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Feature imagePlant a forest garden

Forest gardening represents a whole new take on the idea of growing your own fruit and vegetables as gardening writer and forest gardening enthusiast, Joanne Brannan explains

Less well-known species worth tracking down


Onions

• Plum yews (Cephalotaxus spp.) – this extraordinary shrub resembles the common yew (Taxus baccata) except for the plum-shaped fruit on the female plants which are around 3cm (11⁄4in) long. The fruits are edible when fully ripe, the seeds within the fruit yield an edible oil, and the leaves have medicinal properties. Plum yews tolerate considerable shade.

• Chokeberries (Aronia spp.) – a shrub that fruits heavily in the UK and has good shade tolerance. The currant-sized fruits are eaten cooked.

• Hardy bamboos prefer partial shade, and the shoots of some varieties are good to eat.


Imagine a garden bursting with ripe fresh fruit, plentiful nuts, and a supply of vegetables, kitchen pot herbs and salads. A garden which is more productive per square foot than the traditional kitchen garden, and which provides food almost all year round. When I add that this garden is organic, low maintenance and virtually self watering you may start to doubt my sincerity. But all this may be quite true of a well-designed forest garden.

A forest garden consists of several layers of food-producing plants. Fruit and nut trees form the canopy layer, productive bushes grow between and beneath the trees, and the 'forest floor' consists of self-seeding and perennial productive plants. Climbing plants rise through all these layers, providing yet another source of food. This sustainable, edible ecosystem is wonderfully productive, and, once established, requires very little work. Also known as 'agroforestry', forest gardening techniques may be used to create either a private kitchen garden or a commercial garden.

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Forest gardening around the world


Although agroforestry is new to northern Europe, forest gardens have a long history elsewhere in the world. Often known as home gardens, or homestead gardens, tropical forest gardens are widespread in Asia and Africa producing not only food, but also medicinal, dye and other useful plants.

Unbeknown to the first forest gardeners of Europe in the second half of the 20th century, agroforestry also has a long tradition in temperate areas of China. Chinese researchers have recently demonstrated scientifically that temperate forest gardens are indeed remarkably productive and low maintenance.

Plants for a forest garden


A wide variety of species is key to achieving an equilibrium in any ecosystem, and cultivated forest gardens are no exception. It is vitally important to plan a diverse range of plants to help the biological stability of the garden, and in order to do this forest gardens often feature many rare and unusual species, alongside more familiar favourites such as apples, currants and strawberries.

The species listed on page 40 gives only an indication of the exciting range of plants suited to a forest garden. There is a still great deal which remains to be discovered about other plants, as yet untried in the forest garden, and about the enormous variety of interactions between plants in it.

Despite the enormous range of species that are suitable, it is difficult to grow a substantial quantity of any carbohydrate crop within the forest garden. Traditional carbohydrate plants such as cereals and tubers need considerable sunshine to grow well, so it is necessary to create clearings in the tree cover for them. Similarly, many traditional annual vegetables love the sun too much to grow well in a forest garden, except in open, well lit, clearings.

 

For more see this month's issue, available to buy online!