Blog on Nature Works

As part of my online forest garden course, I’ve been looking at how to use a screenshot of a satellite photo as the basis of a forest garden plan.

Despite my ambivalence toward aesthetics, a pretty picture can connect a wildlife forest garden with a wider audience Whilst designing a small wildlife forest garden for some clients in London, I was searching for information about the Teasel on the RHS p…

I’m in the middle of writing the slideshow script for the forest garden online course, and I thought somebody might be interested in my recording setup, particularly if you’d like to create a course yourself. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/recording-…

Handy reference for finding out what scientific plant names mean, via The Seed Site The Seed Site has a great list of the meaning of Latin plant names. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/meaning-latin-plant-names/

Links to the State of Nature report 2019 from the British Trust for Ornithology @_BTO.

A forest garden is a niche that falls between “traditional” gardening disciplines In my previous life as web designer, I attended the leftfield tech conference dConstruct back in 2012. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/inter-disciplinary-forest-garden/

Do you know how many bugs the Common Oak supports?

I gave a talk to Llangwm Gardening Club about The Smaller Forest Garden.

I like being in forest gardens & living places.

I’m in transition to perennial vegetables but whatever the crop, it is easy to be overwhelmed by vegetables!

A bird’s eye view of my approach to designing a forest garden, in the form of a slideshow and screencast I’ve been asking friends and colleagues for feedback about what would make a good online course for forest gardening. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/b…

Bruce Slark has been growing a forest garden for nigh on 20 years and his talk at Moylgrove Hall was full of tasty nuggets Bruce’s talk on his well-established forest garden at Moylgrove Hall was very interesting, particularly because it is well-establish…

Time to redirect my politically charged radical sentiments elsewhere methinks You might have noticed a bit of heat being generated about Brexit recently. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/more-less-politics/

Gardening for others is so much more rewarding, particularly when you know their names Benjamin Vogt’s @BRVogt article Native Plants, Racism, & the Colonizing Nature of Garden Language is thought provoking stuff. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/wildli…

I’m switching my work to concentrate on wildlife and forest garden design, with a view to an online course next year.

Creating wildlife habitat in a farm garden I’m very lucky to be working on a large farm garden in Pembrokeshire. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/hawthorn-all-the-way/

Does your nursery use peat-free compost?

Using peat-based compost contributes to the destruction of wildlife habitats and the release of vast amounts of greenhouse gases.

Every garden is dynamic, changing over time.

Other work in my life has meant a slow down in the forest garden but the trees still grow and the wildlife prospers.

Clare Flynn ran a fantastic wildlife recording workshop at The People’s Orchard in St Dogmaels, here are my notes to my future self West Wales Biodiversity Information Centre (WWBIC), made up of Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion & Carmarthen. https://www.naturewo…

Involving people in the creation of wildlife habitat in public spaces whilst simultaneously providing a harvest is a way to focus minds on our existential environmental threats We need to protect and restore our wildlife whilst dramatically reducing our G…

Inspired by Malcolm Berry’s talk, here’s a simple checklist of invaluable features for your wildlife-friendly garden Inspired by Malcolm Berry’s wildlife gardening talk to Drefach Gardening Club, here is a simple list of features that benefit wildlife in…

If you create any wildlife friendly space, a forest garden included, care is required to design it well, so as to maximise the benefits.

The “traditional” way of clearing the ground is to use sheet mulch.

Using a satellite photo as the basis for your forest garden plan is a good and quick way of creating an approximate plan without having to measure out in the field.

A simple checklist for anyone interested in setting up a Community Food Forest (AKA Community Forest Garden) Someone on the Forest Garden UK group on Facebook is setting up a Community Food Forest in Middlesborough. https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/com…

A fedge (or dead hedge) can have many uses, one of which is as a support for scrambling soft fruit like the Tayberry.

These nifty plant labels keep on expanding with a growing branch, and are easy to make from old plastic milk bottles.

A step-by-step guide to establishing a living ground cover: to protect the soil, create a habitat for wildlife and provide you with a harvest.

This is the CAD plan for the Ornamental Forest Garden The Ornamental Forest Garden (OFG) plan is based on a satellite photo, so it should be more accurate than the Forest Garden One, which is based on a digital Ordnance Survey map. https://www.natureworks…

This is the CAD plan for Forest Garden One This is the latest version of the forest garden plan for what is unaffectionately known as Forest Garden One (I had a mental block with names that day). https://www.natureworks.org.uk/blog/forest-garden-plan-pgi/

A forest garden works with nature to grow edible crops, which is why it’s good for climate change.

The itinerary for my forest garden tours and workshops, with a link to a “live” page that will be kept up-to-date.

Now is always a good time to start propagating ground cover plants for a forest garden, indeed any garden.

Advice on how to set up a website for an organisation, as promised to Teresa Filipponi at the Hub Cymru Africa permaculture event at Botanic Garden Wales!

Both of my apple grafts from The People’s Orchard workshop have taken!

These are some of my favourite flowers, simple but colourful flowers, adding a splash of nectar, pollen & colour to that verdant forest garden green I like forest gardens, obviously.

Forest gardening is not a “style”, rather it is a practical and considerate way of gardening, and its beauty is drawn from necessity.

There’s still time to make a bird nesting box for your garden.

The gaps between tree canopies should be about ¼ to ½ of the average tree canopy diameter.

A daily rambling about the plan for a wildflower meadow at Forest Garden Wales.

In a rekindling of my daily weblog format, here’s some thoughts about some really important things.

A small garden can be a forest garden, and this is a peek into how I approach a small forest garden design.

Orchards need pollinators, which in turn need particular help in spring.

The majority of Forest Garden Wales workshops & tours are on Airbnb, with monthly discount slots on Facebook/Eventbrite.

The first stage of the Ornamental Forest Garden is complete and there are large gaps about the place.

Reading about the Kordia sweet black cherry, I remembered my notes saying black was the least favourite fruit colour of birds In descending order of attractiveness: Purple Red Orange Black (mulberries) Not sure where Martin Crawford sourced this informati…

You have 3 minutes to advise someone starting a forest garden—what are the most important things?

A quick reference for the multiple layers of a forest garden, because I can only ever remember 3 of them (see my logo)… @AgroforestryT has a definition of forest gardening and helpfully lists the “seven layers” of a forest garden: https://www.natureworks.…