permaculture

[<permed@nor.com.au>]

re the Abandoned food forest ...

>i am asking myself if this is has been in australia, and this
>being in connection to the trees being very newly introduced
>species. 
Yes, one case in the Australian sub-tropics a 10 year old foodforest 
abandoned for 3 or so years was badly choked and overgrown. A small part 
of the original foodforest was subsequently rescued with an awful lot of 
lot of work - some trees bounced back. (things here grow at 3-4 times the 
rate of temperate Europe) - but the worst plants strangling the fruit 
trees were ALSO newly introduced species rather than natives.
Robyn
>i have seen old farm orchards abandoned for decades, and
>while some trees have died, and some did not bear any fruit,
>others still gave huge crops of apples, pears, plums. while at
>the times those orchards where used by their owners, underneath
>was the traditional calf-meadow close to the house, when they had
>been abandoned for long they turned much more into a food
>forest - blackberries here and there, lots of braodleafed forbes
>(including edible species), and some volunteer non-food trees in
>between. but this was europe, and those trees have been here for
>a looong time.