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Download the Forest Garden Design chapter
The Forest Garden Design chapter of the Facilitators Manual provides the detailed instructions (and support materials) you need to implement the Forest Garden Design activities. Download the chapter here.
Summary
Goal Farmers will begin the Forest Garden project by creating a Forest Garden design for his or her family’s field that meets the core Forest Garden design principles. Farmers will use their designs as a draft blueprint when developing their Forest Gardens, updating them as needed over the course of the project. Learning Objectives- Learn the structure and layout of Forest Gardens, primary components and layers, and uses of different trees.
- Learn to draw a map of a field to scale.
- Learn Forest Garden design principles: security, erosion-control, soil quality enrichment, pest control, climate smart agriculture, family needs, women and youth, market-oriented.
- Chapter 1: Introduction to the Forest Garden
- Chapter 2: Phased Approach
- To ensure the training goes smoothly in the allotted time, meet with the lead farmer where the training site is located and ask him/her to show you where they would like to have a Forest Garden. Then briefly explain the session and the lead farmer’s role. Let them know that the farmers mapping the farm will give them suggestions of how to better their Forest Garden site and that they should be ready with responses as to what they think would work or not work. The farmer should be willing to speak for around 5 minutes.
- Make sure that the farmer either has enough room inside their home to conduct the session or has plenty of shade outside for all workshop participants. Look for surfaces the participants can use for the mapping exercise.
- Invite lead farmer’s family to the workshop and explain the importance of their participation in the workshop.
- Identify one of the Lead Farmer’s neighbors who will let the group map their field during Activity 1.
- Collect or identify 4 or 5 flat clean surfaces (sheet of wood, tables, wall) to use for drawing designs.
- Create the “Growing Potential” table on a piece of flipchart paper (for example see Activity 2).
- Roll of flipchart paper and tape
- 5 Clipboards
- Pencils, one for each farmer
- 20 sheets of A4 (printer size) paper
- Markers of various colors
- Copies of Handout: How to map your Forest Garden, one for each farmer
- How to map your Forest Garden
Agenda
Opener: Forest Garden Recall and discussion (1.5 hours)- Review Forest Garden concept and phases of establishment
- Review the Trees for the Future program expectations
- Recap dream field activity
- Draw the border of the land on the paper
- Draw the physical features
- Draw what is outside the field
- Form groups
- Measure the border
- Draw the field
- Present maps
- Discuss the land
- Discuss the family’s needs
- Design a Forest Garden
- Present Forest Garden designs
- Family selects the best design
- Follow-up
What you need to know
Whether you intend to sit the FG Pro certification exam, or lead Forest Garden Design module extension activities, you must be able to answer the following questions to succeed.Introduction to the Forest Garden
Related questions
- What is a Forest Garden?
- Why are Forest Gardens important?
- What are the benefits of Forest Gardens compared to other cropping systems?
- Do Forest Gardens use more or less water, nutrients and sunlight?
- Do Forest Gardens use more or less inputs such as chemical fertilizers, fuel-powered machinery or pesticides?
Phased Approach
Related questions
- What are the three phases of the Forest Garden approach?
- What is the focus of each phase?
- Why is it important to protect your field? How do you protect and revitalize your field?
- How long does phase I (protection) take to implement?
- Can farmers continue their normal crops during the transition to Forest Gardens? What precautions do they need to take?
- How does diversifying the trees and crops you plant help your family? How does it help the land?
- Why is it important to optimize your field?
Assessment Tools
Top View Mapping
Agroforestry Technologies
Windbreaks
- What are windbreaks, and what are the benefits? How do they protect the field?
- What are desirable characteristics of species used for windbreaks?
- How permeable should the vegetation in a windbreak be? Why is this important Why is it important to minimize gaps in a windbreak?
- What distance can a windbreak provide protection for?
- What are key design recommendations for a windbreak? How should trees and rows for Windbreaks be spaced?
- Why is it important to protect the windbreak once it is planted?
Living Fences and Green Walls
- What is a green wall, and what are the benefits? How do they protect the field?
- What are desirable characteristics of trees used in living fences?
- How many rows should you plant for a green wall? What is the recommended composition of each row?
- If you plant near a dead fence, how much space do you leave between the dead fence and the green wall?
Alley Cropping
Contour Planting
- What are contour lines?
- What are terraces?
- What is the risk of contour lines that are not accurate?
- When alleys between contour lines are ploughed, what direction should the ploughing be done in?
- What should be cultivated on slopes greater than 60%?
- How do you build an A-frame? How do you calibrate an A-frame?
- How do you find a contour with an A-frame?
- What should be the distance between contour rows?
- What are desirable characteristics of trees used for contour planting?
- What are some plants that can be used as living contour barriers?
Dispersed Planting
Firebreaks, Fuelbreaks, and Greenbreaks
Cut and Carry Livestock Management
Click here to learn about Cut and Carry Livestock Management, which trees are good for animal forage, and where they can be grown.Integrated Pest Management
Related Questions
Optimizing Your Forest Garden Understory
Related Questions
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