Glenview Food Forest

A hard restorative prune

Glenview is stewarded by an elder who shares Qigong practice with me when I visit — the relationship is as much cultural exchange as it is garden work. Several years ago I helped expand the food forest around the established banana clump and diversify the plantings.

The orchard had become overgrown and needed substantial pruning to restore access, light and productive structure. The food forest at the top of the orchard is still affected by dry soil: it is sandy and free draining, and nearby mature gums (Eucalyptus spp.) compete hard for moisture. Soil cover and organic matter are not yet enough to hold water around the fruit trees through a dry stretch.

I completed a heavy restorative prune through the orchard, reopening the canopies to light and airflow. I put real effort into tidying the banana clumps (Musa spp.), pulling out old material and digging out excess suckers. The overgrown mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) got a hard prune, and the avocado (Persea americana) was cut back to a more manageable structure.

There are gaps in the orchard where more fruit trees could go. Semi-mature grafted trees may be a practical way to diversify and bring new plantings into production sooner. The direction for the next stage is to strengthen the existing orchard and upper food forest first, before developing a new food forest on the lower slope.

Checking in on the way through

A deliberately light visit to assess the garden before carrying on to Banyula Zen, knowing I would be back soon.

The pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) was flowering, and pinto peanut (Arachis pintoi) had settled in well in several areas — encouraging establishment for a living groundcover.

Two seed-grown fruit trees have come along remarkably. An avocado (Persea americana) I planted from seed is nearly twelve feet tall, and a jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) is around eight.

The mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) had got away, and the bananas (Musa spp.) needed work across the garden — old material out, excess suckers removed. I lifted all the turmeric (Curcuma longa) out of one bed, shared a papaya (Carica papaya) with friends, and left the heavier work for the return.

Lifting a turmeric bed is not the same as harvesting it. The whole barrow is mother stock, held back and replanted straight into the food forest, and only what is left over comes away as the crop. Done that way the bed renews itself and still feeds you, which is why one bed keeps giving rather than needing to be bought back in each season.

The turmeric bed, lifted

Mapping the high point, digging the top swale

A stewardship period that ran on from the first working week in December.

The banana clumps (Musa spp.) were showing lush growth after the earlier mulching — a clear sign the extra cover and organic matter were feeding the system.

I used drone mapping to review the orchard layout and the shape of the property, which identified a position near the property's highest point for a new swale that could begin slowing and spreading water from high in the landscape.

I spread more mulch through the food forest and productive areas, including some of the raised vegetable beds. More biochar was produced and then inoculated in a tub before going into the soil. The reason for making char here in particular is the ground itself: Glenview is sandy and free draining, so water and nutrients move straight through rather than staying where the roots are. Char is porous enough to hold both, and inoculating it first means it arrives already loaded instead of charging itself at the soil's expense. On sand there is little point importing fertility that will not stay put.

Then I dug the new swale at the top of the orchard, seeded the disturbed ground and covered it with mulch before leaving.

The top swale, 17 March 2024

Char and mulch, the same day

First swales behind the bananas

The first substantial week of work in this garden.

I spread a large volume of mulch through the working area to protect the soil, hold moisture and start building organic matter.

Two swales were dug behind the established banana clumps (Musa spp.), to slow water, encourage it to soak in, and support the banana-based food forest below them.

We also dug a pit for making biochar. Once it had served that purpose the pit was repurposed and developed into a garden bed, so the area kept an ongoing productive use.

Behind the bananas, first working period