Species I am trialing or interested in trialing in my small back yard food forest. Our local climate is very hot, with extremely dry summers and wet, slightly frosty winters. My back yard is mostly shaded by a large Japanese maple which I plan to leave in place for the time being, and houses to the East and West. The tree canopy and surrounding buildings mean I have never observed below-freezing temperatures in this space. The soil is a rich, well drained loam with high organic matter due to my gardening practices. It is highly disturbed and modified from its original state due to surrounding urban construction and grading, and contains many small rocks and pieces of debris or artifacts.

The goal of a food forest in my view is to produce abundant food in a way that supports the local ecology and does not require excessive labor or inputs. For this reason I am strongly biased towards perennial species that are well adapted to our local environment. If a species requires babying to survive and produce, it won't last long in my garden. Unfortunately, many perennial food crops haven't been trialed extensively in our climate which is a bit unique, so I expect many crops will fail but I will learn in the process.