Martin Crawford & the Agroforestry Research Trust
A long-running Devon forest garden that makes layered growing tangible—and worth looking at closely.
Botanical illustration—not a photograph of this project.
The Agroforestry Research Trust was founded in 1992. Its account describes a 2.1-acre Dartington field being converted into a demonstration forest garden from 1994, with Martin Crawford directing the work. The garden combines useful trees, shrubs and ground-layer plants. Read the Trust’s history and project description.
The idea to borrow
Look at a garden across time, not just on planting day. The Trust describes changing ground cover and ongoing crop trials. A mature planting offers questions about shade, spacing and harvesting that a diagram cannot answer.
What this source can tell us
The Trust is the operator and a source of practical experience, plants, publications and teaching. Its descriptions of a self-fertilizing system and “dynamic accumulators” are its interpretation; this site does not treat them as proof that comfrey or nitrogen-fixing neighbours eliminate fertility management everywhere.
For that distinction, read plants that do more. Ask about measured inputs and yields, maintenance hours and which plants have been removed as well as those that remain.
Before visiting
Check current tour arrangements and the status of each research site with the Trust. A demonstration garden’s access and tenure can change. Its knowledge is useful even when your own garden has very different growing conditions.