the garden of equal delights: the practice and principles of forest gardening

This is a book about how to be a forest gardener. It is not a 'how to' garden book. The emphasis is on being and becoming, rather than doing. Anni shows us that forest gardening is a different type of gardening from the horticultural norm; one which requires a different type of gardener. Her book shows how the garden and gardener can grow together in a process of co-creativity in which an abundant ecosystem emerges. The job of the forest gardener, suggests Anni, is largely one of learning to keep out of the way; to sit on ones hands. To watch, and wait, and learn from the garden about how it wants to grow. The gardener may then make gentle, informed interventions - a nudge here, a suggestion there - without being wedded to the outcome. But this isn't necessarily as easy as it sounds; it takes practice. By telling the story of her own garden, Anni shows us how she developed this practice. The work of the forest gardener, she suggests, shifts from traditional tasks of digging and weeding, to more observational 'tasks' of watching, waiting, and learning how the garden develops as an ecosystem. She acknowledges that watching and waiting can be uncomfortable, as the gardener gives up their enculturated urges to tidy or weed and lets the garden run rampant. The gardener allows this to happen. Their job is to watch carefully as an ecosystem slowly develops that no longer requires pest management, weeding, or added fertility. Only once the forest gardener begins to understand this ecosystem, and the many interactions occurring within it, can they begin to gently intervene.