Design A Totally Edible Garden With Forest Gardening

We managed to raise money from local government funds and community projects. All of the work was done by volunteers and the planning and sourcing of the trees and shrubs was done by a small team from our community.

The pergola you can see will have grapes growing and the land in the background is given over to our community orchard. The orchard has lesser known traditional varieties of apples, pears, plums, cherries etc, and residents have sponsored trees with names of loved ones.

Our community forest garden was planned as part of a community orchard and forest garden project. It is a huge circle of land divided into quadrants for different types of fruiting and nutting trees with fruit canes and other edible ground cover such as herbs. Paths run around the perimeter and through the garden.

We have enclosed the garden with a hazelnut hedge and the young garden is protected by chicken wire to resist encroachment by rabbits.

So this is the start. I wonder what it will look like in Spring!

Careful planning and teamwork brought our project to life.

Robert Hart was inspired by the forest gardens of Kerala. Almost a quarter of India's 10,000 plant species are found in Kerla. There are 900 species of medicinal plants. Designated one of the "ten paradises of the world" and "50 places of a lifetime" by the National Geographic Traveler magazine, Kerala is famous for its ecotourism initiatives.

Hart wrote "The Keralese forest gardens are very intensively planted, on several levels, like the natural forest, so that their cultivation, the processing of their products, and looking after livestock provide full-time healthy occupations for most members of the families involved, which average six to eight people."

The Veganic Agriculture Network say "Forest gardening takes an ecosystem approach to growing food, by integrating fruit and nut trees with shrubs, herbs, roots, vegetables, fungi, and supporting fertility plants."