Martin Crawford has over 500 varieties of food growing in his 2-acre forest garden in England and has written a book to show others the how-to of such a garden. Common agricultural practice is to clear the land of all vegetation to grow food, but Crawford’s method of agro-forestry flies in the face of that system.
Agro-forestry “capitalizes” on the free services provided by nature: fruit trees, nuts, tubers, vegetables, medicinal herbs, timber, edible plants, nitrogen fixers, mineral accumulators and plants that attract beneficial insects that eat pests. Crawford has a number of plants that propagate themselves each year, requiring no tilling, planting, fertilizing, weeding or watering.
Martin says there’s no need to “dig the soil” because almost all of the plants are perennial, and “every time you dig the soil, a load of carbon goes into the air.” Additionally, since the tree canopy holds the garden’s moisture, there is little to no watering needed.
SOURCE: Return to Now October 12, 2020