When designing a forest garden, you have to think big.
I'm not just talking big in terms of big space: small spaces can have big yields, big beauty, and big health benefits for all creatures involved just as easily as sprawling acreages can.
I'm talking big trees. That cute little sapling you want to plant could grow into a 30 foot wide behemoth that takes over your entire yard.
When you design a permaculture garden with trees in it (ie, a forest garden), you have to plan the future before you plan the plants that you want to plant now. If you see what I mean.
In my observations of the natural forests near my house, I've come to notice a few useful things to consider while planning a future forest, and trying to understand what actions need to be taken now in order for that forest to become a reality in a few years. There are lots of pieces to this puzzle, but for now, I want to talk about water.
Trees need water! Usually, they need a fair amount of it!
In my last post, I talked about possible designs for maximizing natural irrigation in your garden by including a rain garden in your design. A rain garden won't just help things grow this year, though. It can be a vital part of your forest as it matures THROUGH TIME.
(cue sci-fi music)
Seriously though. If you start with a rain garden with the initial plantings of a forest around it, then everybody gets water and all is well. As the shrubs and trees of your garden grow and develop the architecture of a forest, they will overtake the rain garden from above in the form of shade, and from beneath with roots. Those roots will increase the soil's capacity for storing water, taking over the heft of the responsibility from the rain garden.
But the rain garden does not disappear!
Instead, it continues to maximize irrigation, and fosters little tiny microclimates within your growing forest garden for all sorts of other plants to grow.
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