Learn how to build edible forest gardens by arranging useful plants into communities which support one another’s healthy functioning, while providing food, medicine, fuel and more. Through energetic, visually-rich slideshows, dialogue, participatory outdoor walks, small group exercises, and a field trip with a hands-on planting, students will leave this course with a grounded understanding of what exactly an edible forest garden is, an overview of how to plant and care for home and farm scale systems, a plant species palette, a grasp of basic ecological design principles, and an understanding of why our ecosystems require active human participation.
Topics Covered:
- Edible Forest Gardening (EFG) history, definition, plant and animal archetypes of the edible forest garden and the ecological frame
- Ecological design principles applied in the EFG
- Specific plants why to use them, how to use them and where to grow them
- Designing perennial polyculture guidelines, principles and examples of functional interconnection
- EFG establishment overview from soil prep to harvest
- EFG’s place in the homestead, urban, suburban and rural settings
- Agroforestry & farmscale EFG applications
- Personal & community empowerment through the EFG
- Field trip & site visit to East Hill Tree Farm in Plainfield, VT; a fruit, nut and berry nursery with diverse, extensive orchard ecosystem plantings
For more information and to register: https://www.vtc.edu/ag-course/permaculture-edible-forest-management
For questions contact Rachel at Vermont Tech’s Institute for Applied Agriculture and Food Systems
Email: [email protected]