Making plans for a food forest

There are so many design ideas, growing methods, and outdoor/indoor homesteading projects I wish to implement on my little urban homestead.

Food forests, permaculture, guild planting, espalier, intercropping, succession planting, hugelkultur, raised beds, wicking beds, vertical gardening, container gardens, lasagna method,  forest gardening, and the list keeps growing…. Learning how to implement many design and gardening methods together is one that constantly has my gears spinning in my head.

These get broken down even further when you go into what materials to use for a raised bed, etc.

Add to all of that the various seed starting, transplanting, grafting, rooting methods and it gets more interesting.

There are just so many wonderful, inspired ideas out there; I want to use them all haha.

I have some older folded sod near the plum tree in my yard. I am considering using it to try my hand at hugelkultur. That one is a newer study subject for me. I think this method and the lasagna method are similar in the sense that you can do this on top of your lawn if you wanted *from what I have seen thus far at least* though the raised hugelkultur bed might be a better option depending on the materials at hand.

Recently we picked up a 100ft tape measure for $15 that is a bit more flexible and durable than others we have found.
Soon we will be getting the dimensions of yard and actually drawing it out on graphing paper.

I also picked up a Utilitech grow light at Lowes for about $15. I am sure it is not fantastic, but it was more affordable for the time being. I am going to test out this one, and if it does well, I will probably need 1-2 more before Spring.
We decided I would use the metal shelving unit I have outside in the garden for my grow station this year to save on buying a less than desirable one this year.

Today I have also been focused on organizing a list for a food forest. I have listed out things I want and have under different categories for the food forest; The categories are: Canopy, understory, vines, shrubs, herbs, groundcover, root crops, edge plants.

By putting the different plants under each category *some in more than one* it allows me to get a better mental layout by thinking in layers. From that I will then break it down further into seasons *for starting seeds indoors/outdoors/transplanting*, areas of the garden, growing methods, succession plantings, what is permanent and what needs replanting, etc.

I want to get a map out of what I would like my urban homestead to look like in the end, and then alter the plans for what I can do with it now, with what I have currently.

I know a food forest is not much of a “forest” on .18 of an acre, but I still think of it that way.

There is a lot I need to consider with my design. It is both fun and daunting. I am sure things will start moving more once the areas are measured and accounted for. This is probably a lot harder for me right now as this is my first time mapping out a food forest landscape without any experienced help aside from online blogs, videos, articles.. Once I get it down the first time it will be much easier, or so I hope.