The concept of a tiny forest comes from the Japanese biologist Akira Miyawaki, whose aim was to quickly recreate a natural forest in order to regenerate devastated areas.
Through the principles of soil preparation and improvement, through very dense planting (min. 3 trees and shrubs/m2) of varied indigenous species (min. 30 species) in different layers, from ground cover to emergent layer, removing weeds in the first 3 years to avoid competition from gramineas, and by mulching, these tiny forests theoretically grow 10x faster than ‘unmanaged’ forests, and are autonomous in care after 3 years (without irrigation or weeding).
We wanted to experience the Miyawaki adventure!
1st test planted in January 2024.
In September 2024, we observed an excellent restart for 90% of the plants, and good to excellent development depending on the species, compared to the same plants and trees planted elsewhere on the land, with the same irrigation rate, but with less planting density, less soil cover and less fertiliser at while planting.
We noticed a slight ‘edge effect’ and we are convinced that square or round shapes are preferable to elongated and rectangular shapes in order to limit the edge effect.
We’re very happy when we see the mini-forest!
This first test encouraged us to repeat the experiment for the 24-25 season. We’re planning 2 tests:
1 test with a proportion of other native species
1 test integrating more edible species
Thanks to Oriana Brás from the Tiny Forest project at the University of Lisbon for her support. More info here: https://miniflorestas.2adapt.pt/guia_pt_low.pdf