Silvohorticulture
A grower's guide to integrating trees into crops
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"Dibben and Raskin offer an insightful, inspiring but also exceptionally practical guide to integrating trees into annual cropping systems. . . in this book we see how the phrase 'the sky's the limit' has never been more applicable."--Jesse Frost, author of The Living Soil Handbook
An invaluable handbook for farmers, growers, and gardeners, Silvohorticulture is the first book to offer a detailed, practical guide on how to effectively integrate trees with vegetable growing, offering information previously known only in the foresting world.
Drawing on the decades-long experiences of Ben Raskin and Andy Dibben, both of whom have designed and managed agroforestry systems and have extensive experience in commercial horticultural crop production, this is the definitive book on the interaction between trees and crops, covering the benefits of trees for edible crops and the potential for additional crops from trees, plus crucial new information on how to fit trees into complex crop rotations as well as manipulating access to light. Ben and Andy also reveal the latest research on how tree roots behave and, importantly, how that impacts your crops.
Agroforestry can bring immense benefits to farmers and growers--not just optimizing yield, but also improving soil, managing pests and water, increasing biodiversity, and reducing costs. System design must be customised to each grower's requirements, and Silvohorticulture offers step-by-step detail that will allow you to manage your trees and crops successfully.
"In this immensely practical guide, the authors provide the technical details towards integrating trees with vegetables and other crops, all while dispelling any preconceived notions that this idea reduces productivity or function. In fact, these systems might prove essential for farm resilience in a changing climate."--Steve Gabriel, author of Silvopasture
About this Author
Andy Dibben is currently Head Grower at Abbey Home Farm, where he is responsible for the production of over ninety different fruit and vegetable crops. Over the last eight years, Andy has been responsible for designing and establishing an agroforestry system integrating fruit, coppice and wildlife trees with field-scale vegetable production. Andy regularly writes horticultural articles and speaks at conferences, including the Oxford Real Farming Conference.
Ben Raskin has worked in horticulture for more than thirty years, with a wide range of experience in practical commercial growing as well as policy and advocacy work. As the Soil Association's Head of Horticulture and Agroforestry, he provides growers at all levels of production with technical, marketing, policy, supply chain and networking support. He is currently implementing a 200-acre silvopastural agroforestry planting in Wiltshire. Additionally, Ben co-chairs the Defra Edibles Horticulture Roundtable and sits on the boards of the Organic Growers Alliance and Community Supported Agriculture Network UK.
Ben is the author of The Woodchip Handbook as well as books on gardening, including Zero-Waste Gardening, The Community Gardening Handbook and three volumes of the Discover Together Guides: Compost, Grow, and Bees, Bugs, and Butterflies.
Iain Tolhurst (Tolly, as he is known in the organic world) has been a commercial organic grower since 1976. Prior to this, four years on a large dairy farm convinced him that the way forward for agriculture was organic. He also became a vegetarian at this time. He is a pioneer of organic strawberry production and he established the first ever organic growers cooperative, Cornish Organic Growers. Since 1988 Tolly has been growing on 18 acres at Hardwick Estate in south Oxfordshire. Vegetables are now the main farm business producing over 400 vegetable bags each week for a successful local box scheme. The farm has won many awards. Tolly has visited farmers and growers around the world, given regular talks and has been an advisor for governments in the Caribbean and Moldova. Since 1994 the farm has been run stockfree being the first ever to be awarded the Stockfree-Organic Symbol. The farm has become a model for the development of the Stockfree-Organic Standards and is the main demonstration site for Stockfree Systems being visited by people from all over the world.
Reviews
'Dibben and Raskin offer an insightful, inspiring but also exceptionally practical guide to integrating trees into annual cropping systems. They demonstrate how stacking a farm upwards has benefits beyond just multiple levels of harvest. From soil moisture management to shade, windbreaks and more, this book will inspire gardeners at all scales to consider what adding trees to the operation could do for them. More importantly, Dibben and Raskin will teach you exactly how to do it. It is always incredible to me how much food can be grown on a small plot of land, and in this book we see how the phrase "the sky's the limit" has never been more applicable.'
Jesse Frost, author of The Living Soil Handbook
'Every now and then a book comes along that adds a whole new dimension to a subject that you thought you understood. This book shows us the need for farming and growing in three dimensions; it tells us not only the myriad benefits of interplanting with trees and shrubs but also how to set about doing so in clear and extremely helpful detail.'
John Cherry, cofounder of the Groundswell Regenerative Agriculture Festival
'Here are all the reasons why integrating trees with vegetables is a complete no-brainer. The only downside to reading Silvohorticulture is that you'll wish you'd started sooner. You knew it was a good idea all along. Here's the proof. Start today.'
John Pawsey, writer and organic farmer, Shimpling Park Farms
'Silvohorticulture will be part of a resilient farming future in these unpredictable times of climate change. Dibben and Raskin give us detailed explanations about how to integrate trees into our vegetable and fruit farms to add more diversity, ecological function and spatial dimension. With its many practical examples, tables and a great tree directory, this book makes it easy to take the next step into more ecological farming methods.'
Helen Atthowe, author of The Ecological Farm
'In this immensely practical guide, the authors provide the technical details towards integrating trees with vegetables and other crops, all while dispelling any preconceived notions that this idea reduces productivity or function. In fact, these systems might prove essential for farm resilience in a changing climate.'
Steve Gabriel, author of Silvopasture
'An essential read for anyone serious about establishing a truly food-secure, resilient and abundant farming system for the future. Using their combined decades of experience, Andy and Ben demonstrate in detail how trees can and must become a foundational and integral part of our farmscape. The need to plan, and to plant, has never been more urgent.'
Lynn Cassells, coauthor of Our Wild Farming Life
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