This amazing piece of land has provided us with medicinal herbs, fruits, and all sorts of edible plants. Most of them have been planted a long time ago by the previous owner; Teresa Fiorenza, a gentle old lady that probably has lived through hard times during and after World War II. Thank you for that, Teresa! We are blessed with a variety of perennial plants and trees such as loquat, artichokes, mulberries, dates, peaches, plums, apricots, almonds, figs, pears, apples, kakhi, jujube, pomegranates, walnuts, hazelnuts, lemons, oranges, mandarins, cedro and bergamot. What a treat to eat fresh produce directly from a tree or pick from the land…! But it doesn’t stop there. Continuing Teresa’s legacy and following our own path towards being self-sufficient, we started planting a selection of new trees around the house (such as the sub-tropical Moringa Oleifera and Ceratonia siliqua / Carob, some fig and oak). “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” ― Chinese Proverb In the previous orchard, we added two varieties of apricot, two varieties of apple, quince, flat peach (Prunus platycarpa), regular peach, mulberry and plum. Alongside a cliff in a more shaded spot, we have planted white/red/black currant, red gooseberry, blueberry and raspberry. In the flatter part of our future food forest, we utilize swales, a landform in the shape of a trench and berm running along contour (points of the same altitude) to catch as much rainwater for the trees and plants as possible. In our case we probably should call them semi-swales, as they’re interrupted and not perfectly along the contour line. Creating a \”food forest\”or \”edible landscape\” What is a food forest? A food forest, also called a forest garden, is a diverse planting of edible plants that attempts to mimic the ecosystems and patterns found in nature. Food forests are three dimensional designs, with life extending in all directions – up, down, and out. A food forest does not have to be re-planted year after year. Once it is established, it is generally very resilient. Generally, we recognize seven layers of a forest garden – the overstory (canopy layer), the understory (smaller trees), the shrub layer (bushes), the herbaceous layer (grasses, medicinal plants, etc.), the ground cover layer (perennials like clover, etc.), the root layer (root vegetables) and the vine layer (climbers). Some people also like to recognize an eighth layer, the mycelial layer (mushrooms). Using these layers, we can fit more plants in an area without causing failure due to competition. A food forest must be organic. Forest gardens depend heavily on a healthy ecosystem and cannot be sprayed with herbicides or pesticides or have non-organic fertilizers applied. A healthy ecosystem will take several years to establish itself, especially in a city or open farm area. We have to be patient and let nature take care of itself (while providing the necessary food, water, and habitat for all the components of the ecosystem, otherwise they won’t come). Food forests are a new farming concept in our area, but they have been used for thousands of years in other parts of the world. A well-designed forest garden has many benefits: Planting densely and using ground covers to shade soil and suppress weeds is returning more yield on a given surface area. Utilizing nitrogen-fixing (i.e. leguminosae, etc.) and nutrient-accumulating plants (i.e. comfrey, etc.), “chop-and-drop” techniques, and returning wastes to the land will create healthy soils instead of having to buy and add commercial fertilizers. Planting a diverse array of plants will attract beneficial insects to pollinate the fruit crops and keep pest populations from exploding and causing damage. By utilizing several ground-shaping techniques we are able to keep rain water on the site. Depending on the topography, designing for specific placement of plants helps create windbreaks and micro-climates. Placing emphasis on trees, shrubs, perennials, and self-seeding annuals, the overall amount of work is greatly reduced. In his book “Gaia’s Garden”, Toby Hemenway recommends some of the following soil-building plants for orchards/food forests:  Function Soil building plants Nitrogen fixers Alder, autumn olive, bayberry, black locust, broom, butterfly pea, cattail, chamomile, chives, collards, common milkweed, false indigo, goumi, licorice, sea buckthorn, wild lilac, wisteria, wild lupine, sweet pea, bladder senna Annual nitrogen-fixing cover crops Austrian winter pea, bell bean, crimson clover, Fava bean, Fenugreek, Garbanzo bean, vetch, black-eyed peas, cowpeas, lablab, pinto beans, soybeans, Sunn Hemp Nutrient accumulators Alfalfa, lamb’s quarters, primrose, purslane, stinging nettle, yarrow, sunflower, dogwoods, horsetail Soil builders Rapeseed, Sudan grass, and crotalaria Resources: “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway