Forest Gardening

Had a very interesting afternoon with a couple of lads who have introduced me to Forest Gardening. It's all in the book;

Creating a Forest Garden: Working with nature to grow edible crops

Martin Crawford

Forest gardening is a novel way of growing edible crops - with nature doing most of the work for you. A forest garden is modelled on young natural woodland, with a wide range of crops growing in different vertical layers. Unlike in a conventional garden, there is little need for digging, weeding or pest control. Species are carefully chosen for their beneficial effects on each other, creating a healthy system that maintains its own fertility. Creating a Forest Garden tells you everything you need to know - whether you want to plant a small area in your back garden, or have a larger plot. It includes advice on planning, design (using permaculture principles), planting and maintenance and a detailed directory of over 500 trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals root crops and climbers, almot all of them edible and many very unusual. As well as more familiar plants you can grow your own chokeberries, goji berries, yams heartnuts, bamboo shoots and buffalo currants - while creating a beautiful space that has great environmental benefits. In the light of our changing climate it is important that we find new ways of growing food sustainably, without compromising soil health, food quality or biodiversity. Forest gardening offers an exciting solution to the challenge.

I guess this is one of these "watch this space" moments. I am particularly taken with the idea of planting edible mushrooms on logs and planting lots more rhubarb. I can't believe I could grow Goji berries although I did once have these in pots grown from seed that I extracted myself from the dried berries. Must give this a try though because (a) they are one of the superfoods and (b) Sainsbury's charge a fortune for them.

Having just finished a 6 month work contract, I'll be starting next week in earnest in the woodland. First up though is the removal of a very large slick of concrete that I discovered on the slope of the woodland. Must have been there for years and have no idea where it came from. No wonder I couldn't plant this section. Just hope there not a bunker underneath. Then it's the area at the back of the tennis club house to remove the blaze pile and to re plant that whole area. I am going to include a new path to allow the tennis club to take the annual leaf collection out to an agreed shared area. Anyone got suggestions on the best way to collect and make leaf mould that doesn't involve back breaking collection of the leaves into bags? The tennis club collects a phenomenal amount of leaves every autumn and I guess it would be nice to find a way to compost them.

Ironmills Park Flower Meadow

Great News

This coming Monday 30th April at 6.30pm the meadow area in Ironmills park will be seeded as a wildflower meadow.

Alan Krumholds has invited the Bonnyrigg and Dalkeith Scouts, Dalkeith Rotary Club and hopes to have the Esk Valley Rotarians as well.

Posters are due to go up around the park as I write.

The plan for this work really took off at pace in recent weeks, much more rapidly than had been planned.The reason for this, as I understand it, is recent repair works to the Eskbank Sewer resulted in an opportunity to utilise the tracts created by Scottish Water. These tracts were ideal for progress into wild flower meadows. I'm sure all will become clear on Monday evening.

Hope you can come along. I will certainly be there since this was one of the key objectives for the Friends of Ironmills Park Group.

Contrarian - After then Before.....Updated with Gazebo

Had a few professional pictures taken recently of the house and garden and I thought it would be good for the record to see the before and after. Being a contrarian here's the after - first.

This is the woodland side of the house showing the raised path and the planted areas nearest the decking. It's only March but the weather has been good this year and the plants are peeping through already. OK - the house looks good too! but this blog is for the woodland and the garden. Both still in their infancy for new planting and growth.

We need to protect the edges of the woodland where there's a steep drop down to the river below. Used lots of pole trees cut from another Estate woodland to create the barriers.

My blue border. I just love blue flowers of any kind and grape hycanith bulbs are always easy to grow. Softening all the edges and at the same time holding back soil from falling down from the slope above was easily achieved by placing lengths of logs on the ground. Very simple. Once the planting gets through the gaps it will look even more natural.

I found this dead tree branch in the far away part of the wood last year and used it in the central planted area to add interest. The grasses behind would normally be cut back to remove dead growth at this time of the year. The growth doesn't look dead to me so I'm leaving it alone.

These 2 "before" photos are from April 27 2010. It was hard work clearing the ground here after the house build but after much digging, lots of weeding and now mulching, I seem to have decent plant borders for the woodland plants.

The real beauty of new planting is only evident after 3 years in  my experience so next year should be even better.

Just for the record, last year I tried and failed with a wild flower border. Weeds took over. The professionals kill the weeds first or they over turn the soil to a significant depth which prevents the weed getting through before they sow the seed. This year, not wanting to do too much weed killing and not able to do the depth turning trick, I decided to use waste plastic crates from the house foundations. Filled them with compost and sowed the seed into these. If it works I should have wild flower plugs that I can transplant at my leisure. Will it work?

Finally just to add a picture from the past. The Gazebo. This photo taken from the tower. Interesting isn't it!

Have a look at the proximity of the Gazebo to the tree on the RHS. That's the same tree that the new Eco house is next to. Which proves that the Eco House and the Gazebo projected to the West by the same distance. Something we have always known but others have wanted to question. Considering individuals at Midlothian Council carried out a survey in year 2000 when the Gazebo was already built, it's quite surprising that the Council don't have their own survey report. That survey has been requested many times. It doesn't exist. There's just an "NT" reference map that anyone can get. No Gazebo shows up on the map because its just that - a map - not a survey. Yet we paid for it........... shy of £1,000 no less in year 2000. Interesting isn't it. I have a theory that the local noise created at the time of the land sale probably contributed to the lack of attention to detail by Midlothian Council at the time. The local noise was all to do with rights of way - where none existed - and that "extra" work to check for rights of way contributed to the cost. But all at the expense of the survey. Shame is too small a word for it.