this location are between four to six years old and the trunks are as large as a hand. The top soil at this location is about 200mm deep over volcanic loam.


Cherry Stella


Nashi Pears

Please feel free to ask questions and make observations. I hope you enjoy this series of video footage.


Peach Anzac


Quince Champion

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