Forest Gardening

226 Pages·2010·3.95 MB·English

by  Robert Hart

F
OREST
G
ARDENING

F
OREST
G
ARDENING
Rediscovering Nature & Community
in a Post-Industrial Age
R H
OBERT A de J ART
Revised & updated edition
Thisrevisededition
firstpublishedin1996by
GreenEarthBooks,
animprintofGreenBooks,
Foxhole,Dartington
Totnes,Devon,TQ96EB
Reprinted2001witharevisedForeword
Reprinted2009(withoutcolourplates)
Firstpublishedinebookformats2010
©1991-2010theestateofRobertA.deJ.Hart
Allrightsreserved
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
availableonrequest
PrintformatISBN9781900322027
PDFformatISBN9781907448362
ePubformatISBN9781907448379
C
ONTENTS
Foreword by Herbert Girardet ix
Prologue: The Mini-forest 1
1 Towards a Forest Economy 5
2 Unity and Diversity 11
3 Health & Wholeness 19
4 Personal Pilgrimage 31
5 The Wenlock Edge Project 45
6 Plant Life: Its Infinite Potentialities 61
7 Design & Maintenance 71
8 Water and No Water 81
9 Stored up Sunshine: Energy Yesterday and Tomorrow 91
10 The Thinking Hand:Skills of the Craftsman 101
11 Agroforestry Against World Want 115
12 Green is Real 131
13 Where Do We Go From Here? 143
Epilogue: A New Twist in the Evolutionary Spiral 155
Appendix 1 Recommended Species: Temperate 159
Appendix 2 Recommended Species:
Tropical and Sub-tropical 182
References 200
Suggested further reading 200
Recommended suppliers in the UK 202
Membership organisations 203
Index 205
A
CKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author and publishers would like to thank Amy Elvey and
Susan Trill for their line drawings that appear throughout the book;
the International Institute for Environment & Development for
their kind permission to use three illustrations of forest gardens in
Africa (from Paul Harrison’s The Greening of Africa).And finally,
special thanks are due to Frans Wesselman for his generosity in
donating the striking cover picture.
L I
IST OF LLUSTRATIONS
Fig. 1 Japanese bridge leading to alder carr 32
Fig. 2 Swallowtail butterfly 33
Fig. 3 The mattock, an ancient multi-purpose tool 37
Fig. 4 Plan of the author’s garden 44
Fig. 5 Fan-trained plum tree with blackcurrant bush 47
Fig. 6 Circle-dancing round the oak tree 50
Fig. 7 Cross-section of temperate forest garden,
showing seven ‘storeys’ 51
Fig. 8 An artist’s impression of the forest garden 52
Fig. 9 Rose-mound showing construction layers 53
Fig. 10 Bouché-Thomas hedge 54
Fig. 11 The Packhorse Trail 55
Fig. 12 Arch of Gaia 56
Fig. 13 ‘Family’ apple tree 65
Fig. 14 George Cave apple tree with scaffolding to support
branches borne down by abundant crop 67
Fig. 15 Oyster mushroom on logs 68
Fig. 16 Hedgehog as seen in sanctuary 72
Fig. 17 Treehouse 75
Fig. 18 Early Celtic Christian settlement 81
Fig. 19 Water-wheel for irrigating bog-garden 85
Fig. 20 Rutland Windcharger 97
Fig. 21 Basket-making 103
Fig. 22 Chagga forest garden 119
Fig. 23 Profile of tropical rainforest showing storeys 121
Fig. 24 Mangrove tree 122
Fig. 25 Alley-cropping 123
vii
To ELENA
who loves the Forest Garden
F
OREWORD
Ten years ago the first edition of Forest Gardeningcame out, and it has
attracted a large readership. That is because it is a book of hope; but
even more than that, it is a book of practical instructions for a sustainable
future of our own making. Sadly Robert Hart died in 2000, and can no
longer enrich our lives with new inspiration. Forest Gardening remains
perhaps his greatest and most enduring legacy and I am delighted that
Green Books is continuing to keep the book in print.
Robert wanted one thing more than anything else: he wanted us to grow
forests – food forests. We can plant them all around us – in our commu-
nities, on urban wasteland and in our own backyards. By showing us how,
he has touched a deep need in many of us, in an age in which the only cer-
tainty is change, and thus insecurity. Trees don’t race down motorways:
they stand still. They are always there in the same place, and the only
changes they undergo are those of the seasons, steadily, year after year.
Robert Hart was a rare person. A man utterly convinced of a cause, an
imaginative experimenter eloquent in expressing his message and with a
stamina second to none. For decades he waged a lonely battle for life,
patiently writing books and articles and quietly planting trees on his small
farm in Shropshire. Robert created a forest garden which had a profound
influence on the way we cultivate our patches of land. It was a garden
dedicated to human needs for fruit, nuts, vegetables and plant medicines.
But it was at the same time a celebration of the myriad interactions of life;
for it was based on profound observations, both intuitive and scientific,
of how different life forms interact in order to stimulate and support one
another. His forest garden was, at the same time, a revolutionary new
creation and a rediscovery of ancient plant knowledge.
ix