Inaugural ice-breaking event ends unbroken
— Remind me again why I chose a career out standing in my field?
Day 1 Wales to Estonia
— Day 1 of the 3 day journey from West Wales to the Ecological Restoration conference in Estonia. Somebody nationalise these trains.
Pre-Estonia trip check
— Kicking the tyres on my blog before setting off for Estonia
Wood Meadow Café
— Imagine a densely wood meadow combined with a cup of delicious beverage and your favourite cake, that is the idea behind the Wood Meadow Café!
Ty Rhos Trees nursery
— A quick trip to a lovely local nursery for just a couple of hedging plants soon expanded
New job, new software
— I’ve started a new part-time job as Biodiversity Assistant, and found some rather cool software in the process
Bioproductive Gardens
— Tim Johnson of the Native Plant Trust on Margaret Roach’s A Way To Garden podcast
How to transform school meals? Beans is how!
— Very inspirational blog post about improving UK school meals. It is a lot of work but worth it
Six Inches of Soil
— New film about soil. Dig it.
Where realms collude
— A garden is where a multitude of ideas, thoughts, lives, intentions, accidents and worlds all conjoin in living surprise
Mapping
— I bought a cheap drone for making garden plans, now I need to figure out how to create an orthomosaic map!
Ivy wall
— Ivy is a fantastic wildlife plant but do watch out where it’s growing
Hoverfly lagoon & other wildlife fancies
— Me and a client came up with a brilliant idea for ceramic hoverfly lagoons
The political vs the ideological garden
— What does politics and ideology have to do with gardens?
Biodiversity Assembly
— Climate Assemblies are a thing, isn’t it time for a companion Biodversity Assembly? ?
Dr Katy Peat on The State of Nature report
— I went to a brilliant Ceredigion Nature Partnership meeting the other day, this is a great summary by Dr Katy Peat
Young People’s Assemblies
— Reference links for Community Assemblies for young people, via Katie Reid
Mike’s Blackberry Fountain™
— A friend’s idea about training a Blackberry
It looks like the same work from the outside
— Busy building a website for the Hope Garden and thinking that although it looks like the same work as for any other ‘business’, the end goal is different
Drone
— The first test flight of the new drone! It didn’t crash.
Workshop on Hearing Unheard Voices plus Biodiversity Collage
— I went to a workshop yesterday and a collage the day before, about deliberative democracy with a big dose of biodiversity
Chestnut miso
— How feasible is Chestnut miso? Fermented European food.
Learning chunks
— How about small chunks of iterative learning material for creating a wildlife forest garden?
What Wild Things Where?
— I had a brilliant email reply from Linda at Buzz Club answering some of my habitat questions
On cow paths & desire lines
— Years ago, I was a web designer, and where people wanted to go was a key idea in web design. The same applies to garden design.
Syra mulching
— Bark added to muddy seating area, chicken wire tree guards
Pavement
— How much does a pavement (sidewalk) cost? About £360 per metre.
Trust The People - Engaging Communities
— Workshop 2 in the Community Assembly training was engaging communities
Factory plastic bench vs artisan wood
— What we ask for makes a differnce
Tools of the Trade
— These are my most favourite tools, really here for my own reference!
Stone Birdbath
— A heavy birdbath that can be easily cleaned is great for birds & can be made from natural materials
Overburden
— Overburden is the gravelly, claggy stuff dug up around the main aggregate in a quarry. It can be used as a binding foundation for paths.
Allotment sizes
— A full allotment is 250m²
Energy bump
— Grass is a high maintenance & high energy to maintain, and requires a bump of energy to convert it into any type of garden
I AM OP
— And it’s not just me, pretty much every self-employed person, gardener & designer in the land is too!
Mastodon threads for gardening portfolio
— I am putting portoflio photos on Mastodon using threads & notification feature
Radical Horticulture - The Book
— I want to write a book, and Radical Horticulture might be that book
Crux question
— What is the alternative to the flawed existing economic model?
Nuttery
— Nut trees are an integral part of any community garden but there are not many nutteries in the UK
Radical Horticulture Manifesto
— Some thoughts and musings on a (not really so)
Robinia tree stakes
— My orchardist friend Martin Hayes is using Robinia tree stakes, apparently lasting 25 years
Nature Rising From the Rubble
— Sally Bower’s 2021 RHS Bursary report on growing in rubble substrate
Low fertility recycled substrates
— Many recycled aggregates are low fertility and sterile, meaning they’re an ideal growing substrate for many native plants and wild flowers
Celtic Wild Flowers
— A quick visit to the best nursery in the whole of Wales!!
The crux of the matter
— Martin Crawford’s intro to the second Forest Garden Symposium asks a central question
Yasmeen Lari exhibition
— Zero-carbon architect and building exhibition
Woke Gardening
— More reactionary horticulture in the media
Borrow pit
— A hole in the ground where you borrow soil
Radical Horticulture
— Gardens are irrevocably connected to society, and we need a radical shake-up of both
Community Assembly workshop
— Online workshop today about Community Assemblies, which are at the heart of a garden design I’m working on
Reactionary horticulture & the bastions of colonialism
— It was only a matter of time before the culture wars were made explicit in gardening
Old gardens at St Fagans
— There is a wealth of design and plant knowledge to be drawn from historic gardens
Boundary plants
— If you have grass paths or a lawn, then boundary plants can help stop grass creep into the border
Native native gardens
— How about a native garden with fungi, ferns, grasses & forbs?
If in doubt, make a dead hedge
— The world is full of doubt. My forest garden is full of dead hedges.
Silvopasture
— Photo of silvopasture in northern Spain
Classes
— New classes section in place and a renamed store
Website
— After a blip, regular blogging service has now been resumed
The Flower Meadow
— Locally grown, sustabinable cut and wild flowers grown on a smallholding in West Wales. What is not to love? 💚
Syra Woodland Garden
— A one acre-ish south-west facing woodland garden
Rejection
— I had an email back from a prospective client, and this is what it said
The forest garden style
— What does a forest garden even look like?
Ornamental natives
— Benjamin Vogt is a big US proponent of ornamental native prairie gardens. But I am thinking, what if forest gardens?
Willow dome and Wildlife Trust
— Pruning the overgrown willow dome at the primary school, and a Wildlife Trust workshop
The hedgehogs & the bees
— Fitting a hedgehog highway and a tile roof for the bee logs
Apple pots
— I took the apple trees to the primary school and talked to the pupils about grafting, clones and propagation
A real intersectional garden
— A forest garden is an intersectional garden, not in a limited sense of intersecting, but because it’s a response truly intersectional forces
Future Forest Gardens
— The Future Generations Act in Wales is a groundbreaking piece of legislation, may we should all have gardens for future generations?
Dream-like cinema
— Cinema, like dreams, can help work through our lives
UK Wildlife Safari
— How about a safari park dedicated to UK wildlife?
Vision Pt. 1
— “So, what does this Nature & Climate Emergency garden actually look like?”
My Wildlife Allotment
— Nadine Mitschunas has created the most amazing wildlife allotments, and writes a blog for the Hardy Plant Society
Where does the water go?
— In a Climate Emergency, figure out how to hold on to your precious water.
Polytunnel
— Spent the day clearing up the polytunnel, there’s a few perennial veg in there and a lot of material for the compost bin
English
— English colonialism on full titular display
Thatched
— A new wildlife & edible garden project for an idyllic timber framed Cotswold house
YouTube
— How useful are video gardening diaries?
Forager
— What is the difference between foraging and cultivating?
RSS
— I’ve managed to create my RSS feed, so know my blog posts will automatically appear on Facebook & Mastodon. Which is nice.
Forest Garden Primer
— A trip to see a client emphasised the need for a whistlestop primer on wildlife and forest gardening
Biodiverse
— Just a couple of quick links, UK & global ecology references
Hiraeth
— A new project, 5½ acre hilltop field forest garden
Tiktok John
— Wildlife gardener John Little is on TikTok, hurrah!
Species
— National Biodiversity Network Atlas is amazeballs
1.5°C within 10-15 years
— This is remarkably bad news that hasn’t really hit the headlines
Blueberry
— Northern Highbush Blueberry species for a woodland bed in a local garden
Buffer
— Back to buffering my social media messages!
Benjamin Vogt & Wildlife Trees
— No, not a prairie woodland mash up but two separate online events in one evening
It’s Behind You!
— Forging local connections
CAD for Gardeners
— The end of the beginning as I publish my new online class
Participatory Democracy
— Democracy is good for the environment
Long time making CAD class
— Making wildlife forest garden classes takes a long time!
Wildlife Gardening Forum evening
— An Evening for Wildlife Gardeners online, with Dave Goulson, Thurs 12th Jan 2023 7.30-9.00PM
CAD video, done
— Finally finished editing the CAD for Gardeners video
KDEnlive
— Video editing is hard graft
This is why I’m a climate activist
— There will be no bumblebees in the UK by the end of the century if we hit 3.5°C
Robin Harford’s Eatweeds podcast
— His podcast is rather good
It’s a wrap
— I have finished filming the CAD for Gardeners online class!
Victory
—
Woodland bed & steps
— Edibles & natives in the woodland beds at Rhug
Bugle
—
GIS
—
Abandoned
— Long day writing & tech noodling, finishing with a photography find
Memex note to self
— Finally back on the blogging wagon
Primary Meeting
— Meeting onsite for primary school garden
How do you pronounce Latin names?
— The binomial naming of plants is quite beautiful & useful but I have always wondered, how do you pronounce Latin?
What are Forest Garden Patterns?
— Interesting conversation with Nickie Bartlett from NFGS has led to me thinking about what I’m trying to achieve
The 'Forest Garden System' begins
— To promote the adoption of food forest gardening, creating ready-made planting plans feels like a good way to go
Hello 2022
— Let’s start forest garden blogging for 2022!
Multipurpose pathways
— Paths in the forest garden are useful in so many different ways. They go places. They define places. They keep plants in places.
Welcome back
— Jake has a new website and the blog is back up and running!
Mostly native
— Detail of a mostly native windbreak hedge on the eco-homes project
Tree leaves for salad
— Tired of sowing, growing & munching lettuce? A pollarded tree can provide you with a salad leaf crop
Pt.6 Canopy Tree Layer
— Part 6 of my online course preview has been livestreamed and is now available on my YouTube channel 🙂
Pt.5 Perennial Vegetables
— Part 5 of my online course preview has been livestreamed and is now available on my YouTube channel 🙂
Livestreaming & recording setup for online courses
— Here’s my current setup of computers & equipment for livestreaming, recording and editing videos for my online forest garden courses. Hopefully this will help if you want to set up your own 😎
Pt.4 Protect a Backyard Forest
— Part 4 of my online course preview has been livestreamed and is now available on my YouTube channel 🙂
Pt.3 Design a Backyard Forest
— Part 3 of my online course preview has been livestreamed and is now available on my YouTube channel 🙂
Pt.2 Plan a Backyard Forest
— Part 2 of my online course preview has been livestreamed and is now available on my YouTube channel
Pt.1 Introducing the Backyard Forest
— Part 1 of my online course preview has been livestreamed and is now available on my YouTube channel
Forest Garden Course, livestreamed free over 8 weeks from Wed 10th June
— I’m previewing my online forest garden free, as part of my regular Wednesday Lockdown Livestream
Lockdown Livestream, launch of free mini-course
— This Wednesday 3rd June, I’m launching the revamped free mini-course ‘Make a Backyard Forest Plan’, followed by a Zoom Q&A
Online forest garden design course, by RakeshB
— Rakesh B, who I met via the National Forest Gardening Scheme, is running an online forest garden design course, from 13 June to 19 July, on weekends
Perennial Veg workshop April 2020
— Forest garden perennial vegetable workshop, recorded for your viewing at your leisure
Furloughed
— It’s official, as of today, I am being furloughed.
Are you ready?
— The climate and ecological emergency is happening. A forest garden is fundamentally sustainable, reducing carbon emissions & increasing biodiversity, whilst providing a resilient food system in case of emergency.
Measure with triangles
— Making a plan for an irregular shaped garden can be tricky. Triangles, cosines and The Internet to the rescue
Plants for a small forest garden
— A smaller forest garden can still contain a diverse range of edible crop plants, you just need to pay attention to the rootstock, species and final sizes
Free Online Workshops
— For these difficult times, I’m running a weekly free online forest garden workshop, Wednesdays 10am BST, livestreaming on twitch.tv/forestgardenwales
2020 Garden Trends Correction
— Yesterday’s blog description should have read “I’ve spent 2 months *ruminating* about this year’s garden trends and it can be summarised in 2 words: more nature”
2020 Garden Trends
— I’ve spent 2 months fulminating about this year’s garden trends and it can be summarised in 2 words: more nature
Life as the measure
— Gross Domestic Product is a pretty useless measure of a country’s prosperity, it’s time to factor in the true cost of economic activity by using life as the measure
Roots and All review
— A handy list of the Roots and All podcasts
The idea of a modular forest garden
— Modular design can make designed meadow planting easier but can it do the same for a forest garden?
Wild Orchids of Wales
— My notes from fantastic talk ‘Wild Orchids of Wales’ by Sue Parker, Publicity Officer at Hardy Orchid Society
Hoverfly & wild pollinators research at Botanic Garden Wales
— Abigail Lowe at the Botanic Garden Wales is researching which are the most beneficial flowers to plant for hoverflies and other wild pollinators
The Japanese Forest Garden
— My client in Poland wants a Japanese-style garden incorporated into the forest garden, so I made a special trip to meet the staff responsible for the Japanese Garden at Botanic Garden Wales
Creating a forest garden plan with a satellite background image
— As part of my online forest garden course, I’ve been looking at how to use a screenshot of a satellite photo as the basis of a forest garden plan. If you’re comfortable with computers, the process is relatively straightforward.
Pretty forest garden pictures
— Despite my ambivalence toward aesthetics, a pretty picture can connect a wildlife forest garden with a wider audience
The meaning of Latin plant names
— Handy reference for finding out what scientific plant names mean, via The Seed Site
State of Nature report 2019
— Links to the State of Nature report 2019 from the British Trust for Ornithology @_BTO. Because the mainstream media really doesn’t seem that interested.
Inter-disciplinary forest garden
— A forest garden is a niche that falls between “traditional” gardening disciplines
One screenshot to change the way you think about native plants
— Do you know how many bugs the Common Oak supports? This screenshot from the ‘Database of Insects and their Food Plants’ took my breath away
If we don’t change direction, we’ll end up where we’re going
— I gave a talk to Llangwm Gardening Club about The Smaller Forest Garden. I digressed onto Native Plants and the Climate Emergency. Oops.
My favourite place
— I like being in forest gardens & living places. You can give it a name (biophilia) if you like. But I just like being there.
Overwhelmed by Vegetables
— I’m in transition to perennial vegetables but whatever the crop, it is easy to be overwhelmed by vegetables!
Overview of my forest garden design process
— A bird’s eye view of my approach to designing a forest garden, in the form of a slideshow and screencast
Bruce Slark Forest Garden Talk
— Bruce Slark has been growing a forest garden for nigh on 20 years and his talk at Moylgrove Hall was full of tasty nuggets
More or less politics
— Time to redirect my politically charged radical sentiments elsewhere methinks
Wildlife: the power of a name
— Gardening for others is so much more rewarding, particularly when you know their names
Pivot
— I’m switching my work to concentrate on wildlife and forest garden design, with a view to an online course next year.
Hawthorn all the way
— Creating wildlife habitat in a farm garden
Peat Free Nurseries
— Does your nursery use peat-free compost? A list of nurseries that do, compiled by Nic Wilson 🙏
PeatFree Climate Emergency
— Using peat-based compost contributes to the destruction of wildlife habitats and the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases. Profit, convenience & ignorance; it is the story of Climate Breakdown.
My advice for a forest garden? Flowers and annual veg
— Every garden is dynamic, changing over time. When you’re starting out with a forest garden, pollinator friendly flowers and annual veg can be a good place to start.
Let go control
— Other work in my life has meant a slow down in the forest garden but the trees still grow and the wildlife prospers. Letting go can be a hard but necessary lesson.
Biological recording workshop
— Clare Flynn ran a fantastic wildlife recording workshop at The People’s Orchard in St Dogmaels, here are my notes to my future self
Wild Food Corridors
— Involving people in the creation of wildlife habitat in public spaces whilst simultaneously providing a harvest is a way to focus minds on our existential environmental threats
Wildlife garden checklist
— Inspired by Malcolm Berry’s talk, here’s a simple checklist of invaluable features for your wildlife-friendly garden
Designing wilderness well
— If you create any wildlife friendly space, a forest garden included, care is required to design it well, so as to maximise the benefits.
Forest garden ground cover preparation
— The “traditional” way of clearing the ground is to use sheet mulch. An alternative and possibly less wasteful way is to scrape the ground with a mini-digger.
Forest garden CAD photo
— Using a satellite photo as the basis for your forest garden plan is a good and quick way of creating an approximate plan without having to measure out in the field.
Community Food Forest
— A simple checklist for anyone interested in setting up a Community Food Forest (AKA Community Forest Garden)
Lynda’s Tayberry fedge
— A fedge (or dead hedge) can have many uses, one of which is as a support for scrambling soft fruit like the Tayberry.
Recycled ever-expanding plant labels
— These nifty plant labels keep on expanding with a growing branch, and are easy to make from old plastic milk bottles.
How to establish ground cover in a forest garden
— A step-by-step guide to establishing a living ground cover: to protect the soil, create a habitat for wildlife and provide you with a harvest. Win, win, win.
Forest garden plan
— This is the CAD plan for Forest Garden One
Ornamental Forest Garden plan
— This is the CAD plan for the Ornamental Forest Garden
Why a forest garden is good for climate change
— A forest garden works with nature to grow edible crops, which is why it’s good for climate change. Here are the reasons why.
Forest garden itinerary
— The itinerary for my forest garden tours and workshops, with a link to a “live” page that will be kept up-to-date.
Creating a simple propagation bed
— Now is always a good time to start propagating ground cover plants for a forest garden, indeed any garden. Here’s how to make a simple, no-dig propagation bed, where you can plant-and-forget.
Grow your own website
— Advice on how to set up a website for an organisation, as promised to Teresa Filipponi at the Hub Cymru Africa permaculture event at Botanic Garden Wales!
Easy graft
— Both of my apple grafts from The People’s Orchard workshop have taken! Beginners luck methinks…
Splashes of colour in a sea of shimmering green
— These are some of my favourite flowers, simple but colourful flowers, adding a splash of nectar, pollen & colour to that verdant forest garden green
Gardening in the vernacular
— Forest gardening is not a “style”, rather it is a practical and considerate way of gardening, and its beauty is drawn from necessity. It is the ultimate in vernacular gardening.
Bird nest box plan
— There’s still time to make a bird nesting box for your garden. All you need is 4½ feet of 6x1, a saw, half a dozen screws, a bit of old inner tube and a hole saw.
Tree spacing in the forest garden
— The gaps between tree canopies should be about ¼ to ½ of the average tree canopy diameter. This is to allow enough light to reach the understorey plants.
Wildflower meadow genesis
— A daily rambling about the plan for a wildflower meadow at Forest Garden Wales.
Act right now on climate
— In a rekindling of my daily weblog format, here’s some thoughts about some really important things.
Designing a small forest garden
— A small garden can be a forest garden, and this is a peek into how I approach a small forest garden design.
Flowers for pollinators in an orchard
— Orchards need pollinators, which in turn need particular help in spring. Based on DNA barcoding research by @WalesBotanic, these are the top spring flowers. This article first appeared in The People’s Orchard Newsletter.
Our forest garden tours & workshops setup
— The majority of Forest Garden Wales workshops & tours are on Airbnb, with monthly discount slots on Facebook/Eventbrite.
Leave space
— The first stage of the Ornamental Forest Garden is complete and there are large gaps about the place. This is fine, for now.
Most attractive fruit colours to birds
— Reading about the Kordia sweet black cherry, I remembered my notes saying black was the least favourite fruit colour of birds
Condensed forest garden knowledge
— You have 3 minutes to advise someone starting a forest garden—what are the most important things?
The seven layers of a forest garden
— A quick reference for the multiple layers of a forest garden, because I can only ever remember 3 of them (see my logo)…
How to plant & mulch a weedy windbreak
— We’ve been planting an 80 metre long, 5 metre high windbreak on the northern boundary of the Ornamental Forest Garden. If you’re doing something similar, you may find these notes handy.
The joy of forest garden planning
— It’s not glamorous, it’s not plants but I do really enjoy the design and planning stages of a forest garden. It’s the best time to make the big mistakes 😉
Forest garden thug or doer?
— What is the difference between a plant which is a good performer and one which is an aggressive thug?
The People’s Orchard Grafting Workshop with Steve Wilson
— These are my rough and ready notes from the grafting workshop for my personal consumption.
Benefits of a Forest Garden
— These are just some of the benefits of a forest garden
Windbreak hedges for an exposed coastal site
— A chance encounter has me thinking about optimal plants for a windbreak hedge that will deal with salt-laden gales
Forest Garden Network
— We’ve just been added to this informal network of forest gardens, the aim of which is to facilitate visits between members.
I know nothing
— After a pruning workshop with orchardist Martin Hayes, I marvel at the skills and knowledge of professional horticulturalists.
Three ways to describe a forest garden
— I worked with a computer technician called Three-Way George. If you asked him how to do something, he’d always reply “Well, there are three ways…”. Likewise, there are (at least) three ways to describe a forest garden.
The place you want to be
— Garden designer Sarah Price gave an insightful and motivating talk at Botanic Garden Wales ‘Inspirational Women in Horticulture’ series. It piqued my curiosity about the role of aesthetics in gardening, and the wider, age-old framing of form and function.
The forest garden in midwinter
— A small garden web log about the middle of winter in the forest garden
Your small garden can be a forest garden
— The term “forest garden” can be misleading. It’s neither forest-sized nor a forest, so rest assured that your small garden can be transformed into a forest garden.
Inspirational women (some of them in horticulture)
— Botanic Garden of Wales’ has an excellent series of talks called Inspirational Women in Horticulture, I’ve drawn up my own list of inspirational women, some of whom are in horticulture.
Now taking bookings for forest garden tours and workshops
— I’m very excited to announce that the 2019 Forest Garden Wales tours and workshops, known as “Experiences” in Airbnb speak, are now available to book!
Creating a forest garden in 8 easy steps
— Eight flavourful steps to tempt you into the exhilirating world of forest gardening. Creating a forest garden isn’t too difficult, it just takes hard work and perseverance. Like any garden.
Gardening like a child
— When gardening with a 3 year old, you really have to let go and go with the flow.
The forest garden: it’s about time
— It’s about time forest gardening reached a wider audience. Nevertheless, a garden is also about time; a seasonal, cyclical time. Herein lies some temporal whimsy…
Cream-crackered lime
— In a sweltering 12°C of this mildest of winters, I’ve started spreading powdered lime in the Ornamental Forest Garden. Phew.
Mulching raised beds
— Reinvigorated by Ruth Stout’s ‘No Work Garden Book’, I’m back to mulching all the raised beds.
Gardening with urgency and purpose
— The purpose within a forest garden is to create a beautiful and productive space which meets the myriad challenges of climate change.
Gardener’s log, start date 2018-12-20
— I thought I might start using the blog as a log of what I do in the garden, a diary of ramshackle thoughts, minor ramblings and garden ambles.
Deturfing the Greenery
— After a couple of hours deturfing, I now remember why I prefer sheet mulching in order to remove grass.
Sea Buckthorn planted in Willow Walk
— Three years after buying Hippophae rhamnoides 'Orange Energy', they’re finally planted in the forest garden Willow Walk.
The Groundcherry Experiment
— I nearly composted the whole Groundcherry bed and I’m very glad I didn’t.
Where to store your garden blog photos
— One for you gdnbloggers – after a recent fracas with Flickr, a quick of summary of where online you can catalogue, store & link to your garden photos
Eat your greens from the Forest Garden Greenery!
— I have neglected my greens in the forest garden, so I’m making them a Greenery, a place for perennial alternatives to cabbage and spinach.
Now offering remote forest garden design service!
— Very happy to announce I’m now offering a remote forest garden design service. Using email and Skype, I can create an outline forest garden plan for only £100.
‘Miniature Woodlands’ at Chelsea Flower Show
— Thankfully there is a shift in traditional gardening toward trees & wildlife.
My first ever paid forest garden design job
— Coloured Poundland pencils come to the rescue in my outline design for a small forest garden.
Now is the best time for hardwood cuttings
— A gentle reminder to myself & others to propagate large quantities of hardwood cuttings – they’re so simple & quick, and the rewards are bountiful.
The surveying legwork of the Ornamental #ForestGarden
— Oh, if only I could start planting the Ornamental Forest Garden straight away. But no. I need to survey the land before I make my Cunning Plan, before I get to the joy of planting.
Introducing the OFG: Ornamental Forest Garden!
— I’m on a mission to prove that a forest garden can be as aesthetically beautiful as it is productive, wildlife friendly & low maintenance.
My social media blog experiment
— Is bulk auto-scheduling akin to spam, or is it a useful tool for promoting your blog?
Benefits of a forest garden
— TL;DR low maintenance, productive, biodiversity, resilient 🙂
Top 10 bee friendly plants for the forest garden
— Bring a splash of colour to your forest garden with some stalwart “system plants”, providing a much needed boost of all-year-round nectar and pollen for your friendly pollinators and predators 🐝
Weeding forest garden style
— The “chop ’n‘ drop” method of mulching applies equally to weeding in the forest garden
A forest garden is a way to garden
— After listening to a @margaretroach podcast & reading a @DaveGoulson book, I realised that I don’t need to worry about plants!
A Tale of Three Trees
— Three Italian Alder, three very different outcomes
When you are dying, surround yourself with life
— @doctor_oxford’s article on palliative care and nature struck a chord with my own experiences
I’ve had enough, it’s time to quit!
— Sometimes, failure is the best option
Nettle soup
— Stalwart recipe of the foraging community
The Lure of the Stinging-less Nettle
— A long time ago I heard about the legend of The Stinging-less Netlle, a fabled plant with all of the nitrogen-rich, low-maintenance and nutritional benefits of the stinging nettle without any of the stinging.
Vegan banana cake
— Very easy vegan banana cake, which I topped with our first ever gooseberries (Hinnomaki Red)!
What is a Forest Garden?
— A forest garden is like a wildlife orchard underplanted with edible shrubs and perennial vegetables. It is productive, sustainable and low-maintenance 💚 🌳
Vegan Chocolate Brownies
— A recipe for the kind of world famous cakes you can expect on our #ForestGarden tour!
Photographs from the Permaculture Tywi forest garden tour
— Photographs of the @permatywi visit to #ForestGarden Wales, by Christine Jones
Permaculture Tywi forest garden tour
— @PermaTywi came for a #ForestGarden tour on Saturday, about a dozen, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves!
7 Magical Things about Forest Gardens
— With @GWandShows highlighting the benefits of #meadows, rain gardens & #plasticfree, have a look at the magic a #ForestGarden can provide 🙂
The Green Tangle
— All that doesn’t glitter isn’t not gold! Or, it’s okay to have a green garden like a forest garden
How green is your garden?
— Gardening should be the most environmentally friendly of endeavours but that isn’t necessarily the case
Forest garden tours now public!
— Forest Garden Wales is now open for tours by individual members of the public. Tickets on Eventbrite 🙂
My blue hay mulching experiment
— Grass in Welsh is glaswellt, which translates as “blue hay”. I’m using freshly scythed grass as a mulch in the polytunnel 🙂
Does woodchip mulch rob nitrogen from the soil?
— Many people believe that woodchip applied as a mulch around plants can tie-up nitrogen and cause deficiencies. Apparently not!
Now using Netlify CMS!
— A bit of a geeky post about the software that powers forestgarden.wales
Heated propagator howto
— Instructions for making your own thermostatically controlled propagator, cribbed from @GWandShows
Forest garden tours now operating!
— Thanks to inspriation from The People’s Orchard and Permaculture Tywi, we now offer a half-day forest garden tour and talk! £10 per person, minimum 5 people
The Order of Things
— “Critical” was my word of the day on a recent tour, so I thought I’d formalise the list of things I think are critical when creating a forest garden
The People’s Orchard visit Forest Garden Wales
— A legion of People Orchardoers made the inaugural tour around Forest Garden Wales
The promise of planting a tree
— Fun but serious work on Thursday morning, planting an apple and plum orchard by the car park at Poppit Sands, St Dogmaels, Pembrokeshire
What blogging software do you use?
— After days of building my own blog, I’m curious as to what other people are using and how well it fits in with social media.
Notes from Wild Bees in Pembrokeshire talk
— Wild Bees in Pembrokeshire - an introduction to Species, Diversity and Learning to Record Wildlife with Clare Flynn @wildaboutnature, talk at Moylegrove Old School Hall, Tue 23 Jan 7.30pm
Joy of Plants app for iPhone
— A quick heads up for handy plants database app
My maiden forest garden talk!
— A 1 hour talk entitled ‘An introduction to forest gardening’, St Dogmaels Abbey, 7.30PM Friday 23rd February 2018, hosted by The People’s Orchard
Plants that make mycorrhizal associations
— Excerpt from Radical Mycology listing which plants have which mycorrhizal associations
How to make your own mycorrhizal fungi
— You can make your own arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inoculant, like rootgrow™, for adding to roots for healthier plants. Notes & photos kindly from Antony & Emma of @HyphaeShroomery. Photos copyright @HyphaeShroomery.
Don’t stake fruit trees
— I am always wary of outright statements but this one is interesting and time saving
About the name…
— A small clarification about the origins of the name Forest Garden Wales
Forest Garden Design Course notes 2016
— Notes from Martin Crawford forest garden course back in the summer of 2016
The People’s Orchard pruning and planting workshop
— Notes from another excellent pruning and planting workshop with Martin Hayes, Orchardist, near Llandudoch in Pembrokeshire
Blank canvas and the Prickly Quad
— The sheet mulch is up, the soil is bare and my mind is blank
Dwarf comfrey ground cover planted in Shrubbery
— Symphytum ibericum (dwarf or iberian comfrey) is a good mineral accumulator ground cover for shady areas, planted buckets of the stuff today
Growing the Coppice
— Starting the final section of the Coppice, with sweet chestnut to be planted soon
Winter visit and forest garden plants at Colby Woodland Garden
— All manner of forest garden stalwarts spotted on a winter visit to the National Trust Colby Woodland Garden near Amroth in Pembrokeshire
Diversity in all things, including windbreaks
— A mixed species north boundary windbreak hedge has grown on leaps and bounds
Even in the smallest moments
— No matter how much administration there is in the world, I try to find some time to garden
Tray cupboard from the dump!
— Picked up a freebie old chipboard cupboard from the dump, working fantastically as a tray cupboard. +1 recycling
Misty valley whilst releasing mouse
— Not exactly forest gardening but it was lovely and misty this morning in the hills where I released the mouse
Unglamorous grunt work
— In a garden, it’s 95% perspiration and 5% inspiration
Planting & Pruning workshop notes
— Scant notes from the Planting & Pruning workshop held by The People’s Orchard in St Dogmaels on 7th December 2017
Predator strip!
— Martin Crawford’s predator strip is a combination of perennial flowering plants to attract predatory and pollinating insects
Welcome to Forest Garden Wales website!
— Forest Garden Wales has a website
