Creating a Forest Garden by Martin Crawford - a Book Review

First of all I hope that you all made it over the festive season and into the new year fine and wishing you all the best for 2013.

It is winter now, outside the wind is howling and the rain is lashing against the window, the perfect time to curl up with a book and plan the garden for the next season.  This one is one of my latter acquisitions, very relevant to my creating a food forest on our land at the time and I've been after this book for a while.

After Robin Hart, the father of the food forest in a temperate climate, Martin Crawford is considered the authority on the subject.  This book is a large, beautifully presented book that deals with a hugely complex subject.  Like any book on gardening I have ever laid my hands on it has its shortcomings and you never quite find your exact situation described or find all the answers to your questions.  It shows that much research still needs to be conducted on this particular subject as well.

But to its contents first.  Part one deals with how a forest garden works.  A long chapter goes on to argue about climate change, something which in my view does not need to be discussed in such detail in this place.  Crawford first quotes evidence of climate change and then goes on to argue that, as a forest garden is a long term project, the effects of global warming need to be taken into consideration when choosing cultivars and species.  I don't think that anyone in their right mind argues that climate change isn't happening, but in my opinion the consequences are far from predictable and simply assuming that it's going to get warmer soon is too simplistic a view.  Individual micro-climates and local trends need to be taken into consideration and climate variation within a specific site.  Looking at where we are for example, in just the 9 years that we have been here we have observed an ever increasing amount of extreme events, in particular catastrophic rain and more frequent frosts.  If I'd be thinking I'll soon live in a semi-tropical climate my banana trees (had I planted any like one of my neighbours) would have died of frost bite one of these winters.

In this part Crawford also engages in the native versus exotics debate and he argues that exotics should be introduced for a healthy and divers system.  I am very much in agreement with that.  Without 'exotics' we wouldn't be eating potatoes, tomatoes, corn, rice etc.  The list is endless.  We should take whatever is useful to ourselves and our systems as long as they don't push natives from the scene completely.  Plants have always followed migration routes of animals and humans.

Part 2 deals with how to design your forest garden.  As any book on permaculture will tell you, this also tells you to start with making an accurate map of your plot, including existing trees and shrubs, structures etc.  Now I have learned how to make a map at the Permaculture Design Course and have practised this skill in the meantime.  What yet no one has been able to tell me, how can I make an accurate 3D map of my property, because this is the only way I can think of presenting the 18 odd terraces that make up my land.  Officially I have just under 2000m2 of land, but that only talks about the horizontal parts.  In addition I have some 700m2 of vertical land.  And this vertical land is by no means useless.  Some of my trees grow out of the verticals including a couple of apple trees, an olive and most of my cherry trees.  In addition there are numerous useful herbs growing on those parts.  But how do I represent that on a 2-dimensional piece of paper?  Contour lines don't really show that.  So what I'm basically doing in my case is virtually skipping the whole design step, just concentrating on local plant guilds and hoping for the best that it will eventually grow into a whole.  However for those with less challenging conditions, there are many useful tips on optimising the various levels (canopy, shrub, ground cover, climbers) for ideal light conditions, wind protection, companion planting etc.

As first design steps he talks about finding land.  In another part of the book he already mentions that the books is primarily written with the British climate in mind.  He goes on to say in this part that, whilst land in southern Europe is cheaper to buy then in the overpopulated UK he says, quote:

"the further you get into regions with hot Mediterranean summers, the more difficult it is to grow a fully layered forest garden of the type this book is concerned with: the dry summer soil conditions cannot support the lush growth of perennials that you expect in the UK unless you irrigate."

I disagree strongly with him on that point.  My plot of land in Italy within sight of the Med has an all-year-round green ground cover.  We have greater average rainfall than some parts of the UK, even if it is greater in winter and tends to come in big outbursts rather than in the continuous  drizzle you tend get in western Europe.  He also describes what the ideal plot of land to plant a food forest would be, but doesn't take into consideration that you might already have a plot of land with little option but to plant a forest to prevent soil erosion on a massive scale.  Arable land is becoming more and more scarce, so we have to make do with whatever is available and design around that.  I feel this book is not giving me the tools for that.

Saying all that this part also has an extensive list of useful plants with their uses and needs neatly described and separate sections on how to design the various layers in the forest garden.  Many of the plants I hadn't heard of before and shall try to get my hands on.  There are some tips on how to design slopes, although nothing as steep as mine, a lot on mulching propagating plants, part 3 has chapters on the role of fungi and mushroom cultivation, about harvesting and preserving your food.

In conclusion: I'm glad Crawford didn't call the book "The Complete Guide to..." as complete it isn't in my view, but it has much really useful info in it and I shall refer to it many more times.  It is too UK-centric for my liking, but maybe once my experiments have come to full fruition I'll write a book on food forests in the Mediterranean climate... :)

Another Book Review

This is just a quick update about another very kind review I have received from a fellow blogger, from the Wildcraft Diva over at the Wildcraft Vita.  She blogs about foraging and life in the countryside in Italy on the other side of the Appenines from us.  Do pop over and have a look here.  I know it might be a bit late for your Christmas shopping, but I believe there are still people out there who haven't bought my book yet!  :)

The Forest Garden is Taking Shape

This sunny if cold weekend we have spent planting trees and shrubs for the forest garden.  Partially they were gifts for my birthday, some I brought back from Bulgaria from the Permaship project and a couple I just bought here in the last days.  Let me introduce you to the new members of the crew from top to bottom:

This is Raffaela the hibiscus (after the person who gave the plant to me for my birthday):

She was planted in the bed Ben made in the summer just beside the road.  Did you know that you can eat the flowers and leaves of hibiscus?

Next to Raffaela we planted... now I can't for the life of me remember who gave me this shrub, will the donor please come forward... so for the time being this is Myrtle, the myrtle shrub:

This produces excellent aromatic edible berries and leaves.  Great for making liqueurs.

Just below the caravan we planted a tiny Oregon Grape called Cat, after our first helpXer, who came from Oregon.  She is getting married soon too, so best wishes to you!

We planted another small one of those below the pond.  They are shade tolerant shrubs producing edible blue berries.

A few terraces down we planted Declan, the Decana Inverno pear tree:

This is a late ripening pear.  After I lost one of my 3 pear trees to the landslides, which damaged a second tree, which has now succumbed to illness, I've been meaning to replace them.  The other remaining pear tree is a very early variety.

Another two terraces down we planted Ronaldo the Portogallo fig tree, named after Portuguese footballer and probably most famous living Portuguese person Ronaldo:

Having also lost a fig tree in the same landslides two years ago, I wanted to replace it with a purple fruiting one, which is so much sweeter.

The main planting area was near the bottom of our land, where we already had two bay trees growing happily:

The centre piece here is Jenny, the Rotello apple tree (again after one of the donors of this tree)

Rotello is a local apple variety, relatively late ripening with a squat shape (the apple that is, not the tree) and sweet and sharp flavour.

This is Heike, the maidenhair or Gingko Biloba tree (also named after the donor, my friend Heike who came to see us all the way from Germany)

Maidenhair trees are not only decorative but they produce edible nuts and the leaves are also edible and have medicinal uses.  The only problem is you need a male and female, and whilst this one has a female name now, I have no idea what actual sex it is.  So must find it a partner once I do find out.

Not pictured are Yukako the Japanese quince tree (after my good friend Yukako in Kyoto), Conny the cornelian cherry, and a baby autumn olive, for which I haven't thought of name for yet.

On a slightly different matter, I have a habit of picking up seeds of various trees and then putting them in some pot to see what happens.  Sometimes I don't know what the tree is in the first place and I always forget what I put into the pots even if I did know.  Often of course those seeds don't show at all, but this one here did and I don't know what it is.  Anyone got any ideas?  It looks very pretty:

of Giving and Sharing and a Mad Road Trip

 From the photo above you can already guess that this isn't my usual kind of post about my garden or about wild food foraging or even Italy, and the last 3 weeks were anything but the usual.  Above you see the Thermal Baths of Sofia, Bulgaria.  But let me begin at the beginning...

Just over 2 weeks ago I celebrated my 50th birthday.  Yes it's official now: I'm an old man!  To lessen the pain I invited all my friends near and far to come and have a party with me and get senselessly trashed.  At this point I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to everybody who turned up and those who couldn't, but sent best wishes.  

Thank you all for your presence, warmth and love.

Thank your gifts of trees and plants (the forest garden is taking shape, more on the next post).

Thank you for your music, especially to the Tullamores playing Irish music and Litio all the way from Scagnello in Piemonte

 Thank you Bart for preparing a fantastic meal for the multitudes

 
Thank you to the best neighbours in the world for a great birthday cake

Thank you to my mother for having me, supporting me throughout my life and coming to my special event all the way from Germany at the age of almost 80!

Thank you to the people of Ponzano Superiore for excepting me / us as part of their community even if they probably think of us as slightly eccentric.

...and thank you to my friend Vasko for taking me on a mad road trip to his homeland of Bulgaria, more of which below...

 

...and not making me eat tripe soup...

...and also a thank you to Magi...

..and Elena...

...who showed me their respective home towns of Sofia and Plovdiv.

More thanks are due, and apologies for anyone I have left out.  I feel privileged to be loved by so many and I'll forever be in your debt.

Sorry about that slightly soppy interlude, what about that Bulgarian adventure I hear you ask.  Well, it's the stuff road movies are made out of.  Me and Vasko spent 10 days traveling around Bulgaria visiting wineries big...

and small...

...discussing Bulgarian history from the rebellion against the Turkish Yolk...

...to the Communists pointing guns at their own town hall...

...seeing ugly housing estates...

rich agricultural land...

...quaint hillside villages...

...and what might just become our next permaculture project...

I'll keep you posted on that one... :)

More floods and Landslides

Last week we were leveling the area above the pond a bit and securing it against potential landslide with the aid of helpers Rob and Cha Cha from Baltimore and and Colorado.  They survived the first storm in the caravan and sensibly left before the second storm (apparently cousins of Sandy...).  The second storm, last weekend did cause widespread damage in the region again, including numerous landslides, a bridge washed away up the valley and our friend Jan having her cellars flooded and her paths covered in mud.

The storm was forcast, so we tried to secure the bit above our pond as well as possible, but... it wasn't good enough.  When checking while the rains were still on the pond was filling up nicely and everything was hunky dory, but today we discovered that the boards above the pond had give way and has turned the pond into one big mud hole. 

It wasn't too tragic though.  We just spent a few hours strengthening the area above again with cuttings from the hazel, which was threatening to engulf a nearby olive and a fig tree anyway.  It's looking a lot safer now and we'll plant some trees up there soon to make sure it'll stay in place.

There's some mud which needs excavating out of the pond again, but beneath and on the rest of the land everything is fine.

Saturday I'll be having my big 50th birthday party and afterwards it looks like I may be going on a wee trip.  More on those things when I get back.

Winter Approaching Early

Winter has arrived early with us this year with snow up on the nearby mountains already and heavy rains last weekend and more forecast for this afternoon and next weekend.  I suppose I shouldn't complain and my thoughts are with those of you affected by Sandy, the edge of which is meddling with the weather on our side of the Pond too.  

And talking about the pond... I dug my pond (or should I say our helpers did) as an anti-landslide measure amongst other things (also to attract biodiversity, save water and attract mosquito eaters).  Much of the water running down our steep slope is now channeled into the pond, but I was a little concerned about the area just below the pond, where all the earth excavated from the pond was now lying loosely, ready to roll during the next heavy rainfall.  

So knowing those winter rains were on their way I took to measures to prevent the earth from moving:  First I sowed some ground cover at the beginning of October on the flatter top area:

Grass you think?  Well kind of.  It's actually farro which is an old spelt variety, which is still grown mostly in Northern Tuscany.  So I'll have some grains to harvest too next year and the roots will hopefully hold the soil in place.

Then on the steeper lower part of the excavation I built two sub-terraces from old wardrobe doors:

You can see they still have mirrors on them, which also should improve the microclimate in this almost north-facing area.  In the two contour beds that I have thus created I planted broad beans last week, which should help add a bit of nitrogen to the otherwise poor soil there.

During the winter I will also plant some trees or shrubs along there to further stabilise the slope.  This was all done before last weekend's heavy rains and I'm pleased to say it all held well.  The pond meanwhile filled nicely with water and almost sealed.  

As I needed some stakes to secure the doors for the bed, I took the opportunity to prune back my hazel shrub, the left-overs went into a bed I had built previously also below the pond, which I'm planning as a soft fruit bed (raspberries, currants and gooseberries).

This will make the basis of a nice rich soil in a kind of reverse hugelkultur.  Any excess water from the pond will be channeled into this bed.

Yesterday we had a break in the weather and the warm and dry summer has resulted in our olives being mature much earlier than usual.  So while I was on one of the lower terraces chopping wood, Bart and Susan picked our first olives.  We won't have enough to make oil this year, but a plentiful supply of eating olives.  They are exceptionally healthy this year.

Wild Food of the Month: The Stinging Nettle

Today I'm singing the praises of the humble stinging nettle, probably the best known and most easily recognised weed in the world.  But first of all an apology for the relative silence on my blog.  I've been kind of busy lately with this and that.  After returning from the latest Permaculture course at the end of September, I launched back into some anti-landslide measures (more of that later, once I have discovered if they have held after this weekends torrential rains...), I worked on a garden design for a friend nearby (I'll give you some insights about that too soon), I ran a wild food walk in the mountains for a group of ladies from Colorado and I had a visit from Virginia, a follower of my blog from Iowa.  On top of all that I am planning a surprise birthday party for myself, as I'll be turning 50 in 3 weeks time.


But to come back to my subject, it's fairly common knowledge that the stinging nettle (urtica dioica) is edible, but most people are reluctant to try it, because they associate the plant with the stinging sensation on your skin, the last thing you want to feel in your mouth.  Think again though, because the nettles is full of nutritious goodness with high concentrations of iron, vitamins and essential minerals.  Medicinally it is used as a blood purifier and cleansing tonic.  Dried powdered leaves can be sniffed to stop a nose bleed.  They also stem internal or external bleeding, including menstrual bleeding.  It stimulates the circulation, it is used in the treatment of athritic rheumatims, it's a diuretic and can reverse prostate enlargement.  The list of it's health benefits goes on.


So how do you use it then?  Well, when dried or cooked the stinging effect goes and they become safe to handle.  So for medicinal use simply dry the leaves and make a tea from them.  To eat, a nettle soup is tasty, but I would like to share a recipe with you that I learned from my friend Gabriele at the last Permaculture course:

Nettle Pesto:  Non-Italians often only think of the one kind of pesto, Pesto Genovese, with basil, pine kernels and Parmesan cheese, but pesto simply is anything mashed together to a paste, originally with a pestle and mortar.  This is a really simple recipe, which you can vary to your own taste.

• A couple of handfuls of young nettle leaves (some machos out there pick them with their bare hands... I wear gloves!)
• about 30 shelled hazelnuts
• 1 small onion, finely diced
• salt
• olive oil
• Optional extras: a few sprigs of lemon balm and mint.  1 finely chopped tomato

Blend all the ingredients except the tomato in a blender (or a pestle and mortar if you prefer).  Stir in the tomato, if used.  Serve on crostini or on pasta.  

I've tested this recipe on a few people recently with great success.  And yes, the sting goes treated like this too.

One word of caution: Do not use old nettle leaves as they may be an irritant to the kidneys.

And to those living near me... Next Sunday, 4 November I will be going on my traditional winter berry walk followed by a jam making session.  Anybody wanting to join me, send us a message.