The Outdoor Permaculture Classroom: Edible Forest Gardens for Schools ` For more information, Please see websites below: ` Organic Edible Schoolyards & Gardening with Children http://scribd.com/doc/239851214 ` Double Food Production from your School Garden with Organic Tech http://scribd.com/doc/239851079 ` Free School Gardening Art Posters http://scribd.com/doc/239851159` ` Companion Planting Increases Food Production from School Gardens http://scribd.com/doc/239851159 ` Healthy Foods Dramatically Improves Student Academic Success http://scribd.com/doc/239851348 ` City Chickens for your Organic School Garden http://scribd.com/doc/239850440 ` Simple Square Foot Gardening for Schools - Teacher Guide http://scribd.com/doc/239851110

1. 18 Permaculture Magazine No. 54 www.permaculture.co.uk THE OUTDOOR
PERMACULTURE
CLASSROOM
Dave Richards introduces
richly multi-functional and diverse
edible forest gardens for schools.
There is growing
awareness of the
educational value of
school gardens.
E Top:
Close inspection
of a fruit tree
during a school
visit to the RISC
roof garden,
Reading.
Centre:
Looking for ants,
Blagdon Nursery
School. The ants
nest was revealed
by construction
work.
Left:
Pupil spreading
wood chip mulch
around a living
willow arch at St
John Fisher RC
Primary, Pinner.
arly August, and across the
country school gardens
gradually wither beyond
redemption. Tomatoes nurtured
from seed shrivel in their grow
bags. Beans that provoked huge
excitement when they sprouted
in their blotting paper seedbed
will not be producing a crop.
The summer holidays need not
spell the premature end of grow-ing
projects that cannot manage
a watering rota or arrange access
with the school caretaker, however.
The perennial forest garden is the
perfect antidote to this problem.
Once established, they will survive
a dry summer holiday, provide a
learning environment which gets
richer with age, and offer an edible
harvest for much of the year –
from nettle and wild garlic soup
in the early spring, to medlar pie in
the autumn.

2. www.permaculture.co.uk No. 54 Permaculture Magazine 19
In the spring of 2006 we set up Sector39 as a small business designing and building sustain- able gardens. We combined many years experience of sustainable development projects in several countries with exploring how to make the most of the educational potential of the Reading Inter- national Solidarity Centre (RISC) edible forest roof garden which was featured in PM53 ( An article on it’s construction from PM35 can be found at www. permaculture- magazine.co.uk/articles/archive). To date, we have completed eight school garden projects and have others in the planning stage.
Adapting our experience to the realities of schools has been challenging; working with limited budgets, preconceptions of what gardens should look like and severe constraints on teachers’ time. The past year has provided much food for thought and some guidelines for designing successful forest gardens for schools.
There is growing awareness of the educational value of school gardens. The Growing Schools initiative and Learning Through Landscapes both provide ideas and resources for schools that want to explore the curriculum through the ‘outdoor classroom’. The government’s National Frame- work for Sustainable Schools identifies eight ‘doorways’, inc-
luding waste minimisation, energy use and school grounds, through which schools can extend their sustainable activities and become a model for the wider community. Gardens have also proved their worth in promoting Healthy Living and fit nicely into the framework of the EcoSchools programme where schools monitor their environmental impact and devise and implement strategies for reducing it.
The climate for an integrated permaculture approach to trans- forming school grounds from a maintenance headache (finding a contractor who will mow grass and strim shrubs for a bargain price) into a resource, is prom- ising. Schools have responded enthusiastically to the idea of a garden designed to be integrated into all areas of the curriculum, from maths to design technology, and which incorporates reused, renewable and recycled materials into the hard landscaping.
The design stage involves dis- cussions with as many stakeholders from the school community as can be assembled. This has been the easiest part of the process – we all aspire to be ‘sustainable’ now. Each aims to be low maintenance and maximise the educational value of hard landscaping and planting, within the constraints of the site... and budget!
PERMACULTURE IN ACTION
Construction has also been relat- ively straightforward. The basic formula is familiar permaculture stuff. We aim for low carbon gardens which use local materials where possible. All our sites have been neglected areas, on heavy clay soil. We apply a dressing of ground rock from SEER and fish, bone and blood meal to provide longer term nutrients. Several layers of cardboard scavenged from the school bins or local shops suppress most weeds until plants are established. A thick mat of straw from a local farm garnished with Zoopoo (composted veget- arian manure from Paignton Zoo) provides the initial dose of humus. Small pockets of peat-free compost are made for plants. In the spring, when the mix has had a good soak and begun to break down, and
Above:
The start of garden const- ruction at Geoffrey Field Junior School, Reading.
Left:
The school garden, 1 year later. Herbaceous perennials such as cardoon and Jerusalem arti- chokes make an immediate impact while the fruit trees will take longer to mature. Geoffrey Field Junior School, Reading.
Right:
Learning to weave willow.
Whitley Park Infants School, Reading.
Photographs:
Schools pictures
© sector39
RISC pictures
© Dave Richards

3. 20 Permaculture Magazine No. 54 www.permaculture.co.uk plants have become established, we
apply a wood chip mulch, available
in mountains from tree surgeons.
Edging for raised beds and paths
ranges from bricks, rescued from
convenient skips or landfill sites,
to oak cordwood. We have found
a fantastic local timber yard,
trees2timber, which tries to find
uses for cordwood rather than
rendering it into chips. We make
benches from green oak sleepers as
the natural tannins mean we don’t
need to use chemical wood preser-vatives,
an important consideration
in the school environment. Where
budgets have allowed we have
also included living willow archi-tecture
built by Steve Pickup of
the Willow Bank. Over the past
15 years Steve has perfected con-struction
methods which ensure
a long healthy life for his beautiful
structures. He has built hides and
entrance archways which make
an immediate impact. This is very
important as much of the planting,
particularly the trees, will take
several years to make a strong
visual impression.
Although the forest element
of the gardens will not need water-ing
once established, most also
include beds of annual vegetables,
so children can still have the
pleasure of planting seeds and
touching soil. So we include
rainwater harvesting with reused
juice containers (1,500 litre/330
gallon) monsters where we can per-suade
our clients that they can be
made less intrusive with climbers
or a creative art project. These
not only last longer but also make
the important, but often ignored,
point that reuse is preferable to
recycling. Where the site allows, we
divert overflow from water butts
into water features and planted
soakaways, ‘rain gardens’. The
recent floods have drawn attention
to our increasingly impermeable
landscape – the government sub-sequently
endorsed green roofs.
‘Bio-retention’ not only enhances the
landscape value but also reduces
the load on stormwater drains.
Our planting schemes follow
the edible forest template, with
emphasis on multiple use, year-round
interest and educational
value. Fruit trees on dwarfing
root stock provide structure and
CHANGING ATTITUDES
At the end of the day, no matter
how many permaculture boxes
have been ticked, the success of a
school garden must be judged by
how far it has been embraced by
the whole school. Apart from the
ravages of slugs and rampant
bindweed in a few gardens, this
has been the most challenging task.
Predictably, children have respon-ded
with enthusiasm to smelling
ZooPoo, running through willow
structures and balancing along
benches. Some teachers are more
used to the TV garden makeover,
however, and expect instant results
rather than the more gradual
process of working with nature.
Once the hard landscaping and
initial planting are completed we
try to have a training session to
give staff an indication of the educ-ational
value of the garden and
how to access support materials.
This is essential because many will
not have been involved in the
design and most are not gardeners.
Teachers’ responses to the ‘stories’
we have embedded in the gardens
have been positive... Neolithic
hunter-gatherers getting their carbo-hydrates
from the fleshy roots of sea
kale and the importance of pres-erving
heritage fruit trees easily
capture the imagination. Ideally,
we would continue with a series
of workshops, including how to
maintain the garden in the critical
accessible harvesting. Unfortun-ately,
no nuts because of allergies.
Where we have south facing walls
or fences we use cordons and
espaliers to illustrate ancient means
of harnessing nature’s bounty.
Mulberries are essential – not
only delicious and a part of every
childhood – but also an historical
link back to James I’s failed
attempt to foster an English silk
industry. Clumping bamboo is
another favourite, especially to
create a quiet retreat, fed by
overflow from the water butt.
Learning about
sustainable gardening and
permaculture has been
an education for all of us
Left:
Adding ZooPoo
to the mulch.
Whitley Park
Infants School,
Reading.
Below:
Hexagonal green
oak bench. The
points of compass
are marked in
Welsh slate which
gives a pleasant
tinkling sound
when walked on.
Geoffrey Field
Junior School,
Reading.
Right:
Press launch of
the garden at St
John Fisher RC
Primary, Pinner.

4. www.permaculture.co.uk No. 54 Permaculture Magazine 21
first few years while plants become established, but funding is a major limitation on the time we can devote to this follow-up work. The other critical factor is time. The demands of the National Curriculum are heavy and teachers lack the time to rejig schemes of work to include the potential of the outdoor class- room, especially if this is relatively unfamiliar territory and they lack confidence of working with soil and plants.
It is, however, possible. St John Fisher Primary School in Pinner has been one of our most success- ful partnerships. In the words of Diana Farrell, “Learning about sustainable gardening and perma- culture has been an education for all of us, staff included. We didn’t know what the garden would look like. The straw looked odd to begin with, but we have been patient and waited for it to go away! The children will gain so much. They will see things growing, it is a prim- ary source. When learning about plants and fruits for example, it will be far more meaningful and exciting to gain knowledge from real examples growing in the school environment and in some cases grown by themselves. During the first year we expect the garden to be left to establish itself and grow, whilst the school establishes how we are going to incorporate it into the different curriculum areas and how we will manage the weeding, watering and general mainten- ance. This is not something that all staff will embrace with enthusiasm, so slowly, slowly is probably the best way to introduce new activities and ideas for them to take on board.”
The past year has been chal- lenging and fascinating. Our basic premise, that forest gardens can be an exciting year-round resource for schools, has been clearly demon- strated. The key to this potential being realised, however, is the com- mitment of key staff members, especially the head teacher. We have several very interesting projects waiting for funding, including a relatively low cost backyard reed- bed system developed by Water Works UK. This will provide an
exciting action research project for secondary school students to calc- ulate the environmental benefits of processing greywater onsite. We’d really like to work on a new build project which integrates more sustainable buildings with landscapes – green roofs and façades as well as forest gardens. Finding adventurous governors, planners and architects is not easy, but we’re still looking...
Steve Jones and Dave Richards are the former and present gardeners on the RISC roof garden. Steve was a consultant on Channel 4’s recently broadcast series ‘Dumped’.
sector39
90 Crescent Road, Reading RG1 5SN
Tel: 0845 070 2716
Mob: 0794 705 7468
Web: www.sector39.co.uk
USEFUL WEBSITES
www.permaculture.org.uk
www.teachernet.gov.uk/growing schools/
www.ltl.org.uk/
www.teachernet.gov.uk/sustainable schools/framework/framework_ detail.cfm
www.wwuk.co.uk
www.trees2timber.com
USEFUL RESOURCES
How To Make A Forest Garden Patrick Whitefield
A step-by-step guide to creating a ‘maximum output for minimum labour’ food producing garden, designed using the ecological principles of a natural woodland. Everything you need to know in order to create a beautiful and productive forest garden, including: basic principles, layout, choosing plants, perennial and self-seeding vegetables, and design examples.
192pp, £16.95.
Making Living Willow Sculptures
Steve Pickup takes you through the process of making a living willow structure, showing you: how to choose an appropriate location; preparation of the site; how to plant willow rods; the different weaving techniques; and how best to care for your finished structure.
DVD, 75 mins., PAL (0), £20.00
Both available from
www.green-shopping.co.uk
Right:
The RISC roof garden, Reading has proved to be an invaluable resource for schools.
Below:
Steve Pickup’s willow structure was christened the ‘Whitley Whale’ by the pupils at Whitley Park Infants School, Reading.
Above:
Even a single plant may fit many conditions in the National Curriculum.