Edible Forest Gardens is a two-volume work — Volume 1 covers the vision and ecology, Volume 2 the practice and design. Together they represent the most comprehensive treatment of temperate-climate food forest design available. Volume 1 makes the case: why food forests are ecologically sound, historically validated, and capable of producing more food per acre with less input than conventional horticulture. It is a landmark in sustainable agriculture literature.
The Argument
Jacke and Toensmeier’s central argument is that humans fed themselves from managed forest gardens for most of their history — in tropical regions, the forest garden is still the dominant subsistence strategy. In temperate regions, the tradition was largely abandoned with the enclosure of common lands and the rise of grain monoculture. But the ecological principles that make tropical forest gardens so productive apply equally in temperate climates: diversity, layering, perennial root systems, closed nutrient cycles, and the managed succession from annual garden to perennial polyculture.
A mature temperate food forest — chestnuts and hazelnuts overhead, apples and pears at mid-level, currants and gooseberries below, perennial vegetables and herbs at ground level, root crops beneath — can produce extraordinary quantities of food while building soil, sequestering carbon, and requiring progressively less human maintenance as the system matures.
The Ecological Foundation
Volume 1 is distinguished by the depth and quality of its ecological analysis. Jacke and Toensmeier draw on forest ecology, landscape ecology, and systems thinking to explain not just what to plant but why the system behaves as it does. Their treatment of ecosystem function — nutrient cycling, succession, the role of disturbance, edge effects, keystone species — is more rigorous than most academic ecology texts, presented in service of practical design.
This ecological foundation matters because food forest design without ecological understanding produces random plant collections rather than functional ecosystems. Jacke and Toensmeier teach you to think like an ecologist, which is the prerequisite for designing systems that actually work.
Every species in a food forest has multiple functions. Every function is served by multiple elements. Design for redundancy, and the system becomes resilient. Design for efficiency alone, and it becomes fragile.
— Dave Jacke & Eric Toensmeier, Edible Forest Gardens
6 Key Ideas From This Book
Archaeological and anthropological evidence suggests that managed food forest systems predate grain agriculture in many regions. Indigenous communities worldwide maintain forest gardens that have been managed for centuries — diverse, productive, and self-sustaining in ways that annual monocultures cannot match.
A food forest captures energy at multiple vertical layers simultaneously — canopy, sub-canopy, shrub, herbaceous, ground cover, root, and vine. This vertical stacking produces more total biomass and food per acre than any single-layer system, because it occupies ecological niches that monoculture leaves empty.
Ecological succession — the natural progression from bare ground through annual herbs to shrubs to forest — is typically treated as a problem to be reversed by weeding and cultivation. Jacke and Toensmeier reframe succession as a resource: by designing the succession pathway, the gardener can use pioneer species to establish conditions for longer-lived productive species.
Plants that fix atmospheric nitrogen through root partnerships with bacteria — alder, locust, Siberian pea shrub, various legumes — are the fertility backbone of a food forest. Placed strategically, they build soil fertility for the whole system, replacing the external nitrogen inputs that annual gardens depend on.
Deep-rooted plants — comfrey, yarrow, chicory — reach mineral layers that shallower-rooted crops cannot access, accumulating them in their leaves. When those leaves are cut and mulched, they make these deep minerals available to all the plants in the system. Jacke and Toensmeier document specific dynamic accumulators for different nutrients.
A well-designed food forest requires intensive management in years one through five while the system establishes, and progressively less thereafter. As the perennial structure fills in, weeds cannot establish, soil biology builds, and the system's own ecology manages pests and disease. The goal is a system that increasingly manages itself.
Any Weaknesses?
Volume 1 is dense and not easy reading. The ecological theory chapters require sustained attention, and readers who want to get to the “what do I plant” practical questions will find themselves working through substantial theoretical grounding first. Volume 2 is the practical companion; some readers should start there.
The book is written for temperate northeastern North American climates. The species selections and design examples apply most directly to this region; readers in other climates will need to translate significantly, though the ecological principles are universal.
Serious gardeners and small-scale farmers who want the most thorough available treatment of food forest design — and who are willing to invest the reading time to understand the ecological principles before starting to plant.
Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway for a more accessible introduction to the same territory, and Volume 2 of this series for the practical design methodology.
Landscape architects and restoration ecologists. The design methodology in this book is more ecologically rigorous than most landscape architecture training, and the principles apply to any designed plant community — not just food production.
This is a serious book that demands serious reading. The ecological theory chapters are not light — they require the same quality of attention you would bring to a university ecology textbook. The reward is a genuinely transformative framework for thinking about plant communities and food production.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Edible Forest Gardens Vol. 1 worth reading?
The most ecologically rigorous and practically thorough treatment of food forest design available. Jacke and Toensmeier spent years producing this work, and it shows on every page. If you are serious about perennial food systems, this set belongs on your shelf.
Who should read Edible Forest Gardens Vol. 1?
Serious gardeners and small-scale farmers who want the most thorough available treatment of food forest design — and who are willing to invest the reading time to understand the ecological principles before starting to plant.
What is Edible Forest Gardens Vol. 1 about in one sentence?
Edible Forest Gardens is a two-volume work — Volume 1 covers the vision and ecology, Volume 2 the practice and design.
The Verdict
The most ecologically rigorous and practically thorough treatment of food forest design available. Jacke and Toensmeier spent years producing this work, and it shows on every page. If you are serious about perennial food systems, this set belongs on your shelf.
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