After the success of the Permaculture course at the Dunhill eco-centre I returned to Tramore at the weekend to deliver a talk on edible forest gardens organised by Transition Towns
Tramore.
More than 60 people turned up, many of them experienced gardeners, and it was interesting to find their response was good to the idea of the forest garden.
I included a slide of Robert Hart and this quote from him concerning his vision of reforesting the land by people planting useful tree crops in their gardens throughout the suburbs:
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…
Many suburban areas have beautiful and well cared-for ornamental gardens with considerable diversity of trees, shrubs, climbers, and perennials and i often often wonder how much food could be produced in such places if that same enthusiasm and energy was put into edible and useful plants.
I also mentioned the traditional Mayan forest gardens that evolved over perhaps long periods of time to consist primarily of edible and useful plants favoured by the inhabitants. This was not a deliberate designed process but one that took place by human selection of plants most useful to them. There is some interesting information about this here.
The Transition group in Tramore is vibrant and dynamic, this being their third event in a series since the summer. Some of the group have recently attended the first Skilling Up for Powerdown Trainers Training in Cultivate.
In the morning I was taken on a tour of the town to consider possibilities for edible landscaping, and shown the community garden at the Quakers’ Meeting House which is used as an educational garden for schoolchildren.
