Sustainably grown foods from the edge of Broadwater Forest

What is a Forest Garden?

A forest garden aims to emulate a young forest; healthy, vigorous and diverse. The main difference is that all the plants within a forest garden  have been planted for a specific purpose. Most will be planted for  food  such as fruit producing canopy trees such as apples, pears,  plums, cherries and  nuts.

Shrub layer plants will provide the understorey and may include fruiting plants such as  raspberries, gooseberries and  blueberries. Herb layer plants such as mints, balms and landcress produce a leaf crop. Climbing plants such as hops, kiwi fruits and grapes are grown through these layers of planting and provide a useful crop.

Many beneficial plants such as comfrey are planted underneath trees and tap  nutrients deep from the soil for neighbouring plants to use. Other  plants fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and transfer it to the soil. Many plants are planted to attract beneficial insects which help to pollinate or to naturally control pests. Using these design features the forest garden maintains its health and vitality without the need of external inputs of fertilizers and chemical pesticides and the forest garden is self sustaining and can be viewed as  an ecosystem in its own right. It is one the least energy intensive growing systems known and is an inspiration to visit.

Our forest garden now enters its third year and it's starting to fill out now and becoming more productive.