Our Tropical Soil

I have never been a picky eater so for as long as I can remember I have loved all kinds of fruits and vegetables. I ate the produce that was available at the grocery store because that is what my parents bought. I claimed oranges to be my favorite fruit, which is really not a surprise considering Florida is the largest producer of oranges in the country. The only fruits I ever actually picked myself were strawberries and mangoes. I was able to pick fresh strawberries because in south Florida, during the winter, there are a few u-pick fields planted. I was also able to pick mangoes during the summer because the large majority of people where I live have a mango tree, and so naturally we also had a mango tree. We always had at least one mango tree and mangoes were the only fruit we ever grew. That was pretty much all the exposure I had to growing food as a young child. I was actually uninterested in plants so much that I recall thinking on multiple occasions that plants were boring because “they could not do anything.”

My father always wanted to have a sizable chunk of land and around 10 years ago my parents were able to obtain a larger property. He began planting some fruit trees, but I never paid much attention to what was actually going on in the yard. We only had a few mango trees for a couple years and then at one point my father decided to also plant a guava tree, a sugar apple tree, a soursop tree, and numerous papaya plants. All of these trees were grown from seed, and then a few years later we were eating fresh fruits off of our trees.

Overall I was essentially clueless as to what my dad was doing in our yard. All I knew was that fresh fruit was coming in through the backdoor. I started gaining more interest in plants when I started learning about the environment. Food forests interested me the most because I was always fond of forests. I saw my future self living on a property that was densely planted, but I never considered that the species would be edible. Thankfully, because of the internet I became more knowledgable about permaculture, perennial plants, and food forests. I always considered Miami as a place where production of food was limited to a few fruit tress, so I was amazed when I saw all the different species that could grow well in a tropical climate. There were species of fruits and vegetables that are native to tropical climates that I never even knew existed. I was inspired by others online to plant, and I knew that one day I would have my own food forest. 

My interest in edible plants finally exploded when I visited a greenhouse at my university that had a cacao tree growing inside. I harvested a fruit and proceeded to plant the seeds in little handmade newspaper pots. I have been hooked ever since then and I have been planting everything that I can get my hands on. It first started off with fruit trees where I would find these tropical fruits and plant the seeds. I then wanted to grow vegetables and so I needed to start a garden. The only issue was my father. 

He loves open fields covered in grass with trees spaced far apart, which is the complete opposite of a densely planted food forest. After a lot of convincing he finally fenced in a small area of the yard for me to garden in. 

Starting my garden was honestly a lot of hard work. Taking out the grass took me weeks and I was finally able to finish because my dad lended a helping hand. I did not really know what I was doing because everything I had learned had been in theory. I decided to go for it, and I began planting vegetables wherever I could find some room without much consideration as to how large the plants would grow. I initially wanted a perennial garden since they are much easier to maintain. However, I started buying seeds for tropical annuals and decided to plant those too. Before I knew it I had a messy garden that was severely overgrown. There were multiple things going to seed and it was quite difficult to walk through and harvest produce.

It has been a year since I started my first garden and I have made a lot of mistakes. I have taken everything I have learned and I now want to focus on planting out more parts of my parents yard. I want to document my journey in planting a food forest so people can learn with me and be inspired to plant their own food forests.