Aux Jardins d'ici

Aux Jardins d’ici

An ongoing project in partnership with d’ici, the local-producer grocery store in Naninne. We’re creating a teaching, experimental food forest on a former pasture that had been a market garden for about ten years.

1,400 companion trees, pioneer species from our Walloon forests, were planted in spring 2023 over biodegradable ground cover.

What are “companion” trees?

Starting from a bare field or pasture, planting pioneer trees — known by the acronym AFI (Architect, Fertiliser, Engineer) — quickly builds a canopy within a few years. This step helps avoid external inputs to rebuild living soil: pioneer trees have a positive effect on the soil through rooting, biomass creation and leaf litter decomposition. Fruit trees and lower layers are then introduced according to their sunlight needs.

By pruning the nitrogen-fixing pioneer trees, they enrich the soil with both carbon and nitrogen. Pruning happens in autumn, when rainfall overtakes evaporation, to bring the light and space needed for fruiting species to grow.

Some AFI trees are then deliberately sacrificed, returning their wood to the soil — opening up production opportunities for the food forest’s productive species.

Les Jardins d’ici, open to everyone, is also the playground of Simon, who’s growing a beautiful vegetable garden there, and of the local Natagora chapter, Natagora Cœur de Wallonie.

The productive layers — trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants — were planted in 2025.

A long-term partnership

The site is now carried by a structuring partnership between Semisto, Natagora Cœur de Wallonie and the d’ici stores, backed by a €33,000 grant over 5 years (starting in September). Enough to anchor the project for the long haul, feed plant stock into the nursery network, and make Jardins d’ici a genuine shared ground for experimentation and teaching.

Type: Design, planting, co-management

Area: 1,400 m²

Designers: François Delforge, Christophe Wautier