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Trees Planted
By Cynthia Lauer
The idea of a food forest may sound familiar to many gardeners. What comes to mind is probably a garden of edible plants arranged around some fruit-bearing trees. But food forests also feature fruiting shrubs, herbaceous perennials, herbs, ground covering plants, and sometimes vegetables, bulbs, and vines. While many of these plants produce food to eat, not all of them have that exclusive purpose.
Food forests are a multifunctional ecosystem that also provides pollinator support and habitat, biofuel, fodder, nitrogen and mineral accumulation in the soil. It’s about food in the broadest sense.
Food forests are nothing new. Indigenous peoples have managed soils and cultivated foods in forests since time immemorial. Chelsey Armstrong, archaeologist and historical ecologist at Simon Fraser University, discovered at least nineteen food forests in British Columbia ranging in size from a couple of football fields to a square kilometre. Planted by Indigenous communities such as the Ts’msyen, Gitxsan, and Coast Salish and neglected for 150 years, these green spaces continue to provide food for birds, bears, and insects. Food forests embody the ancestral Indigenous practice of preserving biodiversity and strengthening resiliency and soil health while producing food and medicines.
To design a green space like this, you need to make careful plant choices guided by a few design principles. The result will be a household supply of fresh produce while building soil health and environmental sustainability.
DESIGNING A FOOD FOREST
Food forests are designed with five or more layers—canopy, sub-canopy/understory, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, and groundcovers. Herbs, vegetables, vines, and a fungal layer are sometimes added. Several acres of space may accommodate a large guild under tall nut and fruit trees. Smaller spaces can position a dwarf fruit tree or berry shrub as the central element. Something is always sprouting while neighboring plants die or go dormant for the season.
Together, the design is known as a plant guild. Planting several guilds together creates a multifunctional, polycultural garden that thrives in low-maintenance perpetuity.
Following the beautiful graphic produced by my friend Tom Rasky, the canopy consists of heavy nut or fruit-producing trees like oak and cherry. The photo shows Corylus cornuta, our native hazelnut. Other options are walnut, hickory, hackberry, butternut, pecan, apple, plum, or red mulberry. The next layer is the understory of medium-sized trees like crab apple, Saskatoon berry, or silver buffaloberry. Highbush cranberry, pawpaw, and alder are other examples. Next come fruit-bearing shrubs like haskap, currants, raspberry, low-bush cranberry, hazelnut, and sea buckthorn. Following this are herbaceous perennials and herbs like bee balm, coneflower, borage, and yarrow. Comfrey, anise hyssop, calendula, and dill are other popular choices. Groundcovers like strawberry, clover, and wild ginger come next. Root vegetables like onion, garlic, beets, and carrots are planted underground. For variety, a northern kiwi vine or grapes can be added. Naturally, changes to the guild are necessary to accommodate the unique conditions of individual sites.
BENEFITS OF FOOD FORESTS
Food forests are designed to grow trees and plants in relation to one another enhancing the system as a whole. The plants share needs for water, sunlight, soil nutrients, and root depth among other elements. Together, they fix nitrogen, provide habitat, retain water, build soil nutrients, repel pests, attract beneficial insects, create mulch, and suppress grass and weeds among other functions.
Like the biodiversity of natural forests, food forests need only minimal interaction from humans. They do not require fertilizers or pesticides or expensive annual outputs of energy. Instead, the system relies on nutrient accumulative plants, organic matter, and diverse inter-cropping of species that encourage beneficial insects.
Taller canopy trees provide shelter from wind and sun as well as edible seeds, leaves or fruit. Smaller trees and shrubs provide fruit crops, wildlife habitat, and shade. Groundcover plants protect the soil from erosion and water loss, prevent weed germination, insulate the soil from extreme temperatures, and serve as a living mulch. They also provide habitat for animals, beneficial insects and other useful predators. The edible herbaceous layer consists of vegetables, flowers, herbs, cover crops, and soil-building plants. Climbing or trailing woody-stemmed plants grow through the food forest layers attracting beneficial wildlife and repelling pests.
Once established trees and shrubs shed their leaves in the dormant season, organic matter begins to accumulate. This natural mulch remediates the soil and protects it from the erosion and degradation so common in agricultural lands. In absorbing large quantities of rain water, food forests release it back into the landscape slowly in the forms of gentle streams instead of the dangerous torrents of water produced by extreme weather events. Food forests are a safeguard against the effects of climate change providing food sources that are able to endure changing conditions.
Food forests can make a significant contribution to food security for local communities. Besides the superior quality of home-grown food, they save gardeners money when they can enjoy backyard harvests of fruit, nuts, herbs, vegetables, flowers, and roots for food, tea, and remedies.
CANADIAN FOOD FORESTS– Food forests of all sizes and kinds are thriving across Canada. Here is a list of some I discovered from coast to coast.
- Jonas Roberts’ Foggy Food Forest in St. Phillip’s outside of St. John’s, Newfoundland
- In Nova Scotia, the Scotsburn Community Food Forest in Scotsburn, Earthling Farm and Food Forest in Forest Hill, and Hummingbird Lane Community Food Forest in Sable River
- The Fredericton Botanic Garden
- Québec Public Interest Group’s Food Forest Project at Concordia University in Montreal
- Elle Odyn’s food forest located in the Ottawa-Gatineau region of Québec
- Keith St. Jean’s food forest in Cobourg, Ontario where he hosts the YouTube channel, Canadian Permaculture Legacy
- Assiniboine Food Forest in Brandon, Manitoba
- The Ness Creek Forest Garden in central Saskatchewan
- The Galiano Conservancy’s Food Forest in British Columbia
- The Vancouver Urban Food Forest Foundation
- Needle Mountain Food Forest at Mount Lorne near Whitehorse, Yukon, the most northerly of Canadian food forests, was created by Gertie Scharrer and the late Agnes Seitz.
In researching this topic for my article in The Gardener magazine, I learned that the purposes of food forests are diverse. Some allocate space to commerce while others focus on public access. Whatever their intent, whether household consumption, market harvest, community-building, biodiversity and habitat, or soil restoration, food forests are making a recognizable contribution to sustainable social, economic, and environmental practices in Canadian gardening.
A Living Green Barrie volunteer since 2025, Cynthia Lauer, PhD is a member of Simcoe County Master Gardeners and a regular contributor to The Gardener magazine. Her work is AI-free.