Forest Gardening

[tufftie]

Has anybody ever tried forest gardening from scratch? Was thinking about doing this when I get my bit of land sorted out. Been reading a very interesting book called Plants for the Future (also a website linked to it) and it's something I'd really like to try as it seems more sensible than an allotment type garden; not to mention more interesting and better for wildlife.
I guess starting from scratch has the draw back in the time it'll take for some of the trees and larger shrubs to mature to fruiting age but the advantage is that you have a blank canvas to work with.

[Tursiops2]

I'm interested in this, but don't know much about it. could you post the link to the website tufftie? Cheers,
T2

[tufftie]

Originally Posted by Tursiops2

I'm interested in this, but don't know much about it. could you post the link to the website tufftie? Cheers,
T2

Here it is! The book is really good too

Plants For A Future - 7000 useful plants

[naturelover]

sounds like a wonderful idea you two,sort of thing that apeals to me,wish i had thought about it when i was younger,then i wouldnt have had the time to fit it in with three kids.

[tufftie]

One of the good things about it is that it seems more easily maintainable than some of the other types of gardening.

[Tursiops2]

thanks for the link tufftie, that's really interesting

[JeffH]

I'm not sure if it counts as 'forest' gardening but nearly 8 years ago I planted what I guess amounts to no more than a copse of about 30+ semi-mature trees along the bottom end of my garden on some additional land we'd bought from our neighbouring farmer.

The trees are a mix of Birch (mainly the decorative white-barked types), various Maples, some Hazel, a Scotch Pine, a Larch, Cherry, ornamental Pear, Rowan, a couple of decorative Willows and a Parrotia Persica and, except for the Willows (ground too dry for them ), they've all come on really well and created a lovely woodland garden feel.

One of the books that I used as a reference is 'Plant a natural Woodland' by Charlotte de la Bedoyere - though I did cheat a bit by adding a few non-native species.

The whole area is underplanted with a variety of shrubs (including many dogwoods) and bulbs (inc several thousand snowdrops and bluebells) and is an absolute visual delight in both Spring and Autumn as well as being one of the best wildlife attractions to the garden that I could have hoped for. Within days of completing the tree planting and covering the area with wood mulch we had a Green Woodpecker scratching around in it and they've been regular visitors ever since.

Incidentally, although considerably more expensive than saplings I went for semi-mature trees to give immediate impact and also because at my age I can't afford to sit around waiting for trees to grow

Jeff

[tufftie]

It sounds lovely and i'ts really great that someone's planting trees! Though not a forest garden - it's one where all the plants are productive - mostly for food but also for dyes, medical plants, saponins, construction materials - bamboo, willow etc. It makes sure that the garden is productive at all levels and really uses a no dig method and organic too. The plants in a forest garden don't have to be native either but..

[Cotham Marble]

The concepts for this seems to be based on 'tropical scenerios' but there is perhaps some basis for an historic precedent in the UK. The 'woodland pasture' was a mix of grazing, timber cropping and orchard, and probably made up a large proportion of what has been classified as mediaeval woodland.

Obviously the 'forest garden' is a more densly planted scheme and lacks the grazing element but it probably does come close to reproducing the wide 'hedges' of the ancient woodland pasture.

I haven't read the plants for a future book but from the website there doesn't seem to be an indication of how the timber is to be used. This is perhaps another divergence from how the mediaeval woodland pasture was used where pollarding and coppicing formed part of the management and where the use of 'small' wood and 'fruit wood' contributed to the 'economy' of the woodland pasture in a way not seen in modern forestry or modern orchards.

In any event 'forest gardening' looks to be an exciting area for experimentation.

CM