The Pacific Northwest is a lush temperate rainforest where native plants and trees produce berries, edible greens, and mushrooms. From early May with salmonberries to mushrooms well into November, by planting native, you can eat from your yard almost year round.
The food you grow doesn't require water, herbicides, pesticides, or fertilizers, so it's super healthy (pro tip: avoid planting food near busy roads).
The first step to building a food forest in an urban setting is to decide what trees will make up your canopy and how you can eat them. Planting trees is a great first step, and fall is the best time in the PNW to do so.
Canopy
In forest ecology, canopy refers to the upper layer or habitat zone formed by mature tree crowns and other biological organisms.
Conifer Trees
Conifer trees are trees with pine cones that make up the forest canopy.
Seeds
Pine seeds, also known as pine nuts, are an edible part of a pine tree.
Douglas Fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii.
Western Red Cedar, Thuja plicata.
Mountain Hemlock, Tsuga mertensiana.
Sitka Spruce, Picea sitchensis.
Pine seeds contain thiamine, protein, and vitamin B1. Pine nuts are located inside the cones of pine trees. Open pine cones can be shaken to dislodge the nuts; closed cones can be roasted at a very low temperature for a few hours or until the heat causes the cones to open. The nuts themselves can be eaten raw or roasted.
Needles
Pine tree needles are edible and contain high levels of vitamin C; eat the fresh new growth on the tips raw in the spring, or make tea.
bring 4 cups of water to a boil
add 1/2 cup pine needles
add pine needles to boiling water
boil for 5 minutes
The longer the pine needles cook, the more vitamin C is lost, so less time is better. Strain the needles from the tea and drink.
Young Male Cones
Male pine cones are located on the tips of branches and are smaller than female pine cones. Male pine cones can be harvested, boiled, or baked and then eaten. In the spring, the pollen can be shaken from the male cones and stored. Use the pollen as a substitute for flour or cornstarch. The pollen from a pine tree is high in protein.
Understory
The understory is made up of mid-sized trees and bushes that form the layer in the forest below the canopy.
Pacific Northwest Native Fruit and Nut Trees
Amelanchier alnifolia: Serviceberry
Bloom time: May-June. Fruit ripens July-August.
For People: The fruit can be eaten fresh or dried and used to season soup or meat or to make pastries, jellies, and syrups.
For Wildlife: Saskatoon serviceberry is a valuable wildlife plant. Many rodents and songbirds eat the fruits, including chipmunks, crows, thrushes, robins, and Western Tanagers. Black Bears, beaver, marmots, and hares eat twigs, foliage, fruits, and bark. Moose, elk, and deer browse the twigs and foliage.
Malus fusca: Western Crabapple
Bloom Period: April-May fruit ripens August-September
For People: The fruit can be eaten raw or after a storage period, during which they become softer and sweeter. It is high in pectin and can be added to other fruits to make jellies.
For wildlife: Apple leaves are well known to orchard growers as “deer candy.” Leaves may also be host to butterfly larvae. Apple blossoms attract insect pollinators such as the mason bee. The fruit is eaten by several animals, especially birds. Pacific Crabapple also provides excellent cover for wildlife.
Beaked Hazelnut
Bloom time: January-March Nuts ripen September-October.
For people: Nuts can be eaten fresh.
For wildlife: Many birds and mammals eat the nuts, including Steller’s Jays, Douglas Squirrels, and Golden Mantled Ground Squirrels. This shrub is good for cover and nesting sites.
Pacific Northwest Native Fruit Bushes:
Rosa Nutkana: Nootka Rose
Bloom time: May-July; Fruit ripens early fall, persisting through winter.
For People: Rose hips can be eaten raw or dried or boiled to make tea, jams or jellies; they are rich in vitamins, such as A, C, & E.
For Wildlife: Deer, elk, moose, caribou, bighorn sheep, bears, coyotes, and various rodents also eat the fruits. Squirrels, mice, beavers, and porcupines eat the twigs and leaves. Nootka rose thickets are used for nesting and escape cover by birds, including waterfowl and small mammals.
Vaccinium: Huckleberry
Bloom time: April-June; Fruit ripens July-August.
For People: Red Huckleberries are eaten fresh and used in pies, jellies, jams, or preserves; they are a good source of Vitamin C,
For Wildlife: Like all the other huckleberries and blueberries, Red Huckleberry is a favorite food of various birds and mammals, including thrushes, pigeons, towhees, ptarmigans, and grouse; and bears, raccoons, chipmunks, foxes, skunks and deer mice. The twigs and foliage are also an important browse for deer, mountain goat, and elk. Small mammals will also browse Red Huckleberries. It is a preferred food of Mountain Beaver.
Bloom time: April-July; Fruit ripens: July-August.
For people: Although they have sometimes been eaten fresh, it is advisable to always cook the berries before eating; raw berries may cause nausea. The seeds are considered poisonous. Cooked berries can be made into wines, sauces, or jellies.
For wildlife: Deer and elk will eat the foliage, bark, and buds; many birds eat the berries, including thrushes, robins, grouse, and pigeons. Squirrels, mice, raccoons, and bears also eat the fruit. Bears eat the foliage and the roots. Porcupines, mice, and hares eat the buds and bark in winter. Flowers are pollinated by bees, flies, and the wind. Fruit-eating birds and mammals disperse the seeds.
Viburnum trilobum: American Cranberry Bush
Bloom time: May-July; Fruit ripens: September-October. Persisting through winter.
For people: The fruit is used as a cranberry substitute in the making of jellies and preserves.
For Wildlife: Thrushes, robins, and Cedar Waxwings are considered the principal seed dispersers. The fruit is perhaps not a favorite of wildlife; it is not normally eaten by birds until after it has frozen and thawed several times. It is, however, known to be eaten by deer, moose, foxes, raccoons, chipmunks, squirrels, skunks, mice, rabbits, grouse, pheasants, and other songbirds. This large shrub provides cover and nesting sites for many small animals. It is a larval host for the Spring Azure Butterfly and sometimes attracts aphids. The flowers are pollinated by insects.
We Can Help you Get Started!
Urban Rewilding can help with native plant landscape designs, builds, and gardening services. So no matter what point you are at in your rewilding process, we can give you a hand.
We don't use any chemicals, fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides at any point. All our plants are native to the Pacific Northwest and do not need to be watered after the first year.
Landscape Installation
Urban Rewilding is licensed, bonded, insured, and super excited to plant native trees, bushes, shrubs, ferns, mushrooms, and moss in your urban garden!
Adding biodiversity to an urban garden creates a resilient ecosystem that supports native birds, bees, bugs, and other wildlife. It also creates the potential for healthy, sustainable, organic food production that requires no water or chemicals.
We can solve invasive species, erosion, water damage, and pollution issues with native plants.
Book a one-hour consult with a professional native plant landscaper to find out how we can fix your problems with native plants.
Gardening Services
Urban Rewilding aims to create beneficial native plant ecosystems in urban areas to protect vulnerable wildlife and humans from the issues that arise from dense urban areas.
Hiring us to maintain your urban yard will mean that we will add native plants from other yards wherever we never use chemicals and create lush, healthy soil, remove any overgrown or unwanted native plants, and use them in other yards! We will cultivate a healthy yard that will become part of rewilding more and more and more!!!!
Book a consultation with a gardener, or send us an email with photos, and we can get you on our regular maintenance schedule today!
We protect native plants at all costs!!!
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