Agroforestry

I read an interesting article and I am intrigued by the ideas and possibilities discussed.

First of all, agroforestry is forest gardening, but this doesn't mean that you have to have a large plot of land to do it.  In fact, it can be brought down to a small scale (1/3 acre), or planted on any size lot.  Of course, having a smaller lot verses a larger one will determine what you can grow on that lot.

As an agricultural society, and even for home growers, we often rely on annual plants to sustain our food supply demands.  What we fail to do (often times) to include annual plants that sustain each other and also provide food each year without much maintanance.  Also, we don't always know the benefits of plants around us (i.e. cattails and bamboo for food, ginger for food and medicinal reasons, quince- a natural pectin, blackberries or rugosa rose to provide food and pollen for bees, etc.)  We don't think about all of the benefits of each plant, and if we are ignorant to these benefits, we cannot partake of them.

This article doesn't go into the details of WHAT to plant, or HOW to go about doing it,  but the author provides the pros and cons of planting this type of gardening.

If we ever buy a big plot of land, I think this idea would work well.  With our current plans to expand our garden and add fruit trees to our back yard,  we don't have much space for the forestry planting discussed in this article.  But, that doesn't mean that we can't incorporate a couple of these ideas into our yard.  In fact, I am planning to do more research and see if there's something we CAN add to our yard.