How to Make a Forest Garden

by Whitefield, Patrick

• ISBN13: 9781856230087
• ISBN10: 1856230082
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-06-01
• Publisher: Permanent Pubns

Summary

A forest garden is a food-producing garden, based on the model of a natural woodland or forest. It is made up of fruit and nut trees, fruit bushes, perennial vegetables and herbs. It can be tailored to fit any space, from a tiny urban back yard to a large rural garden. A close copy of a natural ecosystem, it is perhaps the most ecologically friendly way of gardening open to us. It is also a low-maintenance way of gardening. Once established there is none of the digging, sowing, planting out and hoeing of the conventional kitchen garden. The main task is picking up the produce! This highly practical, yet inspiring book gives you everything you need to know in order to create a beautiful and productive forest garden, including: * Basic principles * Layout * How to choose plants * Details of over one hundred plants, from apples to mushrooms * the most comprehensive account of perennial and self-seeding vegetables in print * A step-by-step guide to creating your garden * Full details of an example garden, and pictures of many more Forest gardening is an important element of permaculture. This book explains in detail permaculture design for temperate climates and contains much of interest for anybody wanting to introduce sustainable practices into their garden.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. xi
Introduction	p. xv
What is a Forest Garden?
Why Grow a Forest Garden?	p. 1
A natural way of gardening
Yield of food
How a forest garden works
What kind of food?
The easy life
Other benefits
Home garden or market garden?
The Forest Garden Community	p. 13
The layers
The tree layer
The shrub layer
The vegetable layer
Putting Things Together	p. 25
The land and the people
Light and shade
Access
Co-operation and competition
Succession
Microclimate
Soil
Models
Home-Grown Resources	p. 45
Plant nutrients
Mulch material
Water
Pest and weed control
Preparation, Planting and Maintenance	p. 55
Mulching
Preparation
Planting
Maintenance
Choosing Plants	p. 71
Climate, microclimate and soil
Choosing vegetables
Choosing fruit varieties
The Trees	p. 84
The obvious ones
The less obvious ones
The doubtful ones
The Shrubs	p. 99
The obvious ones
The less obvious ones
Growing a native shrubbery
The Vegetables	p. 115
Greens
Salads
Others
Designing a Forest Garden	p. 135
Collecting information
Recording
Evaluation
Design
A sample design: Tricia's garden
Weights and Measures	p. 149
Further Reading	p. 151
List of Suppliers	p. 155
Plant Index	p. 163
Subject Index	p. 166
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