How to Create a Backyard #FoodForest with #Fruit & #NutTrees 🌳🥜🍎

Published by Ty Ty Plant Nursery, LLC, on
June 4, 2025

"A backyard food forest is a #sustainable, low-maintenance #gardening method that mimics a natural #forest #ecosystem—except instead of wild plants, you’re growing delicious fruits, nuts, #herbs, and more. It’s a long-term investment in your health, your land, and your ability to grow your own nutrient-rich food without relying on chemicals or constant labor.

"Whether you have a sprawling #backyard or a small suburban plot, you can design your own food forest using fruit and nut trees as the foundation. Here’s how to get started.

🌿 What Is a Food Forest?

"A food forest (also called a #ForestGarden) is a multi-layered growing system that mirrors the structure of a natural forest. It includes:

- Canopy layer – Large fruit and nut trees (like pecans, walnuts, pears) [I WOULD USE CAUTION WITH WALNUTS! They can be poisonous to other plants!]

- Sub-canopy layer – Dwarf or semi-dwarf fruit trees (like plums, figs, or apples)

- Shrub layer – Berries and bush fruits (like raspberries, blueberries, elderberries)

- Herbaceous layer – Culinary and medicinal herbs (like mint, comfrey, lemon balm)

- Groundcover layer – Spreading, edible or soil-building plants (like strawberries or clover)

- Root layer – Underground crops (like garlic, onions, or horseradish)

- Vertical/vine layer – Climbing plants (like grapes or kiwis)

"Together, these layers maximize space, diversify harvests, and support soil health and #biodiversity."

Learn more:
https://blog.tytyga.com/2025/06/04/how-to-create-a-backyard-food-forest-with-fruit-amp-nut-trees/

#SolarPunkSunday #BackyardGardens #BackyardFoodForests #GrowYourOwn #GrownYourOwnFood #FruitTrees #BerryBushes #NutTrees

#India - Backyard nutrition gardens- For family nutrition and income

In rainfed agriculture, where farm livelihoods are highly vulnerable to climate vagaries, alternative farm based enterprises go a long way in providing the necessary support for #farmers to remain in farming. Backyard kitchen garden is one such enterprise which meets multiple needs like food, income and nutrition security, besides empowering women.

September 2025

Excerpt: "A key intervention was to help farm women raise kitchen gardens in their backyard. These kitchen gardens are meant to increase #FoodDiversity in the diets of the participating families and reduce reliance on the market for introduced vegetables. Each interested household was provided with a kitchen garden kit containing around 10-13 types of vegetable seeds. By raising kitchen gardens, women were able to harvest many types of seasonal vegetables.

"During 2023-24, kitchen garden kits with 13 different varieties of vegetables were given to 70 group members. For those who had sown seeds early in the season, owing to excessive rains, the seeds didn’t germinate. But around 40% of the women who took up late sowing, could harvest vegetables from the gardens. Women have done #composting with kitchen waste, garden clippings, and dry leaves to create rich organic #compost. This compost is used to fertilize the garden beds. They also prepared organic liquid fertilizers like #Panchagavya and #Jeevamruta to increase immunity and promote plant growth. To manage pest and diseases, they used #NeemOil spray as #NaturalPesticides. Organic #mulch, such as straw and dried leaves, were applied around plants to retain soil moisture, suppress weeds, and improve soil health. Each of the households produced vegetables like #brinjal, #bhendi, #tomato, #gourds, #cucumber, #radish and green #vegetables. On an average each household produced vegetables worth Rs.2500-3500 in a season.

"Again, 2024 has been a year of heavy rainfall for Dharwad district. Untimely rains caused havoc, damaging crops. Farmers had to face crop losses and in such a situation around 25 women farmers raised nutrition qardens in their backyard. Each household produced vegetables worth Rs.3000-4000 in a season. Kitchen gardens served as a boon to these families facing #FoodShortages due to crop loss."

Read more:
https://www.leisaindia.org/backyard-nutrition-gardens-for-family-nutrition-and-income/

#SolarPunkSunday #FoodSecurity #KitchenGardens #BackyardGardens #GrowYourOwn #FoodSovereignty #ClimateChange #Resiliency

Climate change is here now and it is hot, thirsty, windy and dangerous. And how it affects growing food is significant. Over the years, I've seen a lot of comments like “I know HOW to grow food, I just don't need to right now” or “yeah, when SHTF I'll be out there putting in a garden and hunting”.

Listen. If you aren't gardening right now, you don't know how to garden. I've been gardening my whole life and every year it changes, the climate changes, the zones change, the air moisture, humidity, wind, plants and soil water needs, changes in what varieties will do well in more heat, less water and humidity, length of growing season, - every aspect of growing food is rapidly changing and you need to adapt.

You will be lost in the weeds – no pun intended – if you don't start right now (better yet years ago unfortunately) to learn the basics and understand how climate change as well as other factors such as animal movement and migration, insects and pollinators, birds, rodents, and troublesome bugs affect your ability to make the most of your available growing space. Plant diseases are more troublesome as the planet warms up and the zones move north, along with fungal diseases, harmful insect migration, invasives, predators and prey.

Seed germination and viability seems to be becoming an issue the last few years. I'm not sure if it's supply chain, dishonest corporation practices, lack of expertise or what, but it is getting weirder. A couple of years ago we had pepper-gate (massive numbers of mis-labeled seed packages mainly with pepper varieties but also squash and other vegetables). This year has been a challenge to get kale and some lettuces to germinate for no apparent reason.

Last year we had a very late spring deep freeze which took out many kinds of fruit trees in BC. There were few locally grown soft fruits such as peaches to be had. So far this year, the blossoms are showing promise, so here's hoping.

The point is, grow food RIGHT now while you can learn and also have a monetary buffer while learning, during failures and while grocery stores have fully stocked shelves. During a societal collapse is not the time to find out that your soil is severely lacking in a necessary nutrient or that your growing zone won't support your stable foods or that the rats will eat you out of house and home. Learning how to deal with all of these issues now and sourcing out possible solutions in your local area while becoming familiar with typical ups and downs builds resiliency in your future security.

#prepping #GetPrepared #homesteading #smallfarm #backyardgardens #victorygardens

Today in #Gardening . . .

1st cut flowers . . . 29 March
#Daffodils and one #Hellebore

#GrowYourOwn
#BackYardGardens
#Connecticut #Zone7

“If we lose grocery stores tomorrow, what are we going to do?” said Bowannie. He sees backyard gardens as an important part of the answer to this question.

https://civileats.com/2021/10/26/resurgence-waffle-gardens-helping-indigenous-peoples-thrive-amid-droughts-grow-food-less-water/
#Indigenous #FoodSecurity #Regenerative #FarmToTable #BackyardGardens #Environment #ClimateChange #MegaDrought #Zuni #NewMexico #NM #PublicHealth #EnvironmentalJustice #ClimateEmergency #ClimateAction