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Bushes

Shrubs live more on the shady side in a forest garden, but with the right design in relation to light and wind, there is room for many types of berry bushes in a forest garden. Many shrubs can tolerate a little shade without producing significantly less, but there are often other factors that come into play


Sunberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, raspberries and blueberries all have a place in a forest garden. 

But there are a number of other berry bushes that have been cultivated around the world that provide good berries with many new unknown flavors.

Design of the shrub layer in the forest garden


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Designing the shrub layer is much easier than the tree crown layer. It is much easier to find positions that are optimal for the shrubs when you know where the trees are or should be. 
Factors to consider are slopes in the terrain that can be exploited, different soils for different shrubs, microclimate (windy shrubs), light conditions, cross-pollination (some shrubs of the same species must be close if they need two to reproduce), location in relation to competing and advantageous trees, placement of nitrogen-fixing shrubs (preferably south of fruit trees that they will help), spreading shrubs in the same family to avoid the spread of disease, fruit shrubs need more space to reach their full potential, the shrubs must not stand in the way of trees you will be harvesting from, shade is good for some shrubs (such as currants) that will stretch to a more comfortable picking height. A rule of thumb is to place at least the furthest south due to shade conditions.

Plants

Berry and fruit bushes

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Shrubs with other edible parts

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Nut/seed and seed pod bushes

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Shrubs for herbs and spices

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