Photographs from the Permaculture Tywi forest garden tour

Man in hat with pouch (not paunch) standing in the long grass, talking with a circling group of permaculturalists, polytunnel, house and hills in the background. — Permaculture Tywi group tour of Forest Garden Wales. Jake is standing by the Hovenia dulcis (raisin tree) in the Accidental Meadow. The disembodied leg in the foreground belongs to permaculture teacher Paul Jennings.

Photographs of the @permatywi visit to #ForestGarden Wales, by Christine Jones

Thursday 28 June 2018

Permaculture Tywi, a permaculture group from the Tywi Valley in Wales, came on a magnificent forest garden tour on Saturday 23rd June, as previously reported.

I’m very lucky that Christine Jones and others took photographs – I keep meaning to but I find myself too busy talking. Thought it would be nice to share some of the photos. Apologies, I didn’t get everyone’s name so I can’t caption them properly!

Misty, mature trees in background, young trees and long grass in foreground — *Forest Garden One (as it’s affectionately known) first thing in the morning, before the tour starts. Photo by Jake.*

Two people walking up to polytunnel past long grass, man in hat talking, white dog to the right, mature trees in the background — *The polytunnel in the forest garden*

Hedge up hill to left, long grass in foreground, mature trees in background, polytunnel middle distance to right, small white dog walking up hedge path — *The area which one day will become the Potting Shed*

Shaped garden, two beds with bark mulch, on a slope, two people looking on, electricity pole, trees and hills in background — *The Boozey Herb Garden, two beds planted and mulched with bark, small olive tree in the middle*

Work area inside polytunnel, desks and shelves stacked with pots — *The potting area inside the polytunnel*

Inside of polytunnel, lots of crops — Rare interior shot of the polytunnel – ground cherry front left, chillies front right (perennial Locoto chilli doing best), then tomatillos, and climbing achocha. See The Real Seed Catalogue for more details

3 bay compost bins made out of pallets, propagation bed in foreground rather swamped with alefoot plant — The rather underused compost bays by the polytunnel, with a propagation bed stacked with very happy Glechoma hederacea (Alefoot or False Ivy), and some flowering Valeriana officinalis. The Alefoot showing what a good ground cover plant looks like!

Group of people around raised bed by polytunnel and compost bins — *Jake talking about alefoot and the importance of propagation beds*

Man pointing at strawberry plants in raised bed, next to a towering purple flowered foxglove — *Jake showing how you are supposed to propagate strawberries, using individual pots for the runners. Quite often I’ll let the runners roots naturally before planting them out, depending on time*

Group of people by a bed with mature trees in background — *Jake talking about the magical Fruit Triangle, where soft fruit just disappears without explanation (I blame the birds…)*

Small fruit bushes in foreground, poytunnel middle distance, trees and hills beyond — *The world famous Fruit Triangle doing it’s fruity thing*

Photo of meadow to left, bushy green young hedge to right, polytunnel at end of the path, trees and hills in the background — The glorious West Wales countryside viewable over the polytunnel. To the left is the Orchard with the Accidental Mini-Meadow, to the right is the Cornus stolonifera windbreak hedge. I like Cornus (dogwood), as it’s less floppy than Rosa rugosa and easier to manage.

Long young hedge to left, sheet mulched with woven plastic, grass path and people to the right — *The North Face windbreak hedge of Juneberry, Guelder Rose and Sea Buckthorn. Permaculture teacher Paul Jennings is catching 40 winks in the midst of a rather busy day*

Curved grass path in centre, long grass to the right, sheet mulched area to the left, mature trees in backgorund — Sheet mulch vs. Meadow – I would do things differently but then, who wouldn’t? In the future, I’ll be far more selective with when I sheet mulch an area, ie just before I need it. In the meantime, keep it as long grass, so that the soil and wildlife benefits.

Plastic sheet mulched area, weighted down with bits of wood — The rather unglamourous Farside area, still under heavy development. I planted canopy trees (sweet chestnut, cherry, crab apple etc) but would have kept a grass understory until ready to plant out ground cover.

Grass path with mature trees and electricity pole to left, sheet mulched area and young willow coppice to right — *The far reaches of the eastern end of the forest garden. This the rather neglected Willow Coppice, which will be used for wood chip mulch in the short term and possibly weaving in the longer term*

Man with hat lifting up sheet mulch to show bare soil beneath — *Jake showing the condition of the soil after the sheet mulch is pulled up, and then covered with mulch*

Raised beds with bean poles, polytunnel to left, people walking down from the right — *It’s okay to have annual raised beds in a forest garden 🙂*