How to Make a Forest Garden

Plein d'information... me sera très utile.

Excellent book! Gives a lot of information for planning purposes, including diagrams and things I wouldn't have considered. Goes WAY beyond simply choosing plants that work together to include the uses of walls, manners of pruning (or not pruning) trees, and how a forest garden will morph over time as larger plants mature. As someone fairly new to gardening looking for a more technical book this was perfect.

This is a fantastic book. Just what I was looking for. Don't be concerned about the black & white photos. Like many colour photos in other books, they are a mere guide. Besides, it's the info you want, and here it's priceless.I have just started to plant up my own forest garden on 2 acres of land, with almost no money left to spare. So the right advice for the best plants (which I grow entirely from seeds, cuttings, or by grafting, or through swapping with friends) is absolutely crucial.I have no room for making any economic mistakes here!Mr Whitefield encourages you to make the most of what nature has to offer in order to create your no-dig or restricted-dig forest garden, approaching the matter of mulches, weeds and pests in a sensible way. (So nice to see a keen gardener who understands that not everyone has access to 'Gardener's World' type TV budgets).There is advice on so many other aspects of 'healthier, greener' methods of growing food and materials (such as for basketry) it is almost impossible to list them all without writing down a good part of the book. There is careful consideration given to how best to plant the forest so that it gains the maximum levels of light for better growth, water usage & collecting, pruning.Even though my own embryonic-forest is only just starting to produce the odd berry and mushroom (and that's despite the fact that it still looks little more than a rather weedy field), through this book I have come to see that there are even more ways of raising foods & materials that will not compromise the balance of nature. Indeed, your mind begins to run riot and you start to see even more ways that the book doesn't include, so it is idea-inspiring too.As I have just started to introduce fungi species, with the intention of growing many more types of edible and symbiotic fungi, I was happy to see a couple of lengthy paragraphs have been included on this newly appreciated yet essential side to successful gardening. However, perhaps, in later editions, there could be a little more emphasis on this subject? Or perhaps another book?You don't need a big garden either. That point comes across very clearly. You can begin to raise your own mini-forest in a very small space indeed, and I'm not just talking about the pocket-handkerchief gardens that are squeezed in behind modern developments. Even a productive container or kitchen windowsill is given mention here. Having lived previously in a place with a 10 x 4 foot deeply-shaded concrete yard, I know it is possible to grow a reasonable amount of food in such places, with the added benefit that you know exactly 'how' that food was grown!

How to make a forest garden is an encyclopedic introduction to designing and maintaining a forest garden. Especially if you have a small garden, How to make a forest garden gives many interesting hints and advice. The author is a permaculturist, which permeates throughout the book. It is aimed at the Forest Gardener of Northwestern Europe. This is not the best book for Forest Gardening. The book from Crawford is much better, because it has been written 14 years later and because it is more complete.

What a fabulous book. Everything I wanted and more. Patrick gives so much information for the beginner or experienced gardener. Forest gardening is a 3 layered technique to provided maximum yield of food production all year round. This is something we should all be looking to do over the next few years as our global supplies of oil run out. By 2013 there will be no more oil - world wide - and as our whole existence at present relies totally on its production we will be facing the biggest challenge yet in producing enough food to survive. Forest gardening is possibly the only way for each individual and/or community to sustain year round supplies of food to prevent starvation. I kid you not. Buy it - read it - DO IT - NOW - whilst there is still a little time.