Growing food in woods.

Hi,

After reading alot of posts about growing food i was wondering because i dont have a big garden i could grow some vegatables in my local woods.

so i have some questions, is it legal to grow food in local woods, would if affect the ecosystem of the wood much if i started growing a small patch of crops. What would the best crop to grow in a wood.


many thanks

thecrow001

Interesting. I haven't considered what would grow well in a stand of trees, other than #ake mushrooms, which I grow for fun, not for profit. Just a thought here. I have a corn patch this summer. One end of it is shaded by a tree in very late afternoon and so the corn there didn't grow as big, nor did it produce as prolific as the rest of the patch. I don't know of any garden vegetable that grows in shade like in a woods. Berries, yes. Mushrooms, yes. Would it upset the ecology of the woods to grow vegetables there? I doubt it. The vegetables would surely not grow and would wither and die before anything would affect the woodlands. Just my undeducated thoughts. But I will check back to see what others have to say and maybe learn something from an expert. Just an added thought. I come from a long time family of farmers, and they never grew crops in the woods. I think they all knew something.

Edited to add: Apparantly you can't type #ake mushrooms here. lol. So what I meant was S h i t ake mushrooms. Hm....I'll see if this is okay. lol.

[edit on 4-8-2009 by kyred]

reply to post by thecrow001


It is illegal if on somebody else's property. If you amended the soil with all kinds of organic nutrients, you would likely be doing no harm to the woods. But it depends on the crop. Some crops will have their roots break down in the off season, replenishing soil. Some crops are great at leeching the soil. Plus, you might get interference from police. They might think you are growing something else.

Edit: like the above poster stated, you will have to make sure there is plenty of sunshine.

[edit on 4-8-2009 by orwellianunenlightenment]

Good question.

I don't think it would be legal, plus you have the problem of fencing it off from the animals.

An allotment is an alternative i guess, but if if SHTF i think these will be the first places to get raided.

Funny story, when i was a kid i spent most of my days in the woods with my mates. I always remember there was this amazing field, almost magical to us that you could go if you were hungry. Corn on the cob, honey, fresh peas and beans, this field had it all, and we rarely went hungry.

As an adult i always wondered where this magical feeding field was, until i discovered it was the local allotments! We had been pinching peoples fruit and veg for years.

Back on topic, do you not have room for container veggies? I started this this year, had a little success but it's very much a learning curve for me.

CX.

its a local wood which i think is owned by no one if thats possible these days.
Its a wood but i know theres patches openings where the sun will reach the crops so with that in mind could i grow anything ?

I'll find out if it is actually owned by anyone from my local counsil.



thanks for the replys

thecrow001

Hmmm... well a few things I thought of around this.

I've had farm experience and I've also hunted and planted food plots for deer (some of them in the woods).

You are going to either need a clearing (it could be a small one) or plant something that does well in the shade. You may or may not need amend the soil as another poster mentioned - depends on the soil.

If there are deer or other animals in the woods they may very well help themselves to your garden. Some crops animals will eat - but it may mess up their digestive systems.

What I've planted in the woods has been food plots. Some very small (say in the opening left by a fallen tree). All have been grasses or clovers that are part of the deers natural food. Sometimes they grow well - sometimes not so much.

reply to post by CX


well i could make a fence from some stick ect but theres not many animals that live in that wood from what i've seen in 18 years just birds and the odd rabbit.

yes when i was a kid well when not long ago but i used to go to this wood it seemed magical to me too, i love the woods

also i'll pop this in theres a old abbandoned brick yard near my house well about 2 miles away and one day went for a walk up there after reading these survial threads it gets me in the mood, when i was there a deer walk right by me i was sooo close first time i've seen one so close and in that area


thecrow001

What you do is find strips of boarder forest where wooded areas meet pasture or sides of roads, make sure you find an area that is south facing. Amend the soil with organic matter, and plant fast growing root crops (carrots radishes) and fast growing legumes like pole beans.

Low light crops include Potatoes, spinach and kale.

Alternatively, try and find out what's edible in your corner of the woods.

If you were really hungry, you could even eat bugs and worms, and there are a lot in the woods. I've never knowingly ate bugs but I heard they're delicious fried and very nutritious.

reply to post by star in a jar


i will have a look around, can you suggest a book for me, i am midlands based in the uk.

I know theres berrys

spinach yummy i love that

i have ate worms and bugs not because i was hungry i was just seeing if i could do it.




[edit on 4-8-2009 by thecrow001]

reply to post by thecrow001
I sent you a u2u, but what I have that I can carry around is a book called Edible Wild Plants of Eastern/Central North America, by Peterson Field Guides, even though I live on the West Coast of Canada, it was the only book dealing with edible wild and garden plants that I could find in the bookstore that time.

Quite a bit of plants are familiar to this area though so I found it a very interesting, and sometimes, surprising read.

Personally I wouldn't bother with eating wild plants, because if everybody needed to eat wild plants they wouldn't last very long and become endangered, but if you were to propagate these plants and to spread them around your woods you would have food that grows ideal in these woodland conditions and you would be ensuring its continued survival.

thanks for that

i will do some looking around the wood in detail and look for food already there.

I have to second Starinajar's idea about propagating wild edilbe plants. I have in fact done just that. I live on the east coast of America. I have also found that the petersons field guide to wild edible plants is the best book available on the subject.
What I did was identify what good edible wild plants were already growing in the woods behind my house. Next, I collected seeds from several including nettle, amaranth and persimmon and planted them in areas that would be conducive to growing those species. I also dug up root plants such as toothwart and indian cucumber root and subdvided those to extend the patches already existing. It has worked out very, very well. Nearly everything I planted or transplanted has come up and in a few years my persimmon trees should actually begin to bear fruit!
I began this project almost 20 years ago and I am confident that anyone can do it. Learn the edible wild plants for your area and begin trying them out one at a time.

RULES:
Be very careful to not eat a large quantity of any of them until you are sure that you are not allergic.
Make sure that it is the correct plant, correct plant part and that it is prepared properly.
I cannot stress these conditions strongly enough.

In addition get more than one book on the subject and cross-reference just to be sure. Carelessness can kill you!
Initally stay away from members of the Parsley family as they have many deadly poisonous look-alikes. Also avoid mushrooms as they have little food value and are easy to misidentify. Follow those rules and you will be fine. Now, get out there and start learning!

I've taught various survival skills for a long time (including wild edible and medicinal plants), feel free to u2u me if you have questions. cheers.

Planting tomatoes is a bad idea. Helping natural foods to become abundant is a great idea, and something that Native people around the globe have done for thousands of years. The great oak groves of the west are a direct result of American Native "farming".

Find what grows locally in your area that is edible, and simply give it a little bit of help. The best thing is most folks will never notice they are walking past a natural grocery store. If you planted corn it would be gone in an instant, but how may folks would even notice the many natural foods that can be found in any wild area.

I have been doing this for ages and now have a free and natural larder that I can draw on when ever I need it. It is also far healthier than chemically grown pesticide drenched food one finds in your local supermart.

yeah... propagation of wild plants

But you really shouldn't even need to do that... not unless there's bunhes of your foraging.

My advice is to learn your local woods and be prepared to eat an unconventional diet...

Fried worms make a great burger, jut have to cook em for parasite removal...

If there are woods, there is a ton of food... particulalry I'd be most concerned about a bow and fishing rod before anything else...

Not to seem rude, but if you are hungry, screw the minor effects of the ecosystem.

Have a look at this guy's photos. He grows everything in plastic 2 litre bottles and whatever plastic container/bottle he can find. He's even got corn growing and producing. Some of his contraptions look odd, but it seems they do the job. He's got hundreds of photos of how he grows in very limited space.

s61.photobucket.com...

Just a FYI, if you do plant, when you dig the soil to put the seed in, put some of your hair in, or stop by a barber shop and get a bag they swept up.
Works wonders for keeping critters out, old farmers trick.
The human sent will last for 4-5 months in the soil.
Animals smell human and get spooked, wont always work, but usualy dose a good job.