Community Forest Garden. 2012 to 2022
Debbie and I started volunteering at a forest garden near Lancaster around 2008 when I realised that this kind of gardening was that I had been instinctively working towards for the previous 25 years. It works with nature rather than constantly fighting against her and provides food, space for wildlife and beautiful place to spend time and experiment. By 2011 we'd enrolled on all Permaculture design course and needed a design to work on. We'd been volunteering locally with incredible edible and a piece of land became available to create a forest garden in Prestwich. This became our design and we started work in early 2012 with an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers and £100 to spend on fruit trees. The land is owned by the council who were happy for us to look after it. It was previously part of a farm but hadn't been touched for years and was mostly brambles and nettles. We spent the first year clearing the space, laying out paths and planting anything we could get our hand...