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Member
Posts: 12
| Martin Crawford, who has been developing Forest Gardening techniques at his AgroForestry base at Dartington in Devon (see http://www.agroforestry.co.uk), has now published his new handbook about forest gardening in temperate climates.
For those who don't know, forest gardening is a system of 'farming' a managed immature woodland to produce as many useful food crops as possible, as well as materials for other uses. It's a very labour-saving method, as well as being energy efficient - both oil-based and human. You may have seen him and his forest garden on Rebecca Hosking's 'Farm for a Future' programme.
The book is available form Amazon - see http://tinyurl.com/294aj9b
Here's a bit of the introductory blurb . . .
"Creating a Forest Garden - Working with nature to grow edible crops, by Martin Crawford
What is a Forest Garden?
A forest garden is a garden modelled on the structure of young natural woodland, utilising plants of direct and indirect benefit to people – often edible plants. It may contain large trees, small trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals, root crops and climbers, all planted in such a way as to maximise positive interactions and minimise negative interactions, with fertility maintained largely or wholly by the plants themselves.
The plants in a forest garden are mainly perennial, which gives the system its long-term nature. Many of the plants used are multi-purpose; they may have a main function or crop but will very often also have a number of other uses. Plants are also mixed to a large degree, so there are few large blocks or areas of a single species, and each species is grown close to many others in ways that are mutually beneficial.
The term ‘forest garden’ may imply something large and extensive, which is not necessarily the case – forest gardens can be cultivated on any scale, from a small back garden to a field, or several fields.
Once a forest garden is established, you might find that, because maintenance is so minimal, harvesting takes most of the time you spend in the garden. How much time you spend harvesting of course depends on your garden, and every one is different. Many of the techniques and tips in this section are not unique to forest gardens, though of course some are.
Working with the land instead of against it
In a moist temperate climate, the climax vegetation is woodland or forest - i.e. if you do nothing to a piece of land, it will eventually become a forest; the forces of nature are actively moving the land towards woodland. The further your agricultural or horticultural system is from woodland, the more energy it takes to maintain and the more disturbed and distant the system is from a long-term sustainable biological state. So arable fields or annually cultivated ground take the most energy; pasture less; orchard systems still less. Natural woodland takes no human energy to maintain - it looks after itself. Forest gardens lie between orchard systems and natural woodland, and form some of the lowest-energy-input systems for producing useful products.
Low maintenance and high efficiency
A forest garden will contain a mixture of trees, shrubs, perennial and annual plants. It can certainly also contain annual vegetables, but mostly the ground tends to be covered with ground-covering herbaceous perennial plants of direct or indirect uses. Trees and shrubs need little maintenance apart from occasional pruning.
Colin |
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Regular
Posts: 63
| Hi Colin
Do you have a copy of the handbook that I can have a look at? We're developing a forest garden at Culbokie on previous agricultural ground - as you know! We've planted quite a lot of the larger trees and also some of the smaller fruit bushes and we're wondering quite how to go about the next bit. We think we're going to need to put down a thick mulch over most of the ground to supress the grasses and plant into that. But in my experience you need loads of mulch to keep the weeds down - so that sounds like lots of hard work. It would be interesting to know how others have gone about it.
Penny |
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Member
Posts: 12
| Hi Penny. Certainly you can have a look at it. Drop by in Cromarty any time. Sorry I can't bring it over but our car is no more - failed its MOT. It's not so much a handbook as a tome, though 
I also have Patrick Whitefield's earlier 'How to Make Forest Garden' book if that's of interest. It's a much easier book to carry round with you. It doesn't go into as much depth as Martin Crawford's book, but covers the basics pretty well - if in a less colourful and coffee-table style. I also have Ken Fern's 'Plants for a Future' which is less about Forest Gardening, and more about unusual but potentially very useful/productive plants that can be grown in most gardens.
As to mulching, both Martin Crawford and Patrick Whitefield recommend sheet mulching using various materials for this, including cardboard and prunings from trees and bushes. Martin's book is more useful in this direction, I'd say, and is also encouraging in that it emphasises that you can't do it all in a short time. A gradual change over several years is needed both for a practical schedule and for a good result.
Colin |
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Extreme Veteran
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| We've got quite a large mulcher from Frank Nichol's (Dingwall) and it does the job really well in terms of reducing woody material not suitable for composting and too small for logs to a really good mulch. They do hire them out. It does use petrol, but produces a lot less CO2 than a bonfire would and really helps with the weed situation.
You need to be careful about handling dry mulch, however, as it can get infected with aspergillus which is a really nasty fungus particularly if someone has an existing chest problem and can be fatal. Same goes for compost. Best to mulch and spread twiggy stuff straight away but if you need to move it when its dry damp down first to stop spores flying around and possibly wear a mask. |
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Member
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| Thanks Anne. I wasn't aware of this hazard. Fortunately we've always put the mulch onto our beds straight from our mulching machine. We bought a 'silent' electric Bosch mulcher some 5 years ago. By silent they meant less than 70db I think. Still it's a good deal quieter than the usual ones, especially petrol ones, and chunks twigs and waste into wee pieces, and handles branches up to about 1 1/2". A really good investment.
Colin |
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Regular
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| I've been a bit cautious about using wood mulch on veges or in Forest Garden. I thought there was some problem of incorporating too much woody material in the soil. Doesn't it strip the soil of nitrogen? If this wasn't a problem I'd have loads more mulch I could use. Do you have any thoughts or knowlege on this?
Penny
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Member
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| Hi Penny. I've been reading up on this for a couple of years now, though I'm not an expert. There does seem to be a consensus that digging in mulch like this into the top level of the soil can leach nitrogen and rob plants of it. However, it appears that if you lay the mulch on the surface it doesn't have this effect.
Ruth Stout (USA) was a great pioneer of what we call sheet mulching in the UK, and always argued that surface mulching didn't leach nitrogen. She debated this with various US-based soil research bodies, and the science seems to back this up. Some gardening advisers still seem to cling to the older view, though. We do a lot of thick surface mulching in our garden, and our plants look very nitrogen-happy . We also chip woody cuttings and branches and mulch with that, and we'd not had any problems. With us, I believe that the use of mulch in this way helps to sustain our flatworm-threatened earthworm population.
Incidentally, Ruth's books are well worth a read. She used a regimen of very thick mulch (up to 10") on her veg garden at all times, simply dumping any new 'waste' material onto the surface and then planting through this. She did this from the late 1950s until she died at the age of about 92 in 1990. One of her aims was to develop a veg growing system which would maximise yield in a small area (she started with a very large area and 'conventional' veg gardening, then reduce this drastically when she started using mulching), and minimise work so she could keep gardening as she got older and frailer. Worked for her.
I've a couple of her books you can borrow if interested.
Colin |
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Regular
Posts: 63
| Ruth Stout's book is excellent. Thanks for the loan. We think we'll try her method in the forest garden and the more conventional method - at least to begin with - in the veg patch.
Incidentally, we were on Skye at the weekend and we happened upon a permaculture based Forest Garden at Armadale - just by the pier. Its well worth a visit. There are a wide range of herbs and medicinal plants near the entrance area and then there are wonderful paths and structures in the natural forest. |
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| Hi- newbie to this forum.
Re chipped mulches- if I am not using my freshly chipped material immediately, I pile it and add grass cuttings and other green matter to help even up the nitrogen/Carbon balance.( and a bit of human waste!) If sheet mulching, lay your cardboard and add a sprinkling of blood, fish and bone before adding mulch .Even better if youve got compost. If adding direcly to beds then I always sprinkle some fertiliser first ( just in case there is a nitrogen depletion- although I'm not aware of any over the years.)
Have you tried cardboard and cover it with compost. The worms love corrugated cardboard and the whole lot disappears in no time. No weeds and well fed soil. |
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Regular
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| This is all very well but you need a good supply of cardboard. We use what comes our way as a mulch but we never have enough. And where do you get blood, fish and bone from? |
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| Hi Penny- How much cardboard you need depends on the area you want to mulch. I quite often scrounge extra boxes from supermarkets, Spar etc who have to pay to get rid of them and my neighbours often dump theirs if I ask and there is always smaller packaging- its all cardboard , including egg boxes- if you prefer you can always compost all this cardboard first- it will end up on the garden eventually.
Blood, fish and bone is available at any garden centre - what, have you never used it? It's the most accessible and economic organic fertiliser I have ever found. By the way, I would also highly recommend seaweed meal, from any garden centre, as a soil conditioner and if , like me, you want to grow asparagus then it is essential ( unless you can get fresh, refuse free, seaweed).
I have started a small deep mulched bed- it has a thin soil improver layer of rock dust ( from garden centre) , then cardboard, BFB fertiliser, not very well decomposed shredded wood, some shredded bark, a layer of compost and built up to 10 inches thick.It's shrunk to 6 inches now after two months. I have planted pot raised cougettes into the top of this mulch and they are doing brilliantly- far better than the old conventional beds in a polytunnel (RIP). If I can generate enough organic matter, I will extend this to further beds. Virtually no weeding this month - whereas the soil veg beds are generating their usual vast crop of weeds. |
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Veteran
Posts: 275
| This whole deep mulch/ no dig business is very interesting - and also quite confusing, everyone seems to have an opinion. It would be good to see and hear more about your experience, and maybe we could have a Grow North visit? Maybe best discussed off the forum, PM me if you want. |
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Martin Crawford's Forest Garden 'Bible' published
