Site Planning

Planning Efficient & Effective Site Designs

Each site is based in different contexts and requires individual planning. The following resources are helpful in planning an economically oriented food forest.

Business cases of 4 examplary food forests in the Netherlands by Stichting Voedselbosbouw (2028) with different functions from recreational, productive, biodiverse to gastronomy-focused themes – and excel spreadsheets for each theme that can be used as a base for a business plan. There are numerous further publications and thesises on the economic dimension of food forests from the Netherlands movement.

Roger Giezens Syntropic Farming Guidebook translates the principles of successional agroforstry into English. It is filled with examples of plants from the tropics but the principles and appraoches to planning apply also to other climates.

For good companion plants and guild design in temperate climates see Ruddocks handbook on Plant Guilds. Midwest Permaculture.

Bachelorthesis by Lia Rumpf (2022) systematically planning parts of a productive food forsts in Northern Germany and can serve as an example on approaching the planning of a food forest as part of a Bachelorthesis (including the limitations and need to focus due to the potential complexity of such diverse systems) (in German): Die Pflanzplanung eines nachhaltigen Waldgartens.

Further material (in German) by the German Association for Agroforstry (DeFAF) can be helpful in planning: a questionnaire for planning an agroforstry system and further practical tools e.g. for calculating the potential incomes (for more simple agroforestry systems)