Britain used to be a forested island, so a lot of the energy we expend in farming is just to stop it reverting back.
The farmland I am used to seeing is clumps of trees surrounded by fields. But a permaculture smallholding I visited in Snowdonia was just the opposite – a collection of small clearings in a mass of woodland.
Forest gardens are inspired by nature. The reason natural woodland is so productive is because it grows on many layers, rather like having half a dozen fields stacked on top of each other.
A forest garden imitates each woodland layer, but uses more edible species. The garden floor is covered with fruit and vegetables, and above them, the shrub layer is equally abundant.
A bit higher up are the fruit trees, such as apples, pears, medlars (a fruit rather like the crab apple) and quinces.
And then there is the canopy where those trees that aren’t producing food are serving other essential functions such as recycling nutrients through their root system and leaf litter.
Some plants are selected primarily because they attract beneficial insects – hover flies, for example, which eat aphids – so no pesticides are needed.
Surely this requires endless attention and work?
‘Over a whole year, an average of one day a week,’ said Martin. ‘A lot of that is harvesting. In terms of maintenance, it’s about ten days a year.’ Compared to running a conventional farm, that is virtually nothing.
But how much food does it produce? ‘One designed for maximum yield could probably feed about ten people an acre,’ said Martin. That’s roughly double the number we can currently feed from an average acre of conventional arable farmland.
The thinking is that a host of vegetable plots, allotments and smallholdings that require a minimum of maintenance because they follow nature’s own design principles could make up for the loss of industrial-scale farms.
article in the Daily Mail
I wonder what I can do about permaculture in sweden
Loading ...
