Backyard Forest

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Forest Garden Livestream

Wednesday 21st April, 10am BST

Is forest gardening artful?

My Mum is a gardener, a traditional, ornamental gardener. But I rebelled against ornament and art, and didn’t start gardening until I was in my 40s. To be honest, I never really saw the point. Then came my Climate Emergency awakening and my introduction to forest gardening. Now I could see the point: create edible ecosystems and grow food sustainably.

So, I came at gardening from a practical, functional starting point. If the plant can’t be eaten, by me or something else, then I don’t want it. But somewhere there’s a spark, a desire to make things sparkle and thrive. Around the compost bins I’ve relocated splashes of pink from Red Campion, trill blue hues of Germander Speedwell.

And my clients, fully aware of my forest gardening credentials, they still want things to look nice, colourful, pleasing. I’ve reacted to this by embracing the ornamental use of native plants, indeed, setting up a not-for-profit (fat chance!) company dedicated to UK native wild flowers. My reasoning is that pretty much every UK native wild flower is a forest garden plant, and native plants are generally better for biodiversity because they’ve co-evolved with the wildlife.

So it was refreshing to be challenged by the eminently entertaining Fergus Garrett at an online talk called Wild at Dixter. They had a biodiversity survey taken (for more details, listen to this Roots and All podcast), and the ornamental gardens, consisting of many non-native plants, consistently had the highest level of biodiversity. And it is unabashedly an artistic endeavour. So, where does a forest garden sit in all this? Do we have the luxury in a time of Ecological and Climate Emergency to focus our efforts on gardens as art?

There will be an informal Zoom chat after the livestream at 10.30am, all welcome.

Great Dixter’s famous ornamental border, photo by Tom Lee

Livestream

Zoom Q&A

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Garden Wild Spreadsheet

Regardless of my musings, I still think that UK native wild flowers are inherently beautiful and deserve a place in every UK garden. Even though there’s no funding yet, I am looking at prototypes for the image gallery for Garden Wild, and I am slowdly adding plants to the online and sortable Garden Wild Spreadsheet.

Support the livestream, become a Patreon

Every Wednesday at 10am UK time, I host a forest garden livestream. It’s mostly just me talking about what captures my forest garden fancy, from wild flowers through to community gardens and practical tips. If you like what I do, consider becoming a patron at my Patreon page patreon.com/backyardforest. A big thank you to Helen for signing up last week, every last penny is very much appreciated 😁.

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