Food forests for me are the most fascinating eco-system which can be recreated in our tiny backyards They don't require us, as a human race to tend it's needs nor control the way it survives. For me I never intended to set out and reinvent the wheel so to speak. I didn't even think years down the track I would be standing on our rear patio dreamily looking out across the wonderful forest we now adore.
It gives me goose bumps thinking if I had never taken the plunge, continuing to resist the need to create, we would not be benefiting from the good life we experience everyday.

It wasn't easy, I procrastinated for many months, having grown up with the dream, like every Australian owning the traditional 1/4 acre plot of land, covered in mown grass, a vegetable patch and chooks roaming the yard. The children playing cricket under the warmth of summer sun. We were never inside, riding our push bikes until dark, exploring and maturing as children do. We had close friends which lived only two houses further down the street, when together we were safe.

Admittedly my childhood was influenced by my grandfathers love of gardening, he had the most exhilarating garden we had ever seen. Perfectly manicured lawns and English style gardens, surrounded by gardenia hedging. what was hiding behind the hedge was my inspiration, a vegetable patch to rival our Queen of England's very own Windsor Castles kitchen garden.

The times my brother and I spent munching on vegetables, climbing the lower branches of a mature mandarin tree, eating as much fruit as our bellies could stretch whilst juice was squirting from our lips.

I remember we would take home a bag of fresh veges, which if we had purchased from our local grocery store would probably never have the appeal which changed my life.

I can now live the dream which hid within my subconscious all those years. I implore you to take a risk and build a food forest if this is your dream, what do you have to lose. Maybe some time, a few plants, what can be more rewarding than food grown by yourself and the freedom to eat healthy by just walking into your backyard. We have this belief that our  urban yards are green strips of grass which we tend with love and passion, proud to compete with our neighbours for the flattest most overworked piece of land which we could own.

Have you ever stopped to think this is not life, we are controlling our surrounds to fit in with others opinion, i challenge you to break free and have chickens if you want, grow an orchard which feeds a hungry family, plant vegetables and do what our soil has been conditioned for. To provide nutrients which we grow food in abundance catering to suit our varied tastes, providing us with life.

Author Brad Hamilton

http://projecturbanfoodforest.com