The Backyard Forest
What you'll learn
- Forest gardening
- Sustainable garden design
- Growing perennial vegetables
- Wildlife gardening
- Creating a permaculture food forest
Requirements
- An interest in plants, gardening and wildlife
Description
No matter the size of your garden, you can create a lush food forest using forest garden techniques. Step-by-step, you’ll learn how to work with nature to grow edible crops, all the while creating a haven for wildlife.
The course is divided into 3 stages
Watching, thinking and planning — where you observe, measure and document your garden to start the planning process, then on to create the map to enable the design process.
Structural planting — establish the windbreaks & protective structures, start a productive perennial veg bed and plant the canopy tree layer.
Filling in the structure — prepare the ground so that you can plant the shrubs and the ground cover
A forest garden emulates the edge of woodland, working with nature to reduce the amount of watering and maintenance, with a permanent living ground cover and a self-sustaining ecosystem of nutrients & pest control. Mostly perennial plants are used, in all three dimensions, as they are more resilient, lower maintenance and more nutritious.
NB course slideshow & notes available on my Nature Works website.
Also, I now recommend not using woven plastic sheet mulch, in 8. Ground Preparation, as we need to reduce our reliance on plastic.
The full course outline is:
Introducing
Plan
Design
Protect
Perennial Veg
Canopy layer
Ground Preparation
Shrubs & Ground Cover
Who this course is for:
- People who want to grow their own food and who are interested in sustainable gardening and wildlife.
Instructor
Jake designs wildlife food forest gardens, remotely and local to Wales, UK.
He has a keen interest in the intersection of wildlife, edible and ornamental gardening and believes that forest gardens can be useful and beautiful for everyone. Fundamental to every garden is the creation of diverse habitat and plant species for wildlife, so his motto is “use natives where possible” in a forest garden. He livestreams regularly on YouTube.