A Food Forest in Your Garden: Plan It, Grow It, Cook It

Description

Price: $12.99
(as of Oct 01, 2023 03:57:20 UTC – Details)

Grow your own seasonal food in a low maintenance, nature-friendly garden that feels like a woodland glade. Scottish plant expert Alan Carter shows you how to plan and plant a temperate forest garden for any sized plot―from a small terrace garden to an allotment or smallholding.

Learn how to successfully layer root crops, fruit, perennial vegetables and edible shrubs below tree crops, cultivating an edible garden that doesn’t look like a traditional vegetable plot. A forest garden is wildlife friendly, provides nutrient-dense and often unusual food through every season, and requires minimal work to maintain.

The first part of this in-depth, practical guide explains how a forest garden works, how to map your climate and design your own plot, and how to manage it with mulching, weeding and pruning. What’s not to like about Alan’s motto of “the more you pick, the more you get,” and intriguing concepts such as the Panda Principle? 

The second half of the book is a detailed directory of more than 170 plants and fungi suitable for a wide range of temperate climates, complete with growing, harvesting and cooking tips based on over a decade of Alan’s own experience. Learn how to incorporate traditional fruit and vegetable crops, such as strawberries and beans, into your forest garden, and how to weave in more unusual crops, such as shiitake mushrooms and ferns.

Techniques from agro-ecology bring regenerative farming into the backyard, helping you to work towards greater self-sufficiency. Useful tips on seed saving and propagation help keep plant costs low, and there is practical advice on soil health, compost―essential for all no dig, organic gardeners―and pests and disease. A Food Forest in Your Garden will help you create your own productive forest gardens even in cooler climates. 

From the Publisher

Learn how to design, plan and plant your own temperate forest garden in whatever space you have – whether it’s a patio, back garden, allotment (seen here) or a smallholding.

“Neatly contained in Alan’s timely book is the knowledge to achieve greater productivity from your plot for many aspiring gardeners. You will view ‘untidy’ and ‘weedy’ gardens very differently after studying it, and see the role of tree fruit in a more important light. I thoroughly recommend it!”

Andrew Lear, Appletreeman Nursery

“30 years of research, experimentation and experience…and eating from his forest garden of 200 square metres in Aberdeenshire are laid out here by Alan. From principles to design, through management to eating, with a directory of edible plants and fungi, all well referenced, this book is a goldmine.”

John Mclennan, Founder of ‘A Greener Melrose’

“Events over the last year have shown us that the old ‘Business as Usual’ food production and supply model needs to change. Any ‘New Normal’ will mean re-localising on every scale, including learning to grow more produce in our own gardens, allotments or whatever spaces we can find, however small. The vision of highly abundant and ecologically regenerative edible landscapes presented in this timely and informative volume both reminds and inspires us that we can all play our part in Growing Back Better.”

Graham Burnett, permaculture teacher and author

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Permanent Publications (August 31, 2023)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1856232999
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1856232999
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.25 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 9.7 x 1.25 x 7.4 inches