Create your forest

A guide to planning, installing, and maintaining a micro forest in Los Angeles.

🕳 Phase 1: Before you plant

🌳 Phase 2: On planting day

💧 Phase 3: After you plant

🌳 On planting day

Plant placement

Start with your biggest trees (canopy layer) first, and work your way down to the lowest layer (shrubs and perennials).

Step 1: Canopy trees

Place your canopy species within your planting area such that they’re roughly equidistant from one another (around 10 or 11 feet apart).

NOTE: If planting next to a sidewalk or street, you should reduce the number of canopy trees in your plan so that you can create a 5-6 ft. “no-tree buffer zone” closest to the sidewalk or street side.

Step 2: Trees

Place your trees halfway between your canopy trees, no closer than 5 or 6 feet from any canopy tree.

NOTE: As indicated above, if planting next to a sidewalk or street, you should reduce the number of trees in your plan so that you can create a 5-6 ft. “no-tree buffer zone” closest to the sidewalk or street side.

Step 3. Sub-trees

Place your sub-trees between your canopy species and other trees. No two sub-trees of the same species should be right next to one another.

Step 4: Shrubs and perennials

Fill in the remaining gaps with your shrubs and perennials, randomizing the placement as best you can. The same species being side-by-side during this step may be unavoidable depending on the diversity of your plant palette.

Step 5: After distributing plants

You should have roughly 2.5’ of space between all plants in the forest when you are done. If you calculated your square footage correctly, you should have exactly the right number of plants to accomplish this without creating excessive gaps or crowding.

Tips

You will make several passes through the area to make minor adjustments or swap plants here and there.

Don’t try to be perfect! There is no such thing as perfect grids of plants or trees in nature.

Some variations can and should occur during your plant placement process.

Fun fact

Akira Miyawaki himself loved to employ the use of children for plant placement due to their inherent lack of crippling perfectionism that is so common amongst adults.

This organic and more randomized approach is more in keeping with a natural forest and should be emulated, as long as the largest of the trees and shrubs of the forest are appropriately spaced.

Installation

Planting your forest is no different from planting any other landscape — though, it can often involve the help of volunteers, some of whom might not be experienced gardeners.

Use the installation techniques below to PLANT, MULCH, and WATER your new forest.

Planting hole with tip of shovel dug partially down in dirt.

Step 1: Dig a hole

Dig a hole as deep as the rootball of your plant, but up to twice as wide.

Stream of water pouring down into a hole dug in the ground. Hole is filled to the top with water.

Step 2: Pre-water the hole

Fill the hole with water and allow to drain completely. Dig other holes while you wait, doing the same pre-watering strategy for all holes. If you have time, do this 2-3 times per hole. If not, once is enough.

Person removing black plastic pot from around the rootball of a plant. Some of the rootball is exposed. Pre-soaked planting hole is visible.

Step 3: Unpot your plant

Gently remove the plastic pot from around the rootball of your plant, supporting the weight of the plant with one hand and removing the pot with the other.

Step 4: Loosen roots

Tease apart any roots from the bottom or sides of the rootball that are coiling. Excessively long and stringy roots can be pruned to encourage more robust root growth.

Person placing plant rootball into planting hole, gripping the plant at its base.

Step 5: Set plant in hole

Place the rootball into the planting hole.

Plant rootball is in planting hole. A hand is shown measuring the difference in grade between the rootball and surrounding soil. The heel of the hand is on the top of the rootball and the tips of the fingers are placed on surrounding soil. Plant is shown to be slightly above grade at planting.

Step 6: Adjust plant position

Make sure the root crown is at or slightly above grade. If you see that the root crown is below grade, remove the plant and add additional soil below it to raise it higher in the hole.

Person is shown backfilling planting hole, pushing dirt down either sides of rootball, which is fully buried.

Step 7: Backfill

Backfill the hole with the soil you originally removed when digging the hole. Use your fingers to shove soil down the sides of the rootball, making sure there are no gaps or air pockets left in the planting hole.

Mulch, in the form of natural leaf litter and small sticks, surrounds a newly planted plant. Person’s hands are in background spreading the mulch. Several inches around the main stem of the plant are mulch-free.

Step 8: Create berm (optional)

(Optional) Build a small berm around your plant with any excess soil to make watering easier. This berm will need to be knocked down after the first year.

Step 9: Mulch

Apply 2-3 inches of mulch around the plant, just past the berm if you’ve created a berm, or just 2-3 inches away from the stem of your plant if there is no berm. Mulch should not be touching the stem of your plant.

Watering can is shown at top right. Water falls in a shower-like pattern on newly installed plant. Water is pooled at the base of the plant.

Step 10: Water

Water with a minimum of 5 gallons per plant. It’s useful to spot water each plant after planting, and then to follow up with another deep watering with a hose over the entire area at completion. It is not possible to overwater right after the initial planting, so be generous.