I have started a small forest garden in my Los Angeles backyard. I have planted lots of fruit trees (cherry, pear, peach, avocado, mulberry, and banana [I know its not actually a tree, but felt it deserved to be included) with more going in this fall. I also have a number of shrubs and vines in place. I am working on ground-covers, which until recently were made impossible by our dog (the new fence is a life-saver). I harvested the pear tree's first crop today: 1 pear. There was 1 more, but the squirrels took it. I will post design sketches and pictures in the near future.
Welcome Yank LA has an almost identical climate to Sydney although we miss out on the cold currents (The sea is 18C here now-- in winter) Sketches and pictures would be most welcome. I often envy your access to plants, often much restricted to Ozzies because our customs are even more feral than yours (never cross them!). We are now letting in a few new banana varieties to trial - from what about 400 existing varieties? (100% of our commercial banneas are from just TWO species).
Hi Kirk! Sounds like you've got yourself a great little garden there. I imagine when those trees have grown out a bit it should make your backyard a wonderful shady escape from the LA sun. I am looking forward to seeing those design sketches and pictures. Also, I know how tempting it is to taste that first harvest, but you might want to remove the fruit buds/blossoms of your newly planted fruit trees in the first year or two so they put more energy into root and limb growth. It will also promote more blossoms the following season.
I think its unanimous Kirk - we all want pictures. We had a national permaculture day here in Australia in May and the best part was visitng each other's gardens. We have a few pics from gardens in the north of Sydney on https://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=120587604617968&v=photos&ref=ts
Aren't they just!! We have some great permies around here. Just to be clear, I was only the photographer, not the gardener....
Cant bloody belive we gotta go to facebook to see pictures of permaculture,when they should/could be posted in here.... Tezza:n:
Dont take the "bloody facebook" too much to heart...lol Im on face book and been posting my pics in there myself,to other permies in there..... Just meant....that it seams silly to post pics in elsewhere if we want readers in here to see our pics in here lolol...... just sent my pics via the facebook to us in in here I need to update my pics,these were taken 12 months ago allmost.... gota get transfering into here a bit more down pat i think.... Tezza
I just saw this on amazon https://www.amazon.com/Edible-Forest-Gardens-2-set/dp/1890132608/ref=pd_ys_home_shvl_60
I wonder how useful these books are for a tropical forest gardener. Its a lot of money to lay out and few of the plants would be suitable. I'd love to read a book that had a narrower focus ie one not focussed on particularl climate types except through various examples. One thing that puts me off a lot of the permaculture books I've seen is that they are full of drawings and diagrams but no photographs of gardens or landscapes. I would like to find a book that describes the practical aspects of planning and starting a forest garden.
I leafed through that book before, as they had a copy where I took my PDC. It is not all that useful for tropical forest gardeners because of its temperate focus. Would be interesting to see if a tropical version is ever published. I agree with you on a book that concentrates more on the practical aspects of planning forest gardens.