Forest gardening resources
Books:
- Creating a Forest Garden: Working with nature to grow edible crops by Martin Crawford - just out this year and a great book on why forest gardening makes so much sense and how to go about it, based on an enormous amount of experience from the director of the Agroforestry Research Trust. It includes lots of information on suitable plants too.
- Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier. Two very useful and complete books on forest gardening in temperate climates. Vol. I covers the vision and theory of forest gardening and vol. II covers the design and implementation. Aimed at the North American gardener, but useful for temperate climates in general.
- How to Make a Forest Garden by Patrick Whitefield. One of the first practical guides to forest gardening. I found this book really useful when planning my garden. It has lots of detail and describes the whole process, including a useful case study.
- Forest Gardening by Robert Hart gives a personal introduction to the pioneering concept of a productive multi-layered garden in the UK. Not a how-to guide, but the one that started it all.
- Plants for a Future by Ken Fern. Really useful and accessible book reviewing a whole range of neglected and forgotten edible and useful plants. See the website as well.
- Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally by Robert Kourik. Has a US focus and lots of useful information on growing fruit in different climates. I like the diagrams of root development for different plants.
- The Permaculture books (One and Two) got me started thinking along this line in the first place. Great for the philosophy, but not so much practical use for the UK. There is quite a range of more recent books on permaculture out there now as well.
- The Fruit Garden Displayed by Harry Baker. A really useful book with lots of practical advice on growing fruit of all kinds. Good for pruning. Lots of detail on apples and pears. Now out of print, but Growing Fruit is a good replacement
- Growing Fruit by Harry Baker. Packed with information on top fruit and soft fruit. Good value.
- The New Book of Apples by Joan Morgan and Alison Richards. Information on thousands of varieties of apples.
- The Northern Pomona: Apples for Cool Climates edited by Linden Hawthorne. A great collection of information on old orchards, apple varieties for cooler climates (inspired by Helmsley walled garden) and recipes.
- Trees for Gardens, Orchards and Permaculture by Martin Crawford. A comprehensive book covering a wide range of trees from across the world.
- Common Ground Book of Orchards documenting the plight of traditional British orchards.
- Orchard House Books - Small and useful books on growing nuts and fruit by Clive Simms. Out of print now. Try Martin Crawford's much more comprehensive book below instead.
- How to Grow Your Own Nuts - Martin Crawford. I haven't read this one, but judging by the standard of Martin's Creating a Forest Garden book and his knowledge on the subject I would recommend.
Forest gardening websites:
- National Forest Garden Scheme, a new site for UK forest gardens: nationalforestgardening.org/
- Photos and plans of Robert Hart's forest garden at Wenlock Edge and more here on Flickr.
- Agroforestry research trust - a great resource with lots of relevant information and plant sales
- Forest gardening on Wikipedia
- Common Ground - celebrating local distinctiveness and providing information about traditional orchards
- Plants for a future - information on unusual edible plants and a page about Robert Hart's garden
- Edible forest gardens - website describing forest gardening with some useful links and more details on the two volume book
- Apios Institute - with information on plants and polycultures in an Edible Forest Garden wiki
- Forest gardening Yahoo group
- The Risc rooftop forest garden in Reading
- Naturewise - includes details of a forest garden in London
- El Pilar Forest Garden Network - a really interesting website about tropical forest gardening and eco-archaeology of traditional Maya forest gardens
- Details of a forest garden in Halifax planted in 1993
- Top 100 forestry resources - a collection of interesting forestry links including agroforestry
- The Orchard Project - national charity dedicated to the creation, restoration and celebration of community orchards. Some great resources.
UK fruit tree suppliers (taken from the list in The Northern Pomona):
Related websites:
- Permaculture - wikipedia
- Permaculture Association (Britain)
- Permaculture Research Institute of Australia
- Permaculture Power - a collection of Permaculture related websites and useful tools
- Transition culture
Fruit growing websites:
- Orange Pippin - resources for apples and orchards, including an apple tree register
- Fruit Forum - lots of information in a blog on all kinds of fruit. A good place to get questions answered.
- Brogdale - national fruit collection. New website here also.
- Fruit expert - lots of advice
Tools:
- Fruit tree height calculator - estimates the height of fruit trees based on the rootstock, variety vigour and soil quality
Forest gardening videos:
- Video of Robert Hart's garden
- Martin Crawford's Schumacher forest garden project
- Videos from this garden and links to other forest gardening videos
- Not strictly forest gardening, but some great information on apple trees here