A food forest is a garden you plant once and let grow up. You don't need much gear: a digging knife, pruners, a saw and some comfrey. You will spend more on trees than tools. Here's what to buy, what to skip, and in what order.
By Colin B. · Published November 1, 2026 · Last reviewed November 1, 2026
A minimal setup (hori hori, bypass pruners, comfrey cuttings, soaker hose) runs about $120. Our recommended starter picks, with a broadfork and pull saw added, land near $300. Bare-root fruit trees are extra, at roughly $30-60 each from a nursery.
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At a glance
Our top pick in each category
The fastest path through this guide — each best-starter pick by category.
Scroll for the budget and upgrade alternatives.
Buy trees last and tools first, but plan the order. A food forest is built in stages over three years: smother the grass, then plant trees, then add the guild plants around them. Buying everything in week one means plants sitting in pots while you wait for the beds to be ready.
Order bare-root fruit trees from a nursery, not Amazon. They ship dormant in late winter and cost $30-60 each. Pick varieties rated for your USDA zone and check whether they need a pollination partner. Two apples of different varieties beats one.
Sheet mulching costs almost nothing. Cardboard from moving boxes, wood chips from a local arborist (free through ChipDrop) and compost are the materials. You do not need to buy a mulch kit. Remove all tape and staples from the cardboard first.
Permaculture is mostly about not digging: you smother grass with cardboard instead of tilling it. So the tool list is short. You need one good knife-trowel for planting guilds, and one broadfork if your soil is compacted clay. Skip the rototiller entirely. It wrecks the fungal networks and worm tunnels you are trying to build.
Best starter
Nisaku
Hori Hori Namibagata, 7.25"
$$
★★★★★Our rating
The Japanese digging knife is the single most-used tool in a food forest. One stainless blade plants bulbs, cuts through roots, slices sod, divides comfrey crowns and opens bags of compost. It replaces a trowel, a weeder and a pocket knife.
What we like
Trowel, saw and knife in one tool for about $20
Depth marks on the blade make bulb and tree planting easy
Stainless steel resists rust in wet mulch beds
What to know
Sharp edges need a sheath and some respect
Wood handle needs an occasional oil if left out in rain
3-in-1 Garden Tool Set (Trowel, Transplanter, Cultivator)
$
★★★★☆Our rating
If you already own a trowel, skip this. If you don't, a set under $25 covers basic planting while you decide whether the hori hori is worth it. Fine for the first season of planting herbs and perennials into mulched beds.
What we like
Three tools for roughly the price of one good trowel
Light and comfortable for long planting days
What to know
Aluminum blades bend in rocky or root-filled ground
A broadfork loosens compacted soil by rocking it up and back, with no inversion. Use it once on a new bed to open the subsoil, then leave it alone. About $90, American-made, and strong enough for heavy clay. This is the tool that makes no-till work on bad soil.
What we like
Opens compacted soil without flipping the layers
Steel tines and fiberglass handles survive hard use
Pays for itself fast if you have several beds to open
What to know
Heavy to use and to store
Only worth it for compacted clay; loose soil does not need it
Fruit trees need pruning every winter, and comfrey, elderberry and other guild plants get cut back for mulch several times a season. Bypass pruners handle everything up to a thumb's width. A pull saw takes over beyond that. Buy a real pair of bypass pruners and a folding saw before you buy trees.
Best starter
Corona
BP 3180D Forged Classic Bypass Pruner, 1" Capacity
$$
★★★★★Our rating
Forged steel blades that you can sharpen and replace, a one-inch cut capacity, and a price around $30. It does what a $90 pair does, just with less polish. This is our pick for a first pair of pruners.
The pruner professionals carry for decades, because every part is replaceable. It runs about $70 and will outlast the garden. Buy it once you know you will keep pruning every winter.
What we like
Every part can be replaced, so it lasts decades
Precise cut leaves less damage on fruit wood
What to know
Costs two to three times the Corona
Sized for medium hands; small hands may prefer the F6
A curved blade that cuts on the pull stroke, up to 6 inch branches, for about $25. It handles the thicker limbs pruners can't and fits in a pocket or bucket. Good enough for several winters of tree work.
★★★★☆Our rating· Only 11 left in stock - order soon.
The Japanese pull saw that arborists carry. It cuts faster, cleaner and with less effort than hardware-store saws, and the blade is replaceable. Around $60. Buy this if you will prune more than a few trees.
You won't need this for three to five years, until the trees you plant start bearing. But a pole picker is the right way to harvest from the top of a standard tree without a ladder, and it's cheap. Buy it the year the first apples show up, not before.
Best starter
Ames
True Temper 10-Foot Fruit Harvester (2324500)
$$
★★★★★Our rating
A telescoping aluminum pole with a wire basket and poly-coated prongs, around $45. It reaches about 10 feet, weighs under three pounds, and carries a 15-year warranty. This is the standard orchard picker that hangs in every homestead shed.
What we like
Telescoping 10 foot reach, no ladder needed
Light enough to use for a long harvest
Long manufacturer warranty
What to know
Wire basket can bruise soft fruit like ripe peaches
Fruit Picker with Telescopic Extension Pole, 5 to 20 FT
$$
★★★★☆Our rating
A longer pole for taller trees, with a basket attachment, also around $45. The extra reach helps on mature standard trees. Flex at full extension is real, so use the shorter lengths when you can.
A guild is a group of plants that help each other. A fruit tree anchors it. Comfrey pulls minerals from deep soil and becomes mulch. A clover or other nitrogen-fixer feeds the tree, and bulbs like daffodils discourage grass. These are cheap, and most are perennials you buy once. Buy bare-root fruit trees from a nursery (Raintree, Stark Bro's or a local one) in late winter; they do not ship well from Amazon.
Best starter
Verdant Treasures
Russian Comfrey Bocking-14, 12 Cuttings
$$
★★★★★Our rating
The classic permaculture plant. Bocking 14 is a sterile cultivar, so it will not self-seed through your garden, and 12 root cuttings (about $30) is enough to ring several trees. Cut it back three to four times a year and lay the leaves around fruit trees as free fertilizer.
Perennial White Dutch Clover Seed, 2 lbs, Nitrocoated, Inoculated
$
★★★★☆Our rating
A low living mulch that fixes nitrogen under fruit trees and crowds out grass. Two pounds costs about $20 and covers a surprising amount of ground. Sow it in early spring or late summer into mulched beds.
Mycorrhizal fungi help tree roots find water and nutrients. Dust the roots of bare-root trees with a little at planting. A 2.2 lb bag costs about $30 and lasts across many trees. It is optional in rich soil but worth it in disturbed or sandy ground.
What we like
A small amount treats many trees
OMRI listed for organic gardens
What to know
Benefit is smaller in already healthy soil
Fungi must touch the roots; do not just scatter on top
New trees die from drought in their first two summers far more often than from anything else. You won't irrigate a mature food forest, but you will water for the first two years. Soaker hoses under mulch put the water at the roots without much loss to evaporation. A rain wand handles the rest.
Best starter
Gilmour
50' Black Flat Weeper Soaker Hose
$
★★★★★Our rating
Lay it in a loop around a young tree, cover it with mulch, and run it for an hour. About $20 and it makes deep watering nearly automatic. Pair it with a hose timer if you forget.
A soft-spray wand for watering seedlings and newly planted cuttings without washing out the soil. Around $40. Helpful for comfrey and clover while they establish.
What we like
Gentle spray will not wash out new plantings
30 inch reach avoids bending
What to know
Hand watering only; it won't replace a soaker hose
A food forest is slow on purpose. Here is what your first year looks like: smothering the grass, planting a few trees with the right neighbors, and resisting the urge to do too much.
Permaculture sounds like a philosophy, but in practice it is a planting plan. You put a fruit tree in the ground, surround it with plants that feed it and protect it, and then mostly stay out of the way. Most of the work happens in the first year. After that the system starts doing the work for you.
The common mistake is doing too much at once. Start with one tree and one guild. You will learn more from that than from a whole yard planted in a panic.
Fall: Observe and smother the grass
Before you dig anything, spend a few weeks watching your yard. Where does the sun land in the afternoon? Where does water pool after rain? Which corner is windy? A tree planted in the wrong spot is a five-year mistake.
Once you pick a spot, kill the grass without digging. This is sheet mulching:
Mow the grass short, then leave the clippings in place.
Lay flattened cardboard over the area, with edges overlapping by six inches so no grass sneaks through. Remove tape and staples first.
Soak it with a hose until it is wet through.
Pile 4-6 inches of wood chips or compost on top.
Call a local tree service and ask for a wood chip drop. Most will deliver a truckload free. By spring the cardboard will have rotted and the grass underneath will be gone.
If your soil is compacted clay, this is also when to use a broadfork. Push it in, rock it back, step back and repeat across the bed. You are loosening the soil, not turning it.
Winter: Order trees and prune what you have
Bare-root fruit trees are sold dormant, and the best varieties sell out by January. Order from a nursery (not a big-box store) for delivery in late winter or early spring. Check your USDA zone and ask whether the tree needs a pollination partner. Two apples of different varieties beat one.
Pick dwarf or semi-dwarf rootstock for a first tree. It fruits sooner and stays within reach of a pruning saw.
If you inherited any fruit trees, winter is when to prune them. Take out dead wood, crossing branches and anything growing straight up. A sharp pull saw makes this a thirty-minute job.
Spring: Plant the tree and its guild
Plant the tree in the mulched bed as soon as the ground thaws. Soak the roots for an hour first. Dig a hole wide enough that the roots lie flat, keep the graft union (the bump near the base) above the soil, and fill the hole with the soil you dug out. Do not add fertilizer to the hole.
Then plant the neighbors, working outward from the trunk:
Comfrey a couple of feet from the trunk. Its deep roots pull up minerals, and you will cut the leaves three or four times a year and lay them down as mulch.
Clover over the open ground as a living mulch that adds nitrogen.
Daffodils or garlic in a ring near the drip line. The bulbs discourage grass from creeping back in.
Herbs like chives or yarrow to bring in pollinators.
By the second spring you will know your site. Add two or three more trees if the first is doing well, and add shrubs like currants or elderberry in between. This is also when to think about a swale, a shallow ditch on contour that holds rainwater, if your yard slopes and water runs off.
You will not harvest much for a few years. That is normal. Herbs and berries come first, then apples and pears around year three to five. The yard is slowly becoming something that feeds itself, and the work gets lighter each year.
Save your money
What you don't need yet
Beginners get pressured to buy a lot of stuff that doesn't help them play
better. Here's what we'd skip on day one.
A rototiller — Tilling destroys the soil structure and fungal networks you are trying to build. Sheet mulching with cardboard does the job without it.
A greenhouse — A food forest is a perennial system. Greenhouses are for annual seedlings, which is a different hobby.
Fancy swale equipment — A swale is a shallow ditch on contour. You can dig your first one with a shovel and a homemade A-frame level from scrap wood.
A big collection of fruit trees — Plant three to five trees in year one. You can add more once you see how your site handles water, sun and deer.
Expensive organic fertilizer — Comfrey leaves, wood chips and compost feed the soil for free. Fertilizer bags are a sign the guild is not working yet.
First week
Your first seven days
A short, real plan to get from gear-on-doorstep to actually playing.
Map your yard for a few days. Note where the sun falls, where water pools, and where the wind comes from. · Learn
Pick your first bed and mark it with stakes. Aim for something around 10 by 10 feet, not an acre. · Action
Buy a hori hori and a pair of bypass pruners. · Buy
Start collecting cardboard and call a local tree service about a free wood chip drop. · Action
ChipDrop · Free wood chip delivery from tree crews
Order comfrey cuttings for spring planting and reserve bare-root trees from a nursery. · Buy
Read one good book on guild design before you plant. · Learn
FAQ
Common questions
How much does it cost to start a food forest?
Tools run about $120-300. Trees are the real cost: figure $30-60 each for bare-root fruit trees. A first year with four trees, comfrey and mulch lands around $400-500. Free wood chips and cardboard keep that number down.
What is a guild?
A guild is a group of plants that support one fruit tree. A common version: a fruit tree in the center, comfrey for mulch, a nitrogen-fixer like clover, bulbs like daffodils to keep grass away, and herbs to attract pollinators.
What is sheet mulching?
Lay cardboard over grass with the edges overlapping, soak it, then pile 4-6 inches of wood chips or compost on top. The grass dies, the cardboard rots and you can plant through it in a few months.
How long until a food forest produces food?
Herbs and berries come in year one or two. Apples and pears usually take three to five years, depending on rootstock. Dwarf trees fruit sooner.
Do I need a lot of land?
No. A single tree guild fits in a 10 by 10 foot corner of a suburban yard. Start there before you commit more space.
Is comfrey invasive?
Wild comfrey seeds around. Bocking 14 is sterile and stays put, but its deep roots are very hard to remove, so plant it where you want it permanently.
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