Forest gardens are one of the most sustainable and regenerative ways of growing edible crops. They have grown in popularity in temperate climates over the past 20 years. This course is designed to help you both start designing a forest garden according to your needs and to look at uses of possible produce.
Many people feel unsure or deskilled when it comes to cooking and processing unusual vegetables and fruits; this course will give you knowledge and confidence to start cooking and experimenting with more unusual crops that you may wish to include in a forest garden design.
Tutors include the world expert Martin Crawford, founder and director of The Agroforestry Research Trust (whose 25 year old forest garden is on the Dartington Estate) and leading permaculturalist Caroline Aitken of Patrick Whitfield Associates.
The course will involve a tour of the Schumacher College Forest garden which is in its early stage of development and a close look at its design. Tours of Martin Crawford’s established and pioneering forest garden at Dartington, a tour of his younger forest garden and pioneering forest garden greenhouse, a nut trial site, and hands on harvesting, preserving and cooking of some forest garden produce with Caroline Aitken.
This is an exciting opportunity to experience edible ecosystems at different stages of development and with differing emphases and to learn about gathering and using the harvest with expert practitioners and joint authors of Food from your Forest Garden.
What will you gain from taking part in this course?
• Learn what a forest garden is
• Experience forest gardens of different sizes and ages with agroforestry and permaculture experts
• Gain practical knowledge and confidence to cook and experiment using your crops
• Learn and take part in harvesting and preserving produce
This courses is for you if you are a:
• Gardener wanting to learn about more sustainable systems
• Permaculture practitioner
• Agroforestry practitioner
A proportion of your course fee will go directly towards supporting the work of the Schumacher horticulture team
*The Booking Deadline gives us an accurate idea of course participant numbers at approximately 6 weeks before the course is due to run, at which point we confirm the course, add additional time for people to book on or cancel the course. We encourage people to register early for courses as places are limited.
Martin is Director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a non-profit-making charity that researches into temperate agroforestry and all aspects of plant cropping and uses, with a focus on tree, shrub and perennial crops. It produces several publications and a quarterly journal, and sells plants and seeds from its forest gardens (link is external). He is a director of ‘Gaia’, a Trust formed by James Lovelock to further his work.
He has had broad and varied horticultural/agricultural experience over the last 25 years – he has worked for the Yarner Trust in North Devon, teaching small-scale organic agriculture; grown food for a small hotel on the Isle of Iona; restored the walled gardens of a manor house in mid-Devon; and run his own organic market garden and tree nursery in South Devon. Martin writes books and edits a quarterly journal, Agroforestry News. His book Creating a Forest Garden – the forest gardening ‘bible’ – was published in 2010. His other books include Cherries: Production and Culture, Directory of Apple Cultivars, Directory of Pear Cultivars, Peaches and Apricots, Plums: Production, Culture and Cultivar Directory, Currants and Gooseberries, Blackberries and Raspberries, Chestnuts: Production and Culture, Hazelnuts: Production and Culture, Walnuts: Production and Culture, Bamboos, Ground Cover Plants, Nitrogen-fixing Plants for Temperate Climates, Timber Trees for Temperate Climates, Edible Plants for Temperate Climates,Useful Plants for Temperate Climates, Plants for Hedging, Plants for Basketry, Bee Plants and Dye Plants. His latest book, How to Grow Perennial Vegetables , was published in 2012.
Caroline is a permaculture teacher and runs Whitefield Permaculture design consultancy. She teaches and speaks at venues around the UK and is passionate about soil regeneration, agroecology and healthy, sustainable food. She has previously worked in horticulture, small-scale farming, green catering, illustration and design.
Caroline currently lives on a smallholding with her family on the edge of Dartmoor, Devon where they produce fruit, vegetables, honey, eggs and firewood for their home. She trained and worked with Patrick Whitefield (author of The Earth Care Manual) for several years and co-authored Food From Your Forest Garden with Martin Crawford.
Jane graduated in Medical Sciences at Cambridge University in 1990 and spent over ten years working within the field of mental health. She also studied theology, looking at religion and mental health. 20 years ago she started gardening and soon was completely hooked. “I was simply bowled over by plants and how endless fascinating they are”. She studied and worked at Royal Botanic Gardens Kew for three years and then taught Horticulture at Hadlow College. Jane ran the Schumacher Gardens and Practical residency in sustainable Horticulture at Schumacher College for 7 years and is now teaching short courses in Sustainable horticulture and food production.
If you would like to book onto one of our short courses, you will need to create an account. This is a simple process of choosing a username, email address and password. Once you have created an account you will receive a verification email. Please click on the verification link within to have full access to the site and to make your booking. (You may need to check your spam folder if you do not see this email.) We will email you confirmation of your payment and any further communication about your course application.
Residential accommodation for "Changing the Frame" is at Higher Close, a 20 minute walk from Schumacher College. All meals will be provided at the college.
A place can not be guaranteed unless we receive your deposit or payment on your chosen course. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please do this before making your course application.
Short Course Bursaries create an opportunity for an individual to experience the powerful transformative learning by joining a course that assists the participant to inspire their wider community and benefits from the participant’s own unique contribution. It is our hope that our bursaries support a wide cross section of participation on our short course programme. The number of bursaries available is limited, competition is strong and funding is not always available for every short course. Please be aware that most bursaries are in the region of 10% – 20% of the course fee so please be prepared to raise funding from other sources. A bursary award is not intended to cover travel or incidental expenses.
Applications are viewed on a case-by-case basis and we are unable to enter into discussions on any decisions. We generally have many more applications for bursaries than we have funding available. We can only offer one bursary per person per year and priority is given to those who have not attended the college or received a bursary before. To help us support as many people as possible, please only apply if you would be unable to attend the course without a bursary.
How to apply for a bursary
NB: Please do not pay your deposit for the course yet. Any applications received where a deposit has been paid will be rejected and the deposit refunded.
Six weeks before the course is due to start all bursary applications will be considered and responded to. If successful you will be required to accept our Bursary Terms and Conditions.
Please answer the following:
Please be prepared to supply an appropriate reference in support of your application.
We follow ecological cycles as much as possible. Much of the food is grown in the five and half acre agroforestry field – in a system of alley cropping and in the developing forest garden. The field also has fruit trees and bushes; young nut trees; a flock of pasture fed poultry; two wild life ponds, a craft and pollinator garden and a hazel and willow coppice.
Other areas include two herb gardens; four polytunnels; a perennial no dig vegetable garden and several fruit areas. We compost our garden and kitchen waste for use on site, and use green manures for fertility building.
Our students find their time engaging with food growing, and all it entails, a truly transformative time. Our gardens are as much about nurturing people as plants, and hundreds of students have found the contact with the land and soil to be a rich learning journey.
Integral to the College’s international learning community, you will get to know students, staff and volunteers through daily meetings and shared activities. There is also a diverse programme of events and evening talks, offered by college residents, visiting teachers and local experts.
Admission Enquiries
Email us: admissions@dartington.org