Permaculture - Foraging Garden Design -

Forest Garden Design

After moving into my home in the summer of 2017, high on my priority list was to get some food growing in both the front and back gardens. At this time, I was in the process of giving up an allotment plot at the end of the season because we had moved to a different location. At the allotment, I had 6 soft fruit bushes I wanted to bring with me along with a few other plants and several bags of compost. These plants and bushes were to become part of my new back garden.

In 2017 the back garden consisted of a lawn and a few shrubs. The garden is on a south-facing slope and is open to the predominant westerly wind.

The type of garden design I envisioned for the garden would be based on a forest garden because I wanted to have that natural look to the garden whilst growing as much food as possible.

What is a forest garden?

A forest garden as the name suggests is a garden that tries to emulate natural woodland ecosystems with the emphasis on producing food.

For our temperate climate here in the UK, forest gardens are commonly made up of seven plant layers. Additional layers may be found in tropical forests.

Upper Canopy
Lower Canopy or Sub-Canopy
Vines and Climbers
Shrubs, and understorey bushes
Herbaceous perennials and annuals
Ground Cover
Roots and Rhizosphere

Consisting mainly of perennial plants that are productive or useful are stacked or assembled as they tend to be found in a woodland or forest. Once a forest garden is established it requires little or no extra energy input and minimal labour, whilst continuing to produce harvestable yields.

The limiting factor for my garden is its size, this rules out the upper canopy because the garden is not large enough for upper canopy trees, but I could eventually have a lower canopy incorporating a few fruit trees on dwarf rootstock.

Beginning the design

Phase One

In November 2017 I began work implementing the design I had put together. The first phase was to remove the lawn on the lower side of the garden. Next, by following the contour of the land, mound the soil back generating less slope allowing the garden to hold more water by slowing down the movement of rainwater on the site. Once the groundwork had been completed, I moved the fruit bushes from the allotment into the garden.

Phase Two

I began phase two of the design in May of 2018. Here I worked on the higher side of the garden. Once again I used the contour of the land by digging the soil back to add mounds on the contour to slow down the movement of rainwater on the site. This provided a better use of the space in the garden by providing different levels to grow on.

Ponds

On both sides of the garden, I added a small pond, one pond is on the highest part of the garden, and the second is on the lowest part. When designing large sites you would place catchment ponds in key locations. Because my site is so small, key locations would only be to add value to the aesthetics of the garden and to provide habitat for wildlife. That said I still placed the ponds in areas that would have been key locations for a large site so that I explain to people how a large site design would look, this also applies to my use of counter lines on a large landscape.

Along with growing food, wildlife was also a focus of the design. A forest garden design, by its very nature, will encourage wildlife into the garden so providing a water source would add great value to the garden.

It's all coming together

In May 2022, as the seasons have moved forward the garden is now starting to mature and is taking shape. Through deep mulching the garden with leaf fall in autumn, the soil is now improving. I have a separate article on soil so I will not talk about its importance here other than to mention the importance of building and caring for the soil to the overall sustainability of a garden.

What's next?

Like all good permaculture designs, I’m constantly evaluating how the garden design is working and looking at ways to improve it. I’m never short of ideas to try. This year I’m going to be adding a few more annual vegetables into the garden such as winter squash, beans, peas, and sweetcorn because I would like to learn how these perform in a wilder environment than the standard vegetable garden. I’ve also just added a rainwater harvesting system with an overflow into the area where I will grow the sweetcorn.

Come and visit

Even after 4 full growing seasons, the design is still a work in progress. If you would like to visit the garden, please use the contact form on the website to drop me a message.