And I was able to celebrate these with a record number of visitors.
Interest in Forest (food) Gardening has definitely increased over the last few years and this year I have had a number of groups arranging visits with me.I suppose that its also due to the fact that the Garden is now 10years old so more to see and that word has got around Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion that it is an interesting visit.
If you or your group would like to visit send me a message and we can fix a date.
I suppose that with all that's happening in the world right now the only way to guarantee future supplies of fresh food and to afford it, is to to find more ways of growing it ourselves and it just so happens that the FG is a logical way to progress as once a tree or shrub is planted it will go on producing for many years without too much maintenance. Indeed if nitrogen fixers are included in the planting scheme a major nutrient requirement is automatically supplied.Compost,urine and wood ash are other easily obtained fertilisers which with a bit of organisation can insure that all the plants have all the nutrients they need continually without buying chemicals.
The FG is also a way to get a wide ranging nutrition without animals, those with a meat free diet can potentially become self sufficient by using a variety of tubers,nuts, fruit, berries, fungi, flowers and leaves. It is well known that massive numbers of ruminants grazing Fields is not only an inefficient method to feed humans and casts doubt on our ability to feed the increasing future population, but adds massively to the CO2 production( I believe the latest figure is 18% of total emissions worldwide)
So any increase in the number of Forest Gardening, Agroforestry or Permaculture projects will start to create a better balance and increase our ability to feed a greater number of people locally.
That's my rant out of the way!!!
Here are the team photos' of my recent visitors.
May I introduce the Denmark Farm Team whose main interest was in plants that can attract birds and insects to their community gardens.I had plenty to show them as I do grow a number of plants for just that purpose.
Just a few pics of what I have just cropped.
One crop that did rather well this year was my Fuggles hops took me 4 hours to pick them all though.
This is a hawthorn C.ellwangeriana has large apple flavoured haws which are nice raw and can be cooked to make jellies juice and jams.They look great this time of year.
The maturing nuts of Corylus x Colurnoides or Trazel (freeoka).The best nut crop from any of my trees as yet.
