Syntropic Food Forests

n the last post, I looked beneath the soil at some of the less visible benefits our companion trees may be bringing to the food garden. For this final post in the series, I will explore two benefits I gave very little thought to when we planted the trees. One is practical. The other is more personal. Both have become clearer as the garden has matured. Natural Support for Climbing and Heavy Plants As our Eucalyptus grandis have grown, their trunks have become substantial struc

In the last post, I explored how companion trees helped create better growing conditions above ground by providing shade, shelter from wind, protection from frost, and a more layered environment for our food garden. This time, I'd like to look beneath the surface. Not because I can see exactly what is happening there, but because the extraordinary growth above ground naturally makes me wonder what might be happening below our feet. At just 2.5 years into this journey, many of

In the first post of this series, we shared ten benefits we had noticed after planting Eucalyptus grandis in our food garden at Seven Hills Estate. Many of those observations related to one important idea: creating better growing conditions for the plants around them. Before we began building our syntropic food garden, I mostly thought about trees in terms of production. Would they provide fruit, timber, mulch, or shade? What I had not fully appreciated was how strongly trees

For many years, the idea of planting eucalyptus trees in a food garden would have sounded completely wrong to me. When Michelle and I first learned that syntropic systems often include Eucalyptus grandis alongside productive crops, we were highly sceptical. Like many people, we assumed these fast-growing eucalyptus trees would compete for water and create problems rather than benefits. Even so, we followed the design principles we had been shown and planted them in our own fo