The landscape of High Heathercombe was a wonderful setting for the Forest Gardening course. Thinking back on it has a dreamlike quality; I'm glad I have the garden and the allotment to re-integrate me back into city life. So upcoming entries in the diary will be musing on the "back garden botany, urban ecology" side of things but for now a few more photos to remind me of Devon. In the toughest of environments in the months of winter Gorse nonetheless flowers in profusion.  

 The combe did indeed have Heather, another plant that does what it does despite (or because of) the harshness of the conditions and the time of year. I spotted this big bumblebee working it's way around a bank of Heather behind the centre. A bumblebee this early will be a Queen Bee not long out of hibernation.

 As I mentioned a few days ago Lungworts were prolific. I gather the whole area is thick with wildflowers in spring and Pulmonaria is the first of them to bloom.  It's not so long since they were snowed in at the centre but the weather was unseasonably glorious coinciding with the course.

 Martin Crawford's two acre forest garden is in the grounds of Dartington Hall, which has long been a hub of progressive ideas and activity. Twenty five years ago he began to create a "food forest" based on concepts pioneered by ecologically minded thinkers like Bill Mollison in Australia and Robert Hart in the UK.
 It's a big subject but in essence the food forest has seven layers: the canopy layer, the low tree layer, the shrub layer, the herbaceous layer, the groundcover layer, the 'rhizosphere' and the vertical layer (i.e. climbing plants).
 I've visited Dartington before - in summer when the garden was dense with growth. In late February it's barer but winter is a good time to get a sense of the structure of a garden. As part of our course Martin gave us a guided tour and spoke at length about it.

 This photo gives an idea of Martin Crawford's wide ranging approach. The trees at the back are conifers that were already there and have the effect of acting as windbreaks. The tall trunks are fast growing Italian Alder introduced to provide further windbreaks. In the foreground is a New Zealand Flax which is hardy in the UK. He demonstrated how the leaves can be used to provide different thicknesses of fibrous twine and noted that it has edible seeds and is a good bee plant.

 Another example of innovative plant combinations. The main trunk is a heavily pollarded Lime tree. I was surprised to learn that the leaves are edible and can be used in salads. The stems scrambling vigorously through the tree are a Kiwi vine.

 A good sign of an unpolluted site: plenty of lichen. This particular tree seemed to have more lichen than any other for some reason. It's one of the Zanthoxylum species which gives us Szechuan pepper.

 Several paths circulate the walker through the garden. Even at this time of year the foliage is quite dense. There are a number of bamboo species in the garden which Martin rates highly for edible stems (and useful poles, some the size of drainpipes!)

 Functional as it is the garden has the feel of a sylvan idyll. At the heart is a sunny glade with large pond fed by a trickling stream.

 The wild look of the garden is enhanced by the fact that Martin generally only prunes when a specimen reaches the size that it stops fruiting. Above is a Hawthorne -not our native Hawthorne which he doesn't rate highly, he's not very sentimental about such things. I seem to remember him saying this was an American variety.

 On the floor of the forest there are numerous low growing and ground cover species. In the photo above we see Nepalese Raspberry and the fronds of Day Lilies poking through (which have edible flowers).

 In a similar vein this is our native Primrose (edible flowers) and Siberian Purslane (edible leaves). Disclaimer: only eat plants if you are certain what they are and know them to be safe/healthy for you to consume!
 Not all plants have to be edible in the forest garden; for example Comfrey features both as a soil enhancer and a valuable bee plant. Such plants are described as 'system plants' i.e. not edible but they have a part to play nonetheless. 

 This was intriguing: Oak logs inoculated with Shitake mushrooms. Martin reckoned that each log would produce around a half kilo of Shitake each year for about 10 years.

 It was too early for many flowers but various Prunus species were coming into bloom. Like all woodlands the peak flowering will be in the spring taking advantage of the extra light before the canopy leafs up.
 When I visited the garden several years ago it was August. Martin showed us around foraging as we went, drawing attention to the particular tastes and flavours of the plants around us. The first theories of food foresting were developed in tropical and sub tropical environments where the sun is far stronger, even on the forest floor. Indeed in such parts of the world the forest has always been an abundant source of food and materials.
 In the UK we have different forests and a different light. We have utilised our woodlands in various ways over the centuries but the extent of food production by native species would be extremely limited by comparison with the tropics. Martin's achievement is to have researched and grown plants from all around the world which can contribute to forest gardening in a temperate climate.

 Several large patches of these lovely Lungworts were flowering prolifically along a bank by the High Heathercombe Centre. Plant breeders have cultivated many varieties but this looks to be one of the wild ones- the Common Lungwort (Pulmonaria officinalis).
 Like many of our "common" wildflowers it isn't very common anymore and to my eye it's uncommonly beautiful. The flowers are raised above speckled leaves and morph from reddish pink to violet blue as they mature. P. officinalis is a herald of spring and it was a joy to see so many of them shimmering in the sun.

 Five days studying the principles of Forest Gardening proved to be interesting, informative and very enjoyable. I left London at six in the morning on Wednesday and headed for the High Heathercombe Centre in Devon. It's located on the eastern side of Dartmoor, a very short distance from the wilds of the moor itself.

 I wondered if I was making a mistake taking my tent when a bed was available. I've backpacked across the moor several times in summer- freezing cold, driving rain, thick fog. By contrast late February proved to be mild, dry and sunny!

 The teaching sessions were a mixture of theory and practice. Aranya gave us the benefit of his remarkable wealth of knowledge; he is a brilliant communicator with the knack of explaining complex ideas as plain common sense. The demos were led by Phil Gamble on topics such as propagating, grafting and pruning. I hadn't met him before but he is clearly a gifted horticulturalist who has a life's work of experience to draw on.
 I should also mention that Mel who runs the centre made sure we were well looked after, as did several volunteers who work with her. For one thing the food was superb! And crucially there was a great bunch of people who had signed up for the course.

 There was a hands on aspect to the proceedings. The aim was to design and plant an area of sloping hillside adjacent to the centre with fruit trees and bushes. It's a tough locale: an exposed site at a high elevation on soil that's very good -rich in humus, friable- but acidic PH i.e. certainly suitable for ericaceous plants, less so for others.

 The day we did the first planting was not bad weather by any means but became increasingly misty as time went on.

 Nonetheless we made good progress and next day the sun shone once more. NB I'm looking forward to returning for the second part of the course in early May because the green shoots of thousands of Bluebells were poking through and should be flowering about then.

 The area we worked on was an extension of some existing planting carried out seven years ago. Those trees seem to be thriving and coping with the conditions.
 I'll post another entry in the next day or two concerning the fundamentals of the subject exemplified in a visit to the forest garden developed by Martin Crawford on a 2 acre site not far away at Dartington. It is possibly the most realised example of forest gardening in the UK and he has been researching, implementing and innovating there for over 25 years.

 I'm heading off to a course on Forest Gardening in Devon tomorrow so there won't be any entries till I'm back (Monday probably). Among the tutors is Aranya whose book 'Permaculture Design' (shown above) is a great primer on applying the principles of Permaculture to the process of designing gardens/environments. I did my PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) on one of his intensive two week courses several years ago.
 The other book in the photo is 'Creating A Forest Garden'  by Martin Crawford. He will also be teaching and we will be visiting the wonderful two acre garden he has developed in the grounds of Dartington Hall near Totnes. Picture a walk through the woods with trees, shrubs, perennials, streams, glades. What makes it even more remarkable is that nearly every species is edible in some shape or form; a fascinating experiment in "permanent agriculture".
 The course is taking place at the High Heathercombe Centre, a Permaculture project located in a stretch of woodland on the eastern edge of Dartmoor. Needless to say I'm sure I'll be posting an entry or two about all this on my return.

 The "Tommies" are at their peak about now and have been particularly splendid this year. My favourites are the paler ones possessed of a soft shimmering violet hue but there is considerable variation in the palette of Crocus tomassinianus  (including the pure white form I mentioned a few days ago).

 The ones in the lawn are mostly a deeper magenta tone (also very lovely) and among them there is a scattering of a form which is altogether darker and richer in shades of plum-purple. These seem to come into flower a tad later than the lighter ones.

 Interestingly a yellow crocus is starting to spread among the Tommies. I seem to remember one or two of these appeared when I planted the lawn with C. tommasinianus and I assume they had slipped into the batch by mistake when they were packed. They seem to like the same environs and are starting to multiply.
 I think the subtlety and simplicity of tommasinianus far preferable to some of the larger, rather gaudy cultivars that have been developed by plant breeders. That said there are other wild species which are very striking and sometimes almost lurid in colour (in a good way). NB It's worth noting that crocuses are introductions to the UK -mainly from the continent- going back to at least the middle ages 
 Back in March 2017 I wrote about a visit to Church Lane in Tottenham, North London where there is a vivid display of spring crocuses on a long grass verge. No-one seems to know how it came to be there and the assumption is that it's an ancient colony that has survived from when the area was a rural parish outside of the city.
 It's significant enough to be mentioned in Richard Mabey's 'Flora Britannica' who notes that it includes C. tommasinianus, vernus, kotschyanus, speciosus, biflorus and crysanthus- and that the last two have cross pollinated to create a "hybrid swarm" of variations...

 There are a number of different daffodil species and varieties dotted around the garden. This is the Wild Daffodil (Narcissus pseudonarcissus) which has just come into flower, rather soon but spring seems to have sprung. I say wild but it was planted by me from cultivated stock purchased from a grower who specializes in native bulbs.
 I'd like more of them but of the 50 I planted some years ago only a few have lasted. The Wild Daffodil is rather picky about where it grows. Indeed in the wild it's distribution is widespread but erratic. It's prolific in some locales (the Lake District for example) but absent from others where in theory it would flourish.
 NB There is a remarkable colony only a few miles from here in the grounds of Lesnes Abbey Wood which I wrote several entries about in March of last year.

 So for masses of flowers Narcissus February Gold is a good doer, as noted last week. It's a simple, sturdy daff- easy to establish, very hardy, blooms early and flowers freely. A cheerful splash of yellow which is welcome at this time of year. And the insects that are already on the wing home in on it...

 Crocus tommasinianus has been a theme of this week's entries. Most of the ones in the garden are silvery hues of violet/mauve/magenta but I must make mention of the uncommon white form of the species which is also very striking. I have a number growing in several pots; in addition to self seeding crocuses multiply quite rapidly by offsets so I should have a larger amount next autumn which can go in the ground.

 Spent the day at the South London Botanical Institute working on an inventory of plants in the garden. About a dozen of us took part updating and expanding previous lists and signage which have become outdated and incomplete over time.
 My name was on the program as one of the facilitators of the proceedings but I was in the company of some seriously knowledgeable botanists and gardeners who have participated in the work of the SLBI for many years.
 I took a quick snap (above) of the essential tools for such an undertaking: clipboards, reference books and tea, lots of cups of tea and homemade biscuits.

 The snowdrops, crocuses and daffs which have been the subject of my last few entries are all flowering simultaneously which is manna to the bees now starting to emerge. In London's comparatively mild climate it's possible to design a garden that's nectar and pollen rich for much of the year.

 When they unfurl in the morning sun the "Tommies" are the first to attract foraging bees.

 As the sun moves overhead it illuminates the end of the garden and almost immediately bees are drawn to that area.

 I had to laugh at this big old bumbler. This was probably its first foray out of hibernation. To comical effect it clambered clumsily among the crocuses which could barely support its weight. It was very sleepy, very groggy and clearly had only just woken up. I know that feeling.

 Postscript What may be the same bee has been returning to the same flowers looking considerably refreshed- snuffling its snout into them with great vigour, dusted with pollen, moving hungrily from one flower to the next. A good example of pollination in action...   

 Narcissus February Gold is as the name suggests golden yellow and reliably early to flower. When lit by bright winter sun there is an attractive contrast between the deeper yellow of the trumpet and the translucence of the petals.
 It's obscure how this variety came into being but it's generally agreed to be a cross of two wild species: N. cyclamineus and N. pseudonarcissus.

 "Tommies" (Crocus tommasinianus) are sometimes called the Woodland Crocus and they seem to like the part sun/shade conditions in the garden. There were already some dotted around when I moved here; I've added to them and they're multiplying in patches along with the Narcissus February Gold. Both these early flowers attract the early pollinators when the sun is out.

 A noteworthy event: the first bee I have seen in the garden this year.

 The fluffy seedheads of Clematis vitalba were prolific when I took a walk in Sussex last week. Old Man's Beard is one of the common names of this plant, I remember being interested/amused by this description when I was very little.
 One of the nice things about writing this diary is that it prompts me to research the subjects in greater detail. For example I knew C. vitabla is also known as Traveller's Joy but I didn't know that it was John Gerard the sixteenth century herbalist who noted its habit "of decking and adorning waies and hedges, where people trauell" and goes on to say "thereupon I have named it the Traueilers Iioe."

 These are Crimson Flowered Broad Beans. I bought a packet of them a couple of days ago at Seedy Sunday, the annual seed fair held in Brighton. I grew this variety in the garden several years ago (as seen in the second photo) and will try some on the allotment this year.
 They date back to at least the 1700s and would have disappeared from cultivation were it not for a lady called Rhoda Cutbush a couple of centuries later. She grew them all her life in Kent as did her father before her. In 1978 she donated her last three or four beans- perhaps the last in existence- to the Heritage Seed Library who cultivated them and revived the Crimson Flowered Broad Bean.
 Seedy Sunday is part of the movement to nurture and protect open source seeds, one of the most important political issues of our time. A lecture I attended made a telling point: through a series of mergers and acquisitions three multinational companies now supply around sixty percent of the world's seeds and sixty percent of the world's agro-chemicals.
 In contrast to open source they are using patent law to copyright seed production. This is already happening with cultivars developed using traditional cross breeding techniques and is even more applicable to GM methods. If you can copyright the food chain you can control it; the implications for food sovereignty and biodiversity are worrying. So thank you Rhoda Cutbush for the Crimson Flowered Broad Bean.

 Note to self: should include more trees in this journal...

Today was not the day to do anything on the allotment.