Over the past few years, violent storms have blown through our neighbourhood, knocking down numerous mature trees. As a result, there is less shade on our dog-walking routes and less habitat for birds. Last summer (2023), I decided to plant new trees in our yard to make up for the trees that are now missing from nearby properties.
Miyawaki tiny forests
I keep hearing about Mikawaki forests and mulled over how to carve out space for a mini forest in our backyard. Canadian Geographic has a useful article, The many benefits of the minuscule but mighty Miyawaki forests, by Alanna Mitchell, that includes an example 3 metre by 3 metre Miyawaki forest plan using native trees. So, I roughly divided up my space into 3 x 3 metre sections to estimate the number of trees I would need. I also found an informative blog post from the 1000 Islands Master Gardeners about Little Forests Kingston; it’s a good summary of the Miyawaki method and the potential benefits of little forests. (This is actually one of my favourite blogs, and I eagerly look forward to their weekly newsletter about ecological gardening topics.)
Mimicking local forests
Before I began planting my mini forest, I looked at lots of photos of forests that I’ve taken on forest trails, or that I found by Googling. I also searched for photos of Miyawaki mini forests.
It struck me that the Miyiwaki mini forests are very crowded and don’t look like natural forests with trees of different heights, some closer together than others. Miyawaki forests are like isolated forest ‘islands’ meant to be looked at from outside, not for sitting in or walking through. While I was inspired by Miyawaki mini forests, I decided to try to mimic the appearance of a real second growth forest instead.
Also, I noticed that Miyawaki mini forests are to be planted in full sun locations, isolated in the middle of an open field. Our backyard has some mature trees already casting varying degrees of shade. I also already have hedgerows surrounding the yard.
Preparing the beds
I already had a shade border with many native plants on one side of our backyard, so I expanded it to create the mini-forest. Last September, we removed most of our back lawn, leaving only a central path (to avoid muddy dog feet) and a central circle of grass for seating. All the bare dirt in these photos shows where we removed the lawn.