Description
A Food Forest in your Garden
£19.95 – free postage ISBN: 978 1 85623 299 9
This book condenses all my experience of how to do forest gardening in a cool climate or small garden into one volume, with 180 pages of plant profiles and chapters on
– Understanding forest gardens
– Designing a forest garden
– Implementing a forest garden
– Maintaining a forest garden
– Cooking and eating from forest gardens
Topics include how to source and propagate forest garden plants, a practical guide to rolling out and adapting a plan in various situations, how to get the most from plants through pruning, how to design to avoid weed problems in the future, how to make sure that your food forest stays accessible at all times of year and, most important of all, methods of cooking the produce. I explain forest gardening principles such as ‘the more you pick, the more you get’, the Panda Principle and how the forest gardening year works.
If you would like your copy signed, please say so and tell me any dedication text you would like in the Additional Information box on the checkout page.
Outside the UK you will have to pay any VAT on books in your country on receipt. There may also be an additional charge depending on the country. You might find it easier to buy from a local or large online retailer. Many countries have a rate below which customs duties will not be charged and one book is usually less than this but multiple copies may cross the threshold.
It’s great to see a forest gardening book written with Scottish conditions in mind. This is one of the best recent books I’ve read aimed at smaller-scale forest gardens too, and is especially good with its coverage of the many herbaceous crops it is possible to grow.
Martin Crawford
Alan walks us through the theory and reality of creating a food forest, whatever the size of our plot. As the processes and delights of creating a home garden unfold, we are guided by useful observations and practical information. The directory of forest garden plants is an eye-opener and has me rethinking so many plants I’ve dismissed in the past. I wish I’d read this book before creating our first food forest!
Liz Zorab, Byther Farm
This is the book we in the North have been waiting for, as Alan Carter has a realistic understanding of the climate. He comes up with a remarkable range of edible plants that will ‘do’ and all the techniques needed to get them established, making a British forest garden seem wholly desirable and possible.
Fi Martynoga, editor of Scotland’s Wild Harvests
Neatly contained in Alan’s timely book is the knowledge to achieve greater productivity from your plot for many aspiring gardeners. You will view ‘untidy’ and ‘weedy’ gardens very differently after studying it, and see the role of tree fruit in a more important light. I thoroughly recommend it!
Andrew Lear, Appletreeman Nursery
Clare Gould –
I can’t recall how I first happened across Alan’s blog “Of Plums and Pignuts” – but it has been a much used resource for me – food gardening as I do in a shady damp garden in frequently cloudy North Lancashire. I particularly appreciate the way Alan presents the information on his plant trials, and reports on the failures as well as the successes, which is very useful when considering what might work a bit further south and west.
I originally trained in plant ecology and for years was frustrated by wishful thinking permaculturists who seemed to be in denial about the light levels we high latitude gardeners work with… Alan’s years of methodical work have gone a long way to plugging that gap – I look forward to getting my hands on a copy of the book.
Natalie R Manor –
I just preordered your book and can’t wait to get it.
Be well and be safe. Thank you, Natalie
Alan –
Great. I hope you enjoy it 🙂
VKPMOR –
Am inordinately pleased to have come across Alan’s blog.
As a relative beginner, with a small allotment plot in London, and an interest in cultivating the land I have access to in a more interesting and sustainable way, the blog and book are really very satisfying on many levels – the information, the perspectives, the experience, the authenticity of the prose and so on.
Note : my ” slightly damaged copy ” of book direct from Alan’s website was as perfect as “new” .
Alan –
Thanks Vijay 🙂
Jake Rayson –
This is a fantastic book, simulatenously practical and written from experience, and also both entertaining and encouraging. One of my top recommended forest garden books, thank you 🙂
Sheila (verified owner) –
So happy to have discovered you…now awaiting your book