This small patch of neglected and almost zero-input food forest is barely 2 years old. I say neglected because I hardly work on it; “almost zero-input” because there have been totally no application of fertilizer/chemicals/pesticide other than the infrequent compost addition and EM/JADAM spray. Whatever nutrient it needs to sustain this natural food forest system comes from on site; chop drop from support plants: gliricidia, leucaena, vetiver, water hyacinth from pond, etc.
The idea is that it should be self-maintaining if designed properly. The system put in place should self regulate. This is important in the face of rising labour cost and a need to decouple from a globalized economy and minimize negative externalities. Yes, unmanaged globalization is not necessary a good thing.
One can imagine the returns if this plot is actively worked upon. I’ve not highlighted all plants in this ecosystem and it could take even more than it’s already fairly ecologically biodiverse.
I could insert more shade-loving herbs in this jam packed canvas and perhaps insert ginger in the undergrowth. The gliricidia will be trimmed down from time to time, providing occasional entry of light to the undergrowth.
The papayas and pineapples from this food forest section have been really amazing. I’m also waiting in great anticipation for my surinam cherries.
These lemons are just almost perfect for picking. Unfortunately, quite a couple have been stung by insects and I’m not sure if they have been damaged during the flowering stage. All I know is that I should be wrapping them next time. Lemon trees are guzzlers of essential nutrients and require a lot of nitrogen. For this plot, I’ve experimented planting both these lemon plants next to a nitrogen-fixer: gliricidia sepium. I’m not sure if that really helped but I hope it sure does. Until I’m proven wrong, this will be the way forward in companion planting if you want to be productive with lemons, at least to me.
A notable benefit of a food forest production system is the stacking of various plant species with different light requirements into a pretty small footprint. That’s efficient use of space jam packed with biodiversity, with each plant type providing relevant ecological services to others who need them. Right in the shades could be yam or daun kaduk, otherwise, the more light-hungry plants will be the mid to emergent layers. The only “drawback” or limitation if I could say so myself is that annuals like leafy vegetables would not fair well in this setup. They would do best on open flat grounds instead.
In other words, a food forest’s original purpose is to nurture a perennial system. There may be some annuals like self-seeding herbs that would survive on the fringes, but otherwise, it’s all about maintaining a perennial system with little labour. The only labour required would perhaps be some pruning, chop and drop to get the nutrient cycling and soil regeneration going.
To add an element of interest to this food forest setup, I’ve placed a pond at the mid section as a “service station” for frogs, dragon flies, bees and other bugs. The pond will be an attractant for living organisms and their travelling back and forth throughout the food forest will create intersections of activities and exchange of services. Pond here takes in rainwater overflow from slopes above (goat shed). The pond also generates a good but small supply of water hyacinth for my in situ composting. The goat shed/coop up slope is a nutrient generator; manure flows downhill. Working with gravity. I could also simply fetch water from the centre and water surrounding plants.
