Nature has a zero waste rule and sticks to it. Any and every bit of organic matter, living or dead, is reduced, recycled, repurposed or reused.

A walk through the forest reveals a diversity of plants growing in a seemingly mad jumble, some in clusters, others farther apart, few of them alike, and none of them standing alone. Fallen leaves form a soft thick carpet, food for beetles, worms, colonies of ants, networks of fungi, a whole universe below ground. No one fertilizes, no one weeds… Now what if I told you that your little home garden, whether you have a yard, a terraced slope, or a box full of dirt, is really a miniature edible forest?

A garden, a forest, and a farm are only arbitrary labels. Not all people in all places at all times perceived a garden as a backyard veggie plot, a farm as orderly rows of crops, and a forest as a mysterious wild place for hiking and horror movies. In fact, we modern Western folks are unique among cultures in our narrow categories for garden, farm, and forest, much to the detriment of ourselves and the planet.

Every garden and every farm can be a food forest.