Forest Gardening for Food, Land Stability, and community

We spend most of our time outdoors, gardening through all seasons, even winter. Our smallholding is home to a productive forest garden, an ecosystem of wild abundance where familiar fruits and vegetables thrive alongside little-known gems. Each element plays its part in the intricate web of life we have carefully nurtured.

Some time ago, we embarked on a journey towards self-reliance. In our early years, we cultivated typical crops using traditional methods. Over time, however, we began to yearn for something deeper, something more natural. That’s when we discovered forest gardening: an ancient practice of a wild yet guided woodland to meet our needs. Though forest gardens come in many forms, they all share a common thread, multiple layers of trees, shrubs, climbers, and tubers, woven together for productivity, diversity, and minimal intervention.

Within this living network, plants, fungi, insects, and animals interact symbiotically, enriching the soil, managing pests, and building resilience. The design ensures a steady supply of food, medicine, and materials all year round. Its seasonal abundance is not merely practical; it is comforting, like the embrace of family. Most of what we grow is long-lived, allowing us to develop meaningful relationships with the land itself.

A key benefit of a forest garden is its contribution to land stability and reducing flooding. Diverse root systems stabilise the soil, and dense planting intercepts rainfall, reducing runoff and erosion. In this way, our garden not only nurtures life but also protects fragile landscapes, contributing to the wider environmental resilience.

We have completely eliminated lawns, there is no room here for wasted space, and they offer little more than a hazard for instability. We rarely dig the soil, preferring instead to build it up with layers of garden waste and wood chip, materials graciously provided by locals as part of a mutually beneficial exchange. When visitors ask, “Where are your compost piles?” we smile and reply, “You’re standing on them.” Everything cycles back into the system, layered, broken down, and returned, leaving nothing to waste.

By stacking functions and integrating elements for positive exchanges, we aren’t merely working the land, we are merging with it. It is rather like surfing: positioning and timing are everything, when you catch the natural flow just right, there is no resistance or struggle, only the effortless ride of being in tune with nature. Once encountered, the enchantment of love forever transforms you, leaving no call to return.

Our main canopy trees include mulberries, walnuts, and hazels. Black mulberries grow abundantly around the animal enclosures, providing shade, forage, and fruit. All sorts of fruit trees are well spaced, ensuring ample light for a diverse array of understory crops.

Potato plants have naturalised throughout the garden. For a decade,  we have nurtured a self-sustaining cycle, small tubers remain in the soil at harvest, naturally regenerating a dense crop for the following season. A generous mulch after harvest feeds the soil life and suppresses most weeds until the next season.

Potatoes also serve as a staple feed for our animals. Cooked into a mash and mixed with dried stinging nettle, which provide balanced nutrition for our chickens and pigs. Nettles require minimal effort; a simple application of winter mulch encourages lush regrowth each season.  sorrel plants form a carpet of zesty leaves under pear trees near the animals, its resilience and ability to rejuvenate after cutting making it a favourite for both livestock and ourselves. A few self-sustaining onion patches here and there, an onion of sorts is never far away.  A close companion is the three-cornered leek,  which remarkably grows all winter long, offering mild-flavoured leaves as a winter green. Giant Elephant garlic thrives in deep woody mulches, its cloves often larger than a hens egg. It too endures the winter, sprouting from October and gracing the land with its presence. Come summer, tomatoes abound, so much so that we harvest over 200 litres of chopped tomatoes annually, which we then reduce to 100 litres of a rich, flavourful concentrate. Beans, squashes, and beetroots, some pickled, others fermented, round off our diverse crops. We press apples, grapes, and pears for fruit juices and preserve them using water bathing.

All these bounties find their way into our pantry, a cool, ventilated space dedicated to preserving food and beverages. It maintains low temperatures through solar powered cooling system or natural ventilation via night vents. The stored items themselves act as a thermal battery, providing cold storage during intermittent cooling periods. The repurposed lorry freezer body has been optimised for efficiency and multifunctional stacking.

We follow a Mediterranean style diet, one that supports long term health and longevity. Simple Meals often consist of mixed salads, hearty vegetables such as potatoes, squash, or beans, complemented by eggs, meat, or cheese. We  have learned to tune in to the natural rhythm of the land, where every element, plants, animals, fungi, and people, moves in concert. There is little need for forceful intervention when nature is allowed its course; it’s like catching a wave at the perfect moment, where once you’re in sync, the ride carries you effortlessly. 

Despite our efforts to re-wild ourselves,  we remain part of the modern world. This connection is essential, as it grounds us in our current reality and reminds us of the challenges we face. Rewilding demands a deliberate disentanglement from centralised systems and a renewed commitment to taking personal responsibility for meeting essential needs. In rewilding ourselves, we regain skills, knowledge, and practices that align with natural rhythms. We learn to act responsibly for our food, water, and energy needs working with natural processes rather than against them. In doing so, we cultivate resilience and local reliance, reducing our dependence on unsustainable, centralised systems.