Forest gardens are food-producing systems which seek to emulate natural woodland ecosystems as closely as possible. They consist of mainly perennial plants which are agriculturally productive or useful, growing as they would in the wild. Forest gardening, or something equivalent, has existed for thousands of years. From Sri Lanka to the native cultures of America, tribes of humans have gardened the forest, creating intimate patchworks of highly diverse and productive clearings. These systems mimicked natural ecosystems, growing many species of edible and useful plants together. In contrast to this picture of diverse wild systems, current agricultural methods are often unsustainable because of their dependency on non-renewable resources.
Courses on Forest Gardening will introduce you to the key concepts in forest gardening and the core considerations in designing sustainable systems that create multiple yields. Courses also explore how the concept of forest gardening is evolving, in part from the desire to create a system focusing on food crops, but also looking towards a way for us to live in balance, as part of the whole.