Forest Gardening

The Forest Garden at The Sustainability Centre was originally created by volunteers in 1999. It followed a design by Patrick Whitefield (1949-2015).  Patrick was a Leading Permaculture teacher and renowned design consultant, inspiring an immeasurable amount of people with his deep knowledge of, and passion for, Permaculture.

What is a forest garden?

The underlying concept of the Forest Garden is to mimic the ecosystem of natural woodland to create a productive landscape where people can harvest food. Different plants grow alongside one another, space is optimised and wildlife thrives. Instead of bare soil planted with rows of annuals and vast orchards of a single fruit species, the Forest Gardener aims to plant a diverse tapestry of edibles, wildlife friendly and perhaps even medicinal plants. Companion plants, those that fix nitrogen, make good fertiliser or attract beneficial insects to control pests are all carefully integrated. Relationships between plants, site and soil are developed to create a garden where ground-hugging perennial vegetables grow amongst herbs and soft fruit bushes, which in turn are sheltered under the canopy of trees yielding nuts and fruits.

Forest Gardens can be created on any scale, and with careful planning should be a very low-maintenance way of growing food whilst also creating a beautiful wildlife-rich environment. The use of mulches and careful selection of species mean that the garden can largely be left to its own devices. As Patrick always said: “The main task is picking the produce!"

Forest Gardening follows the principles of Permaculture. The word Permaculture is a fusion of ‘permanent agriculture’/’permanent culture’. It originated in the 1970s from the work of Bill Mollison and David Holmgren. Permaculture design relies on a process of careful observation and planning to seek out beneficial relationships between all parts that make up a system, whether that be a farm, garden, home, business or community. ​The basis of Permaculture is to provide thoughtful, environmentally sound solutions and creative use of resources, following the ethics of: "Earth care, People care, Fair shares". ​

Where to find the garden?

​Visitors walk through the Forest Garden as they approach our Reception. We love the fact that our small Forest Garden is tangible for those with limited garden space. By showcasing this growing and gardening technique, we aim to inspire people to take home some of these ideas: whether it be experimenting with perennial edibles or thinking more about the vertical space available by stacking different layers of plants into a garden bed. 

Here at The Sustainability Centre we have used these Permaculture principles to develop our Sustainability Wheel, which is reflected throughout our entire organisational ethos. It helps with programme and project planning and guides us when decision-making.

Learn more about our Sustainability Wheel

​We are grateful to our amazing team of volunteers who help with the maintenance of this garden. Much of the original planting has flourished and we enjoy harvests of numerous different goodies including jostaberries, Babington’s leek, herbs, nuts, apples, currants, medlars and gooseberries.

Project updates

Building a Perennial Keyhole Bed

Over the winter and spring 2025/6, we built and planted a 6-foot keyhole bed, aiming to create something that contributes to the existing forest garden at the Sustainability Centre, originally designed by Patrick Whitefield. The aims were for it to be productive, perennial-led, based on permaculture principles, and easy to manage.

Rather than focusing on annual vegetables that require sowing, lifting, storing, or processing, the idea was to create a “pick-and-eat” system - a bed that can be walked up to throughout the year and harvested directly from. We are particularly interested in how far a small space could lean towards self-management using perennial crops and layered planting.

Read more