This month has seen our attention turn to an area still in its infancy here at Gasper Cottage; the Forest Garden. Seen below marked in red, it forms much of the perimeter of the Meadow Orchard, where previously long meadow grass ran right up to the hedges.

A forest garden emulates the natural patterns of a woodland ecosystem with tiered planting, from root crops right up to tree cover. The aim is to create a multi-layered 'foraging garden', or a wild pantry of sorts, where you might find fruits, nuts, herbs, and annual crops growing together in a self-sustaining, low input system.
Requiring only occasional tending, this method largely leaves plants to grow and perpetuate themselves naturally, making it a significantly lower maintenance option than a traditional kitchen garden. It's also better able to cope with erratic weather; a dense, mature tapestry of diverse plants is much less likely to perish in a storm or drought than exposed rows of recently planted crops.
Despite this rationale at its core, it must be said that here at Gasper Cottage it was the aesthetics of forest gardening that held more appeal than potential yields...
"I've not heard of anyone creating a forest garden for its looks before" says Bella, "but that was the motivation behind this one."
"The orchard was no more than several fruit trees in a squarish field, and I wanted to lose the edges. It being a 'field', I felt what grew there should at least nod at a useful purpose, and at around the same time I came across an article on the work of the Agroforestry Research Trust on the Dartington Estate."
Offering a way to soften the hard lines of the Meadow Orchard with Gasper's characteristic blend of cultivated and wild, forest gardening ticked all the boxes. Bella set about making a plan, widening the parameters to include plants for natural dyes and pigments for her art, and playing with the layers of planting to manipulate the light:
"The idea was to create a sense of passing though areas of sunshine and shade, using a throng of interesting plants which draws in pollinators and encourages lingering."
Plan agreed, it then fell to gardener Jack to make it happen. The first stage was to prepare the ground for planting; no mean feat in an area which had been grassland for as long as anyone can remember. Faced with a considerable expanse to clear he decided to take it once section at a time, starting with a large patch running along the top hedge. He covered the ground with a natural hessian weed-suppressing mat topped with a thick layer of bark chippings, the idea being that this would starve the vegetation of light then eventually biodegrade into the soil.
"Unfortunately the matting didn't live up to its promise. Within days the grass, bindweed, and ground elder were poking through and I had to spend the rest of that growing season chemically spraying it off. It was an expensive and disappointing experiment that set us back considerably, and for the next section I reluctantly resorted to a 12-month covering of black plastic. ".
Though the black plastic jarred with the usual ethics and look of Gasper Cottage there's no denying its effectiveness, and the planting dozens of squash and pumpkin plants through small slits softened the unpleasant visuals.
Fast forward to this month, when the moment of truth finally arrived. The gourds were harvested and cleared, and the plastic peeled back to reveal what, so far, appears to be nicely grass and weed-free soil (the true test will be when growth resumes next spring). Happily, the plastic can now be reused to prepare ground in the new section of garden mentioned last month.

Mid squash and pumpkin harvest

Some remained to be admired and eaten...

...while others were delivered to the Stourhead Farm Shop

The (hopefully) weed and grass-free soil, ready to be planted up with an exciting and unusual range of plants.

And we're off – planting underway
One of the most pressing concerns at this stage is the establishment of tough, impenetrable plants along the edges to keep that all-too-persistent meadow grass at bay. These include hard-as-nails groundcover like Chinese bramble (Rubus tricolor), crinkle-leaf creeper (Rubus pentalobus), and Rubus 'Betty Ashburner', matched in shadier spots by wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca), bugle (Ajuga reptans), and sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum). Vigorous, thicket forming bramble-relatives are used for the same reason – mainly tayberry (Rubus fruticosus x Rubus idaeus).

Rubus 'Betty Ashburner' steeling itself against the march of the meadow grass.

Wild strawberry carpeting the ground around Swiss chard and blueberry plants.

A few ornamental grasses have been incorporated (such as the purple moor grass (Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Transparent') seen here), to create visual cohesion with the meadow.

A vision of beauty and purpose. From left: Comfrey (Symphytum officinale) accumulates minerals from the subsoil and has a variety of medicinal uses; wild strawberry (Fragaria vesca) provides small, tasty fruits while forming a weed suppressing mat; cornel (Cornus mas) produces edible fruits used for fruit leather; hazel (Coryllus avellana) provides an annual crop of nuts; the sorrel-flavoured shoots and leaves of bistort (Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon') can be eaten early in the season; and the edible flowers of daylilies (Hemerocallis) brighten up salads and cakes.

Looking back out from the hazels. "The winding path was designed expressly to slow you down", explains Bella, "with the alternative faster route across to the pond if you are on a mission".

One of the Forest Garden's many curiosities, the Nepal pepper (Zanthoxylum alatum). Its seeds can be used as a pepper and spice substitute.
It's true that in these early years, the Forest Garden requires something of a leap of faith. Until the plants mature and seed themselves about, the area can seem a patchy selection of somewhat oddly-matched plants, rather than the coherent, natural living entity it is to become. Unleashing rampantly spreading plants is not for the faint-hearted either... let's hope the courage of our convictions is rewarded with an attractive, thriving, and harmonious community of plants.
Whilst you're here, remember to check out Bella's Youtube video for this month where she takes an early morning look around the rest of the garden.
I love all those squashes and pumpkins. Amazing variety of colours and shapes.