Forest garden design & maintenance.
‘Forest gardening’ is an ancient form of land care that has been and continues to be practised around much of the world in Asia, Africa and Central America as well as throughout much of China. ‘Forest gardens’ have grown in popularity in the western world over the past two to three decades. They are of interest to people with concerns around unsustainable agricultural systems and the changing climate. The methods of ‘forest gardening’ use polyculture and predominantly perennial crops, working with the land to shape a growing system that uses plants of varying heights to create a multi-layered growing space that is highly productive, ecologically balanced and sustainable. ‘Forest gardening’ is a term used in the UK to describe this practice within our temperate climate.
What is a forest garden?
A ‘forest garden’ is a garden in which the natural processes and patterns that occur in young, open woodland are observed and mimicked in order to create a resilient and productive garden system. They are used to produce food, medicine, fuel, building materials, dyes, fodder, fibre and other useful materials in a way that is supportive of all life in the system. Forest gardens can also be beautiful and provide us with space to unwind, play and appreciate the beautiful sights and smells of our favourite plants. Forest gardens provide an opportunity to blend beauty with purpose - perhaps the most interesting plants in a forest garden being those that provide us both sustenance and aesthetic pleasure whilst also bringing significant ecological value to the land.
Forest gardens mimic open woodland ecosystems by using multiple layers of perennial crops (ie those that grow back each year). These layers often consist of a canopy layer, a shrub layer, a herb layer and can also include climbers, groundcover plants and plants that grow below the ground. Forest gardens can also be a great place to cultivate fungi and a well placed pond can also provide the opportunity to cultivate useful aquatic plants too.
Forest gardens as perennial growing systems somewhat inevitably become no-dig systems. This doesn’t necessarily mean not digging at all, especially when first establishing the garden or when harvesting root crops for example, however, reducing disruption to soil life can have many benefits to the crops or plants we are trying to grow. Life in the soil, such as worms, bacteria and networks of fungal hyphae help to breakdown and transport nutrients around a forest garden, often directing them to where they are most needed. A healthy, biodiverse soil enables us to adopt a chop and drop approach to weeding where the majority of weeds can be cut and left on the surface of the soil where they decompose with the help of our soil-based life, which in turn feeds the plants we want to grow in a space. This approach reduces how much one needs to journey to and from the compost bin/pile. In addition, leaving the soil undisturbed also helps to keep dormant weed seeds from germinating - a time saving approach all round.
Find out more about forest gardening in temperate climates at the Agroforestry Research Trust.
Benefits of a forest garden.
Growing many different plants in a forest garden means that whilst you may only get a small amount of any one crop, the yield of the space as a whole will be high. Good design also means that we can grow crops together in the same space which make use of different resources at different times of the year, maximising the amount of time the space is productive.
Productive
Not every plant will be productive every year and yields will inevitably vary annually depending on the weather and a variety of other factors. Growing many different crops makes the garden more resilient, as plants that don’t crop so well in any season are offset by those that do.
Resilient
The value of wildlife
It should go without saying, having wildlife in a garden is invaluable and contributes much to a gardens productivity and resilience. A forest garden supports a broad diversity of life (including animals, plants, fungi, bacteria, etc) through creating a range of habitats, which in turn supports broader ecosystem health across our cities and landscapes. In our gardens, diversity of life is crucial for sustaining soils and healthy plants. Diversity of life helps to keep populations of pests in check, efficiently cycle nutrients back into forms our plants can use and provides us with a broad spectrum of nutritious food, nurturing medicines and useful materials.
Pest control
Pests love a predator free monoculture. When we plant lots of the same thing next to each other it’s easy for the things that eat it to hop from one plant to the next and decimate a whole crop. Growing a polyculture in a forest garden can help to reduce this effect. A variety of different plants in a space means a greater diversity of different phytochemicals in the air. This makes it difficult for any one pest to hone in on its dinner through detection of these chemicals. Of course, by having a broad variety of plants we also attract a broad range of life, from pests to predators of those pests (and possibly even predators of those predators).
Slugs and snails can be somewhat of a problem in a forest garden, especially in its early years before plants have properly established. Perennial plants once established, however, are much more resilient to the munching of these traditional garden foes and we can intentionally manage a garden to attract predators of slugs into the space. By incorporating lots of deadwood into the garden we can attract beetles and other slug eating insects. Improving the interconnectivity between ours and our neighbour’s gardens we may be lucky enough to attract hedgehogs. A pond is likely to attract frogs and toads. With a biodiverse garden, there is usually something that will eat something else!
The environmental value goes beyond just attracting wildlife to the garden. By growing food at home, we are reducing our reliance on industrial food production systems - even if just a little. This means less food miles, less chemicals, tastier and more nutritious food that does less harm to the land. Growing such abundant systems in our gardens sequesters carbon in soil, roots and woody trunks. Improved canopy cover and root structure helps to slow the passage of rainwater and reduces risk of flooding, soil erosion and loss of nutrients.
Environmental value
Whilst forest gardens take a fair bit of work to establish and maintain, once established they become easy to manage as weeding and mulching become less necessary. By designing in plants that accumulate nutrients, we can provide much of the nutrients that our garden need to thrive and we shouldn’t have to buy in as much mulch material externally. As deciduous trees and/or shrubs develop more extensive canopies, annual leaf fall naturally does some of the mulching for us. Its also a lot easier to mulch by leaving our prunings on the surface of the soil in ‘chop & drop’ fashion than it is to lug compost and woodchip through the house! As forest gardens are largely perennial systems, it eventually becomes a much less time consuming way to grow some food at home as we sow less in the way of annual seeds each year.
Low maintenance
Can I grow a forest garden?
In the city, forest gardening techniques can be used in the smallest of spaces, even if there isn’t the space to grow large trees. It is possible to take advantage of layered, perennial planting in a planter even - for example a berry bush, underplanted with some low growing aromatic herbs (both useful in cooking and making teas as well as deterring pests) and some edible nitrogen fixing herbs such as red or white clover. Adapting forest gardening to any space is a lot about adjusting our perspectives and making good plant choices. There are a huge range of species and cultivars of plants which grow to different sizes and with different growing habits that are available to us to fit into almost any space.
Design.
When considering growing a forest garden, it is useful to think about the design. What do you want to grow? What do you already have growing? What is growing in neighbouring gardens? Which direction does my garden face? Are there buildings or other features of the garden such as fences or paving?
The design process takes into consideration all of these things and helps us to specify our needs and desires, as well as work within the constraints of the space. The size of the space will of course dictate the number and size of the plants that we can include in a garden. Not all of the layers that make up forest gardens necessarily need to be present and of course the size and aspect of a space will also influence which layers can be included. If the garden is shady or has limited areas that receive direct sunlight, it will be important to choose plants carefully so that their needs can be met. The same goes for the soil - many plants have specific soil requirements that they need in order to thrive. Through the design process, we can narrow down and choose plants that could be suitable in the space, provide for us, whilst working in harmony with one another to sustain a healthy and fertile soil.
If you’re interested in creating a new forest garden, do get in touch and let me know what you are hoping to achieve. I can chat to you more about the process, make recommendations about next steps and help you to put together a design that works for you and your space.
Maintenance.
In addition to design, I can also offer to maintain your forest garden. This could involve working with you to show you how to be able to care for it yourself, showing you how to prune and explaining the techniques that are used.
Maintenance of a forest garden is important. When planting a new forest garden, it is important to nurture the plants that you are trying to grow and reduce competition from weeds. In newly established gardens, this generally tends to involve regular mulching in addition to weeding.
In established forest gardens, maintenance tends to involve largely observing, harvesting, weeding and pruning. The latter two typically follow a ‘chop and drop’ approach which means that what we chop becomes a mulch and the nutrients eventually end up back in the soil. This can include anything from herbaceous leaves to whole branches that have been pruned. Weeding in an established forest garden can involve maintaining our chosen plants at a certain size so as to allow other chosen plants the space they need. This will often depend on our own needs - if you use one plant more than another or a more vigorous plant is shading out another less vigorous plant. We try to minimise this work by being attentive during the design process, but forest gardens are fluid and change throughout time - some plants will tell you where they want to be.