Benefits of Reforesting Your Land

• restore soil
• sequester carbon
• produce food for your family
• better water retention in case of drought
• invest in your future with lumber and sap trees

The 7 Layers of an Ontario Food Forest

Whether you’re a new home gardener with little experience, or a farming vet looking to squeeze out a little more produce this year, you should probably think of building a food forest. When I think of a perfect food forest style garden, I want the most packed, diverse, high yield of fruits and veggies possible. This means a variety of all shapes and sizes from an 80 foot sugar maple to low crawling groundcovers like wild strawberries. I’m also a big advocate for using native species in your garden so let’s look at some of the plants you could use in each of the 7 layers of a southern Ontario food forest.

Canopy – Large Fruit and Nut Trees

The canopy is the top layer of any forest made from the crowns of the tallest trees. It is home to animals like squirrels, birds, and insects as well as vines and other plants. Some of the tallest trees in Ontario are oak trees and pine trees.

Some popular tall edible trees you can find in Ontario are apple trees and sugar maples. Maples don’t have edible fruits but can be harvested for their sap to make maple syrup and candies. Cedars and other tall conifers have fruit and seeds that aren’t edible to us but it’s important to feed the birds too!

Many of the trees in this layer of your food forest can also be harvested for their wood.

Understory – Dwarf Fruit Trees

Dwarf trees generally grow to be about 12-15 feet at maturity. These are going to be the trees that are more accessible to us without the use of tree climbing equipment. There are many varieties of dwarf trees in Ontario like apples, cherries, pears, plums and hazelnuts.

The Asimina Triloba tree, more commonly known as a paw paw tree, grows some of the biggest fruit native to North America. I’ve never tasted the fruit but I’ve seen them described as custardy, similar to bananas, mango, or pineapple and tasting a whole range of flavors from sweet and tangy to bitter and floral. I definitely want to plant some of these this year so I can taste it for myself.

Shrubs – Currants and Berries

Shrubs are usually short bushes but can be as tall as some dwarf trees. Their defining characteristic is that they have multiple stems at the ground while trees have just one. This is one of my favorite layers of the food forest. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, chokeberries (which don’t actually make you choke), serviceberries and almost any other berry you can think of grow on shrubs.

Juniper berries grow on low sprawling bushes that would also fit in the groundcover category. These tiny blue, pine-smelling berries are used alongside other grains and aromatics to make gin. Don’t eat the berries raw though or you might get sick!

Herbaceous Layer- Herbs

Herbs are any plant that is used for it’s leaves for culinary or medicinal purposes. Many herbs are also harvested for their seeds and flowers. Some examples of native herbs in Ontario are wild mint, wild rose, dandelion, wild licorice, sunflower, and sumac.

There is a long history of medicinal herbs in Native American culture and I have barely scratched the surface with these herbs. For example, Jaques Cartier and his men were experiencing their first Canadian winter and finding they were not prepared at all. Many of the Europeans got scurvy and 25 men died before a Native American man named Dom Agaya taught them how to treat it. An herbal tea made of juniper bark and needles was drunk and the leftover plant matter was used to bandage the men’s wounds. Soon the Europeans were on their feet again.

Rhizosphere – Root Crops

The word rhizosphere comes from the Ancient Greek rhizo (root) and the suffix –sphere meaning a realm that supports life. The rhizosphere is therefore any part of the soil that is influenced or has influence on root structures.

The first root crops that come to mind are potatoes, carrots, beets and onions, but those are all crops that are indigenous to Afroeurasia. I had some trouble finding root crops that are native to Ontario. I did find one however – ginseng. Both American and Asian Ginseng are believed to have many health benefits including stimulative and antioxidant properties, a boosted immune system, reduced inflammation, and improved mental performance.

Of course, almost every other plant in your food forest will also live in the rhizosphere. The quality of the soil is therefore one of the biggest factors in the success of any garden. There are many different types of soil but most are made up of different percentages of sand, silt, and clay. It is important to know what kind of soil you have so that you can amend it to meet your plants’ needs. In most cases, the best soil is rich in organic matter and beneficial fungi. Read more about mycorrhizal fungi here.

Groundcover Crops

Crops like wild strawberries and squash spread low and wide over the surface of the soil. Their leaves help protect the soil from the sun and retain its moisture more effectively. They also help cover any gaps and reduce the spread of weeds. For extra ground coverage, use plant material that would otherwise be wasted as a free and natural mulch layer.

There are many other great native groundcovers like bunchberry but not many that are edible to humans. This might be another layer that we plant with some of the local critters and pollinators in mind!

Vertical Layer – Climbers and Vines

Vines have got to be my favorite part of a food forest. I just love the symbiotic relationship they have with the rest of the garden. Vines have to grow on some sort of structure to survive and some of the taller trees are perfect for this. Vine crops like many beans and peas are “nitrogen fixers”. This means that they add nitrogen back into the soil, a nutrient that many other plants consume. The nitrogen is like a nice way to pay rent to the trees whose limbs they hang off of.

Other Ontario native plants that grow on vines include gourds and riverbank grapes. Gourds are used as vegetables in the culinary sense but are botanically considered to be fruits. They therefore take the place of biggest native Ontario fruit beating out pawpaws by only a few grams. I’m sure I don’t need to say much about grapes. They make for a delicious snack and are even better in a wine glass (if you’re of legal age of course)!

Building a Food Forest

When building a food forest, I think that there are 3 main factors to look for: diversity, density, and proximity.

Diversity in your plants will ensure good soil health and increased food security in the case of disease.

Density allows for the most produce per unit of land.

Proximity to your house or property entrance makes it more likely that you will take good care of your garden.

One way to achieve this is to design your garden with rows about 4-5 feet wide. This is wide enough to pack in lots of goodies but narrow enough for you to easily reach any part of the garden. Make occasional gaps so that you don’t always need to walk to the end of the row.

Native Vs. Non-Native Plants

One thing I noticed while creating this list, is that a lot of staples in a typical Canadian diet are actually non-native species. I think it is important to use native species in our gardens, but when it comes to food gardens, I think it is even more important to grow nutritious foods that won’t be wasted. If you hate apples but love potatoes, plant some potatoes! It doesn’t make sense to grow food that won’t be eaten. I know that these views seem to conflict with one another but I’m finding that the world is not all black and white. This list is not to condemn non-native foods but rather just to inspire the use of native ones. Most of all, just have fun growing a wide variety of foods from every layer of the food forest!