In 2015 I created a Food Forest for a client in Spain. They wanted a low maintenance, yet sustainable garden for their property so using system and regenerative design, I designed and implemented a garden that would become a full forest ecosystem.

Focusing on plant data and ecological system thinking, I reshape the ecosystem of the garden to allow for a higher diversity of plants. Reforming the slope allowed for more water retention that provided water for larger species who would help shelter an understory of productive plants.

Each phase of the project is designed to establish, implement and develop the ecosystem of the garden towards an established forest. This is crucially measured by the garden being able to sustain nutrient cycling and moisture retention.

For the first few years the site development focused on retaining more water during the rainy season through earth works and increased vegetation. As plants grew larger, they provided needed shade for more tropical species that have a quicker nutrient take up.

Planting Visualization

One of the key principles behind Food Forest design is that you start with a lot of Support Species that work hard to build soil, enrich nutrients, and provide habitat for beneficial organisms. Productive Species are then inter- planted with the Support as the site improves. As Support Species age, they are chopped out (Chop n Drop), providing room for the established Productive Species as well as adding further nutrients to the soil.

When planning a planting schedule across multiple phases it was important to know when certain species would be nearing the end of their life and when Productive Species will need some more room to grow. Coding this information into data visualization was important for both planning as well as conveying to the client the rhythm of the garden.

Using excel charts of data, this radial bar graph was coded in Javascript (P5.js) to show planting and chopping schedules. The colours of the bars represent the various sizes of plants with T’d ends to indicate when plants needed to be cut out.

Master Plant Palette

One of the most important parts of this project and a critical factor in its success has been the organization of a plant database that can be quickly read, filtered and customized for various design steps. This information needed to be displayed not only as technical reference for myself but also part of the main documentation for the client so that they could explore the data and understand what was in their new garden.

Several other projects in the area have used the same Planting Palette or expanded for different uses, so keeping the database up to date has been a vital part of design process.

The project has continued to be updated and worked upon for over the last 10 years and has become a lush and abundant garden that is a haven for wildlife and a source of food and enjoyment for the client.

Progress

2015

2016

2024