Yesterday I published a post about ‘polyculture learning’; this is a follow up with some lovely examples of other forest gardeners who each have their own individual styles and ways of learning. These examples are from people or online communities that I follow and are in no particular order. If you know of other inspiring people – or if you are one don’t let modesty overwhelm you – and please let me know!
Nathan posted on Facebook’s Forest Garden UK group the other day a series of photos of edible perennials – aster glehnii, nodding onion, variegated ground elder, akebia quinata and allium pskemense, all of which are interesting and unusual edible perennial plants. Clearly Nathan has been doing his own research, both theoretical and practical.
Stephen Barstow is the author of ‘Around the World in 80 Plants’ which is an exhaustively researched, thorough and interesting read about edible perennials. He lives in Norway and has a huge range of edible plants growing there; his website is as comprehensive as you can get. He has a particular interest in plants that are what he calls ‘edimentals’ – that is both edible and ornamental. Enjoy!
Alison Tindale is the author of the Backyard Larder blog and shop for perennial vegetables. She too has done exhaustive theoretical and practical research which she shares in the form of highly practical and informative posts about all kinds of perennial vegetables. Recent topics include roasting Chinese artichoke and related tubers, and making yacon syrup.
The Plants for a Future website is the product of decades of patient work by Ken and Addy Fern (since 1989) accumulating information on the huge range of plants (1500 species) that are edible or useful in other ways such as medicines. An absolute must for every forest gardener.
Carole blogs about her small forest garden at her Yorkshire home and her newly acquired allotment. She is very adept at observing and interpreting what nature is doing and how she needs to respond such as this very thoughtful post about her allotment.
Jonathan lives in southern France and is in the process of setting up the Sombrun Forest Garden Project. This is a really interesting project and his blog is detailed and informative.
Jake Rayson is at Forest Garden Wales. He is full of enthusiasm for all things forest garden and is busy sharing his ever growing knowledge with the wider world. Check out his online course and Youtube Channel. He is also putting together a comprehensive photo gallery of forest garden plants as a resource for the wider forest gardening community.
Although we have a common interest in forest gardens and forest gardening, we are all very different as individuals. However this diversity gives us tremendous potential – as individuals within the group (all part of the ‘ecosystem of forest gardening’ if you like) – potential to follow the particular aspects of this very broad topic which attract our interest and in so doing push out the boundaries of the knowledge for the whole group.
Forest garden principle: polyculture learning is slow learning.
gardens of delight 