Here at Habitate we are passionate about Food Forests. I have been fascinated by the concept and have been enjoying the benefits of Food Forests in practice for over ten years. Most of our edible garden designs if not including a food forest involve thinking like a forest in order to create productive solutions for small or challenging spaces. We use vertical layering and succession design to ensure seasonal cropping and short term and long term crops through the years leading to long lasting productive perennial gardens.

I recently attended the first New Zealand Hui on Food Forests, it was great to meet so many other people working on creating food forests around the country. It was brought together by James Samuel of www.foodforest.co.nz

Peta Hudson and I ran a workshop to design the Food Forest for the Bathgate Park Community Gardens in South Dunedin, and I have now drawn up a design for it. Planting winter 2014!

I have just created the posters below to illustrate the benefits of a food forest, and answer the questions: What is a food forest and what might one look like in the Coastal Otago or Southland bioregion?