I did my Permaculture Design Certificate over a decade ago at the University of Bradford. Our final design project was to help produce a design for the newly started Horton Community Farm, just down the road. I had previously done a year-long apprenticeship at RHS Harlow Carr. While I was there, they had a demonstration plot measuring 3 × 3m (10 × 10ft) to show how many vegetables you could grow in your own garden, without the need for an allotment. This inspired my 3 × 3m forest garden design for Horton.
The aim of the design was to demonstrate how many perennial edible crops you could grow together in a small space within your own garden. I had done some experiments with perennial polycultures but it was all still pretty new to me. Wall trained fruit meant more sunlight could reach the ground and yields per square metre could be increased. Unlike the RHS annual vegetable plot that I had previously designed, there would be other yields such as soil building, habitat for wildlife and the propagation of plants to be passed on to the community. I have always liked this design, even if it was never actually built at the farm. Whilst writing my book, The Plant Lover’s Backyard Forest Garden, I felt it was time for a bit of tweaking and a few improvements. When I first approached this design I was a professional gardener with a little knowledge of permaculture and forest gardening. Over a decade later, I am a professional forest gardener, and in permaculture design it is always so valuable, when tweaking a design, to reflect on what you have learnt in the process.
My first adventures in forest gardening were in my parents’ field which had previously been grazed by sheep for probably hundreds of years. These patches are still very wild places where food yields are quite low in comparison to an annual vegetable plot but they take almost no maintenance, still produce food and the wildlife is abundant compared to its previous history as short grass.
Over the last few years, I have become much more interested and excited by the prospect of forest gardening in small spaces. I have developed really successful forest garden beds in our yard, which are between 6-10m2 (20-33ft2) in area. These are higher maintenance than our wild forest garden patches but still nowhere near the intensity of annual vegetable patches. Although part of my learning has been about purposely leaving gaps for annuals, plants such as climbing beans and courgettes are very high yielding for the small space they occupy, so my designs are no longer exclusively perennial plants.
I have always grown my own food where possible but my professional background was in ornamental horticulture. When I first learned about forest gardening, I decided I had to leave all that behind and only include plants that were edible, accumulated nutrients or were medicinal. Ten years on, I can see the importance of beauty in our forest gardens. If more people are to adopt this powerful way of growing their own food whilst providing space for Nature, they have to be beautiful places to enjoy. I now design forest gardens filled with colour and interest all year round. Upright plants such as camassia (below), iris and crocosmia can grow amongst the edibles, using the vertical space. Spring bulbs such as crocus, dwarf narcissi and grape hyacinth (Muscari) come up early providing colour and nectar before dying back as other perennials take their place. When selecting plants – and there are always so many options – I will use aesthetics as one of the deciding factors.
A forest garden will provide much more habitat for wildlife than a lawn but the range is still limited, so I now include stone piles and stacks of logs. You can build an insect hotel if you want to make a feature of habitats. I have recently been creating sculptural stone piles in spiral shapes – still great habitat but also adding an artistic feature to the garden. We should never underestimate the importance of fun when gardening. If we enjoy spending time in our forest garden, we are more likely to maintain it and notice when crops are ready to harvest. Friends and neighbours may be inspired and the forest garden network expands.
Our climate is changing and we are suffering longer periods of drought than in the past. Water in the garden is becoming more important, especially if we want to help wildlife survive these dry spells. I always include plenty of pollinator plants but sources of water are just as vital. This can be in the form of a small pond, a birdbath or even a shallow dish of water with pebbles in. Adding rocks to your water feature is important as many insects and bees cannot land on water without drowning and prefer to drink from the water’s edge. I always include a pebbly ‘beach’ along one edge of a pond and a branch leaning into the water for other mammals to escape.
I will be honest and confess that there are many edible perennial plants that I find really unpalatable. My tastes have gradually adapted but I still can’t eat salad burnet (Sanguisorba minor) without grimacing. Over time I have moved towards using traditional herbs and perennial vegetables. It is important to experiment, so I like to include a couple of plants I haven’t tried before. This year I am trying Korean aster for the first time. A garden full of novelty plants that are technically edible but you are unlikely to eat is not much use.
Using the vertical is even more important in small spaces. If you like growing a lot of salads, it can be hard to grow smaller, more tender plants, such as lettuce and basil, amongst perennials which are likely to swamp them. Some plants are also more prone to slug attacks. I have used a few green wall systems over recent years and found them very useful for growing these more delicate plants. One pallet planter can provide more salads than we can eat, taking up only a very small amount of bed space in the garden. I found that using two pallets, placed back to back, is deep enough to enable plants to grow well without much attention. A single pallet also works but requires a lot more watering as there is not much space for compost. We grow a mix of viola, lettuce, basil, Alpine strawberries, nasturtiums and thyme. You can also plant up the top edge so no space is wasted.
Obelisks and archways provide more vertical growing opportunities and allow climbers to be grown where there are no large trees to use as a framework. I have included climbing beans, either French or runner beans, as they are very attractive, high yielding and fix nitrogen in the soil.
Having managed a few community gardens over the years I now realise the importance of labelling plants, especially unusual ones. This gives confidence to everybody that they have the right plant and helps to build plant identification knowledge. My original design included raised edges but now I use either flat or mounded beds as raised edges always dry out faster, requiring more input of time and water. Wooden planks as edges are also a fantastic home for slugs, with plants at the edges suffering more damage.
Make space for annuals. This can really increase your yields and leave room for trying new things.
Don’t forget aesthetics. Make your garden beautiful and you will spend more time in it.
Provide different habitats for wildlife. Include log or stone piles, bird boxes and bug hotels.
Extend the season for pollinators using bulbs for early pollen and nectar sources.
Grow things that will actually be eaten, but experiment too – that is where the best learning happens.
Use the vertical: grow on walls and up arches and obelisks.
I have completed my diploma in applied permaculture design since my first mini forest garden design. My knowledge of permaculture design and practice has grown every year. I could never have imagined when sketching this first design and getting excited about forest gardening, that one day I would be working in, or designing a forest garden of some kind almost every day. The saying goes, you can never learn all there is to know about gardening and this is true of permaculture. There is learning in every project I undertake. I like the idea of revisiting this design again in another 10 years and reflecting on what I have learnt. The reality is, when you manage a forest garden, you are making tweaks all the time. Things die off, you replace them; other plants mature and spread out. Your needs change over time and so does your forest garden.
I have just moved house with a new garden to design. It is currently overgrown with hedges that have not been maintained for around a decade. I am looking forward to the challenge of applying everything I have learnt over the years to design a small scale forest garden as part of an average sized suburban garden. I will no doubt tweak it many times after the triumphs and the failures. A garden is never finished, it is always evolving, as am I.
More from Pippa:
Watch: Choosing plants for the forest garden
Watch: How to start a perennial food garden
Pippa is the author of The Plant Lover’s Backyard Forest Garden Handbook. Order via our online shop HERE.
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