Amazing, Super Steep Food Forest.

I wanted to dig swales for our food forest, but it is just too steep. I came up with an alternative and am planting interesting subtropical fruit trees.
#foodforest #permaculture #agroforestry
Our land in New Zealand is pretty steep, I think Swales would likely cause too much soil erosion, so I am trying this as an alternative.
I am planting bananas, cherimoya, inga bean or ice cream bean, Suriname cherry, golden passion fruit, pineapple and naranjella.
The are lots of trees which will naturally grow back up around these fruit trees and act like support species. My plan is to keep cutting them back and use them as a mulch, which should negate the need to add wood chip.

[@mandarinmelon]

Great video!! Thank you.

[@projectparadiseNZ]

Thanks for watching amd commenting

[@KellyHaggett-i8n]

Fantastic work Dan.

[@projectparadiseNZ]

Thank you. Lots more to come

[@sowyouthinkyoucanplant5630]

Which area are you in? I'm in very similar conditions near Parua Bay, some areas are almost too steep to walk on but so far terracing through small hand powered earthworks is working quite well

[@projectparadiseNZ]

Ah that's a beautiful place, I know it well, my wife is from Whangarei. I am doing the same, some of my land is pretty steep, ive been digging a few steps in over the past couple of days. We are further south, on the west coast, a bit cooler weather than where you are.

[@sowyouthinkyoucanplant5630]

@@projectparadiseNZ sounds great, you'll benefit from not having to water too much, it's been so dry here, even with support species some things have really been struggling. Manuka are really nice to nurse young plants provided you can drop them without damage

[@projectparadiseNZ]

Thats a good idea. I've been thinking of planting some manukau. I Like the fact they arent so tall. We have load of kanuka and they are all enormous

[@jonathanm1311]

Nice video. Doing the same in Ecuador. Remember to get the hairs off the naranjella fruit before skin contact as they can be really irritating.

[@projectparadiseNZ]

Wow, you are really growing this in the right climate. I'd never heard of naranjella. It's probably a bit cool for it here, but hopefully it will be ok. Thanks for the tip, didn't know that.

[@pilgrimshodl8628]

Flying dragon nursery?

[@projectparadiseNZ]

No a place called "land of the lotus" up in Whangarei. Flying dragon sounds good though. Must pay it a visit

[@joekunin]

I came to a similar conclusion about wales on my slopped land too. In some areas I've been doing a sort of wale/terrace/footpath hybrid where I'll lay down logs (staked in) on the downslope side, make a sort of swale to fill in up to the log line, then fill the swale trench with woodchips. I plant into the strip near the logs, and the dug out woodchip filled part becomes the footpath, so in the end it looks like a low terrace, but half of it is essentially a woodchip filled water battery. Great video!

[@projectparadiseNZ]

That's close to what i ended up doing. My paths were pretty narrow, so there may not be enough room to plant into them. I am hoping planting just below the path will mean that the trees will still be able to access the extra water .