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.

Okay, okay so I haven’t posted a blog for sometime now, I seem to have been locked into the situation of ‘time poor and cash poor’. For the last six months or more, I’ve been a student again on a sustainable horticulture course run by the Duchy college in Schumacher College, Dartington.  It’s only three days a week but working just 2 to 4 days doesn’t really bring in the bacon (or tofu in my case).

It’s come as a shock to some people that I’ve decided to go back to study and many have asked, ‘surely you know it all already?’, to be honest a lot of it I do. However it’s teaching me above and beyond what I already know and it means I can talk to other gardeners in their own language, Latin.

The other day this new found knowledge was put to the test after a trip to Martin Crawford‘s forest garden. I’d been invited by my new publisher, Green Books (more about that in a later blog) for his book launch. I’d been particularly looking forward to this as my classroom (dubbed the chicken shed as it has the dubious claim of being the worlds first battery chicken shed!!!) has been over-looking his garden for the last half a year. During that time we’ve all seen Martin come and go but he is a man of few words at the best of times. The only real exchange I’ve managed with him save the odd hello is ‘the weather’s cleared up’ to which he replied ‘yes’.

I was the first to arrive and I began to flex my botanical knowledge by chatting to him about his Rubus tricolor, more commonly known as a creeping bramble. To some it’s a great ground cover to others it’s an environmental nightmare, one of the only plants which will out compete our native bramble.

Not long into this botanical chat we both heard the clatter of voices and I popped my head over the fence to see what looked like crowd leaving a football match on a Saturday afternoon, albeit a well mannered middle aged crowd.

Quite soon I realised I would be in good company as just about every author on my Amazon wish list turned up at Martin’s gate. I instantly recognised Ben Law (The Woodland Way, The Woodland Year and The Woodland House) and Patrick Whitefield (Earth Care Manual, Permaculture in a Nutshell). Then a jeans and suit jacketed, shaggy hair man gave me a beaming grin and said how much he’d like my book. His name badge read John Paul-Flintoff and I knew I recognised his name and face from somewhere but I couldn’t place him.

Amongst them was the rather quieter Sue Stickland (RHS Organic gardening, Seed Saving and many, many more) who I didn’t recognise at first but looked up later, guardian blogger Joanne Brannan and of course Amanda and Bee from Green Books. There were more but I didn’t really get a chance to talk to them. I’m not the sort of person who ‘networks’, I’m just a bit shy when it comes to barging your way into conversations merely for one’s own ends. It all seems a bit opportunistic and I don’t think really give the recipient much respect.

The tour went on with Martin going through his vast array of unusual plants. I must admit, amongst these gardening and permaculture heavyweights I became a little mute despite really wanting to ask questions. I did muster up a couple of enquiries but as the words left my mouth it became apparent that my articulate mouth had been left at home and my twat mouth had decided to come out for the day. The tour was both inspiring and disappointing. It was utterly inspiring to see what could be made of such a small space and how much study must have gone into each plant. The disappointment was not really the fault of Martin, but the weather; the hard winter and late frost had meant very little was up in the garden and it seemed as if we were walking round a plot waiting to spring to life.

Our surly bus driver then took us to the Riverford cafe where we were given a fantastic two course meal. I’d been meaning to go and eat there for a while now but recently I have found myself spending all my available money on luxuries like food, rent and bills. I chatted to those around me including Joanne Brannan who it turned out wrote for exactly the same magazines as me, Country Small Holder and Grow it! She was very down to earth and explained to me how she’d taken on a back breaking enterprise of converting a 12 acre piece of agricultural land into a low carbon market garden.

Over lunch, I eventually asked John-Paul Flintoff where I recognised him from and he very casually said ‘Oh I write a little for the Times’. I nodded and remained composed making a mental note that I should start to read the odd newspaper once in a while. He seemed like a very pleasant guy and gave me a recipe of Mahonia berry jam made with jasmine flowers and beetroot juice.

Then onto the last part of the afternoon, Martin’s tree plantation. We were all chatting quite contentedly with each other as the mini-bus sat with it’s engine idling waiting for the signal for us to step aboard. This tried the patience of the driver no end and he shook his head and very audibly sighed as we boarded the bus. I often wonder why on earth people with no real social niceties end up in such sociable jobs. This man would probably tut if he had Ghandi, Mother Teresa and Jesus on his bus.

He showed us round the bare trees explaining their virtues which were indeed impressive but I couldn’t help but think they would be more so when some of them actually had leaves on them.

After standing next to some bare hazel twigs he talked us through the rather amazing ‘Nut Wizard’. This invention allows you to pick up nuts simply by running the device across the woodland floor (see picture). The crowd were aghast with this invention and it would seem I was not the only nut lover in the party.

Martin talked us through a rather amazing tree which grew long strings of nuts called ‘heart nuts’. He described them as a more pleasant walnut and explained how the tree grew at break neck speeds.

The tree and nut are both very popular in Japan and American and despite the climate being perfect over here they are yet to catch on…

…yet!

Our day ended with the bus driver lingering around looking at his watch and glaring at us all, no doubt as we were five minutes into HIS time.

I felt honoured to get the invite to Martin’s Garden and that honour didn’t wane throughout the day. The amount of study and work he has put in, breeding plants and trees and trialling new crops in this uncharted territory is breath taking. Martin should remain an inspiration to plants-men, foodies and gardeners alike as he pushes forward with what could be our best hope for food security in the future.

Martin’s book ‘Creating a forest garden’ is available through Green Books.

Since this was written in early 2010 I have now written my book ‘Grow your food for free’ (published by Green Books) it is available here I also regularly put on wild food walks advertised on the main part of this website see www.selfsufficientish.com and click on courses for more details.