About this site

Where the knowing comes from

Long before “food forest” became a search phrase, layered kai was simply how some childhoods looked. Growing up in Papua New Guinea meant trees, shade, understorey and harvest shared the same ground — food and forest not as separate hobbies, but as one place. That early normal is hard to unlearn, and it is a gift: you stop asking whether stacking plants can work, and start asking how to do it well for this soil, wind and season.

Years later came the test of intention — establishing a food forest in Samoa. Diagrams meet mud. Spacing that looked generous on paper closes too fast. Wet months teach drainage faster than any lecture. Species that thrived in memory sulk in a different pocket of heat and rain. Those seasons leave a useful scar: respect for labour, observation and climate honesty over catalogue romance.

In Aotearoa the same craft continues under different frost lines and neighbour fences. Te Puke’s warm Bay of Plenty pocket can hold subtropical canopy many New Zealanders have only tasted imported — yet cool inland terraces and southern gardens need their own vocabulary. This wiki exists to carry lessons across that range without selling a single “universal” planting list.

From one town to a national conversation

Food forests do not stop at the Te Puke boundary. Across Aotearoa — from Kaitaia’s heat to Invercargill’s bite — growers are turning lawns, school edges, marae whenua and smallholdings into layered edible systems. Food Forests NZ is where that movement finds its people. The resource hub at foodforests.co.nz maps tools and network gateways for those ready to dig deeper.

Kai Resilience stretches the frame wider — a national directory connecting growers, workshops, nurseries and kai projects — with Food Resilience School NZ for structured learning and RegenOS for turning observation into land plans. Learn → apply → connect is the path the network was built to hold.

Where this wiki fits

Community needs a place to gather. Nurseries need a place to ship. Directories need a place to list. What was still thin was a calm, citable knowledge institution — written for New Zealand frost, wind, rainfall and microclimate — that does not try to be the shop or the social feed.

That is foodforest.org.nz: how to assess a site, choose canopy with eyes open, build fertility without pretending chemistry is optional, and design small suburban patterns that respect neighbours and light. Pages are meant to deepen over time — a living wiki beside Troppo’s working canopy and Food Forests NZ’s community energy. Different job, same kaupapa.

Vector Group Charitable Trust (registered charity CC45966) has built belonging, youth resilience and community connection from Te Puke since 2011, under Envisioning Sustainable Communities Creatively. Kai resilience is woven through that work — one plant, one swap, one harvest at a time.

How we write — and what we refuse

We write in plain New Zealand English. We prefer frost notes over fantasy climate zones. We mark uncertainty instead of papering it over. We do not invent yields, testimonials or performance statistics. Plant cautions are editorial safety notes — not medical or legal advice. Where tropical experience shaped a recommendation, we still ask what a cooler NZ section will actually allow.

What we aim for

• Useful teaching that can deepen as growers and editors learn more
• Clear distinction between established practice, observation and untested ideas
• Visible editorial notes where information is incomplete
• Interlinks into community, tools and living demos — never thin doorway pages

What this site is not

• A landscaping or gardening services business
• An ecommerce nursery (that’s Troppo’s shop)
• A SaaS product, membership dashboard or social network
• A place for medical, nutritional or scientific claims without sources