Welcome, on this page you’ll find a food forest establishment protocol that’s specifically developed for mediterranean and subtropical climates. In these climates, late fall/winter is the only recommended planting window.

This protocol covers a scenario in which you want a food forest with swales.

The protocol consists of nine tasks executed in this order: 1) Plan the food forest, 2) Define a layout, 3) Site clearing, 4) Test the soil, 5) Site survey, 6) Install swales, 7) Winter cover cropping, 8) Bare Root planting, and 9) Mulching (killing off the cover crops).

This protocol’s main characteristic is that you do earthworks later in the season (late summer-fall), followed by winter cover crops that improve the soil through the late summer/fall and early winter months. You then plant your trees and shrubs, preferably in the winter months after winter cover crops have been growing for a while.