Growing Food Hidden in the Foresthttp://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/food-forest-zbcz1307.aspx

By Linda Holliday

Rick Austin has not planted a garden in years, yet he plops3 to 6 gallons of fresh-picked fruit and vegetables everyday onto the kitchen counter for preparing or storing.

Often, Austin’s gathering binges prompt his wife to say,“Stop! I can’t keep up with you,” as she readies the harvestfor dehydrating, canning or eating.

Outside their Appalachian off-grid home in North Carolina,the Austin’s carved out a completely natural, perpetualgarden spot from the mature oak and pine forest. With thehelp of a hired bulldozer, in one afternoon they cleared ahalf acre right down to rock and red clay – the kind thatturns to brick in hot, dry weather.

The Austins sold the hardwood, milled the pine for building materials and used the brush and rotted logs toconstruct berms for hillside terraces. Then, after all available soil was pushed into place, they began planting.

No straight, even, meticulously groomed rows of beans, corn and onions designate the area as a garden plot,however. In fact, whether from a distance or nearly atop the vegetation, it is almost impossible to realize agarden exists there at all. Which is precisely the idea, Austin, an author, told me when I called to inquireabout his book, Secret Garden of Survival – How to Grow a Camouflaged Food Forest.

Rather than following traditional, modern plans that rely on planting annuals in Army-formation-style rowsor boxy raised beds, the Austins instead mimicked nature and harvesting methods thousands of years old.Before modern agriculture and the invention of mechanized farm machinery, most of mankind foraged forfood.

“Studies of native indigenous people around the world, people who have lived off the land for generationswithout electricity, without refrigeration, without commercial agriculture, and without pesticides andinsecticides,” Austin said, “showed that these people have lived primarily on perennials as opposed toannuals such as your typical grocery store vegetables.”

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In a future world where there is potentially no electricity, refrigeration, supermarkets, seed stores, fertilizers,pesticides and feed stores, it makes sense to look at people who have managed to live successfully forgenerations without these conveniences, he said.

As hunter/gatherers, people did not spend time planting and tending crops. They didn’t plant in rows. Theydidn’t plant year after year, didn’t weed, didn’t fertilize and didn’t water plants. Yet humans managed tosurvive for thousands of years this way.

“Straight rows are a haven for bugs,” Austin said, explaining why his produce grows in concentric circles, orguilds. At the center of each guild is a fruit tree draped in grape vines. Out from there, progressively shortercircles are formed of bushy plants, herbs and groundcover.

“With perennials, you plant once and harvest for a lifetime,” he said, adding that he spends only about anhour per day in the garden. Now in its fourth season, the garden yields more than the couple can possiblyconsume. Since they grow most of their own food, this is quite an accomplishment.

Of the few annuals incorporated into the garden, such astomatoes, all are heirloom, allowing the Austins to savetheir seeds year after year. Insects and weeds also are partof the scheme.

“Ninety percent of bugs are good bugs,” Austin said. “Andweeds are ‘pioneer’ plants. They break up the soil.”

Learning to leave weeds in place was one of the greatestchallenges for Austin’s wife, who must resist herinclination to pull every weed. Always, something is inbloom to attract beneficial insects, whether intentionallyplanted there or not.

Growing up with an apple orchard in New Hampshire, Austin was a typical apple-grower. The trees grew ingeometrically straight rows with nothing between them but grass. Every 10 days and after every rain, Austinreligiously sprayed each tree with expensive chemicals to ensure a quality harvest.

“I still had scabby, wormy apples,” Austin said.

In time, Austin realized he not only was killing bad bugs, but also beneficial predator bugs, disruptingnature’s balance. Now, without any chemicals and by comingling plants to deter bad bugs, the Austins’garden bears much more without all the work or expense.

Austin said his theory about the positive effect of companion- and inter-planting became reality a few yearsago when, after filling the garden area, he planted the leftover seed potatoes in a row elsewhere.

“They were doing really well,” Austin said. “They were nice, healthy plants. Then, one morning, I saw thefirst plant completely decimated, and the one next to it, and the next one.”

By the time Austin got to the fourth plant, the mystery was solved. A swarm of potato beetles was consumingthe plants, moving from one to the next in the row. The bugs easily found the concentration of plants; and,compounding the problem, good bugs couldn’t compete with the mass of beetles.

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Inter-planting has other benefits. Austin noticed that the grapevinesgrowing on fruit trees instead of trellises yielded more grapes. And,the apple and pear trees produced more fruit shrouded in grapevines.The list does not stop there, though.

“We’re growing just about everything that will grow in this area,”Austin said, indicating peaches, plums, apricots and an assortment ofnuts and berries also fill the garden. He even is experimenting withcitrus in a greenhouse built onto the south side of their home. “It’slike permaculture on steroids.”

Larger garden pests, such as rabbits, deer, raccoon and squirrels alsoare kept at bay with an arsenal of natural repellants. Perhaps thesimplest is the dense barrier of blackberry bushes surrounding thegarden site.

“Have you ever tried to walk through a patch of blackberries?” Austinasked.

My fascinating conversation with Austin lasted more than an hour and can’t be summed up here. Check backfor Part 2, Natural Pest Control, soon. For more on author Rick Austin, visit his Facebook page.

Incidentally, Austin generously donated one of his books to our hand-water-pumping video contest ongoinguntil July 23. Be sure to enter for a chance to win. Austin also is working on another book, The SecretGreenhouse of Survival.

Photos by Rick Austin of grapes growing on fruit trees and a side-by-side photo of a bare hillside and 12months later.

Linda Holliday lives in the Missouri Ozarks where she and her husband formed Well WaterBoy Products, acompany devoted to helping people live more self-sufficiently off grid, and invented the WaterBuck Pump.

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Secret Garden of Survival: Howto grow a camouflaged food-forest.by Rick Austin (Author)

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Imagine a food garden that you only have to plant once inyour life-time, that takes up very little space, that willprovide food for you and your family for the next 30years; that can grow five times more food per square footthan traditional or commercial gardening; and where you

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