RESTORE NATURE

Native berries importance in a food jungle eco system

How to benefit from and use native berries in your food garden

Why are wild berries foundational to a food jungle ?

The many many reasons are covered in an article on the greenidiom.com website about native berries.

When designing a wildlife friendly, carbon sequestering, high nutrient density food jungle, one of the first things to do is get acquainted with your local wild berries so that you can choose wisely among them. There are many reasons why berries are wonderful, and not the least of them is the choice itself, the great diversity of possibilities compared to the commonly available and highly altered fruit of an orchard. This I will go into in more depth in the accompanying article to which you have exclusive access.

Other points I will examine in the article to substantiate why wild berries are so important in a food jungle are their nutritional quality, their role in supporting biodiversity, their resilience and possible use as pioneers and the protection they can offer other food plants.

Food jungle ?

At the moment I am busy laying out a framework for a course on how to design and build your own food jungle. As I begin to think through the possible content of such a course, I’ve come up with topics such as the various garden ecosystems one can create, from wetlands to flower meadows, as an adjunct to the jungle. One needs to also deal with using succession and the storeys of the forest, guilds and various types of management inspired by syntropic farming, permaculture and other thought systems, and how one is going to fertilize and process biomass, manage water and maximize productivity. One should also be considering the various uses of plants when making plant choices. Lastly I have some ideas for research and collaboration to consistently improve the practice of food jungle creation. I hope that if you have any needs, want to suggest other topics or offer insights that you can share them with me. I’d like to develop the course to line up with what people want to know when planning a food jungle, to make the process easier to do and more wide spread, for the benefit of the planet. I see creating a course as the best way to promote and realize the creation of food jungles all around the world, and the goal is to empower people with planning, growing and design skills and creating networks for exchanging and expanding know-how on everything from local plant varieties to system construction and general ecological principles.

Please let me know where you'd like me to go from here

As you have signed up for my mailing list, you will be the first to see the article on native berries by clicking on the link above. You will have access long before it is published on my website. This preview allows you to be participate in determining what direction the food jungle course will take, and when it is finally released, allows you to be given special rates for subscribers.