Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops

About the Book

Filled with helpful tips and beautiful photographs, this guide contains everything you need to create your own forest garden.

Forest Gardening, or agroforestry, is a way of growing edible crops while allowing nature to do most of the work. Species are chosen for their beneficial effects on each other, creating a healthy system that maintains its own fertility, with little need for digging, weeding or pest control. The result of this largely perennial planting is a tranquil, beautiful and productive space, where you can cultivate your own fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms and even forage firewood and honey.

Whether in a small back garden or in a larger plot, forest gardens really benefit the environment and are also a viable solution to the challenge of a changing climate. The soil thrives from being covered with plants all year round and is also able to store more water after heavy rains, minimising flooding and erosion and helping plants to survive through drought. Forest gardens also store carbon dioxide in the soil and in the woody biomass of the trees and shrubs. The mixed variety of plants further boosts the health of the ecosystem by ensuring a balance of predators and beneficial insects.

Creating a Forest Garden is a bible for permaculture and forest gardening, with practical advice on how to create a forest garden, from planning and design to planting and maintenance. It includes a detailed directory of over 500 trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals, root crops and climbers. As well as more familiar plants such as fig and apple trees, blackcurrants and rosemary shrubs, you can grow your own chokeberries, goji berries, yams, heartnuts, bamboo shoots and buffalo currants.

Grow a forest garden with this handy guide and become more self-sufficient while also enjoying the natural beauty and environmental benefits of these wonderful green spaces.

Table of Contents:

Foreword by Rob Hopkins
Introduction

Part 1: How forest gardens work

1. Forest gardens
2. Forest garden features and products
3. The effects of climate change
4. Natives and exotics
5. Emulating forest conditions
6. Fertility in forest gardens

Part 2: Designing your forest garden

7. Ground preparation and planting
8. Growing your own plants
9. First design steps
10. Designing wind protection
11. Canopy species
12. Designing the canopy layer
13. Shrub species
14. Designing the shrub layer
15. Herbaceous perennial and ground-cover species
16. Designing the perennial/ground-cover layer
17. Annuals, biennials and climbers
18. Designing with annuals, biennials and climbers

Part 3: Extra design elements and maintenance

19. Clearings
20. Paths
21. Fungi in forest gardens
22. Harvesting and preserving
23. Maintenance
24. Ongoing tasks

Glossary
Appendix 1: Propagation tables
Appendix 2: Trees and shrubs for hedging and fencing
Appendix 3: Plants to attract beneficial insects and bees
Appendix 4: Edible crops by month of use
Resources: Useful organisations, suppliers and publications

About the Author :
Martin Crawford has worked in organic agriculture and horticulture for many years. He is director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a charity that researches temperate agroforestry and all aspects of plant cropping and uses, with a focus on tree, shrub and perennial crops.

Review :
This is a seminal piece of work on truly sustainable gardening, written with great spirit and soul. The ultimate book on the subject… extremely thorough and beautifully illustrated. A magnificiently produced tome that is sure to become every forest gardener's horticultural toolkit and bible. Martin has produced a book that is not only visually beautiful but very practical, offering advice on planning, designing, planting and general maintenance. Visually stunning with beautiful photography and illustrations, accompanying very informative and well constructed text. This book offers bountiful food for thought. If you are considering the creation or maintenance of a forest garden, then you would do well to have this book on your shelves. This book is a must if you are interested in producing food from your garden, becoming more self-sufficient or just curious about plants and their uses. This seminal piece of work is not only visually enthralling, it's incredibly easy to use. It contains a level of detail and explanation that makes it a must read for anyone who is serious about building a truly sustainable forest.