Free transport on Orders Over $ 100 *
client Service|Privacy Policy
Enter your email to sign up for our newsletter and save 25% on your next order
need to witness the magic of the mini - forest?When you practise The Miyawaki Method , a unique approach to re-afforestation , you ’ll see an empty lot or backyard transform into a biodiverse woodland before your very eye .
The following is an excerpt fromMini - Forest RevolutionbyHannah Lewis . It has been adapt for the web .
Photo Credit : Dino Kužnik , Danehy Park Forest
Doryu Hioki of the Rinnoji Temple decided to replant using the Miyawaki Method. Here, young saplings line the walkway. Courtesy of Doryu Hioki.
What Is The Miyawaki Method?
Most of us know the term quondam - growth forest , which mention to natural timberland that are still mostly devoid of human mental disturbance ( though not necessarily free of human mien ) .
These forests have reached matureness and beyond — a process that often takes centuries . As a result , they host incredible biodiversity and maintain a complex array of ecosystem subroutine .
The Miyawaki Method is unique in that it re - make the status for a ripe rude forest to get up within decennium rather than hundred .
At the warmness of the method acting is the recognition of a compounding of native plant metal money well suited to the specific condition at any give planting site . As we ’ll see , determining this compounding of special plants is not always so straightforward .
Core Techniques of The Miyawaki Method
Doryu Hioki of the Rinnoji Temple decided to replant using the Miyawaki Method . Here , young sapling line the walkway . Courtesy of Doryu Hioki .
More than just the species selection , the Miyawaki Method depends on a small collection of core proficiency to ensure the success of each planting .
These include improving the website ’s dirt character and institute the tree densely to mimic a mature natural timber .
It ’s also necessary to lightly maintain the website over the first three years — which can include weed and watering .
Amazingly , though , if the simple guidelines are follow , after that point a Miyawaki - style forest is self - sustaining .
The Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree grow rapidly ( as much as 3 ft [ 1 mebibyte ] per class ) , hold out at very high rate ( upward of 90 percent ) , and sequester carbon more readily than single - species plantations .
The Miyawaki Method is also special for its emphasis on engaging intact communities in the process of dreaming up and planting a timberland .
Whether you are three geezerhood previous or eighty - three , chance are you’re able to place a knee joint - gamey seedling into a small kettle of fish in the dry land . At the very least you’re able to appreciate and cherish the replication of quasi - wilderness to a space that was once vacant .
Imagining a Mini-Forest’s Potential
The Miyawaki Method calls for planting aboriginal species , but not just any natives . In peculiar , the method necessitate a careful investigation of what ’s known as potential innate vegetation ( PNV ) .
This strange term relate to the hypothetical ecological potential of a piece of land .
Or another way to say it is that potential natural botany is “ the variety of natural vegetation that could become established if human impacts were whole removed from a site ” over an extensive menstruation of time.1
A site ’s PNV depend on many factors , include current climate condition , soil , and topography .
In clear contrast to the cedars , this 14 - twelvemonth - onetime Miyawaki mini - forest shape a multilayered band of vegetation along the walkway . Courtesy of Doryu Hioki .
How is potential natural vegetation different from the flora we see growing around us in townsfolk and cities ?
Natural Vegetation
For starters , in almost all developed landscape , many of the plants are not aboriginal to the area , and as such may require maintenance to pull round or reproduce .
afford that most of Earth ’s land Earth’s surface is significantly alter by urbanisation , agriculture , route construction , excavation , and the like , it is far from obvious what the original vegetation of any given location would have been .
( Original vegetation and potential natural vegetation are not of necessity exactly the same , but they are closely related . )
Unraveling this whodunit takes curiosity , patience , and persistence .
However , recollect about terra firma in terms of its likely rude vegetation is a powerful slant from which to draw near ecosystem renovation , because it unveil which species and group of species are easily adapted to a particular surroundings and therefore more potential to expand and to support a extensive vane of wildlife .
To get in at the possible natural flora for a given site , it helps to empathise the succession in which works residential area germinate .
Nature’s March
If provide alone , previously forested land can grow back into ripe forest via a process jazz as ecological succession , wherein the biologic element of the ecosystem modification over clock time as larger and longer - lived flora community colonize the land .
As advert , this process can take 100 to blossom out .
A foundational aspect of the Miyawaki Method is that it sidesteps the dull and freakish border district of natural ecological succession , instead focusing on those plants that notice the theoretic terminus of succession .
The Miyawaki Method ( bottom ) speeds up the process of born ecologic chronological sequence ( top ) through the planting of climax species . Illustration by Elara Tanguy .
In nature , the successional process start out when lightweight seeds impetus in and pullulate on bare ground .
Different Plant Groups
Hardy , fast - growing plants — what scientists call pioneer species — such as clover , plantain , and dandelion take vantage of copious sunlight and distance .
They hold up scant lives , produce a lot of seed , and shelter the terra firma in the process .
Next to show up are larger perennial herb and grasses , followed by shrub and groundbreaker tree , such as birch , poplar , or pine tree .
“ Each new group of mintage arrives because the environmental status , especially the soil , have been improved ; each novel specie becomes base because it is more shade patient of than the previous species and can grow up under their exist foliage , ” Miyawaki wrote.2
Seeds Doing the Work
He explains that just when a community of plants appear to be gain its fullest potential drop , the seeds of the win community are already germinating in its tincture .
The species making up each new successional stage be given to be bigger , more spook - tolerant , and longer living than those of the previous stage .
“ The plant community and the physical environment extend to interact , ” Miyawaki explained , “ until the final biotic community most appropriate for the environment comes into being , one that can not be substitute by other industrial plant types . In regions with sufficient haste and soil , the final community is a forest . ”3
The Climax Community of Plants
Theoretically , this final community of plants , known as the culmination residential area , is not easily superseded .
Big tree that are considered climax metal money in their several surround live for century or thousands of years , forming canopy that shade the inside of the forest , keep it cool and moist .
Climax mintage shade out pioneer species and dominate the woods .
“ In the absence of major environmental modification , the climax is normally the strongest form of biologic society and is stable in the gumption that its dynamic changes are constrained within limits , ” Miyawaki wrote.4
Partly on account of the microclimate they create , such ecosystems be given to be more resistant to external conditions , such as heating or drouth .
What Does This Vegetation Look Like?
What might climax vegetation expression like?There are generally a few unlike orgasm communities in a given landscape painting .
Cottonwoods and willows might grow in a river valley while pines and firs live the nearby mint flank .
In flatter regions with moderately moist soil , the potential born botany is evergreen or deciduous hardwood species such as laurel , oak tree , maple , or beech .
Miyawaki forests have typically been plant in conditions like this .
Not all of Earth ’s biomes , on the other script , are dense wood .
Places like natural grassland , desert chaparral , and sand dune , for example , have their own ecological value andshould generally not be put back by timberland — Miyawaki Method or otherwise — except perhaps along their riparian corridor .
Making a Mini-Forest: The Basics
rejuvenate the grime is one of the basics of produce a miniskirt - woods on a dissolute situation .
In fact , it ’s the critical first gradation — the goal is to simulate the living stain of a goodish , matured forest .
This happens by nature during the stages of ecological taking over , but because the Miyawaki Method skips immediately to the climax stage , some formulation is required to compensate .
In the absence of a loose soil with peck of constituent matter , trees will struggle to turn decently . In a Miyawaki forest labor , the grunge is typically recharge by decompacting and amending the site with organic materials .
Planting Density
Planting denseness is another signature tune of the Miyawaki Method .
ceremonious wiseness aver that plants compete for light , water , and grease nutrients ; therefore , plants should have lots of space between them to reduce that competition .
But it ’s not how a Miyawaki timberland kit and boodle .
For a Miyawaki forest , the standard planting density is three plants per square beat . This density helps attain the goal of ecosystem regeneration .
After all , in a natural forest , plant are not evenly and wide space .
heavy planting stimulates mutualistic and competitive interactions among the plants and facilitate connections with soil microorganisms . It also promotes virtuous competition for sunlight , hastening up growth .
Mulching
Mulching is a decisive componentof the Miyawaki Method .
After implant , the ground is spread over with a thick mulch alike to fallen leaf on a woods flooring . Indeed , once the vernal trees have had a chance to mature , they will contribute leafage mulch to the forest floor naturally .
Mulch protects the bare grease from water loss by evaporation , from wearing , and from temperature extremes . Mulch also suppresses weed maturation and finally decay into the soil , enriching it .
As they become established over the first few years , the planting typically need occasional lacrimation and weed , but after three long time the young forest patches are developed enough to shade out weeds and shelter the soil .
They are then in the main self - sufficient and take no maintenance of any sort — no pruning , no watering , no fertilizing , no pest control — ever .
Notes
Recommended Reads
Using The Miyawaki Method : A Forest in the Desert
The Magic of Mini - forest
Mini-Forest Revolution
Using the Miyawaki Method to Rapidly Rewild the man
$ 24.95
Recent Articles
Farming Against Nature
When you ’re walk around the grocery store attend at the vegetables , it ’s in all likelihood hard to imagine that a one C ago there was twice the amount of options .
Types of Tomatoes: Deciphering the Many Varieties
If you love tomatoes , you plausibly already know just how many varieties of these summer staples there are . But do you live what makes each one unequalled ?
Embracing Sustainable Food Production: Integrating Trees and Crops
add the long plot of trees to your system results in a deep and more authentic , bouncy and unsounded comportment to your annual veg output .
Foraging for Mushrooms: Gourmet Root Systems
For people who enjoy scrounge for food in the natural state , there are peck of mushrooms to take from — “ ten thousand mushroom species to be considered on the North American continent alone ” . But forage for mushrooms should never be believe of as a game of chance . You need to know all the cue when it comes to identifying …
Strong, Spicy, and Pleasant: Wild Green Kimchi
take a new twist on kimchi ? Look no further than this wild green kimchi ! Experiment with what you have , anything from the mustard family will work passing well .
© 2025 Rizzoli International Publications Inc. All Rights Reserved .
Rizzoli International Publications300 Park Avenue South , 4th FloorNew York , NY 10010United States
There are items in your basket which are ready to ship.
You ’ll ask to checkout before adding this pre - order particular to your basket .
