'Use green imagination to enliven your home, your work, your community. Permaculture design is about practical and ecological strategies for land, water, buildings, people and communities. It is based on the philosophy of co-operating with nature and caring for the earth and its people. Find out how you can make a positive contribution towards a sustainable future.'

The BFG works to promote forest gardens as a sustainable lifestyle solution in North West Wales. A forest garden has overlapping canopy layers ranging from full-grown trees right down to ground covering plants, each with a role to play within the garden. Plants may be used for food (berries, leaves, nuts, roots etc.), wood, fibres, medicinal purposes and so on, and/or they may be planted to fix nutrients in the soil, attract beneficial insects or promote biodiversity. By concentrating on perennial and self-seeding varieties, a wide range of plants can be grown for all sorts of uses without the need for lots of labour.

Yesterday, about a dozen people met at the garden for the October workday. We had a guided tour of the site, sampling some of the unusual varieties of fruit as we went round. Originally part of an MSc. project at Bangor University, the garden has been developed over about 10 years as a practical demonstration of permaculture. A yurt provides some indoor space for groups to meet in poor weather, while a willow dome - under construction - will provide a shaded outdoor meeting space for warm summer days.

At lunchtime, the clay bread oven cooked stromboli faster than any conventional oven could possibly manage - and without burning. After much eating and talking, we finally got round to doing some work in the garden before it was time to go home, starting off new rubus plants from cuttings. Several varieties of rubus (bramble family) are grown as ground cover in forest gardens, keeping weeds down and providing fruit.

BFG workdays are held on the second Sunday of every month from 11.30 - 4.00 at the forest garden, which is about 5 miles from Bangor at the Henfaes Research Centre, Abergwyngregyn, LL33 0LB.

For more information, get in touch with BFG:
Email: contact[at]thebfg.org.uk
Tel: 0845 345 7716