Creating a Forest Garden : Working With Nature to Grow Edible Crops, Paperbac...

Creating a Forest Garden : Working With Nature to Grow Edible Crops, Paperback by Crawford, Martin; Brown, Joanna (PHT), ISBN 0857845535, ISBN-13 9780857845535, Like New Used, Free shipping in the US<p><b>Forest gardening (or agroforestry) is a way of growing edible crops with nature doing most of the work.</b> A forest garden imitates young natural woodland, with a wide range of crops grown in vertical layers. Species are chosen for their beneficial effects on each other, creating a healthy system that maintains its own fertility, with little need for digging, weeding, or pest control. The result of this largely perennial planting is a tranquil, beautiful, and productive space.</p><p>This book is a bible for permaculture and forest gardening, with practical advice on how to create a forest garden, from planning and design to planting and maintenance. It explains how a forest garden is designed from the top down:&#160;</p><ul><li>the canopy layer first,</li><li>then the shrub layer,</li><li>the perennial ground-cover layer,</li><li>the annuals &#38; biennials,</li><li>next, the climbers and nitrogen fixers,</li><li>and finally the clearings, living spaces, and paths.</li></ul><p>Whether in a small back garden or in a larger plot, the environmental benefits of growing this way are great. Forest gardens are a viable solution to the challenge of a changing climate: we can grow food sustainably in them without compromising soil health, food quality, or biodiversity.</p><p>Forest gardens:</p><ul><li>store carbon dioxide in the soil and in the woody biomass of the trees and shrubs.</li><li>enable the soil to store more water after heavy rains, minimizing flooding and erosion.</li><li>boost the health of the ecosystem, ensuring a balance of predators and beneficial insects because mixed planting is crucial to the scheme.</li><li>allow&#160;the soil to thrive because it is covered with plants all year round.</li></ul><p><i>Creating a Forest Garden</i> includes a detailed directory of over 500 trees, shrubs, herbaceous perennials, annuals, root crops, and climbers. As&#160;well as more familiar plants, such as fig and apple trees, blackcurrants, and rosemary shrubs, you can grow your own chokeberries, goji berries, yams, heartnuts, bamboo shoots, and buffalo currants.</p><p>Forest gardens produce fruits, nuts, vegetables, seeds, salads, herbs, spices, firewood, mushrooms, medicinal herbs, dye plants, soap plants, and honey from bees.</p><p>This book tells you everything you need to create your own forest garden with beautiful illustrations and helpful tips throughout.</p>