The new Sidmouth Civic Food Forest was endorsed by Sidmouth Town Council at their recent Environment Committee meeting. With sites ranging across the whole valley, the Civic Food Forest is claimed to be the first of its sort in the UK and possibly the world.
More and more single site food forests are being planted in the UK but the civic concept is new. It follows the model set by Sidmouth civic arboretum where planting occurs on private and public land across the council’s administration area. But rather than trees, edible plants are grown. And the “forest” can comprise as few as one tree, with many residential food forests being just a few square metres in size.
Local Food Forester, Stefan Drew, commented, “Larger food forests comprise seven layers of plants,usually perennials, including mature canopy trees, understorey trees such as fruit trees, bushes, ground cover and climbers. But the typical garden food forest can have fewer layers and could be as simple as an apple tree with some fruit bushes and rhubarb growing under it. In all cases the aim is to grow food and improve biodiversity”
He continued, “Food forests are becoming far more popular today and we know of several in local gardens. So it made perfect sense to develop the civic food forest concept with town council recognition. Our recent survey identified a number of existing food forests plus people interested in planting more on both private and public land. We plan to help newcomers to food forests with a short guide, advice and potentially a starter pack of plants.”
“We already have one food forest on public land in Sidford. It is now two years old and maintained by volunteers. The idea for the civic food forests is an amalgamation of our work there and the highly successful civic arboretum which was also a national first. We have spoken with food forest advocates from as far away as Bavaria and the Arctic circle, who have been very supportive of the idea, and it seems that the Sidmouth Civic Food Forest could be a European or even international first.”
Members of the public can take part in the survey and register interest in planting their own food forest at http://bit.ly/4h1onIQ
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