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September Uno 2020
Forest Garden News — Week 36
Forest Garden Livestream
Wednesday 2nd September, 10am BST
Windbreaks, windbreaks, windbreaks
Not one but two storms in August here in West Wales. Extreme weather events are the new normal, the visible effects of the Climate Emergency. So, make sure to plant your windbreaks, before you plant your canopy trees!In Wednesday's livestream, I’ll show you a couple of windbreaks in our forest garden, plus what happens if you don’t have a windbreak (warning: graphic scenes of damage to fruit trees 😢). There’ll be a short Zoom meetup after.
Rosa rugosa windbreak hedge on Martin Crawford’s north-facing site
Livestream
Time: 10—10.30am
Livestream: twitch.com/forestgardenwales
Zoom Q&A
Time: 10.30—11:00am
Zoom password: rugosa
Redistributing privilege
,
and the redistribution of privilege are all intimately entwined. And this extends to our place within nature: we need to garden for
all
wildlife, not just for our pleasure. Forest gardens are a small part of redressing the balance, to grow edible crops with nature, growing native plants where possible.
As part of redressing the balance, each month I am offering 10 free places to BAME people, students & unwaged to my online course ‘The Backyard Forest’. Just send me an email to
. No need to explain your situation, no proof required, this is all done on trust.
The Garden of Equal Delights
This is a beautiful book by Anni Kelsey, from the perspective of the gardener. It’s a very personal journey through the lessons learned from a forest garden and I agree with an awful lot of it. It’s time to let go control! Buy the book here, and available from Other retailers as well.
Tapestry Lawns
I heard about tapestry lawns on the glorious Roots and All podcast, in an interview with Lionel Smith. Essentially, they are non-grass lawns, using a rich diversity of species. I love the idea, they're very much in keeping with the principles of a forest garden (low maintenance, good for wildlife). I have even created an online spreadsheet of just the UK native species that can be used. The biggest drawback I can see is that you can’t grow a tapestry lawn from seed, and it’s expensive to use plug plants or trays. I will be experimenting with growing plants on large sheets of pierced plastic. You can buy the book here.
The Backyard Forest
Busy editing the auto-generated captions for my online forest garden course this week. Then it’s time to start adding practical walkthroughs. 3 hours 36 minutes of concentrated forest garden knowledge, all for a very reasonable price!
