How does your garden grow? Exploring permaculture and forest gardening in Devon

By Zion Lights, on Sunday, July 4, 2010

Devon-based group POGOE – Permaculturists & Organic Growers of Exeter – went on its first group outing last week. Twenty of us trooped down to Dartington, Devon for a guided tour of Martin Crawford’s forest garden. Martin is director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a charity that conducts research into agroforestry methods using permaculture principles. Agroforestry is about combining new and old methods, ie agricultural and forestry technologies, to create diverse, productive, healthy and sustainable land-use systems.

It is now a recognised truth that modern agricultural methods of growing food are unsustainable and damaging to the environment (eg the global issue of bee decline, reliance on oil, mass use of pesticides, insecticides, and other chemicals). Perhaps this is why the study of permaculture and forest growing has increased so rapidly over the last few decades. I put it down to this and the varying benefits of permaculture gardening, which I will outline here.

Forest gardening is about healing. Robert Hart began his forest garden project on a plot the size of one-eighth of an acre (500 m²) in Shropshire in the 1960s. He wanted to create a healthy and therapeutic environment for his brother, who was born with severe learning disabilities.

Robert became interested in growing for medicinal purposes, adopting Hippocrates statement that one should ‘make food your medicine and medicine your food’. He adopted a vegan, 90 per cent raw food diet and he developed the concept of a forest garden through observing the interactions and relationships between plants in natural systems, particularly in woodland.

Through forest gardening, we are also healing our interaction and relationship with the Earth. As soon as we entered Martin Crawford’s garden in Dartington, I was struck by a sense of peace and harmony that I rarely come across in society. There were more bees buzzing to and from flowers than I have ever seen in a single place before – and I have visited many green grower projects over the years – and the bees seemed unaggressive, busy, and (dare I say it) calm.

The sheer variety of plants at their service also immediately grabbed my attention – there were herbs growing among trees, countless shrubs I didn’t immediately spot, and a beautiful variety of flowers dotted seemingly randomly around the garden. I thought immediately of the gardener’s programmes I have seen on television where they talk about lawn spaces and ordered flower growing, and my mind switched to a video of Bill Mollison (co-founder of permaculture) flying over farms in the UK to demonstrate how bizarre such methods of growing are. Bill points out that we box our farms in with hedges in order to separate different types of growth in a way that would never naturally occur in nature – in reality all plants feed off each other and contribute to each other’s growth.

So what is forest gardening? A key feature of forest gardening is companion growing, which is not a new or recent concept. Methods of companion growing have been around for thousands of years. The most commonly cited example tends to be that of the ‘The Three Sisters’, which was pioneered by some Native American groups in North America. Squash, maize, and climbing beans are planted together, and they work together: the beans grow up the stalks of corn, and add nitrogen to the soil that the other plants need in order to grow, while the squash spreads along the ground, which helps prevent weeds from growing and acts as a mulch for the other plants. There are many different examples of companion growing, and some forest garden research is to do with discovering the benefits of growing different plants together through observation and trial.

Forest gardening is about creativity. As someone who is deeply concerned with the environmental impact of human activity on the Earth, I believe that combating further ecological disaster requires a creative green response, whether it involves educating people about the impact of oil on the planet through art, hanging a colourful banner from the top of a nuclear power station, or writing poetry about the latest acts of the oil giants..

Permaculture is a key feature of this creative green solution-finding. The beauty of permaculture is that it is all about local methods of growing, and acting locally, as what works in one garden may not work in another – even if those two gardens are next to each other.

Types of soil vary, as does the amount of nitrogen in the soil (which can depend on whether anything has been grown in the soil before) and the amount of sunlight the soil receives. What you can grow in your garden depends on whether it is acid or alkaline, whether it is rich and mulch-like due to an overhanging tree shedding leaves into it, or whether it is covered in weeds due to local cats digging up the soil and therefore helping the weed seeds buried in the soil to germinate. The list of variables is endless, which is why the approach to one’s garden must be a unique approach.

However, that is not to say that what works for Martin in Dartington cannot work for you – by following his research and findings, you can certainly recreate some of what he has cultivated over the last decade.

A basic principle of forest gardening is that of ‘copying’ the way a forest naturally comes about in nature, and moulding the successful system to provide for human needs. Forests are models of sustainability: they do not need watering or pruning to help cultivate them; they look after themselves. Robert realised that amidst the layers of foliage in a forest one could grow plants to feed or oneself, while substituting other plants for herbs or plants with medicinal qualities.

In his first garden design, he divided the forest garden into layers and developed an apple and pear orchard of seven dimensions based on what might occur in a natural forest. These were:

1. A ‘canopy’ layer of mature fruit trees.
2. A ‘low-tree’ layer of smaller nut and fruit trees on dwarfing root stocks.
3. A ‘shrub layer’ of fruit bushes.
4. A ‘herbaceous layer’ of perennial vegetables and herbs.
5. A ‘ground cover’ layer of edible plants.
6. A ‘rhizosphere’ or ‘underground’ dimension of plants grown for their roots and tubers.
7. A vertical ‘layer’ of vines and climbers.

Following in Robert’s footsteps, Martin Crawford developed methods of forest gardening in the British climate through his two-acre site in Dartington. Although I have learned a lot about forest gardening methods over the years, I was still surprised to find that Martin’s prolifically green garden does not require watering: the plants he has selected over the years work together to provide the moisture they need, with trees acting as ‘water pumps’ and drawing moisture into the soil. After three weeks of constant sunshine, high temperatures and very little rain, my own little garden has suffered from rain water-rationing, as even my large waterbutt has almost run dry.

Also following in Robert’s footsteps, Ken Fern founded Plants for a Future, which focuses on the study of temperate forest gardening. Plants for a Future features an online plant database accessible to anyone – and this is the beauty of forest gardening. Through observation and trial we learn about how nature works, and we share that knowledge in order to maximise crop growth without using destructive methods. It is not about making money, which is why I believe that it is at the root of preventing the further ecological disaster on our planet.

Why import so much food that we are perfectly able to grow in British soil? Forest gardening is about sustainability. In Britain gardening is generally presented as a middle-class pursuit about making one’s garden look nice rather than celebrating the fruits of nature that are available to us all through a little attention to sowing and growing.

And so, it has become largely about fighting with nature to achieve the desired flower show or ‘perfect’ size, shape and shade of Tesco’s carrot. Not that there’s anything wrong with a flower show of course – the bees would be the first to agree about that – but using chemicals, fertilisers and pesticides to achieve such aims is the bizarre part of the current equation that I’m referring to – ie ‘working against nature’ in order to have a beautiful green space.

Bee decline due to increased chemical use in farming, as well as unexplored methods of chemical-combination, is one of most poignant negative impacts of such behaviour. “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe then man would only have four years of life left,” is a quote generally attributed to Einstein, though whether or not he actually said it does not make the words any less true.

Just as permaculture reminds us to observe how nature works before adding our own impact, forest gardening is about watching nature’s tried-and-tested methods and applying the best practices to our own gardens. It’s a disconnection with nature that has occurred when a child looks at a carrot and says he won’t eat it ‘because it’s a funny shape’ (I have come across this attitude many times). Meanwhile the sweets he gulps down in the next breath are full of refined white sugars, glucose syrup, and goodness-knows how many colours and additives, which have all been produced in factories by unknown persons in unknown circumstances the world over.

Forest gardening is not just about reconnecting with nature and what is ‘natural’ or good for our bodies and minds; forest gardening is, at heart, about community: as through growing together we can help to teach each other what is nourishing for our bodies and what is simply unnecessary, unhealthy junk food.

Community farms and gardens such as the Montview Neighborhood Farm use ‘human power’ to bring people together and share the fruits of their labour. There are countless other examples of how gardening together creates healthy communities through shared goals and shared growing. Learning to grow food together can be an immensely personal and connecting thing; just take a look at Incredible Edible Todmorden, a project somewhat closer to home; the residents of Todmorden (inspired by a few guerrilla gardeners to begin with) grow herb gardens together in local green spaces, plant vegetables and trees in public spaces, encourage people to use or donate their green spaces to growing, run orchard-planting workshops, work with schools to involve children with food growing, ensure that surplus local food does not go to waste – and more.

Forest gardening can provide a more structure approach to community growing, as it is a rooted practice open to anyone willing to try it which can also teach us to rebuild the local communities we have lost through globalisation. I often hear people speak of a return to life before technology, however permaculture recognises that technology is not at the root of our fractured communities: attitudes to what we eat, and where it comes from are.

The global problem of peak oil and inefficient large-scale practices can sometimes seem insurmountable, however the solutions available to us do not require rocket-science thinking. Forest gardening can help us to achieve our goals of reconnecting with our local environment and making a positive impact on the planet.

POGOE wants to help people to engage with their local environment and community by reclaiming overgrown local green spaces and using them to grow food, and we would also like to create Exeter’s first forest garden. It would be a tourist attraction for growers across the South West, and an inspiring hub where people would gather to problem-solve (or, as I prefer to say, solution-create). I’m still buzzing from the visit to Martin Crawford’s green creative hub of inspirational growing, and I highly recommend that you go to a guided tour there.

If you’d like to get involved with any of POGOE’s projects (or would like people-power for one of your own), get in touch through our online blog. Let’s see what we can create?

• The folk at Book-Cycle have organised a permaculture course led by Sarah Pugh over the weekend of August 14. To reserve a place, visit into Book-Cycle on 7 West Street, Exeter, to pay the course fee.