Forest Gardening workshop slated

NORWAY — A Forest Gardening Workshop will be held at the Alan Day Community Garden in Norway on Sunday, October 28, from 1 to 4 p.m. This event is free and open to the public.

In this workshop, those attending will explore ways in which perennial plants, shrubs and trees can work together to build fertile soil, provide habitat for pollinators and other beneficial insects, and yield abundant food for humans and wildlife.

The food forest concept, developed in England, but now gaining popularity in the US, especially in the Northeast, emulates diverse natural ecosystems to create abundance with little or no outside inputs to the system once it is established.

Food forests, also known as forest gardens or perennial polycultures, require less labor than conventional gardening which relies primarily on annual plant species and outside inputs to provide fertility.

As a group, participants will begin to design a food forest by observing the site, developing list of appropriate plants and potential sources, and start with basic preparations to the area.