Forest Garden Design Workshop

In 2017, 54% of our fossil fuel use in New Zealand has been used to produce, transport and store food.  Reducing this number is a way to do our part for the environment and to invest in food security.  Any food you grow at home starts this most excellent trend.  Forest Gardens or food forests (two names for the same thing), when designed well for your climate, produce the most food per square meter of any gardening system with no need for fossil fuel based fertilisers, machinery or trucking.

Just because a grocery store capsicum looks deep red, big and blemish free, doesn’t mean it is high in nutrition, or free of dyes or harmful pesticide residue.  When you design a proper forest garden, you imbed systems to:

-get sufficient sunlight for each crop to ripen

-grow fruits, veggies and nuts that are nutrient dense

-provide habitat for friendly insects to keep the pest damage to a tolerable level

and as Edible Forest Garden author Dave Jacke says,

” -mimic forest ecosystem structure and function to grow food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, “farmaceuticals,” and fun.”

During this one day workshop, we’ll cover the design fundamentals of forest gardens for the Bay of Plenty.  You’ll do a sample design with the help of your tutors.  You’ll leave the day with your design to refer to and the calculations and support materials to get started designing a successful forest garden for your own BOP home, school, community garden or organisation.  Your tutor is Catherine Dunton-McLeod, who has studied forest garden design with Kay Baxter and is continually inspired by Martin Crawford and Dave Jacke.

We have room for 12 participants.  Please bring pens, paper and a lunch as there are no restaurants close by.  Teas and coffees provided. Dress for walking in the paddock, the classroom is a shoes-off zone and you might want a small pillow for our environmentally friendly but slightly hard chairs.