UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 18
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Boat in the Forest: Forest garden & food forest, Sweden
monplace vineyard diseases, and is an example of
the benefits of growing a plant for production but
keeping it in a semi-wild form, which allows natural
defence mechanisms and ecological interactions.
sized, wild-spread trees nearby, to eat. They propagated many trees years ago and recently grafted
with varieties from friends and thanks to non-monetary exchanges of plant material.
To promote biodiversity and wildlife habitat, Etta
and Jona make their own biochar and prescribed
burnings - resulting, for example, in the appearance of fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium)
which favors the conditions for walnut trees. They
also emphasize the importance of dedicating an
extensive area entirely to wildlife, to the benefit of
generalist species (forest specialist species preferring continuous forest) and contributing to the
extensive mycorrhizal network and connectivity in
the landscape.
Sweet chestnut trees need to be placed in clusters for optimal pollination. The blooming around
midsummer makes them safe from frost. Ripening, as in southern Europe, takes place at the end
of October. Because they are high in calories
and nutrients, sweet chestnuts have for long been
grown in poor, mountainous regions with little
cereal production, providing a basic diet - and
autonomy.
RESISTANCE & RESILIENCE
According to the 2024 updated Swedish “risk
list” for possibly invasive species (SLU species
data bank) sweet chestnut trees are estimated to
have a “high invasive potential but a low negative
ecological impact.”
Etta and Jona harvest sweet chestnuts from large-
Jona showing the water drip system.
The walnut trees get nitrogen with
urine added in the water drip system.
