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Forest Garden Tours

Garden Forest Garden Tours

Growing & Eating for Nourishment & Nourishing the Future

"Obviously, few of us are in a position to restore the forests. But tens of millions of us have gardens, or access to open spaces such as industrial wastelands, where trees can be planted. and if full advantage can be taken of the potentialities that are available even in heavily built up areas, new "city forests" can arise..."  ~ Robert A.de J.Hart

This garden walk series gives you an opportunity to experience the array of learning opportunities of edible forest gardening and plants that thrive here in Carolinian Canada through the various seasons. Come to one, a series or attend all of them.

It is has been estimated that some 2,200 species of herbaceous plants are found here of the ‘banana belt’ of the north. The question is how do we integrate many of these valuable plants into our gardens and use them, as spices, fruits, nuts, vegetables and many are excellent protein sources. There are literally hundreds of less well-known edible plants that grow all around us many which are both delicious and nutritious.

Why is Gardening So Much Work?

We will discover that in a Forest Gardening model that really works with nature, that one does not need to work so hard. A practical working system that incorporates organic practices and goes beyond – Way Beyond – Natural Gardening.

Learn to identify and use many edible, nutritional and medicinal plants that grow wild and through our forest gardens ~ and the 50 acre sanctuary has over 1,000 species of plants. These garden walks introduce to a new – well ancient way of growing food. Learn the basics of wholistic living where nature is the classroom. These plant walks emphasize practical ways we can grow our food here in the north, which is sustainable and very high yielding.

Our garden demonstration walks will take you through our 25-year-old established organic Edible Forest Gardens. Practical information on tree crops, shrub crops, perennials and ground covers will be complemented with visits to our Edible Forest Garden to look at our successes and challenges, as well as to taste delicious and unusual leaf and fruit crops.

Rather than mastering your garden with gas-spewing rototillers and chemical fertilizers, let yourself be inform and inspired on how to create a backyard ecosystem that balances the needs of humans and nature.

Over the series of walks for the next few months you will learn to identify various plants. For each plant you will then explore its ecosystem of origin, and under which conditions it thrives best, or just marginally survives. You will learn how it adapts to our environment, and how you can provide it with optimal care.

Finally you will learn about its non-ornamental uses, such as food, medicine, fiber, etc. Over the next three seasons (May - October), plants are viewed in garden settings, focusing on ecologically sound and successful plant combinations. These walks are open to all who wish to learn more about plants. No prior knowledge or experience required.

Gardens can remind us that whatever gardens are a sanctuary from, they can never be a sanctuary from the natural world or our own underlying economic needs.

These walks can be a source of practical inspiration with its vision of an obtainable peaceful sacred sanctuary.
~ Find out to design your own garden of paradise.
~ Assess the health of your soil.
~ Find out how you may safely identify, collect, and use our delicious, healthful edible wild foods.
~ Learn about how to build the healthiest fertile soil on the planet.
~ Learn about tasty, innovative and tasty vegetarian wild plant recipes.
* Each walk will be totally unique as we focus on what's in season and is at its peak.

 Edible Forest Medicine Trail

Come and walk our Edible Forest Medicine Trail. If we compare a large cultivated field to a natural woodland forest, the forest receives no intervention but produces lush growth and diversity of plants and animals. Yet the cultivated land supports very few species. The quality and depth of soil in a forest is maintained and improved yearly whilst erosion and loss of soil structure plague the cultivated field. Discover the beauty and taste the abundance of nature.

Forest Garden Guide: Shantree Kacera, D.N. Ph.D.

Each walk lasts approximately 2 hours, if it is raining, the garden walk will be conducted in a lecture/demonstration format.

 

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