Chapter 15. Trees

Forests are formed from individual trees and they are the earth’s lungs, giving life to every living thing. Forests provide us with clean air and oxygen as well as food, timber, fibre, oil, clothing, fuel wood and medicine. They provide homes and food for animals, birds, insects and countless other creatures, many of which are too small for us to see! Forests also preserve ground water, protect land from erosion, attract and improve rainfall, and are seed banks for the future.

Using permaculture design trees are grown to be part of a productive living system. This chapter explains how to achieve this with agro-forestry, food forest systems, annual-perennial food production systems and native regeneration. Also included is how to plant and manage trees organically for good production.

Contents include:

• Trees are life
• Healthy and sustainable forest systems
• Productive trees and permaculture tree systems
• Preparing the land
• Tree terrace systems
• Planting plans
• Fruit tree and tree crop maintenance
• Reforestation