A great introduction to this inspiring edible gardening technique where we are part of the Wildlife!
Whether you are interested in green issues, wildlife or responding to climate change, there will be something for you. Come and learn about this inspiring ecological gardening technique to grow our food, meet many human needs and increase wildlife. Based on principles found in nature, forest gardens will need less and less work over the years whilst providing more and more yields.
The course covers ecosystem design, perennial plants, seven layers, history, design considerations, permaculture design, wildlife and rewilding.
We will connect to the environment through nature awareness, foraging and observing natural ecological design principles. We will observe natural edible forest garden edges and explore the implications of this way of gardening. All on the amazing site called Wildwood.
Facilitated by experienced and passionate Forest garden designer, Jo will take you for a forage walk and hopes to find over 100 things for a salad as well as show you how easy it is to make plans for free.
This one day session should give you enough information to have a go in your own garden and be inspired.

Includes a tour of the young forest garden at Home on the Hill, practical exercises on designing a forest garden, details of plant choices and management. Notes will be provided, as will tea and flapjack.

Please book via Eventbrite link on Facebook event

Learn about starting your very own food forest and off grid farm while experiencing community living on a permaculture project. Enjoy daily yoga and meditation practice amongst the beautiful Portuguese countryside!

Dates
19th March – 19th April 2019 One Month food forest course
19th October – 26th October – One week food forest course
31st October – 1st November – Two day food forest course

Two day Course Cost: EUR 75 early bird (100 normal)
Plus 10 eur per night per person overnight stay and food in a tent
Caravans available for rent for extra 10 EUR per night per person

Keela Yoga Farm have several small food forests planted over the past three years with different goals. Laurence has been teaching food forest courses there for three years and would like to invite you to learn how to design your own food forest and learn from what he has been doing.

Course Outline during the course
- Enjoy a tour of our food forests, reforestation program, natural buildings 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 fertilisers 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 based on your design in the food forest
- Propagate perennials to plant into next year’s food forests
- Learn how to design, select and buy irrigation systems
- Plan and perform earthworks for water catchment, swales or ponds
- Learn how to make compost piles, organic fertilisers and how to breed fungi and bacteria for the soil (teas)

What else is included:
- Healthy meals with lots of produce from our own land
- Daily yoga, meditation and pranayama classes with on site yoga teachers

Book the course at the below link:
http://www.keelayogafarm.com/booking-form/

Learn everything you need to know about starting your very own food forest and off grid farm while experiencing community living on a new permaculture project. Enjoy daily yoga and meditation practice amongst the beautiful Portuguese countryside!

Course Outline

All these topics will be included in all the courses however, the longer the course the more hands on you will get.

- Enjoy a tour of our three new food forests and the farm
- Design and plant 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 fertilisers 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, swales and ponds
- Learn how to graft trees
- Learn how to make compost piles, organic fertilisers and how to breed fungi and bacteria for the soil (teas)
- Opportunity to learn some natural building techniques (only on the one month course)
- Attend evening workshops on fermentation and how to make natural soaps
- Plant trees as part of our reforestation program outside of the new food forest (only on the one month course)
- Join the one day course about foraging for wild greens and weeds for edibles and medicinal plants with Raquel from the awakened life project (only on the one month course)
- Opportunity to learn carpentry skills for making items for the food forest such as cold frames, raised bed boxes or trellises (only on the one month course)

A day course at Holt Wood in North Devon where you can learn about harvesting and making products from medicinal trees and shrubs. During this day we will consider medicinal harvesting in our Holt Wood medicinal forest garden based on bark, flowers, fruits, leaves and roots of trees and shrubs. You will see a variety of native and introduced medicinal trees and shrubs in a woodland context. There will be sessions on good harvesting practice, drying and preservation techniques. You will also see how to make a variety of preparations suitable for health and skin care, such as capsules and ointments. The cost of this course is inclusive of learning materials and refreshments.

A day course at Holt Wood in Devon where you can learn about medicinal trees, shrubs and other plants which can be cultivated in a forest garden. This day will be of interest to designers, gardeners, growers and land managers. You will find out how to design or extend a forest garden with medicinal plants including trees and shrubs. During this day we will cover key native and introduced medicinal trees and shrubs and their identification features and uses. A practical walkabout will provide opportunities to see and identify medicinal plants growing in a woodland setting. There will be sessions on permaculture design suggestions, sourcing and propagation of plants, planting and maintaining a medicinal forest garden. The cost of this course is inclusive of learning materials and refreshments.

Forest gardening is an increasingly popular approach to growing food sustainably and efficiently through making use of the beneficial relationships abounding in a healthy ecosystem, maximising the use of the garden’s vertical dimension, and increasing the range of perennial food plants to fill all available ecological niches.

This two-day course will introduce you to the forest gardening approach and its benefits, teaching you the basics of designing a forest garden, and the methods of establishing and maintaining it, whether you are converting an existing garden or allotment, want to grow more edible species in a forest, or are starting with a blank canvas. You will also get an overview of the wide variety of trees, shrubs and perennial vegetables that can be grown for food, fibre, dyes, medicines, fuel, and pure beauty, and learn more about their needs and requirements.

The course will include a practical design element to train you in observation, mapping, and designing a forest garden, and will look at example designs. If you have an ongoing or planned project which involves creating a forest garden, the course will offer some opportunity for discussion, so do bring along your maps and plans.

Your teacher will be Nenya Milne, an Edinburgh-based Permaculture designer, teacher and gardener with a special interest in Forest Gardening and unusual edible plants. Nenya has been practising Permaculture and Forest Gardening since 2010, and teaching since 2015. You can see her work on her website perennis.weebly.com.

On the PFC you will learn about forest gardening and how to create a stable diverse abundant forest that produces food.

On this course we will talk about the main forestry skills that are needed to design, develop and manage a food forest.

Did you ever asked yourself these questions?

I love trees but how do i plant them and take care of them?
What is the best way to prepare the soil to make trees grow well?
Wen planting trees what is the best distance between them?
What are the best plants to plant together with trees ?
How can i create maximum diversity and stability with my trees.
How can i get maximum production from all the forest elements?
There must be a way to do natural pest control, how can i do that?
I live in the city, how can i create a urban food forest?

The PFC is the course for people that are passionate about forests.
We look at all stages of preparation of a forest, from seed to harvest.
The focus on the most diverse forest topics, tree planting, tree pruning, companion planting, world climates, plants families, permaculture cultivation, natural pest control, using the stars as planting calendar.
Mushrooms dynamics, how to find them and reproduce and its importance on stable forests.
We look at many different systems, fukuoka forests, alley cropping, wood forests, agro forestry and atlantis food forests.

The subjects covered during the PFC include:

Agro ecology
Food Forest creation and management
How to combine fruits and veggies
Plants and tres species
How, when and where to plant
Climate zones
Social forests

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