Do you want a garden that is beautiful AND productive? One that creates resilience for you AND your garden?

Growing food CAN be easy, and doesn’t have to be high-maintenance, delicate, rows of vegetables! There is an easier, more productive, more resilient way to grow food, that looks and feels more like a nature sanctuary than an industrial farm. By practicing the art and science of food forestry, you have the opportunity to create a garden that looks as beautiful as an ornamental landscape, but provides a diverse and delicious year-round harvest, that only get better and better with time.

Food forestry, aka edible forest gardening, is experiencing a renaissance all around the world, but the truth is that edible forest gardening is an ancient and widespread practice that is many thousands of years old. In fact, food forestry has been called “Gardening for 1000 Years”, and in this workshop we will explore why these forest gardens are so resilient, and how that translates to resilience in our personal lives, communities, and society at large.

After introducing the concept of food forestry, we will shine a light on some of the most powerful plants used to create these beautiful, bountiful, low-maintenance edible ecosystems. We will go beyond the plants discussed in our previous two workshops (“Edible Plants for Emergencies” and “Perennial Vegetables & Edible Ornamentals”:), highlighting our favourite plants from every layer of the food forest (canopy, understory, shrubs, herbaceous, groundcovers, root crops, vines, and fungi). While this workshop will focus on plants for the Pacific Northwest, most of them will grow across Canada and the Northern USA.