Inside a Secret Florida Food Forest

Tour Food Forest Florida, a productive Central Florida food forest where oak canopies, compost, seedlings, tropical fruit, and constant experimentation work together.

Keywords

Food Forest Florida, Florida food forest tour, Central Florida food forest, tropical fruit Florida, permaculture Florida, secret garden Florida, growing bananas in Florida, fruit trees zone 9b, Ryan Food Forest Florida

Tours › Florida › Food Forest Florida — Part 1

Food Forest Florida · Part 1

Inside a Secret Florida Food Forest

Beneath the oak trees just north of Tampa, Ryan has created a diverse food forest where tropical fruit, homemade compost, seedlings, microclimates, and constant experimentation all work together.

Central Florida USDA Zone 9B Tropical Fruit Permaculture Food Forest Tour

Location Central Florida

Growing Zone USDA Zone 9B

Garden Style Experimental Food Forest

Defining Feature Growing Beneath Oak Canopies

The Story

Bringing permaculture experience home to Florida

Ryan was born and raised in Central Florida, but his approach to growing food was shaped far beyond his home state. He spent time living and working on permaculture farms in Hawaii and Costa Rica, including an off-grid farm where food, water, compost, and other daily resources were produced directly on the property.

He eventually brought those experiences home and began adapting them to the conditions just north of Tampa. Today, Food Forest Florida is filled with tropical fruit trees, edible understory plants, compost systems, experimental seedlings, and growing methods designed around the property’s existing oak trees.

The garden is not presented as a finished landscape. It is a place of continuous observation and experimentation. Ryan grows avocados and citrus from seed, tests cold protection strategies, grafts promising local fruit, and constantly looks for plants capable of thriving in his soil and climate.

The defining idea behind this garden is simple: work with the landscape, test what is possible, and allow successful plants to reveal what truly belongs there.

What You’ll Learn

Practical ideas from the tour

Ryan explains the reasoning behind nearly every part of the food forest, from tree placement and composting to genetics and cold protection.

1

Use existing trees to create microclimates

Oak canopies provide dappled shade and protection from cold, wind, and storms while creating planting opportunities for citrus, pineapples, and other sensitive crops.

2

Build garden beds from local materials

Fallen and dying trees become log borders that hold compost, wood chips, fungi, and organic matter while gradually helping create new soil.

3

Grow seedlings as long-term experiments

Seed-grown citrus and avocados may reveal useful genetics, stronger local adaptation, or dependable root systems that can later support grafted varieties.

4

Use plants to protect other plants

Ryan experiments with allowing established tropical foliage to surround sensitive jackfruit trees before winter, creating an additional layer of cold protection.

5

Turn waste into food forest fertility

Food scraps, leaves, coffee grounds, yard debris, and pruned plant material are continually returned to the system through composting and banana circles.

6

Choose varieties for local conditions

Wind tolerance, cold tolerance, productivity, mature size, and resistance to local pests can matter as much as flavor when choosing fruit varieties for Central Florida.

The Secret Garden

A productive garden hidden among the oak trees

Ryan calls this section his secret garden because it is tucked beneath the property’s mature oak canopy. Rather than removing those trees, he uses their shade, leaf litter, roots, and protection as part of the growing system.

Old logs form the edges of the garden beds. Unfinished compost and wood chips fill the spaces between them. Over time, fungi and decomposers help transform those materials into fertile growing areas.

Fallen logs become garden-bed borders and fungal habitat.

Oak canopy creates shade and protection from extreme weather.

Compost and wood chips gradually build new soil.

Edible plants occupy multiple layers beneath the canopy.

Ryan’s Growing Philosophy

A food forest built through observation

Rather than relying on a rigid plan, Ryan continually studies how plants respond and adjusts the garden around what succeeds.

🌱

Experiment with seedlings

Seeds create the possibility of trees better adapted to local soil, weather, pests, and cold.

🌳

Work with the canopy

Existing oak trees are treated as valuable infrastructure, not obstacles that need to be removed.

♻️

Return organic matter

Food scraps, coffee grounds, leaves, logs, and yard debris are transformed into fertility.

🧪

Keep testing ideas

Cold protection, grafting, air layering, variety selection, and plant combinations remain ongoing experiments.

Featured Clips

More lessons from Food Forest Florida

These short videos highlight individual ideas, plants, and growing strategies featured during the tour.

Food Forest Florida

A lesson from Ryan’s growing system

Food Forest Florida

Tropical fruit and experimentation in Zone 9B

Food Forest Florida

Another idea from inside the food forest

Growing Systems

How fertility and protection move through the property

Three-Bin Compost System

Food scraps and coffee grounds begin in the freshest bin, then move through the system until they become finished compost for the fruit trees.

Banana Circle

Yard waste is placed in the center of a ring of bananas, where it breaks down and releases nutrients for the surrounding plants.

Oak Microclimates

Citrus, pineapples, and other crops are placed beneath mature oak trees to benefit from shade, leaf litter, and protection from wind and cold.

Living Cold Protection

Large tropical foliage is allowed to grow around sensitive fruit trees, potentially creating a warmer and more protected pocket during winter.

Air Layering and Grafting

Successful plants are propagated, promising local fruit is grafted, and seedlings remain available as rootstock or future varieties.

Layered Polycultures

Bananas, moringa, mulberries, sugar cane, guava, ice cream bean, sugar apple, and other species share growing areas instead of being separated into isolated rows.

Plant Collection

Featured plants from Part 1

The property combines dependable Florida crops with subtropical and tropical experiments.

Bananas Mulberries Avocados Citrus Moringa Ice Cream Bean Jackfruit Black Sapote Jaboticaba Loquat Pineapple Sugar Apple

Show Complete Plant List

• Moringa
• Blueberries
• Passion fruit
• Starfruit
• Yerba mate
• Yaupon holly
• Malanga
• Beautyberry
• Pineapple
• Citrus seedlings

• Avocado seedlings
• Dwarf everbearing mulberry
• World’s Best mulberry
• Thai dwarf mulberry
• Pakistan mulberry
• Ice cream bean
• Ti plant
• Black Gold jackfruit
• Sugar apple
• Sugar cane

• Pink guava
• Raja Puri banana
• Black sapote
• Manzano apple banana
• Sabará jaboticaba
• Red hybrid jaboticaba
• Loquat
• Dwarf Namwa banana
• Dwarf Orinoco banana
• Elderberry

The Takeaway

A resilient food forest grows through curiosity

Food Forest Florida demonstrates that a productive landscape does not need to begin with perfect soil, a completely open property, or a finished master plan. Ryan works with the oak trees already present, returns waste materials to the soil, observes which seedlings survive, and treats every challenge as an opportunity to learn. The result is a food forest that continues to evolve with every season.

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Food Forest Florida — Part 1

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