We live in Zone 5. It is not too hot here nor too cold. It’s a perfect location for a food forest!
To be honest, we only have two pretty sad-looking fruit trees. We plan to reclaim them and see if they will survive. So, we are going to try to build a Food forest on our homestead. The trees could probably do better if we relocated them to a more sunny spot.
The problem with moving them, since they have been there for a while, is that they may not live. I decided to try a science experiment that wouldn’t take as much hard labor or money.
You might ask, what the heck is a food forest? It is the same as a garden, basically. It is using the best way that plants can work together towards our advantage. Kind of like companion planting, but even better. Once established, you won’t have to weed or do additional plantings…unless you want to.
You know when you walk through a forest or a woods and there are all sorts of plant life growing there together under the large trees? That is how this food forest is supposed to work. All of it is edible, though. Some of it may not be edible to you, maybe just to your farm animals. A few of the plants may be just used as a weed control or nutrient enabler.
There are several layers in a food forest.
- Tall Trees- this is the canopy, it should be made of large fruit trees or nuts, plant them far apart so there is sunlight that can get through. I believe our canopy is Oak, which isn’t recommended but we live on less than an acre, and we were gifted these by way of them already being on our property line.
- Low Trees- Examples of these could be peach or almond. You can also purchase fruit trees on dwarf rootstock. Either our peach and plum trees are dwarf or they just don’t get the sunlight they need. Time will tell.
- Shrubs-such as blueberry, raspberry, hazelnut, gooseberry and the one I really want to try is Elderberry.
- Herbaceous plants-fennel, mint, onions, chives, calendula, Fever Few and ice plants
- Ground Cover-Strawberries, wild garlic, Sweet Violet (Viola odorata), creaping raspberry, sweet woodruff, and Dwarf Comfrey. You can also use things that are perennials such as Daylillies (Hemerocallis sp.). In China, they eat their sweet juicy flowers. Purslane is another nutrient-rich idea. We are going to try to grow Artichokes and Sorrel.
- Vines-Cucumber, melons, passionfruit, pumpkins
- Roots- onions, garlic and potato.
Comfrey, for example, is a plant that takes up nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, potash, and calcium as the roots reach down into the soil like a dandelion and can break up compacted soil. When the plant has reached its full size, it can be chopped back and thrown on the soil to release those nutrients back into the soil.

Comfrey is used as an herb layer in the Food Forest.
Last summer I started to move some mint over to the area and work in some compost under the trees. I’ve done a lot of research about what to plant in that area. This year I purchased several kinds of mint seeds to try out over there.

Peppermint can be used as an herb layer.
One of my friends offered to give me some berry bushes she would like to get rid of. I am also going to plant some items that work well in shade and block weeds.
These are the plants I want to try to suppress the grass/weeds I don’t want under the trees:
- Chives
- Irises
- Daffodils
- Daylilies
- Garlic
- Leeks
Plants that are good for shade/partial shade areas:
- Astilbe
- Barrenwort- has visual interest in all seasons, can withstand many soil conditions including wet and dry
- Bleeding heart
- Bush Honeysuckle-this one does better if you live in zone 5 with less humidity
- Columbine
- Coral Bells(Huechera Spp.)
- Creeping Myrtle-Scientific name: Vinca Minor
- Dutchman’s Breeches-Scientific name: Dicentra Cucullaria
- Hosta- This is edible, grab some early before the foliage opens (shoots). You can even eat the flowers and the roots if you want. After cutting the first shoots, they will come back with even more flourishing!
- Lenten Rose-scientific name; Helleborus orientalis
- Lily of the Valley- can be toxic to animals, so if you free-range your chickens, you may not want to choose this option. It is not edible for humans, either. (just in case you were wondering).
- Lungwort-known for its ability to attract pollinators
- Trillium
- witch Alder-butterflies and birds love this!
Edible Wild Plants for Zone 5:
- Canadian Violet and other violet species
- Ostrich Fern- the young fronds (fiddleheads as they are called) are edible and so cute!
- Ramps-(wild leeks)
- Lamb’s Quarters
- Wood Sorrel
- Wild Strawberry-harvest in early June
- Mayapple-The fruit is hidden under the large leaves. It turns yellow after the dieback of the leaves. Don’t eat this if it is not fully ripe.
- Purslane
- American Elderberry (Sambus Variety)- two plants are required for pollination
- Black Huckleberry
- Common Blackberry, raspberry and mulberry
- Gooseberry
- Paw Paw
These items are good for chopping and dropping:
- Alfalfa
- Artichoke
- Borage
- Buckwheat-(your chickens will love this one as well)
- Comfrey
- Laburnhum (or Golden Chain)

- Nasturtium-although, I also read these will take over if you don’t chop them before they are done flowering. You may not want to plant this if you don’t have a huge area.
- Rhubarb-We have this and need to divide it anyway in the spring
Now, you don’t have to plant a big bunch of plants all in one year. You can slowly add in layers year after year. Especially if you are just planting the top layer(large trees which are called the Canopy). It is recommended that you wait a year until the large trees are used to the area.
Ours have been there since before I got married to my husband over a year and a half ago. So our fruit trees are well established, and the two tall trees that surround it have been there longer than that.
So, we already have our Canopy and fruit trees. We also planted some mint last summer and moved some of our native grasses close by. This spring and summer will be all about the bottom 5 layers for us. I want to design where we will plant everything.

Design Food Forest Into Zones
One concept of how to plan out the food forest is to use zones. Such as which produce will you use quite often? Then plan that close to your house, such as chives and strawberries. Which won’t you need to harvest as often? Such as Rhubarb and Artichokes. So plant those plants a little further away from the house.
Another idea is to plant hardy ones before you begin to plant delicate ones. Skip layers. Come back next year and plant some more layers.
Sketch out your food forest layout, just a rough draft. Plan now, because you won’t have to rearrange it later if you do the hard work first. That is the point of the forest. Plant it and forget it.
For a more detailed idea of how to start a food forest go here.

Here are the additions we have been growing through the spring:

Amaranth in full bloom.

I believe our trees are doing better as they have much more fruit on them this year. We also planted Borage, Daffodils, Lemon Mint, and Rhubarb between them.
Have you planted a food forest? If you were going to plant one, what plants would you use?
Blessings,
Kimberlee
You’re brave to put mint in your forest! Mine takes over everything. Great post-neet ideas. I look forward to your next post!
Kristine,
I know Mint takes over, but right now what we have around those trees is a lot of moss. I want something to enrich the soil and not so many weeds. I’ll probably yank out the mint if it starts to take over after some time. Thanks for your comment.
Blessings!
Kimberlee
We are in zone 6! Such helpful information for those who may be new to gardening, like me! 🙂
Kelsey,
I am glad we could be of help. Let me know if you try Food Foresting out and how it goes. I will probably add a video to this post in March when we try pruning.
Blessings!
Kimberlee