10 Ways To Create A Forest Garden For Free

I share 10 techniques for creating a forest garden for free as we return for the second part of the low budget food forest tour 2021. In my last video I shared ways to build a low budget food forest on the cheap, but this week I focus on adding plants to your food forest for free. These are the methods I'm using to build my permaculture survival garden after 13 months without income. Use these money saving garden tips to thrive in spite of job loss. Stay tuned to the end of the video for bonus tips, including how to free plants from the government.

Permaculture stops being permaculture (that is, permanent culture) when it relies on expensive techniques that are out of reach of the average person. Let's make it simple again.

Even if you're building a cold climate temperate food forest, there's an abundance of over 300 species that you can plant even in the bitter cold of Holyoke, Massachussets, like author Eric Toensmeier and Jonathon Bates. It's time to harness the knowledge of our poor, illiterate, farmer ancestors and create a world of abundant food forests for all.

Which technique are you going to use to plant something for free today? Share it in the comments!

📄 CONTENTS 📄
0:00 Intro
1:01 1) Steal Plants
1:46 2) Sweat For Plants
2:26 3) Forage For Plants
3:05 4) Transplant Volunteers
4:27 5) Befriend A Gardener
4:54 FREE Annual Staple Crop Calculator
6:19 6) Plants On Your Wishlist
7:30 7) Trade Your Expertise
8:20 8) Plants4Plants
9:21 9) Propagate Nursery Plants NOW!
10:26 10) Don't Forget To Layer Up
12:26 Bonus # 1
15:13 Bonus # 2

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⭐SUPPORT THE CHANNEL⭐

My channel isn’t monetized, so in addition to subscribing, liking, and commenting, you can support the channel through the following links. I have seeds for sale, as well as digital tools I use for planning my garden, and a list of recommended reading which I’ll receive a small commission for if you purchase through my links. As well, you can make a one-time donation through Ko-fi or bitcoin if you enjoyed this video. Thanks!

🪙DONATE WITH BITCOIN: bc1qvamcfj5s6kaxxtsg7cq9wsvheqdd768udeacy3

A selection of seeds I’ve bred to provide maximum food with minimal resources. Resistant to drought, wind, pests, climate extremes, and more.

Calculate how much food you need to grow in order to provide sufficient calories for one or more people. Pay what you want.

📚RECOMMENDED READING📚

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[stonedapefarmer]

Hey Permanauts!

Did you learn anything from this video?

If you did, won't you consider sharing it so others can too?




(Or just select the share button for more options!)

Thanks! I appreciate your help in spreading the word!

[Chorpington]

Thank you for putting in the time to make such interesting gardening and beard content.

[karlsfoodforestgarden]

You're so right about plants being easy to get for free. If you simply hang around plant lovers, they're always happy to share cuttings and seeds. I give away plants to anyone who asks and feel richer for the opportunity. I don't want to put any nurseries out of business, because I love what they do, but getting the plants is pretty easy, it's finding time to care for, harvest and preserve everything that soon becomes the real challenge! ;)

[ForageGardener]

YASSSS. I like number one already. I have successfully procured several hundred new plant specimens by taking little pencil size cuttings from various plants I find growing out of the sidewalk or on the side of the highway! many abandoned fruit trees and herb bushes around the Portland region, to say the least! I also recently found a bunch of little lilac suckers in the roadside greenway coming back from being trimmed, so pulled several up and made off with about 6 health little purple lilacs now! :)

[davidschmidt]

cool video...thank you bro.... became a subscriber!!!

[ForageGardener]

What an incredibly well researched video my man. Very helpful. I had no clue that Pinepple weed was actually a native wild form of chamomile! I could have guessed it was an asteracea, but go figure it chamomile! One of my favorite forages tbh. It's funny how much we can learn every day :)

A note on the potted food plants, Walmart accepts EBT easily, as do other grocers, and likely most bigger nurseries, but Ace Hardware did NOT accept ebt for potted plants. Just because they were unfamiliar and the system did not have the plants registered as food items like grocery stores will. K Mart and Fred Meyers have large selections I noticed. But various nurseries will also accept. :)

[coollonglegs]

Thanks Matt, great stuff once again! One thing I found helped a lot as well is get involved in your local communities of gardeners (e.g. through NextDoor) and start giving away stuff. I sowed too many chili peppers and gave away some, people brought the most surprising stuff as a thank you. It's a great way to get to know folks who are into growing food too.

[mmmbrrr]

I'm sure this channel is going to pop soon videos are great. Keep it up 😁

[trenomas]

Buddy! If you're growing Camas, balsamroot wapato, and Yampah, I want to trade seeds with you!
I have some wild camas and fool's onion seeds harvested this year from an abandoned food forest oak savannah in Camas washington.
I'm from the land of the camas people and I desperately want to reintroduce and improve this species with the community.

[jakebarney]

You had me at free. I’ve been a sub for a few months but just noticed this vid.

[karlsfoodforestgarden]

Matt! Thanks so much for the shout-out! You're doing excellent and inspiring work here. So glad I found your channel!

[knowvalwww]

In the fight against the food industry, I am absolutely with you. I stumbled across your channel by chance and also immediately made a subscription. Will also look at some of your videos. We are also building a small nursery from simple deciduous and coniferous trees, fruit trees to vegetables of all kinds. Want to duplicate and make available to our customers at low cost. Because feeding ourselves makes us not only independent of the food industry but also makes us healthier.
Kind regards from Bulgaria

[anthonybc]

Whoa, this is quality content, and I know took a while to compile. Yeah, I knew about 60%, but there were some surprises that other youtubers don’t mention. I hope this video gets hit hard with viewers so that you can come back to making videos. If anything, keep up the community posts so there is some way to see the progress. Thank you for this gift!

[myoffgridforestgardenadven]

Nice one brother:) Great help, great tips, good to see you doing your bit to reduce our dependence on the shady ones.

[barelybarb]

Hey Matt, thanks for sharing things that you know! 😆 I'll have to start taking notes while i watch your videos.

[drippiemikk]

Great video! Wish I could make this on my channel - jealous! That's why I subscribed, greetings from Denmark!

[KellenChase]

Great video. Thank you. Plenty of ideas for getting free plants, but also just a great list to keep my eye out for plant wise anyway. Thanks for mentioning grin as well. I’ll look into it.

[Green.Country.Agroforestry]

Fantastic video, Matt! I'm planning on taking a hike off the beaten path at a nature trail not far from here, where I found a stand of hearty native black berries a few years back - they made some of the best jam, and would do great in my garden, too 😊

[GoingGreenMom]

Oh my, I don't even know where to start!

[andrewsackville-west]

Oh dang! Disappointed to hear that our local hazelnut needs so long to root. I naively planted about 80 cuttings a few weeks ago. They're still there and haven't obviously died, so maybe I'll get lucky with a few of them.

Anyway, fun video filled with great ideas 👍