On a fun sunny Sunday in March 2025

We are really lucky to have been supported by Brighton & Hove Food Partnership and Brighton Permaculture Trust and to have been funded by Cultivate EU- a programme to promote food growing in many cities across Europe. In February an edible hedgerow, including fruit trees was planted between the Family Hub and the playpark. This month Hollingdean Community Orchard is being planted with new layers of plants so that it becomes a Forest Garden.

Everyone is welcome to visit. Please take care of the new young plants. It is wonderful to see them grow and come back to enjoy their fruit later in the year. We can all sample a few and leave more for others, too, including wildlife. This year the new plants need to get their roots down and really bed in. As the garden becomes mature, so it will become more and more fruitful over the years.

What is a forest garden?

“Forest gardens are food-producing systems which seek to emulate natural woodland ecosystems as closely as possible. They consist of mainly perennial plants which are agriculturally productive or useful, growing as they would in the wild.” Says Permaculture Association This includes fruit and nut trees, climbers and vines, shrubs such as currant bushes, herbaceous perennials and herbs, ground cover plants and roots. Some plants maybe edible and some medicinal. They all have a place in the Forest Garden.

Thank you to Community Chef Anna who cooked us all a lovely lunch! And everyone who helped make it a really productive day

Thank you to Stephan at Brighton Permaculture Trust, Helen at Brighton & Hove Food Partnership, Hollingdean Family Hub and Growing Hollingdean volunteers for organising all of this.

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