New Food Forest Plants Database for North Florida

Enjoying the cooler shade as we 
learn about designing guilds and selecting plants. 

The VegHeadz have just completed a six session workshop on creating food forest guilds, selecting plants and other aspects of growing a food forest. As a part of our workshop, those participating helped to create a master plant database for our area, growing zone 9a.  The list includes some of the information needed to make selections of plants for your food forest. 

Link to Database.  The most up-to-date version of the database will always be available in the left sidebar of this site under Gardening Resources.

We’ll be adding to and refining the database as we continue to grow in our  small food forest (just 40’ x 70’) in the VegHeadz garden in Tallahassee. In this small space we have over 50 species of plants including over 10 sub-canopy size fruit trees.  We hope this information may be of use to you in selecting plants for your landscape, garden, or food forest. 

In case you think you don’t have room for a food forest, consider watching this brief video about some tiny food forests, any one of which might fit in your space. Thanks to Lorraine, one of our gardeners, for finding this resource.  Small Food Forests and Pocket Forests  

How to Start a Food Forest

We get a lot of interest in our small food forest at the VegHeadz Garden. Visitors often ask how we started it, how we decided what to plant there, how much maintenance it takes, etc. 

If you’re thinking about starting a food forest, planning is the first important step.

William Horvath is a geologist and permaculture practitioner who lives in Croatia. He has a very informative website about Permaculture, The Permaculture Apprentice,  and conducts online classes on a variety of related subjects. In a recent blog post he provided detailed steps for starting a food forest.

“Would you rather have a food forest where you need to continuously put extra effort into your plants only to find that they eventually die and need to be replaced?

Or…

“Would you rather have a food forest that thrives almost on its own, requiring little maintenance and input? A food forest that will be the legacy you pass on to future generations.”

A most intriguing question. Obviously most of us would choose the second option. To view William’s step by step plan for starting such a food forest in your location, go to his website which you can access here: William Horvath— How to start a food forest, step by step.

And come visit the VegHeadz garden, take a tour of our food forest, and ask questions on any Wednesday morning.

Wednesday in the Garden

Yen tends to her Stem Lettuce (Celtuce) and
Fava Beans in their newly upgraded raised bed

Carole is back in the garden. Her report on today’s happenings:   It was dreary at first, but the heavens did not open up on us! It was perfect for planting; not hot, not buggy, and the ground is moist. Peggy brought a lovely array of pepper plants. I hope they were all rehomed. I rescued two!!

Mike built and installed the replacement for another deteriorated raised bed.  Yen and Louie were busily weeding, planting, and pruning in the two recently rebuilt raised beds. Steve is building a patio to display container gardens. Glenn put up the signs indicating that the water at the garden is not to be drunk. It's in two languages; no excuse for accidentally drinking non-potable water from our irrigation array!  Our garden is irrigated with water collected from the roof of the Extension building and stored in a large underground tank which is a re-purposed gasoline storage tank.  

Larry's memorial redbud is alive! No blooms yet, but new leaves are coming on. Phew!  

The vandals were active again. Two nearly full cans of paint were emptied and distributed around the VegShed, compost bins, large container pots, and the ground. I have the lids with formulae and will replace them. Not to be stored in the shed, however. As Mark observed, we have created a habitat. Organisms will populate a habitat. Be careful about what you leave in the VegShed. Do not assume that it will remain there.

Next workday, Wednesday, March 23, be prepared to help take the banana plants down, both the upper mat and the one in the Food Forest which is a dwarf variety.  Janis has marked the stalks that produced this year and they will be taken to the ground. We’ll prune the dead leaves on others and then determine what other pruning needs to be done to thin the mat.  

Bring machetes, loppers, saws (not chain saws), and energy. The stalks and dead leaves will have to be cut into smaller bits to be composted or left around the banana plants as mulch to nourish new growth.  Who knows, the occasion might call for banana bread, banana pudding, or some banana concoction as yet unidentified. Watch this space...

Perennial pollinator plants are
so easy.  They just come 
up when they are ready. 
Dead material damaged by
winter cold was removed
over the last few weeks.  

When the Golden Trumpet tree
Tabeboula chrysotricha  blooms in our
garden we know it’s spring.  

A bed of carrots in the 4-H garden. 
The kids love to pull carrots.  

Jen and Louie decided these are
shelling peas in Glenn’s garden. 
Not filled out yet and too tough
to be sugar snaps.  

The pea pods should be full
enough for grazing and 
harvesting next week. 

The pea blooms promise we’ll
have many more pods to
harvest. 

A perfect little cabbage in the Edible
Forest Garden.  Yes we do plant
some annuals there.  But the mystery
is why this is such a perfect specimen
when an identical plant a few feet away is 
destroyed by bugs and disease. 

Time to harvest these collards as they 
are ready to bolt. Container grown, 
they cover the black plastic crate 
which houses them.  Lined with
a cardboard box and filled with
garden mix, a perfect home 
for one big plant.  

Glenn and Steve survey the 
container patio in progress

Steve lays the final paver

Our first container
for the patio.  Native 
Pollinator plants in a
Beautiful pot.  Thank
You Jen!

Permaculture Design Course

Beginning June 29, a 72 hour Permaculture Design course will be offered at the Leon County UF/IFAS Extension.  For details, click the link below.  Many of the techniques used in the VegHeadz vegetable demonstration garden are derived from permaculture sources.  What is permaculture?  Click on the link to a recent article published in the Tallahassee Democrat. 

What is Permaculture?: 
htthttp://blogs.tallahassee.com/community/2016/06/21/what-is-permaculture/

Permaculture Design Course:
https://www.facebook.com/events/169397130577102/?ti=icl

Children Love Gardening

Grant arrives at the garden ready to work,
 

 The VegHeadz had visitors this week as we prepare our garden for spring planting.  Young Grant Smith, his mother, Bethany, and his younger brother joined us on Wednesday morning.  Grant arrived prepared to do some serious gardening with his wheelbarrow, gloves and gardening tools.  He was eager to help and learned a lot.  He and Carol planted potatoes and green peas and he helped other gardeners with garden maintenance work.  Visitors are welcome any time, to help or just to observe.  Spring is in the air and our gardeners were out in force to enjoy a beautiful morning.

Carol prepares bed for potatoes



Helping Cathi pull
turnips and radishes



Removing damaged leaves from cabbage
and Brussels sprouts with Mike

Going home with some veggies

New Master Gardeners

Congratulations to the new Master Gardeners who received their certificates at the Leon County Extension yesterday (12/7/2015) at our Holiday celebration and quarterly meeting. Congratulations and thanks particularly to those who have volunteered in the VegHeadz demonstration garden.  Their help and enthusiasm have been invaluable in maintaining the garden in its best form ever.

We also heard a great presentation from Dr. Peter Anderson from the UF North Florida Education and Research Center in Gadsten County. His specialty is sustainable fruit and nut crops for north Florida.   Both his presentation and his handout were very informative.

The VegHeadz also shared information about and rhizomes from three edible gingers in the VegHeadz garden--Galangal, Turmeric, and Ginger Root, as well as Arrowroot.  They disappeared like snow in July.  Hope everyone who got some has success in growing and using them.  Also hope we get reports of their results.  Feedback is always good.

Organic Gardening 101 at Ten Speed Greens

There's a great opportunity to learn about organic gardening from experts who operate a commercial garden in an urban setting.  Ten Speed Greens is hosting a Gardening 101 Workshop on January 25, 2014, starting at 10:00 a.m.  The workshop will focus on starting your own seeds, and what varieties to choose--important if you want to grow something other than the selection available at local gardening centers. The workshop costs $15 for advanced registration and $20 on the day of the workshop.  Click here to register or email tenspeed-greens@gmail.com for more information.

Spring Into Vegetable Gardening

A four-week series of classes for novice vegetable gardeners is being offered at Agricultural Extension offices around North Florida.  Details here.
 

Trevor's Herbs

Trevor Hylton is a busy man.  In addition to overseeing the vegetable demonstration garden at the IFAS Extension Office, and managing the FAMU Community Garden on Orange Avenue, he is an extension agent in Leon and Wakulla Counties.  We ran into him today at Farm Fest at the FAMU Research and Extension Center in Gadsden County, where he was showing visitors around his experimental herb garden.  The herbs were plentiful, beautiful, and healthy, as were the extensive nearby vegetable gardens.  He's involved in many other projects, including the pilot gardening education project mentioned in the previous post.  Thanks for all you do, Trevor!

Red Clay Garden Project - Elementary Garden Education Curriculum

A pilot program for teaching elementary school children about gardening and much more is being developed by the FAMU College of Agriculture & Food Sciences.  Entitled the Red Clay Garden Educational Curriculum, the program proposes to provide lesson plans for an eight lesson program covering an Introduction to Agriculture, Gardening and Fertilization, Soil and Composting, Adaptation and Environment, Global Warming, Nutrition, and Careers in Agriculture.  The class would conclude with a Farmer's Market Day Event.  The project, funded by the USDA/NIFA is in its final stages of development.  For more information contactd Sandra Thompson, Community Resource Development Program Director at FAMU,  Sandra.Thompson@famu.edu. 

The move toward gardening programs for school children is an important step in improving nutrition for the entire population and encouraging children and their families to make healthier diet choices. 

Another excellent resource for those working with children is the School Gardens site at the University of Florida, IFAS.