"Dutch" <no@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:UDQrk.209292$gc5.82940@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >> We're not saints, we're animals. The world is dense
> >> with living organisms, we can't avoid killing them,
> >> our species is in competition with them. Don't torture
> >> animals, don't act with callous disregard for them.
> >> Try to act in ways that protect the environment,
> >> sup****t and advocate for ways to improve conditions
> >> for animals.
'SEVEN STOREYS OF ABUNDANCE; A VISIT TO ROBERT
HART'S FOREST GARDEN
Following the Permaculture Design Course run by 'Naturewise' in the
Spring 1997, a group of graduates decided to visit what has been
described as possibly the only fully developed working Permaculture
site in the UK, Robert Hart's Forest Garden.
Situated at Wenlock Edge on the Welsh borders, Robert began the
project over thirty years ago with the intention of providing a healthy
and therapuetic environment for himself and his brother Lacon, born
with severe learning disabilities.
Starting as relatively conventional smallholders, Robert soon discovered
that maintaining large annual vegetable beds, rearing livestock and taking
care of an orchard were tasks beyond their strength. However, he also
observed that a small bed of perennial vegetables and herbs they had
planted up was looking after itself with little or no intervention.
Furthermore, these plants provided interesting and unusual additions to
the diet, as well as seeming 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 relation****ps 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;
I) 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.
[illustration -
The Forest Garden: A Seven Level Beneficial Guild
1. Canopy (large fruit and nut trees)
2. Low tree layer (dwarf fruit trees)
3. Shrub layer (currants and berries)
4. Herbaceous (comfreys, beets, herbs)
5. Rhizosphere (root vegetables)
6. Soil surface (ground cover, eg. strawberry, etc)
7. Vertical layer (climbers, vines) ]
Stepping into the Forest Garden is like entering another world. All
around is lushness and abundance, a sharp contrast to the dust bowl
aridity of the surrounding prairie farmed fields and farmlands. At
first the sheer profusion of growth is bewildering, like entering a
wild wood. We're not used to productive landscapes appearing so
disorderly. But it doesn't take long for the true harmony of nature's
systems to reveal themselves, and the realisation sinks in that in fact
it is the Agribiz monocultures, with their heavy machinery, genetic
manipulation, erosion, high water inputs, pesticides and fertilisers
which are in a total state of maintained chaos. Whereas hectares of
land may produce bushel after bushel of but one crop, genetically
degraded and totally vulnerable to ever more virulent strains of pest
and disease without the dubious protection of massive chemical
inputs, just an eighth of an acre of a garden such as Robert's can
output a tremendous variety of yields. Whilst too early in the year for
the apples, plums and pears beginning to swell in the trees, we were
surrounded by gluts of black, red and whitecurrants, gooseberries,
raspberries and loganberries; as well as a profusion of saladings
such as sorrel, lovage, tree-onions, wild garlic, borage, lemon balm
and many other herbs.
Foraging a meal for the nine of us was an extremely enjoyable task,
not like work at all. Robert, a gentle and erudite man, yet possessed
of a great clarity of purpose, joined us for our campfire feast. As we
sat and chatted into the evening he explained his motivations and
hopes for the future. Of his plans to expand the original Forest Garden,
and his dream of a network of such gardens covering not only Britain
but the world, bringing an abundance of natural food, and healing to
both peoplekind and the planet. He spoke of his philosophical
inspiration by figures as diverse as John Seymour, Ghandi, Kropotkin
and Kagawa; of the antecedents of the Forest Garden such as the
'home gardens' of Kerala, where most of the land is covered with
productive trees; and later sang us songs that he used to share with
his late brother Lacon, including those of murdered Chilean land and
human rights campaigner Victor Jara.
This was a magical evening, an illustration that perhaps the primary
forces within the Forest Garden are of spirituality and peace. Whilst
being highly productive of nuts, fruits, fresh perennial vegetables
and medicinal herbs, the most im****tant yield of this place is the
reminder that there is much more to how we find sustenance as
human beings than what we consume, than looking at our sources
of nourishment purely in terms of net tonnes per hectare. The
forest garden is an idea whose time has come.
"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..."
(Robert
A.de J.Hart)
GRAHAM BURNETT
Taken from VOHAN News International, issue 2, available from
'Anandavan
http://www.spiralseed.co.uk/forestgarden/page2.html
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