CONTENT:
Imagine your garden looking as lovely as a woodland edge, which produces an abundance of nutrient dense food and will ultimately need very little digging, weeding, manual watering or pest control - ‘an edible forest garden’.

Forest gardening is a way of growing food where nature does most of the work for you. Modelled on natural woodland, crops are grown in different layers from high and medium sized canopy to roots, ground cover and climbers.

Through careful planning plants are chosen which have beneficial effects on each other, attract beneficial insects and create a healthy biodiverse rich system that maintains its own fertility. Once established, your main task will be harvesting!

This workshop will give you the tools you need to design your own forest garden. You will learn about its history, its benefits, and soil fertility, nutrients, valuing diversity, surveying and map making, observing and learning from nature, how to place the right plant in the right place.

We will apply the theory as we go to the land around us, co-creating a forest garden onsite.

** 2 day Introduction Sat and Sunday
- History of forest gardening
- Why make a food forest
- Layout of a forest garden
- How to ensure your food forest has enough nutrients
- Multifunctional pathways
- Creating abundance and resilience
- Low maintenance food growing
- Patterns in nature for forest gardens
- Understanding and maximising edge
- Site tour

** 3 day Intensive Design and Practical Monday to Wednesday
- Creating your personal detailed designs or creating and implementing a design for the host site
- Water management
- Succession planning
- Implementation plans
- Tree and plant guilds
- Practical work (depending on the design we can make Earth-works, Water management, Pathways;, Sheet-mulching beds, etc)

REGISTRATION
https://goo.gl/qys7Nt

Edible forest gardening is the art and science of putting plants together in woodland-like patterns that forge mutually beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is more than the sum of its parts. You can grow fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, other useful plants, and animals in a way that mimics natural ecosystems. The aim is to create a low input, high output system that benefits people and the environment, providing a great range of products. A forest garden is designed and established according to site and the needs of the client.

Full rate, includes all meals - £160 to £200 (Sliding scale - pay what you can afford according to your income).
Concessions: £140 (limited to 3 places)

Camping fee £6 per person per night

Food: 3 fab meals a day will be provided as well as hot/cold drinks, food is always nutritious & delicious, vegetarian and fresh – using organic produce grown at karuna whenever possible.

At karuna you will be able to see & learn from examples of forest gardens that have been establishing over some years and see Permaculture in action all around you.

The course will assist participants to visualize, plan establish and continue to maintain, harvest and learn from a forest garden, be it at home or on someone else's land such as a community garden, school garden, etc.

Course outline The basic 2-day course will cover:
· Benefits of forest gardening
· Site selection and design
· Integration of Permaculture principles and design process
· Species selection
· Plant propagation
· Site preparation, establishment and maintenance; harvesting
· Processing of produce
· Integration with other farm and garden systems

The concept of Syntropic Agriculture was devised by the Swiss/Brazilian researcher and botanist Ernst Gotsch from what is broadly known in Brazil as successional agroforestry. Syntropic Agriculture aims to produce food, timber and fibre through a process based agriculture with minimal external inputs and without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The aim is to build resources such as water, topsoil and biodiversity as we produce our food. Syntropic Agriculture has been proving to be financially viable and effective in many climates and biomes.
Participants will learn:
The history and principles of successional/syntropic agroforestry,
How to implement and manage those systems,
How to choose where to implement these systems in their properties,
How to harmonise these systems with nature's patterns (sun, winds, topography, local flora, etc.),
How to choose appropriate plant consortiums to each stage and soil condition of the system,
How to choose and plan the production of value adding produce.
Introduction of the Agroforestry Principles:
Theoretical lecture of the essential concepts of implementation and management of an Syntropic Agroforestry production system.
https://www.soilsunsoul.net/intro-to-syntropic-agroforestry-march-2019.h...

Discuss and learn all about the how’s and why’s of grafting fruit trees
• Learn and try tongue and whip grafting
• Learn safe use of tools
• Take your tree home with you

By the end of this course you will be able to select rootstock, graft and care for trees.

Time:
10.00am - 1.00pm

Cost:
£35pp which includes taking home your grafted fruit tree (one)

Additional fruit trees can be grafted and taken home with you, suggested donation £5 per tree to cover costs of rootstock, pots, compost

BOOK HERE
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSert_ifZg8oGcyZiVMYpVZ4XgQCoFwG...

Join us at Keela Yoga Farm in October 2018 for our month long Food forest course in Portugal.

Course Outline
- Enjoy a tour of our new food forest and the farm
- Design and help to expand a new food forest
- Learn how to draw to scale drawings for design and planning
- Learn about the food soil web, how to make organic fertilizers and cultivate microbiology for the soil
- Discover how to properly research trees and their companions
- Learn how to design guilds and a food forest
- Plant trees and guilds in the food forest
- Propagate perennials to plant into next year’s food forests
- Create beds for annuals in between the trees for planting to maximise the space in the food forests
- Learn how to design, select and buy irrigation systems
- Plan and perform earthworks for water catchment by selecting locations for swales
- Learn how to graft trees
- Learn how to make compost piles, organic fertilizers and how to breed fungi and bacteria for the soil (teas)
- Opportunity to learn some natural building techniques
- Attend weekly workshops on fermentations, permaculture principles and other farming related topics
- Plant trees as part of our reforestation program outside of the new food forest
- Learn about foraging for wild greens and weeds for edibles and medicinal plants
- Opportunity to learn carpentry skills for making items for the food forest such as cold frames and trellises
- 1 weekly trip to either the local market, local community events, community help or local sites
- 1.5 days of to relax and study
- daily yoga classes
- Healthy organic food

An introduction to the theory and practice of forest gardening. Based in a household-scale forest garden in an Aberdeen allotment.

An introduction to the theory and practice of forest gardening. Based in a household-scale forest garden in an Aberdeen allotment.

Tools for planning, designing and implementing a forest garden on small or large scale using permaculture design principles and process. This course is catered, accommodation is camping

Tools for planning, designing and establishing a forest garden small or large scale, using permaculture design principles and process.
This course is self-catered (bring food to share); accommodation is camping; inside accommodation available on request.

The concept of Syntropic Agriculture was devised by the Swiss/Brazilian researcher and botanist Ernst Gotsch from what is broadly known in Brazil as successional agroforestry. Syntropic Agriculture aims to produce food, timber and fibre through a process based agriculture with minimal external inputs and without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. The aim is to build resources such as water, topsoil and biodiversity as we produce our food. Syntropic Agriculture has been proving to be financially viable and effective in many climates and biomes.
Participants will learn:
The history and principles of successional agroforestry,
How to implement and manage those systems,
How to choose where to implement these systems in their properties,
How to harmonise these systems with nature's patterns (sun, winds, topography, local flora, etc.),
How to choose appropriate plant consortiums to each stage and soil condition of the system,
How to choose and plan the production of value adding produce.
Facilitators: Gabriel Menezes is an agroecological farmer in Campo Largo, South of Brazil. Gabriel has successfully integrated Permaculture Design principles and techniques as well as agroecological ones to his agroforestry-based farm. Since 2007 Gabriel has been working as a consultant in the planning and implementation of successional agroforestry systems (aka Syntropic Agriculture). As one of the co-founders of Simbiose Agroflorestal (https://simbiose.agr.br/somos-nos/).
Eurico Vianna, PhD, is an author, social activist, environmentalist and martial-artist driven to create a better world through everything he does.www.holosdesign.com.au