Forest Garden Online Design Course
Following on from the hugely popular series of courses last year, we would like to offer these courses again.
INTRODUCTION: How to design a forest garden – Sat 8th and Sun 9th May 2021
FULL DESIGN COURSE: An easy step by step guide to designing your own forest garden – Thu 11, 18, 25 May, 1, 8, 15, 22, 29th June
Imagine your garden or community space looking as lovely as a woodland edge. Imagine that on top of looking wonderfully wild, it produces an abundance of nutrient dense food and will ultimately need very little digging, weeding, manual watering or pest control – all in harmony with animals and other beings (eco friendly and vegan). This is ‘an edible forest garden’.Forest gardening is a way of growing food where nature does most of the work for you. Modelled on natural woodland, crops are grown in different layers from high and medium sized canopy to roots, ground cover and climbers. And its not just food and medicine you will get from the forest garden, there are many more yields.Through careful planning plants are chosen which have beneficial effects on each other, attract beneficial insects and create a healthy biodiverse rich system that maintains its own fertility. Once established, your main task will be harvesting!
====== WHAT TO EXPECT =======
This workshop is in 2 parts
The first part gives you the tools you need to design your own forest garden.
The second part will give you an opportunity to design your own place with the help of others. You will also learn how to implement your designs.
=== RECORDINGS ===
All sessions will be recorded, so if you miss a day it will be easy to catch up
====== WHAT TO EXPECT – INTRODUCTION ======——
How to design a forest garden ——Sat 8th and Sun 9th May 20219am to 2pm (including 2 or 3 breaks)
This section of the course you will learn about the basics of designing a forest garden.
You will get to understand
– What a forest garden is
– What kinds of yields can you get from it (food or otherwise)
– How to select the right plants for your environment
– Where to place them to ensure they thrive
– How to ensure you have the right nutrients cycling to ensure good crops
– History of forest gardening
– Why make a food forest
– Layout of a forest garden
– Making multi-functional pathways
– Creating abundance and resilience
– Low maintenance food growing
– Patterns in nature for forest gardens
– Understanding and maximising edge
YOU CAN ATTEND JUST THE FIRST 2 SESSIONS AS A STAND ALONE COURSE
====== WHAT TO EXPECT – FOREST GARDEN DESIGN ======
—— A step by step guide to designing your own forest garden ——
This is mainly for people who want to make a real forest garden design (their own or help someone else). This course is well suited for people working together to design a community forest garden.
During this part you will
– Make maps and gather the right information to make a design
– Identify your and/or your communities needs and needs of the land
– Learn how to implement your designs (where to start)
– Make a succession plan (how the forest garden grows and matures by itself)
– Design how you get yield from year one
– Think about any maintenance
– Think about how you harvest your yields
– Water management
– Tree and plant guilds
– We will also discuss how to work well with other people in a community project
====== LEAD FACILITATOR ======
The course will be led by Rakesh “Rootsman Rak” – experienced Permaculture designer, teacher and Forest Garden specialist, yoga teacher and homeopath. He has been growing food since he was a child, and has been designing and teaching edible landscaping, permaculture, forest gardening, etc since 2009. Rakesh has designed and implemented forest gardens from small-scale private gardens and schools, to farms, community gardens, communal nature gardens, as well as designing a forest garden on part of a 30-hectare ecovillage in Croatia.
====== COURSE COSTS ======
We want this course to be accessible to all and are therefore working in a conscious contribution system, inviting you to pay what you can afford towards meeting the needs of the facilitator(s). We therefore invite those who can pay more to help those who cannot afford as much.Please contact us if you have any questions about this.Suggested contributions for the 2 day introduction
Between £30 and £100Suggested contributions for the 8 day design course + 2 day introduction
Between £150 to £400If you cannot afford this then PLEASE get in touch and we will work something out that is mutually beneficial.
====== REGISTRATION ======
To register for this course, please click on the ticket section below and fill in the form (make sure you hit the submit button, after which you will get an email confirmation). If you do not get an email confirmation, have any difficulty filling it in or have any questions please feel free to contact Rakesh