The design and implementation of my forest garden has been top down. I planned the canopy trees and planted those in the first and second year. Some of the fruit bushes were planted at the same time and others followed later. However, a lot of the herbaceous layer wasn't really planned at the same time but I've been working on a few patches recently. My plan is to try out different combinations and see how they work together.

At the back of the garden near the compost heaps I have a patch of autumn fruiting raspberries that were slow to establish but are now growing really well. They are close to another area of summer fruiting raspberries and the two are merging together. I also have some sweet cicely hiding behind them in a shady corner. I planted some lemon balm last year in front of the raspberries and it has spread and grown strongly this year. The lemon balm spread out horizontally last autumn and the raspberries sent shoots up through it. The lemon balm has now put on lots more height and they appear to complement each other, although I will wait to see if the lemon balm is shaded out by the raspberries too much. There is also some salad burnet and peppermint that makes up the front of the patch.

I took a video of the patch developing in the middle of May which has some labels showing the different plants. Only part of the picture is in focus, but hopefully you can see the range of different plants.

Last winter I cut down the large Leylandii trees at the end of the garden. I shredded most of the cuttings at the time, but was left with a large pile that I never got around to sorting out. Since then they had started to rot down where I left them. I recently cleared them up - shredded some for mulch and saved the stems for firewood. It left me with a small patch free to plant.

The area is behind the sour cherry tree so gets some shade and is close to the kids climbing frame so gets some foot traffic. I decided to expand the shrub layer and also add an extra tree. Inspired by Martin Crawford's garden at the Agroforestry Research Trust, I chose a small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) to go in the middle. These trees have edible leaves and at ART the tree is pollarded to keep the size manageable. I will probably do something similar, although it will be a while before it needs cutting.

For the shrub layer I planted an Aronia berry (chokeberry Aronia melanocarpa), a jostaberry (Ribes x culverwellii), a whitecurrant (Blanka) and three raspberries (Glen Moy Rubus idaeus). I plan to let the raspberries spread across the area as they grow.

In between the plants I have left some of the composed Leylandii as a rough mulch. I plan to carry on planting in between with ground covers later in the year. Whilst I was planting I also dug up one of the sorrel plants in the garden and split it. It was hard work splitting the roots as they were pretty tangled, but eventually I got two good sized pieces and a third smaller one. Hopefully they will all survive.