Free Online Course:
Cocoon Food Forest
— A Successful Approach to Growing a Food Forest in Mediterranean Climates.
— Start with one Cocoon, a mini food forest focused on one Target Food Tree, then duplicate and grow a Big Food Forest.
Recently planted Cocoon Food Forests
Milan NEPALI working on the implementation of a series of Cocoon Food Forests
Miguel COTTON doing maintenance on a Cocoon Food Forest
Milan NEPALI, Orchard of Flavours' Garden Steward, surrounded by Cocoon Food Forests at our site, in Tavira, Portugal
A few fruits from the Orchard of Flavours
Preparations for planting a brand new Cocoon Food Forest, with a banana tree as the 'Target Tree'
Miguel COTTON assembling irrigation system
Several Cocoon Food Forests at the Orchard of Flavours, showing the scalability of this approach
Placing the irrigation and the different support species in a new Cocoon Food Forest
Welcome to the Orchard of Flavours’ free online course on creating a Food Forest!
In this course, you’ll learn how to grow a sustainable, thriving Food Forest step-by-step, with no commitment required.
Our open-source course offers valuable insights that often surpass paid courses. If you find it helpful, we invite you to support our non-profit botanical garden with a one-time donation of any amount. Every contribution helps us keep this and other resources free and accessible to everyone.
Jump in, start learning, and decide for yourself!
Our first online Fruit Tree Academy Course where we give you an extensive overview of our most efficient way to grow Food Trees in a Mediterranean climate.
“Incredible knowledge, great visual content through pictures and videos, every step is perfectly explained with recommendations you can immediately and easily apply.”
“As a biologist, I couldn’t help but congratulate you on your excellent work, vision, initiative, and purpose! Congratulations to the entire team for your vision, dedication, sharing, and contribution to a better and more conscious world.”
A Successful Approach to Growing a Thriving Food Forest in Mediterranean Climates
The Cocoon Food Forest is an innovative way to help your fruit trees thrive! Designed specifically for Mediterranean climates, this approach can also be adapted to other regions.
In this course, we’ll guide you in focusing on one fruit tree at a time, creating optimal conditions for fast and healthy growth. Once you’ve successfully nurtured one tree, you’ll move on to create additional Cocoon Food Forests. Before you know it, you’ll have a large, resilient, and productive Food Forest!
We like to call this the “All-for-One Mini Food Forest” or the “Fruit Tree Accelerator”—starting small and growing into something big and beautiful. You begin with a Mini Food Forest and end up with a Big Food Forest!
Simple and Effective
Our step-by-step approach is well-documented, easy to implement, and designed for quick replication.
Customized Solutions
Is your garden very windy?
Is your borehole water of poor quality or slightly saline?
Is your soil very alkaline or acidic?
Do you want to cultivate rare subtropical fruit trees?
Do you want to cultivate subtropical fruit trees that are slightly frost-tolerant?
Our Cocoon Food Forest Course will guide you in adapting to your specific conditions and offers ready-to-implement kits for various scenarios.
The Cocoon Food Forest approach has been successfully implemented in our botanical garden, and we are excited to share this innovative design with you. Transform your garden into a thriving oasis with our proven approach!
Introduction to Cocoon Food Forest Online Course, with Miguel Cotton (Founder)
“I like the balance between general principals and specific examples, and the fact that you share your experience - it makes the content very easy to make sense of and memorize.”
“The online course is fantastic. You can tell it’s a product resulting from many years of hands on experience. So much more value than most of the purely theoretical courses out there.”
Our Objectives
Through multiple consultancies and our daily work with fruit trees, we have identified these as the most common goals people have for their garden:
Fast and healthy growth of your target fruit trees
Enhancing resilience through increased biodiversity and improved soil microbiology
Ease of harvest and maintenance
Scalability and cost-effectiveness
Organic aesthetic design (following curves)
A water-sparing, long-lasting irrigation system
During This Course You Will Learn How To:
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Design Your Dream Food Forest
Discover how to create a thriving, self-sustaining Food Forest tailored to Mediterranean climates, with techniques that can easily be adapted to other regions.
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Accelerate Fruit Tree Growth
Learn the step-by-step process to focus on one fruit tree at a time, providing optimal conditions for rapid and healthy growth, leading to a productive and resilient Food Forest.
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Customize Solutions for Your Garden
Gain the knowledge to overcome challenges such as poor soil, harsh winds, or saline water, and learn how to grow rare or frost-tolerant subtropical fruit trees.
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Implement Water-Saving Irrigation
Master the art of creating an efficient, long-lasting irrigation system that conserves water while ensuring your plants thrive, even in drought-prone areas.
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Optimize Soil Health
Understand how to prepare and improve your soil for the best plant growth, using techniques that enhance soil microbiology and retain moisture.
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Effective Plant Guilds
Learn how to combine different types of plants — target trees, flowers, mulch generators, and hero trees — to form a powerful, synergistic guild that supports growth and biodiversity.
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Sustainable Maintenance
Discover low-maintenance strategies that reduce weeding, optimize watering, and ensure a continuous supply of mulch, making your Food Forest easy to manage.
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Scalability and Cost-Effectiveness
Understand how to scale your Food Forest project effectively, from a small backyard garden to a larger landscape, while keeping costs manageable.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to the Orchard yesterday and started/finished the course today. I loved it! It is very well researched and organised. It is easy to follow and incredibly informative. I’m from a very different growing zone, USDA 3-4, but the techniques will transfer absolutely with an adjustment in plant type. THANK YOU!”
By the end of this course, you’ll be equipped with all the tools and knowledge you need to transform your garden into a productive, sustainable oasis using the Cocoon Food Forest approach.
Please let us have your feedback so we can keep improving all our Workshops!