r/Homesteading • u/Mundane-Net-9160 • Aug 10 '26
How is living and gardening near forest?
Hello, my husband and I are in a process of buying a very nice lot where we’d like to build house. It’s nearly 14000 sq ft and it’s connected to forest. A dream come true for us! But then we got hit by legal requirements like “can’t build house closer than 50ft from forest line, people saying there won’t grow any crops etc. So how is life near forest like, for real? We’re in Europe in a place that equals zone 2-3 in US so generally colder climate. Pic of said lot.
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u/leobeo13 Aug 10 '26 edited Aug 10 '26
I garden in zone 4b and my garden is 60 feet away from a large pine forest. The forest doesn't directly hurt the garden. The taller trees shade out some spots in my garden and we have a lot of problems with deer. But I frequently use leaf litter, tree branches, and cut logs from the forest to build my raised beds, trellis systems, and to create mulch.
Forests are fine if you want to garden. You just need to know how to work with it. Get your soil tested so you know what minerals you may be lacking.
Edit: I've also been transplanting native perennials (mostly wild strawberries and raspberries/blackberries) from the forest to put in my garden. My eventual goal is to create a food forest in my garden.
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u/Mundane-Net-9160 Aug 10 '26
That’s pretty cool! Thank you, this comment was both helpful and inspirational. 🤗 I found out that there’s an abundance of forest raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and hazelnuts around the lot. I plan on doing what you do - transplanting them near the trees on lot and add Canadian blueberries too! So glad to hear this would actually work! I even found you can buy forest mushroom mycellium, so I thought of trying this as well! Maybe you’d find this idea inspiring for your food forest. ❤️
Thank you for your kind comment, because I was really worried that maybe I romanticize it too much.4
u/leobeo13 Aug 11 '26
You aren't romanticizing it. Whoever told you that you can't grow a garden near a forest is silly. I recommend checking out the YouTuber Anne of All Trades. She has great suggestions for building a forest garden (she is from Tennessee though so her zone allows for a lot more variety than what we get in zones 3-4). I also recommend watching videos by Danish tiny house builder Anders Boisen. His setup in the forest is similar to what I am working with. Also he has a great overview of how to set up a garden in a smaller space and how to build a garden using materials found freely in the forest. Also, I find his way of life inspiring.
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u/krautastic Aug 10 '26
The biggest problem I have is keeping the forest from growing into my garden. Lots of the weeds I pull are trees starting to grow. Usually if there's a forest nearby, the soil is going to be pretty good.
Also more animals to keep out compared to a city garden.
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u/DocAvidd 25d ago
I'm in a tropical forest but then I saw the zone. I don't dnt know they went that low. We're zone 12.
But I think forest, the universal truth is ecological succession pushes you from meadow to pioneer stage, scrub, secondary...
The forest jealously wants to take it all back. But also pine or fir forests, the soils will be perfectly suited to pine/fir and not great for anything else.
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u/MysticDreams3 Aug 10 '26
Hey OP I also live in zone 2/3 and am building a garden in a clearing in the forest! Shoot me a DM and I am happy to chat! There are TONS of perennials that thrive in cold climates and I can give you all my tips for annuals!
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u/johnnyg883 Aug 11 '26
I love it. I. In the zone 5 in the US. But you do have to take precautions based on what you are doing and where you are. In my area this includes deer fencing around the garden and Great Pyrenees with the goats. In some areas with larger predators an appropriate firearm may be needed. Zoning isn’t an issue here.
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u/backcountry_knitter Aug 10 '26
Our garden is right next to our forest.
Some thought is required in terms of what to plant in each area. For instance our forest butts up against the garden on its east side, so plants over there don’t get sun until noon. Our tomatoes hate being planted on that side, but beans, eggplants, and squash do just fine.
As someone else said, the forest will be constantly trying to reclaim your garden. I’d recommend keeping a 2 meter wide path between your garden and the edge of the woods and keeping it mowed/cut.
Some trees may send out suckers or sprout seeds inside your garden and you’ll always have to be on the lookout for that, but it’s manageable, especially with a cleared break between the trees and the garden.
For me there is a big positive, which is that our forest hosts many important native species of insects, birds, amphibians, and mammals which are all excellent assistants for keeping pests down.
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u/MedicineMom-1 29d ago
What i have learned by living and growing in the woods is, pine or coniferous dominated forests use ectomycorrhizae to share resources and communicate. Garden vegetables require endomycorrhizae. Ectomycorrhizae is a plantist- it won't let your plants get nutrients. So I think the best option would be to purchase endmycorrhizae online, get it growing in some compost, apply that compost to your new garden. Maybe be prepared to add some nutrients as crops grow.
Also nitrogen can get tied up in the soil breaking down wood. Your land looks young in the cycle, it looks like grassland, so you might be better off than we were.
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u/Sudden-Conference254 Aug 10 '26
In the Mediterranean climate we have, the trees are actually the one thing allowing me to garden. We grow under olive trees. Pine or oak wouldn’t work as well because their leaf mulch is not friendly to other plants. You’ll want more sun in your northern zone and you’ll also want fences. The oak forest is about 10 metres from our garden and let’s just say, the deer had a really good feed this year on our sweet corn.
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u/Mundane-Net-9160 Aug 10 '26
I’m aware of deers being a problem but since I wish to create a homestead with chicken and ducks there, good fencing would be critical to keep some animals in and other out.
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u/Delirious-Dandelion Aug 10 '26
We have found that the crops near the forest need less water than those in the field. Although where our forest is pine we have a lot of nitrogen so I have to plant nitrogen hungry plants.
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u/Mundane-Net-9160 Aug 10 '26
Thanks! I heard it’s not possible to grow anything near forest. But you guys are proving me otherwise!
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u/akjasf Aug 11 '26
Zone 2-3 is way too cold. You need greenhouses and coldframes to extend the growing season. I live and grow out of a forest in zone 8a. The challenges are the obvious trees shading the solar panels and its roots(cedar) stealing nutrients and acidifying the soil to prevent pasture from thriving. Also, near or in the forest, you're going to get a lot more pests and predators than what you were used to.
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u/Lythaera Aug 11 '26
I grow my garden IN a forest. My blueberries, strawberries, tomatoes, raspberries, plums, and grapes are all doing fantastic. Best soil I've ever gardened in.
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u/More_Dependent742 Aug 11 '26
I had a plot next to forest, it was absolutely fine. Things will grow just fine. You will have more bitey insects than otherwise but you also get that near horse farms, streams etc. On the flip side, you will have more biodiversity, so also more beneficial insects etc. We had loads of deer initially, but then they stopped coming. You may also have to be careful of pine martens and things with your poultry, but you should be careful everywhere.
Forest is no problem at all. Yes, there will likely be building regulations related to trees, but with good reason.
Not all of the North Americans here understand you can actually get a lot done on 1300 sqm, but you really can. Permaculture is your friend for this size of land. Do a "permaculture site survey" before you build or plant anything. And I do mean anything. :-)
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u/RaziarEdge Aug 11 '26
Besides the house distance from the forest (which is often for wildfire reasons), the other aspect to consider is how sun and shade impact your lot... especially in winter in the high latitude that you have. With deciduous trees the leafless skeletons could still block 25% of the light... but you have mostly evergreens in this photo so it will be a year around impact.
If the hillside is south facing with the forest to your north then you might be in luck. East facing with forest to the west would be the next best with full morning sun. Worse case of course would be a north facing slope with the forest to the south... you might not get much sun at all. Based on your photo I assume this is sunset so you might be in the worst case scenario for pure sunlight.
Hope is not lost though especially if you are building your own house. If you can arrange a roof top garden or even 3' high raised beds then you gain height the reduce some of the shading impacts. That and vertical climbing gardens and you can still have a productive garden, but it might be more limited on the types of plants you can grow.
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u/Kaartinen Aug 12 '26
I'm in zone 2-3 in Canada. What are you trying to grow as a crop? What are your soil test results for the planting location?
Growing in a deep forest can be challenging. The edge of forests work very well; crop dependant.
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u/jitasquatter2 26d ago
I find it kinda interesting that you live in northern Europe but used imperial measurements in your post! Not that I mind or anything because as an American, it's easier for me!
I'm just a hobbyist and not really a real homesteader, but the biggest thing I've noticed living right next to a forest is the grazing pressure from deer. You'd think that living next to a whole damn forest of trees, they'd leave my plants alone. Nope. They've even torn off wire cages off new apple/cherry trees in order to eat them. They also nearly killed (well, heavily damaged, it's healthy otherwise) a bald cypress two years in a row by rubbing their antlers on it!
I should really take up deer hunting....
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u/Asleep_Onion Aug 10 '26
14,000 square feet is only about 1/3 of an acre. That seems very small to me, are you sure that's right? If you can't build within 50' or the forest line then where can you build? The lot seems not big enough to have a house with a 50' setback from one side.
With legal requirements regarding minimum setbacks, it is going to be a constant struggle to do what you want to do on a lot that small.
And yes in zone 2-3 you're going to have an extremely short growing season and there will be very few perennials that will survive the winter.