Robert Hart and food forests.

Food forest diagram

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Hart (horticulturist)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Robert Hart pictured in his forest garden, July 1997

Robert Hart's forest garden in Shropshire, England

Robert A de J Hart (1 April 1913 – 7 March 2000) was the pioneer of forest gardening in the UK.

Robert A de J Hart began his forest garden project at Wenlock Edge in Shropshire on the Welsh borders in the early 1960s with the intention of providing a healthy and therapeutic environment for himself and his brother Lacon, who was born with severe learning disabilities. Although starting as a relatively conventional smallholder, Robert A de J Hart soon discovered that maintaining large annual vegetable beds, rearing livestock and taking care of anorchard were tasks beyond his strength. However, he also observed that a small bed of perennial vegetables and herbs he had planted was looking after itself with little or no intervention. Furthermore, these plants provided interesting and unusual additions to the diet, and seemed to promote health and vigour in both body and mind.

Noting the maxim of Hippocrates to “make food your medicine and medicine your food”, Robert adopted a vegan, 90% raw food diet. He also began to examine the interactions and relationships that take place between plants in natural systems, particularly in woodland, the climax eco-system of a cool temperate region such as the British Isles. This led him to evolve the concept of the ‘Forest Garden’: Based on the observation that the natural forest can be divided into distinct layers or ‘storeys’, he developed an existing small orchard of apples and pears into an edible landscape consisting of seven dimensions;

1. A ‘canopy’ layer consisting of the original mature fruit trees.
2. A ‘low-tree’ layer of smaller nut and fruit trees on dwarfing root stocks.
3. A ‘shrub layer’ of fruit bushes such as currants and berries.
4. A ‘herbaceous layer’ of perennial vegetables and herbs.
5. A ‘ground cover’ layer of edible plants that spread horizontally.
6. A ‘rhizosphere’ or ‘underground’ dimension of plants grown for their roots and tubers.
7. A vertical ‘layer’ of vines and climbers.

Hart's vision of the spread of the forest garden is summarised in the following quote;

Obviously, few of us are in a position to restore the forests.. But tens of millions of us have gardens, or access to open spaces such as industrial wastelands, where trees can be planted. and if full advantage can be taken of the potentialities that are available even in heavily built up areas, new ‘city forests’ can arise...

My food forest part 1 with pictures

So it's March and there is snow on the ground off and on. Today was unusually warm, so me and two of my kiddos started prepping for our second faze of our food forest.

What took me a several weeks to get done last summer/fall I've already done today. I used my most favorite garden tool, my handy digging fork and loosened a 10 x 15 area. I have oh so much more to do but it felt so good to be out, working hard in my dirt.

In a week I need all my loosening done. I have a 12 yard screened topsoil, mulch mix coming. I will do my sheet mulching and prep most of the beds with a cover crop. (In between the snow/melting) Here is a quick walk around at my current yard. From front yard, left side yard, and my back yard looking towards my prepped food forest from last fall, and lastly in the corner my current annual garden beds with grapes in the back and two espelir apple trees against my house.

In the next month I will have trees and shrubs to plant. I'm thinking a black locust, peach, cherry tree base to my food forest. We love both peaches and cherries and the black locust is a nitrogen fixing tree that's pods can be ground for forage for animals.

In May I will plant all those little plants growing in my basement. Voila my food forest part 1 will be well on it's way.

Dirt! The Movie.

Living, breathing dirt. What you think of as precious or wealth may change. One hour and twenty minutes of valuable information.

My basement worm farm

It was several months back that I went to my local walmart and picked up two opaque plastic 55 gallon tubs. I proceeded to drill dozens of holes in the top, and sides of one of the tubs. Which I then filled with shredded paper, cardboard, paper egg cartons, well rotted vegetables and a small bit of garden soil. All was moist. In the other tub I placed two empty 10# cans for spacers and placed the other hole ridden tub on top of it. A week or so later my red worms came. I placed them inside the tub full of trash and boom there is my worm farm.

Suffice it to say my husband was extremely grossed out with my new pets, just in the unfinished part of his domain. Which of course is the entire basement which includes the family room minus a tiny spot he has generously let our three kids have some toys in after much persuasion on my part.

Here is our worm farm conversation; [so funny I can say that.]

"Mom's getting us pets Dad!" My little 4 and 2 year old say My 7 year old is silent. She knows it's not in our best interest to share that information with him. 

"Really!!!" He says eyeing me with a 'what are they talking about smile, we are not pet people.' 

"Worms. We feed them our rotten food Dad." the words burst from my 4 year though she herself is wearing a grossed out face. My 2 year old and 7 year are smiling happily. They all love anything I say is good for us and our garden. ;) 

"No way we are not having worms." He replies to the kids. In a very firm tone. Their faces take a stricken look. "Oh that's disgusting Bran, it's going to smell like rotten food. You can't have them." He informs me then, in an exasperated and slightly offended tone. 

The conversation goes on, only horribly wrong for me. He's very admit that we will NEVER have any worms INSIDE our house.

It's barley January when we have this conversation. I never thought to ask permission. It's just worms. The snows are pretty heavy at this point and well, no, the worms can't go outside. So I just drop the subject. I had already bought the tubs and prepared them. I couldn't quite bring myself to tell him the whole truth, the worms were on their way already. I'd just have to ask for forgiveness when and if - he finds out. So as the weeks past we got our package of worms and I plopped them in the box. I tell my children that Dad doesn't like the worms so don't talk to him about them.

About a month later my husband informs me every time he opens the unfinished basement door that my 4 year old tells him we should "feed our worms" or "the worms don't like light". Even my 2 year old is in on ratting me out she tells dad about "mommy's babies" or "wurm fahm" yep that's her way of telling him we've got a worm farm just 15 feet from his television.

But nope it doesn't smell. And since HE doesn't actually have to feed them he doesn't mind. It's not work for him and he could nearly forget because in the unfinished basement most of our tubs look the same. He still thinks it is gross, and now my 7 year old does too! But my 4 and 2 year old pile their uneaten green waste like soy bean pods (beans already eaten) and lettuce leaves proudly into the tubs. We're "feeding mommies babies" after all.

Hope you enjoyed that little tidbit. Life is a little too funny not to share some days.

Our composting IS going awesome. It's been three months now. The worms are healthy, I'm not sure you can kill them really. They are just too easy. Our kitchen waste is so much less; with the greens going into the worm farm, recycling [in which I myself have to drive to a recycling center] our trash has dramatically reduced by 60% or more.

Three fold soil composting;

1. Worm farm [rotted green waste from our garden/fridge, pet waste]
2. Compost tumbler [waste that cannot be used in the worm farm and the pets won't eat]
3. Pet's eating our fresh green waste [unfinished vegetables and such, their waste and bedding going into the worm farm]