Growing up
A new age for forest gardening?
Forest gardening offers an environmentally sound way of growing without the back-breaking work. But has it has it lived up to
expectations? CAT Display Gardener Chloë Ward considers the possibilities for this innovative technique.
I
SeenyaRita, Flickr
remember clearly the moment of my conversion. 1991 saw the
publication of Forest Gardening – the launch of a new way of
growing food. It was the most environmentally sound system
you could imagine. A vision of food production that was not just low
impact but actively beneficial. The idea was enthralling to an aspiring
ecological grower. It gave a new direction for the future. I was
instantly seduced.
Robert A de J Hart (1913-2000) was inspired by the home gardens
of the tropics such as those in Kerala, India, in which a wide variety
of food plants grow in a small space, above, below and around each
other in an organised tangle, similar to the natural forest that grows
nearby.
It made perfect sense. Why grow crops in one thin layer spread
over the earth’s surface when nature makes use of vertical space
right up to the tree canopy? Robert set about developing a system of
three dimensional food gardening for the temperate environment.
He designed a garden comprising a mixture of edible plants: trees
and shrubs with bushes below and a ground layer of perennial or
self-seeding plants below these.
Robert saw the garden as an instrument for social change. He
had a vision of many small, self-sufficient communities with forest
gardens providing for their needs. A diverse diet would increase
health, small scale food production would reduce competition for
resources, and an ecological approach to growing would reduce
problems of soil erosion, biodiversity loss and climate change. ‘The
world desperately needs countless millions of trees to counter the
greenhouse effect. There’s no reason why the necessary trees should
not be fruit trees.... If one could get 100,000 Londoners to plant ten
trees in their back gardens that would be a million trees
which would be something of a forest.’
Robert’s own garden showed that it could work. Just
an eighth of an acre, but containing over
seventy species of edible plants,
Forest Gardening explains that the system is low maintenance
because the plants look after each other. In Robert’s own
words, the forest garden is, ‘self-perpetuating because almost
all the plants are perennial or active self-seeders; self-fertilizing
because deep rooting trees and bushes draw on minerals in
the subsoil and make them available to their neighbours; self
watering because the plants tap the spring-veins in the sub soil
and pump water up for the whole system; self-mulching and
self weed-suppressing because herbs like mints and balm soon
cover all the ground between the trees and create a permanent
living mulch; self-pollinating because the trees are selected to
be mutually compatible or self-fertile and because the flowering
herbs attract pollinating insects; and self-healing because the
aromatic herbs deter pests.’
it provided him with fruit, salad and herbs for eight months of the
year. He chose proven staples, such as apples and pears in the tree
layer, blackcurrants and gooseberries in the bush layer and lemon
balm and mints as ground covers. But he also experimented with less
well known edibles such as juneberries, chequerberries, bamboo
shoots and tree onions. He found the maintenance it required was
satisfyingly low – a little weeding, but mostly harvesting.
‘This is not high horticulture,’ wrote Robert, ‘those who cannot
stand the sight of a weed, or a gate tied up with string would do well
to steer clear.’ Robert’s writing was inspirational, making us believe
anyone could do it, and we flocked to his garden for his patient
guided tours. Throughout the country, forest gardening disciples set
about putting his vision into practice.
CAT was no exception. In our old neglected orchard, I set about
making a new Eden. I mulched with more cardboard than I’d ever
seen, propagated every edible perennial I could get seed for,
applied for grants, held volunteer days and spent
many long days in the sun
(but mostly rain)
Most of our food is, of course, produced by agriculture, not
grown in home gardens. But forest gardening contains a wealth
of inspiration for the innovative farmer – in pest control, soil care
and water conservation. A forest garden suffers very little from
pests, which do not get the same hold as they do in monocultures.
In agricultural systems, the same principles can be used by
interplanting and growing a mix of varieties. A forest garden is
rarely dug and its soil is protected by mulches and living covers.
On a larger scale, sustainable systems use minimal tillage and
covers of green manures. A well cared for soil with high organic
matter levels holds on to its moisture in times of drought.
working towards my goal. The result - enough lemon balm to feed
the world, some odd-tasting berries, salad that you really had to try
hard to like, lots of plants that you can ‘cook like spinach’ and a bit of
a couch grass problem. The garden was way too big to maintain and
no one really wanted to eat the stuff that came out of it. I’d made every
mistake in the book and added a few appendices of my own.
I cannot say my garden was a ‘failure’. It taught me a great deal.
It produced a wide variety of edible stuff and what remains of it now
is a good demonstration of which plants can survive total neglect. If
it didn’t quite live up to expectations, at least I know that I was not
alone. While there are people who have made it work, notably Martin
Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust, they tend to be those
who are keen to experiment, both in the garden and in introducing
unusual foods into their diets. But with so much enthusiasm in the
UK, we should not be short of successful examples by now. So why
does a thriving forest garden seem to be such a rare thing?
Firstly, there’s our climate. We are lacking light. In the tropics the
understory plants benefit from a bit of shade. Here, they struggle to
photosynthesise. In a temperate forest the ground is relatively bare,
with vegetation springing up when a large tree dies, or early in the
year before the trees come into leaf. It is where the sun does penetrate
that we get multi layers of plants - a south facing woodland edge or an
open glade. Temperate forest gardens need to mimic these
ecosystems rather than a closed canopy woodland.
And then there are the gardeners. The newly
converted forest gardener tends to be full of wonder
and vision, and of a certain rejection of conventional
gardening. They can be heard saying such things
as, ‘I just want my garden to evolve organically,’
and, ‘these hawthorn berries have a wonderful
flavour.’ In the rush towards ideals, was it forgotten
that first you have to learn how to grow stuff?
Robert claimed that it wasn’t high horticulture, but
he knew about plants. Forest gardening requires
skill, just as conventional gardening does – and
probably more of it. Yet many forest gardens were
planted by those taking up the trowel for the first
time – community groups and permaculture courses,
with newly formed friendships and a buzz of optimism.
The boring rigour needed for a successful garden was all
too easily lost.
Perhaps the whole idea was a tad before its time. This was the
era of TV garden makeovers: people wanted purple gravel and
cordaline palms. Even now, in a world where growyour-own and gardening for wildlife are popular
pastimes, a cursory glance from a train
window reveals a majority
of grass
and concrete
patches –
adding to climate
change in both
their construction and
upkeep. A forest garden might be less
labour-intensive than a lawn, but its
maintenance takes more understanding than
starting up a mower. Perhaps it is time for a
simplified, popular forest gardening movement.
For drawing people in with something simple – some
autumn raspberries (no difficult pruning involved), a pot of
nasturtiums (edible and easy).
But we mustn’t lose sight of the bigger opportunities forest
gardening brings. It’s a rare thing for a whole new form of gardening
to come along. It requires a shift in attitude, and a set of new skills.
Traditional vegetable growing has taken thousands of years to evolve.
Plant varieties have been bred, rotation patterns designed, pest
control achieved. Who would have thought this was possible looking
at the original wild carrots? Forest gardening needs a chance to
evolve and to be understood.
Just now in the UK we have enough to eat. It’s rewarding to grow
our own food – but a crop failure doesn’t mean we starve. Historically,
it’s an unusual situation, a rare opportunity to experiment.
My relationship with forest gardening has been through some
tough times – from blissful infatuation, to disillusionment, to
acceptance of limitations, and a new appreciation of possibilities. I still
use many techniques from my forest gardening experiments – ground
covers, mixed plantings, nitrogen fixers and mulches. But it has been
a while since I worked on a full forest garden, and I miss it. There’s a
nice patch next to CAT’s new WISE building that’s waiting for a little
planting action. So, I’m ready to give it another go – ready for the
second round of mistakes.
The main components of a forest garden are going to be there
for a long time, so it needs to be well designed. Imagine an apple
tree growing above redcurrants and fennel, with a ground cover
of wild garlic. Each plant has its space and role, and the system
is more productive than a monoculture of one crop. Careful
design is needed for the plants to benefit each other rather than
compete.
We can learn a lot from annual vegetables. In planning a veg
patch we carefully think about the needs of each plant over its
lifespan. It all happens in one season and a small space, but it
teaches the basics of garden design.
The ‘three sisters’ is a native American technique which has
recently become more popular in Britain. Sweetcorn, squashes
and beans are grown together in one patch with the squash
trailing over the ground, the corn growing up vertically through
it and the beans twining up the corn. It is a microcosm of a forest
garden in time and space. The sweetcorn offers physical support
to the beans, the beans fix nitrogen, benefiting the squash and
corn, and the squash covers the ground, retaining moisture and
preventing soil erosion. However, it’s a system which takes some
skill in planning. Plant the beans too early and they will weigh
down the corn. Plant the squashes too close together and they
will out-compete the beans. Plant the sweetcorn too far apart and
they will not pollinate each other and you will get no crop.
Clean Slate 23
issues of biodiversity and climate change.
- Call 01654 705981 or visit www.cat.org.uk/shortcourses for
details.
If you have a forest garden, I’d
love to know how it’s doing. Have my
experiences struck a chord? Or do you disagree? Maybe your forest
garden exceeded your expectations. Email me via members@cat.
org.uk or write to the usual address. You can also log on to the CAT
forums at www.cat.org.uk/forums to join in the discussions. CS
Introduction to Organic Gardening, 8th to 10th May, 2009.
Gain a sound knowledge of the basics with the CAT gardening
team.
Gardening for a Sustainable Future, 24th to 26th July. Learn how
gardens relate to the wider environment, including a look at the
For more information
t3PCFSU"EF+)BSUForest Gardening, published by Green Books
and available from CAT.
t%BWF+BDLFXJUI&SJD5PFOTNFJFSEdible Forest Gardens.
American two-volume set exploring design and practice.
t5IF"HSPGPSFTUSZ3FTFBSDI5SVTUGPSQVCMJDBUJPOTBOEDPVSTFT
www.agroforestry.co.uk.
t1MBOUTGPSB'VUVSFBSFTPVSDFTJUFGPSFEJCMFQFSFOOJBMT
www.pfaf.org.
t5 JS1FOSIPT*TBGGPSQFSNBDVMUVSFEFTJHOBEWJDFBOEDPVSTFTGSPN
forest gardening pioneer Chris Dixon: www.konsk.co.uk
About the author
Chloe works to show the links between gardening and the wider
environment through CAT’s display site, courses and publications.
She formerly worked for Garden Organic at Yalding Organic
Gardens, Kent. She specializes in fruit and wildlife gardening, and
is part of the seed-saving movement to preserve our vegetable
diversity.
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24 Clean Slate