Forest Gardens: the Future?

image from smartpei.typepad.com
Forest Garden: image from smartpei.typepad.com

Today, most of us are fed by large-scale industrial agriculture. I buy the bulk of my groceries in supermarkets, and so count myself among this number.

But an interesting article in yesterday’s Irish Times, written by climatechange.ie‘s John Gibbons, introduced my rather ignorant self to the idea of permaculture. Most farming is energy intensive, using ten calories of fossil fuel energy for every calorie of food produced. Intensive ploughing of the soil leeches it of minerals, and it often requires chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and fungcides.

Permaculture, however, involves observing and working with nature, encouraging its systems to favour the foods we like. The almost impossibly romantic idea of “forest gardens” can, according to one expert mentioned in Gibbon’s piece, achieve double the productivity of an acre of arable farmland. It seems that, once they’re up and running, they pretty much take care of themselves. But cereals would be out.

Now, I know nothing about growing food. But I really like the sound of these forest gardens. This is my last week of country life in wonderful Wicklow before I move back to Dublin (sniff). Despite having singularly failed to grow any more than a few herbs here, I’m now enticed by Permaculture Ireland‘s courses. The next one, “Low Tech Living Weekend”, takes place from July 11-12 in Drumsna, Co. Leitrim.You’ll also find more information at the Irish Allotments site.

It all seems a bit hippy-dippy (we’ll all live in the forest and work in harmony with nature) so I know it’s tempting to slag me off. Go for it. However, as Gibbons points out, permaculture may be a sustainable, productive, and affordable way out of the mess we’re all facing when the oil runs out.