Forest Gardening or Agroforestry is a way of growing edible crops with nature doing most of the work. Modelled on young woodland, a wide range of crops is grown in vertical layers. Species are chosen for their beneficial effects on each other, creating a healthy system that maintains its own fertility, with little need for digging, weeding or pest control. Whether a small area in your back garden or a larger plot, here is advice on how to create a beautiful space with great environmental benefits from planning and design (using permaculture principles) to planting and maintenance. With a changing climate, we must grow food sustainably, without compromising soil health, food quality or biodiversity and Forest Gardening offers an exciting solution to the challenge.
Creating a Forest Garden also includes a detailed directory of over 500 trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals, root crops and climbers – almost all of them edible and many very unusual.
As well as more familiar plants you can grow your own chokeberries, goji berries, yams, heartnuts, bamboo shoots and buffalo currants.
Foreword by Rob Hopkins
Introduction
Part 1: How forest gardens work
1. Forest gardens
2. Forest garden features and products
3. The effects of climate change
4. Natives and exotics
5. Emulating forest conditions
6. Fertility in forest gardens
Part 2: Designing your forest garden
7. Ground preparation and planting
8. Growing your own plants
9. First design steps
10. Designing wind protection
11. Canopy species
12. Designing the canopy layer
13. Shrub species
14. Designing the shrub layer
15. Herbaceous perennial and ground-cover species
16. Designing the perennial/ground-cover layer
17. Annuals, biennials and climbers
18. Designing with annuals, biennials and climbers
Part 3: Extra design elements and maintenance
19. Clearings
20. Paths
21. Fungi in forest gardens
22. Harvesting and preserving
23. Maintenance
24. Ongoing tasks
Glossary
Appendix 1: Propagation tables
Appendix 2: Trees and shrubs for hedging and fencing
Appendix 3: Plants to attract beneficial insects and bees
Appendix 4: Edible crops by month of use
Resources: Useful organisations, suppliers and publications
"This book is a magnificiently produced and massive tome that is sure to become every forest gardener's horticultural toolkit and bible."
- Grow It
"Marting has produced a book that is not only visually beautiful but very practical, offering advice on planning, designing, planting and general maintenance."
- Positive News - Summer 2010
"If you are seriously considering the creation or maitenance of a forest garden then you would do well to have this book on your shelves. Even if you are only looking for novel ground cover suggestions in shaded areas or approaches to inter-planting trees, then this book offers bountiful food for thought."
- Green Prophet
"Creating a Forest Garden is a fascniating read for gardeners interested in how to plant communities that work."
- Gardens Illustrated
"Martin Crawford has produced a spectacularly useful guide to new horticultural and ecological terrain of great importance."
- Permaculture Activist
"This semina piece of work is not only visually entralling, it's incredibly easy to use and it contains a level of detail and explanation that makes it, I believe, a must read for anyone who is serious about building a truly sustainable forest."
- WWOOF Ireland
"Martin's book is visually stunning with beautiful photography and illustrations, accompanying very informative and well constructed text."
- Self Sufficient-ish Website - 11 June 2010
"This book is a must if you are interested in producing food from your garden, becoming more self-sufficient or just curious about plants and their uses."
- The Cottage Gardener - June 2011
"The ultimate book on the subject… extremely thorough and beautifully illustrated."
- Let's Talk (East Anglia)
Martin Crawford has spent over 20 years in organic agriculture and horticulture, and is director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a non-profit-making charity that researches into temperate agroforestry and all aspects of plant cropping and uses, with a focus on tree, shrub and perennial crops. The Trust produces several publications and a quarterly journal, and sells plants and seeds. See www.agroforestry.co.uk for more information.
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