A forest garden is a permaculture system that seeks to act like a natural woodland. It has several layers, in the simplest form there is a top layer of trees, a middle layer of shrubs and bushes and a ground layer of herbs, vegetables and flowers. Each plant is chosen to perform particular roles, for example food, wildlife habitat or soil building and plants are placed in careful complementary relationships. The idea is to create an ecological garden which nurtures beneficial insects, birds and animals. This increases biodiversity but also makes the garden more balanced, disease-free and productive. Once established it should require much less maintenance than a conventional garden because you are allowing nature to do most of the work. We're fairly novice gardeners and are going to be learning as we go along but hope that sharing our experience will be helpful to other people thinking of having a go. We'll be giving a lot more background information in due course but right now we want to roll up our sleeves and get to work. (November 08)

The 'before' shot

Up to now the garden has been used mainly as a play area for our children. We grow some raspberries, blackberries and runner beans in the ground and strawberries, blueberries, tomatoes, peppers, potatoes and herbs in containers, otherwise there's mostly ornamental shrubs. After a family discussion, we've decided to lose most of the lawn, though the boys want to retain their climbing frame/swing. We're currently planning to curve the path to the shed through the centre of the garden which will open up two wide beds either side to plant out in the forest garden layers. Rather than attempting to impose a complete design now, we're adopting a 'chunking' approach. This involves starting small and close to the house, finding out what works and then repeating the pattern in a new site until the patches link up and bond into a resilient, healthy, whole. This approach is recommended by Toby Hemenway in his wonderful 'Gaia's Garden - A Guide to Home-scale permaculture'.

Step one - create a small bed of rich soil near the back door

We've cleared a small section of the garden and applied a sheet mulch. This involves laying down a thin layer of manure to attract the worms and beetles followed by cardboard and newspaper (not glossy sections) to create a light-blocking layer, wetting thoroughly, then adding another thin layer of manure. You should then add a bulk mulch of straw, spoiled hay, leaves. Toby Hemenway recommends 8 to 12 inches, we didn't have that much available and as our soil is already pretty fertile we're hoping that we've added enough. We then added another couple of inches of compost. The final layer should be a couple of inches of organic matter such as straw or fine bark but we haven't added that yet. We're now going to leave nature to do its work!

At the other side of the garden we've begun our first project:

Herb Spiral

This coils 20 - 30 linear feet of path side plants into a 3-D spiral, taking up less space and enabling you to create different micro-climates. So plants like oregano, rosemary and thyme, which thrive in hot, dry conditions, can be placed on the sunny side near the top. This leaves the cooler, moister locations for plants like parsley and chives. You need a fair amount of soil for the mound so it's a good idea to link this with an excavation project such as making a garden pond. It's inspired by the example in Gaia's Garden (see page 48-49).

Method:

1. Build up a mound of soil about 5 feet across and 3 feet high or similar proportions. You can place subsoil at the base of the mound and save the best topsoil to build over that. We enriched the soil by adding in some manure.
2. Begin installing your rocks at the bottom of the mound. We started with head-sized rocks and gradually changed to fist-sized rocks by the top. As you wind round, leave about a foot of soil in between the tiers. We dug our rocks well in to create a solid structure.
3. Plant out the spiral, placing each herb in its best site.
4. We added a mulch of gravel to suppress weeds and to help the soil retain moisture in the summer.

We've made the remainder of the bed into an alpine and miniature sculpture garden.
January 09 Update: We covered with fleece during the frosty nights and all the herbs have survived apart from the Tangerine Sage.
June 09 Update: See picture below for latest progress. All the herbs are flourishing and keeping us well stocked in the kitchen!

Step two - goodbye lawn!

We've finally made some progress by relocating the path. The new path is longer so we spaced out the old paving slabs, filled with gravel in between, and broke up the concrete to use as hard-core underneath. We used the old edging blocks to form a path around what will be the annual vegetable bed, so everything found a new use which was satisfying. We want to attract birds but we also don't want to lose too much of our soft fruit so we've transplanted our raspberry canes, blueberries and strawberries to the trellis pictured under Step one, and will make a simple fruit cage using netting and a framework. (We'll make sure we include plenty of other food sources for the birds!)

Good permaculture practice would probably be to avoid the heavy labour of lifting turf and to cover it over with a sheet mulch instead. We were far too impatient and carefully turned the turf over, then covered with a thick layer of manure. In retrospect, not the best idea because one of the permaculture principles is to disturb the soil as little as possible as 80% of soil microbes live in the top 5cm and most of them die if they are buried by digging. As we've only disturbed a very thin layer, we're hoping it was less damaging than digging in. We're following one of Toby Hemenway's tips and are trying 'composting in place', by burying small patches of kitchen waste under the mulch. Luckily the earth seems to be teeming with worms so it should break down pretty quickly. We added a layer of compost and then sowed a mix of different summer cover crops (rye grass, red clover, crimson clover and alfalfa), partly to see which thrive and also because each will attract a different community of soil organisms to it.

It's exciting to suddenly have such big planting areas opened up and although we miss the lovely swathe of green which the lawn provided the cover crops should fill that gap soon. The only family member who is not too happy is our dog who has been giving us bewildered looks as if to say 'What have you done?'. (February 09)

Step 3 - putting the pieces in place

Tree Layer

For the top layer we've planted: a Broadview Walnut and a Black Mulberry, with fan-trained Golden Glow Apricot, Morello sour Cherry and Stella sweet Cherry against the fence. For the middle layer we've planted: a Sunset desert Apple, a Cybelle desert Apple, a Bramley cooking Apple, a dwarf Garnet Peach and a dwarf Ruby Nectarine. We've planted a fig tree in a pot as containing its roots is supposed to make it fruit better.

The walnut and mulberry form part of a 'guild' which is a complementary grouping. Walnuts are allelopathic, secreting a toxic substance called juglone which suppresses competing plants. Apple trees are susceptible to this but mulberry's are tolerant and can be used as a buffer between the walnut and apple trees. Research has also shown that apples profit from mulberry companionship, we'll let you know how it all works out in practice. We chose Broadview as it is more compact (with careful regular pruning it can be kept to 12-15 ft), very hardy, late into leaf (so rarely damaged by frost) and can start cropping as early as its third year. We're attempting to protect the trees from slug damage by placing strips of copper tape around their trunks.

We've also added a Gingko biloba 'horizontalis' , one of the oldest types of tree on the planet, more or less unchanged from the time when the dinosaurs roamed the earth! Its dried leaves contain unique substances which improve circulation to the brain and are believed to improve concentration, short-term memory and reaction time. It's a dwarf variety so should only grow to about 2m high.

We're amazed at how productive the garden is already as you'll see from the following shot of the apples forming on the Sunset tree, all the currant bushes are coming into fruit too.

We were even more surprised to see lots of peaches forming on our tiny peach tree. You might just be able to make them out - little furry grey ovals. Roll on harvest time!

Meanwhile indoors, we've been growing a ginger plant (green pot) and a lemon and an orange tree. They need to be protected from the frost but will be able to come outside for the summer. It's been fascinating watching the ginger grow: these long thin cigar-like spikes shoot up and then unravel over the course of a day into huge leaves. It's developed from just a root to 3ft tall over a couple of months. We're really looking forward to seeing its spectacular flowers.

Another unusual plant we're growing is a Tamarillo Tree Tomato. It is perennial, grows up to 8ft tall and can fruit for 7 months of the year but needs to come inside for the winter. If you're tempted to grow one, here's some recipes you could try.

Shrub Layer

We've planted two Elaeagnus (ebbingei and maculata) close to the Walnut as they act as both nitrogen fixers and juglone buffers. They should also produce edible fruit and seeds for us and the birds; also two Berberis (Barberry) plants which produce mildly acidic juicy fruit in mid-summer, a Buddleia davidii (Butterfly bush) which attracts bees and butterflies and you can obtain dyes from the flowers, leaves and stems and, some Comfrey which can be used to make a liquid feed for plants. We've planted redcurrant, blackcurrant, whitecurrant, jostaberry and mountain cranberry bushes around the cherry and apple trees. We've planted a Jenny Kiwi Fruit, which likes to climb up trees but as ours are not big enough yet, we've placed it next to a Ceanothus. It grows up to 9 metres, so we can train it through the neighbouring trees once they've formed a canopy.

We've also planted an Arbutus unedo (Strawberry Tree) which produces edible fruit in late autumn with a subtle sweet taste and texture of a tropical fruit, Lupins which fix nitrogen in the soil, are an important larval food for some butterflies and also attract bees and two Physalis edulis (Cape Gooseberry) which bear sweet fruit enclosed in a papery husk which will store for several weeks. We've planted a Lemon Verbena in a pot, as we've lost one previously to frost and want to keep it well-protected in the colder months. It's one of our favourite shrubs because of its wonderful lemon scent, it can be used to make a herbal tea and repels midges and flies.

At the side of the house, we've been growing a grape vine and blackberry bushes. An abundance of grapes are forming but we'll have to see how well they ripen as it's a fairly shady position.

The most recent additions are 3 goji berry plants, the fruit of which can be eaten fresh or dried, made into tea or used in soups and is claimed to have amazing health benefits: reducing cholesterol, protecting the liver, improving eye-sight and memory, boosting circulation and enhancing immune function. It certainly contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C.

According to folklore:

An ancient account of the wonderful Goji
Amazed at the magic of the Goji the merchant bowed to the lady with respect and asked, "may I be so bold as to ask what magical herb you posses?"
The lady replied, " this herb has five names. You want to take a different part of the herb each season...
In Spring you take its leaves, which are known as the Essence Of Heaven.
In Summer you take its flowers, which are known as the Longevity of Life.
In Autumn you take its fruits, which are known as the Chinese Wolfberry.
In Winter you take the bark of its root, which is known as the skin and bone of the Earth, or the Staff of the Almighty Creator.
Taking these four parts in the four Seasons respectively will give you life as lofty as Heaven and Earth."

We'll let you know what it does for us!

Ground/Herb Layer

We initially planted some daffodils for spring colour and some chives, fennel and lemon balm around the trees to attract beneficial insects. We've since added asparagus, wild rocket, french sorrel, lovage, welsh onions, cardoon, Good King Henry, echinacea, comfrey, alpine strawberries, angelica, borage, sweet violets and pink bergamot, heartsease and purple and white ajuga, - all of which have edible and medicinal uses or are attractive to bees and butterflies.

When we watched the 'Establishing a Food Forest' DVD by the Permaculture Research Institute of Australia, we were very inspired by their kitchen garden which had a riot of different colours and scents to confuse the pests and have since tried to introduce a greater range of colourful and scented flowers and herbs. These include Lithospermum Heavenly blue, Penstemon pinifolius in yellow and red, Fuschia Electra Red, Dactylorhiza fuschii, Campanulla Pulla, Dianthus Cheddar Pink, Mimulus maschatus, Scutellaria indica, Lemon thyme and Apple and Grapefruit Mint.

We've sown some annual wildflower seeds in the area in front of the swing to create a tiny meadow space and are propagating a mix of perennial flowers to add to the tree bed.

June 09 update: The wildflower seeds grew prolifically

and are usually humming with bees. The pale mauve flower is Phacelia Tanacetifolia and they can't get enough of it! The crimson clover is just coming into flower, and the bees are really loving that too.

With butterflies in mind, we've added some stinging nettles though they are also useful for herbal remedies and soups as they are rich in vitamins and minerals and can be used to make a liquid feed for plants. The growing plant also makes nearby plants more resistant to pests by increasing their essential oil content.

A word about the dreaded slugs. Our cardoon was stripped bare overnight, so think about protecting if you're planning to plant some. Slugs apparently also love eating welsh onions so we're protecting ours with a copper ring. So far everything else has survived unscathed.

Permaculture encourages 'vertical gardening' to maximise the use of space by creating more edges so we're also growing some herbs in a hanging basket. They are all perennials that will enjoy trailing over the side: the Vietnamese Coriander has an attractive purple marked leaf , a pleasant citrus aroma and a hot spicy flavour - good for stir frys; the Eau de Cologne Mint is very sweet smelling and can be used in pot pourri or to flavour teas or fruit salads; the Thyme Snowdrift has a pretty white flower and attracts bees and butterflies.

Step 4 - adding a wildlife pond

We've added a tiny wildlife pond. As it was such a small area we went for a pre-formed pond and have surrounded with rocks on one side to prevent hedgehogs inadvertently walking into it and an incline of pebbles on the other so they can reach the water safely and amphibians can get in and out easily. We're hoping it will soon attract some friendly frogs to help us with slug control! We're trying out a solar powered pond pump and fountain which we're very pleased with so far, the only inconvenience is having to keep adjusting the solar panel to catch the sun. It is supposed to charge its internal batteries during the sunny periods so it can keep going when it's dull, which does seem to work for a short period when the sky clouds over. We've also put up a butterfly habitat and bug boxes for over wintering ladybirds, lacewings and solitary bees. (March 09)

May 09 update: Here's how it's looking a couple of months on.

August 09 update: Deep joy - our first water lily!

Step 5 - add raised beds

We've attempted to make our own walls by hammering in lengths of hazel rod and then weaving willow in between. The willow was difficult to source locally so we ordered from the helpful Musgrove Willows in Somerset. Very prompt service and they also run a range of courses on working with willow. We'll definitely have to enrol in one as we didn't really know what we were doing! However, although it's a little rough and ready, we're pleased with the result and it will do the job for now. There was enough willow and hazel left to make a twigwam for runner beans and climbers, a willow arbour for the boys, and a willow hedge (so we can cut lengths for repairs etc). It was also a very cheap solution as the total cost of the willow used was £28. We're very grateful to our fellow transitioner John Medway for supplying the hazel from his coppice. (April 09)

We've had a request for a closer look at the willow arbour, so here you are:

We've created it with the freedom of complete ignorance (i.e made it up as we went along) but hopefully now that it is sprouting it will soon fill out and our less than perfect weaving won't be noticeable.

Step 6 - planting annuals

A forest garden is designed around perennial planting but while it is getting established we want to include some annuals too. We've lined the path with red onion sets and have planted some runner beans and sweet peas around the twigwams. We're growing some potatoes in a potato bag and tower and we've planted out our vegetable seedlings, which have survived the slugs thanks to marvellous copper rings. We've planted courgettes, aubergines, butternut squash, sweetcorn, leeks, brocolli, cabbage and brussel sprouts in the raised bed and tomatoes, peppers and chillis in planters, plus marigolds for companion planting.

We've also just planted some strawbini plants, really unusual as they start out like spinach and then little raspberry-size fruits grow in each leaf joint. They are not some weird new cultivar as they were first grown by monks 400 years ago. We'll let you know how they taste!

July update: the strawbini fruit has ripened and we've had our first taste: strawberry-like texture but less juicy and a blander taste but fresh and pleasant - we think it tastes best mixed in with other fruit.

The zucchini flowers are beautiful but close in the sunshine so we had to get up early for this shot!

The sweetcorn is really shooting up now

We don't have a greenhouse so we're experimenting with growing our mini-cucumber and melon plants up the willow trellis - we'll have to see how well that works, but there's some nice cucumbers forming already.

Summer 09

We feel like we've come a long way in a short time as all the planting is getting well established and we're noticing far more butterflies, hoverflies and bees around which is very rewarding. We were excited to catch sight of this dragonfly which has taken a fancy to the top of the twigwam and keeps settling there for a rest.

Also this beautiful peacock butterfly which stopped to enjoy the buddleia.

We're still waiting for our first frog but the pond is attracting a lot of insects and the birds seem to enjoy having a bath in it. We've got to thank the birds for all sorts of surprise plants, in particular this beautiful sunflower and the poppy in the distance, neither of which we planted. (We had some seeds in a feeder which they must have obligingly dropped and scratched in!)

Watching everything grow is a daily source of fascination and we've really been enjoying showing round visitors - their enthusiasm is spurring us on! The question we're asked the most is how much time it has taken and the answer is suprisingly little. Relocating the path and turning over the lawn was the hardest work which we completed over one weekend, otherwise it's been built up gradually - typically a couple of hours a week. We try to encourage people who are worried about the work involved to start small perhaps with just a container with a mixture of vegetables and companion flowers and move on from that if they feel ready.

The other question is whether we would do anything differently. The answer is not too much, but we do think we over-did the green manure as the rye grass has become quite dominant and tends to harbour lots of big fat slugs. So if we could turn back time we'd just sow the clovers and alfalfa, which are really pretty and attract the bees. We also planted our vegetables too close together and the courgettes grew so prolifically that the lower growing plants were put in the shade - we'll space them out better next year. Also the butterflies feasted on our cabbage, sprout and brocolli leaves- we'll have arrange some protection in future. We probably tried to do far too much in one go for very inexperienced gardeners, but can't regret that as we've learnt so much in the process.

We should have kept a detailed record of the costs involved, as that interests people. It certainly hasn't been cheap - we bought a lot of compost and manure to enrich the soil and the cost of the trees has mounted up but as most of the planting is perennial it's a one-off investment that will pay back over time. And the pleasure we get from the garden is priceless!

Autumn 09

We cut down the cover crops before they set seed and left as a mulch, adding some comfrey leaves too. Unfortunately the slugs have been very busy and some of our herbs have completely disappeared but hopefully some will have distributed seeds first - it will be interesting to see what comes up next year! The ginko has been particularly beautiful as its leaves turned to gold before falling and we've had a better view of its elegant shape.

We left one of our brocolli plants to flower as we were interested to see what it would look like and think it's rather pretty - it's nice to have some colour whilst the garden heads towards winter. The nasturiums are still going strong - what a useful plant! Easy to grow, all parts are edible, good companion as it repels pests, excellent at ground covering to prevent weeds and makes great mulch.

Despite our worries about the shady position the grapes have developed really well and have a lovely sweet taste

and the brussel spouts are growing well despite the butterflies turning their leaves into lace doilies.

We've started making some plans for next year. We've decided to replace the raspberry and blackberry plants as they were already around 8 years old when we transplanted them so past their best. We've planted Tulameen, Polka and Autumn Bliss raspberry plants which between them will hopefully provide fruit from June to November. and Oregon Thornless and Loch Ness blackberry plants, both thornless varieties. We sheet mulched the 'meadow' area because we want to add a second vegetable bed next year and are growing some Forage Pea there as an overwintering green manure. We've planted a Majorie's Seedling Plum tree, it seems a good choice as it's late fruiting (September to October) and is self-fertile, disease resistant, heavy cropping and good for both cooking and as a dessert plum.

We've moved the tender container plants into the conservatory to overwinter. As you'll see, the Tamarillo is really starting to shoot up now - hopefully we'll see some fruit next year.

Winter 09

Thick blanket of snow for Christmas week! Thankfully the green manure didn't seem to mind being buried under snow for a couple of weeks and continued to sprout when the thaw came. Plants, such as fennel, which we cut back in Autumn are starting to grow strongly again.

The latest addition to the garden is our scarecrow, made from a kit we were given for Christmas by lovely Lynne (Thank you xxx Hope you like the end result!). All you need to make it is a couple of hessian sacks, an old broomstick handle, a couple of bamboo canes, a ball of twine, an empty 4 litre milk carton and some plastic padding, plus any accessories you fancy adding. Instructions for making are on Hen and Hammock website.

May 10 update: I think our scarecrow looks too friendly to scare anything but the glistening CDs do seem to help deter the birds from the seedlings.

Year 2 - Decided it was time to start a new page for the New Year!

Finally

We loved this account of a visit to Robert Hart's Forest Garden on the Plants for a Future website - very inspiring and an excellent summary of what forest gardening is all about (there are sometimes problems connecting to this link - but it is the right one!).

We were excited that our garden was featured in both November's Big Green Idea newsletter and the Landshare website!

Finally, we wanted to share this shot of one of the hazel rods in the twigwam bursting into leaf weeks after it had been cut down - amazing, resilient nature at work!

References

Forest Gardening with Robert Hart DVD

Establishing a Food Forest DVD

Plants for a Future by Ken Fern - a mine of information on edible and useful plants

Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway - a beautifully written guide to creating an ecological garden

The Edible Container Garden by Michael Guerra - inspiring guide on how to make the best use of a small space

Creating a Forest Garden by Martin Crawford - indispensable reference - wish it had been published when we were starting out!

Landed - forest gardening - fantastic website charting the development of a backyard forest garden. Brilliantly organised, packed with useful information and beautifully illustrated. Highly recommended!