The Plant Lover's Backyard Forest Garden

About this book

Grow your own beautiful multilayered food forest in your own backyard. Pippa Chapman is an RHS-trained gardener who designs, plants and maintains abundant, biodiverse, edible and beautiful forest gardens. Here she shares her practical tips for realistically transforming your own plot, whatever its size, and with limited time, money and resources. A forest garden doesn't have to be big; you can grow a productive edible paradise in pots and containers too. Pippa explains how to create multiple layers on a small scale to maximise your growing area, using polycultures and guilds for healthy, low-maintenance food. She shares how to use perennials for structure and for year-round food, and how to incorporate flowers for beauty, wildlife and for the kitchen. Chapters on permaculture design and forest gardening give practical advice on how to plan and plant your own garden, with guilds and plant profiles to give real-life examples to help you get started. Useful tips on propagation and seed saving help keep plant costs low and a handy chapter on the soil-food web will help you understand your own soil and how to keep it healthy.

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Biography

Pippa Chapman has been gardening for over 30 years. In 2007 she left her job as Head Gardener on a private estate, to take a year-long practical apprenticeship at RHS Harlow Carr. She was introduced to forest gardening and permaculture and in 2010 set up a sustainable gardening business with her husband. She grows a wide variety of fruits, flowers, herbs and annual and perennial vegetables in her small backyard, creating a beautiful, edible and wildlife-friendly space.