This post is written about A Stroll through the Michael Judd Food Forest I took when I was at his paw paw festival back in September.
Michael is the author of “Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist”, a very good book if you have not read it yet.
The post below can’t do this food forest or forest garden justice, so please check out the video at the bottom of this post.
Michael Judd Food Forest
The Food Forest
In the front part of the food forest he has some Jerusalem artichoke and hardy kiwi. He has rosa rugosa, which is a rose bush that has very large rose hips high in vitamin C.
Next on the walk I found a Flying Dragon Citrus tree. It is a cross between an orange and a lemon. This is one of the few citrus trees that will grow in USDA hardiness zones 6 and 7. It has some huge thorns on it and a branch from this tree could almost be used as a weapon or hunting too 🙂
There is some European elderberry that looks a little scraggly. It appears that the European varieties just don’t thrive as well as the American named varieties that I have.
Elaeagnus
I then wandered over to two large goumi bushes. One was sweet scarlet goumi and I didn’t quite catch the name of the second one. Goumi is a nitrogen fixing shrub in the elaeagnus family, the same family as autumn olive, but the goumi does not propagate like autumn olive and is therefore not considered an invasive.
Michael Judd Food Forest
More Food!
Just past the goumis is a che tree. This is a tree that is seven foot right now and has large berries on it. The berries look somewhat like raspberries.
Being as this is a paw paw festival, as you would expect there were a half dozen or more paw paw trees in the food forest. Paw Paw trees are native to this are and is one of North Americas largest native fruits.
Michael Judd Food Forest
Bamboo?
There is clumping bamboo used as a living fence. This was planted to block the view to a neighbor’s house. They say if you keep the area around it mowed and well-trimmed, it will not get away from you and take over.
Miscellaneous
A small mint patch is next to a couple of small figs. Figs in our area didn’t do that well this year because we had a very warm spring early on and then had an unusual late freeze that went down into the teens. That freeze killed all of my peach and pear blossoms and killed most of the above ground growth on my figs.
The Book
Michael’s Book, “Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist”, can be ordered at the below link if you are interested. As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases. There is no additional cost to you!
Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist
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The Video
Check out the video below titled The Michael Judd Food Forest
Thanks for visiting A Stroll through the Michael Judd Food Forest post.