The four day course in Practical Forest Gardening which I went on at the beginning of May has been the subject of a number of entries over the past fortnight. In particular I have covered the visit to Martin Crawford at the Agroforestry Research Trust in several posts. I thought I would round things off by saying a bit more about the rest of the course which was based at the High Heathercombe Centre on Dartmoor.
 A bed was available in dorm style rooms at the centre but that would have been too easy so I camped in the grounds (and was woken most mornings by the sound of a woodpecker in the trees nearby). I have a new tent I wanted to field test; seems like a good purchase but I discovered that my self-inflating air mat has become a self-deflating airless mat.
 Chilly at night but the morning shower was hot and the centre a very comfortable place to be- I must make particular mention of the food which was superb. 

 The tutors at Heathercombe were Aranya and Caroline Aitken. I did my PDC (Permaculture Design Certificate) with Aranya a few years ago and several other courses since then. I have noted before in this diary that he is a gifted communicator who can unpick complex subjects with great clarity. 
 I hadn't met Caroline before. I knew she is very highly regarded in the permaculture community and sure enough the content and style of her teaching is excellent. Martin Crawford was the third tutor on the course in the form of the session at A.R.T.  He can talk for hours and every word is worth hearing.
 Most of the theory sessions at Heathercombe took place indoors but on the last day it was warm enough to sit outside.

 The practical element was provided by doing some actual planting of Heathercombe's developing forest garden. Part one of the course in February was concerned with the canopy layer and we planted various trees and shrubs back then to extend the existing garden. Part two concentrated on the understory i.e. the herbaceous perennial and groundcover layers. Here we underplanted trees that are seven years old in keeping with forest gardening's layered approach to growing edibles and other useful plants.
 We packed so much into the four days that we really had to force the pace at the end to achieve all the planting we wanted to do (plus a thick layer of mulch). There was a great bunch of people on the course and everyone piled in to get the job done.