Dave's blog

A lot of gardening and horticultural books can fall into two categories, thick impenetrable texts or ‘coffee table’ books with more style than substance.  Thankfully Martin’s book takes positive aspects of both without falling into either category. It is visually very stunning with beautiful photography and illustrations, accompanying very informative and well constructed text.

It should appeal to anyone with a keen interest in edible and useful plants, be it foragers, allotment holders, professional gardeners or just those who would like to add a bit of variety to their garden.

Some of the plants he describes throughout the book (over 500 in total!) might at present be considered a little unusual or even wacky.  However, if we consider it wasn’t that long ago when bell-peppers were seen as an exotic vegetable and garlic was described as having such a fiery taste we should only use it sparingly, then perhaps some of the food plants mentioned will become more common place on our kitchen tables.

My only criticism of the book is the ideas for preparing the plants to eat can be somewhat limited at times, mainly suggesting salads or stir-fries. However this is my ONLY criticism and after all it is not a cook book, it’s a horticulture book. Having said that, for foodies it is a good starting point to find out new things to eat – cross-referencing with Alan Davidson’s ‘Oxford Companion to Food’ and the internet will provide many culinary ideas for the plants described.

There’s no doubt that in the coming years as the twin problems of peak oil and climate change start to shape our nation there will be a shift in the way we view our gardens, the way food is grown and our choices of food.  I don’t think forest gardening alone will combat all these problems but I can see it playing a more important role in our food production.  In view of this I can see Martin’s book becoming as much of a classic as John Seymour’s did in the 1970’s.

Creating a Forest Garden – Working with nature to produce edible crops is published by Green Books and available in all the usual places or direct from their website.