Students & volunteers worked together to plant a new herb and a Mediterranean garden

Daphne Lambert from GreenCuisine shows the types of produce that will be sourced from the Forest Food Garden in time.

A dry, bright and windless field in early March was the unexpected but very welcome setting for the third major planting session for the Department of Education’s Forest Food Garden modules. The planting of around 80 trees, herbs and shrubs was focused in two areas: a large (200 sq metre) Mediterranean Garden and a herb garden.

Senior Lecturer and Module Leader, John Parry, hopes to be able to build a kitchen facility out of hempcrete – a biocomposite material which is a mixture of hemp hurds and lime, sand, or pozzolans – on site for the eventual converting of natural foods from the garden into ready-to-eat produce. Daphne Lambert, a former Forest Food Garden tutor, chef, nutritional consultant, and founding member of the Greencuisine Trust, brought examples of what that produce might be, including a vegetable stew, a nettle and rye bread, an apple cake, and various herbs and condiments.

John explained how the Forest Food Garden has developed: 

“In 2021, students designed the overall canopy of trees which was planted in 2022. The next cohort of students in 2022 worked on a social area design which was planted in 2023. The autumn 2023 cohort have worked on designing the current herb and Mediterranean areas which we have been planting today. Plans are now underway to design a nuttery of hazel, bladder nut, sweet chestnut and Yellowhorn for planting in March 2025.”

Forest Food Garden students and tutors paired up with volunteers from various disciplines across campus for the planting, which included staking, watering and rabbit-proof fencing. All were happy to talk about why they’d taken the module or why they’d volunteered to help plant. The following is a selection of some comments that were shared:

Geoff and Kevin are both Forest Food Garden students. For an Ecology & Conservation MA student, the creating of biodiversity felt entirely complementary to Geoff’s primary degree course. He likes how Forest Food Garden students are active learners and are involved on an equal footing. And how different inputs are valued. Not eating meat is an aspiration for Marketing Management student, Kevin, who, thanks to the teachings of the Forest Food Garden modules, feels that this is key to living more sustainably.

A neuroscience researcher in the final year of her PhD, Lydia takes every opportunity to support initiatives like this one. Her research is on insects, so related to this work.

Daisy and Charlotte are Zoology students. Daisy took the module after it was recommended by a third-year Zoology student friend – and also because she loves gardening. She also cares about sustainability and loves that the module enables her to do conservation in practice rather than just talking about it. Daisy also loves the multidisciplinary nature of the Forest Food Garden cohort, and how all the different knowledge and skills among them contribute in different ways to inform what they do.

Rosie chose the module because it felt like a nice change to her primary Sociology degree, but is also interested in learning about living more sustainably. She enjoys how the module is not taught in a “standard” way, and how so many different and unexpected areas are covered – such as poetry, and how ‘love in education’ is key for inspiring students. Her planting buddy, Moira, is a research technician in neuroscience who supports sustainability as an ethos. She wishes there were more initiatives like the Sussex Forest Food Garden everywhere, promoting how to live more sustainably.

Dani, Adrian and Theo planted as a trio.Essentially a volunteer, Dani is an International Education & Development MA student whose dissertation subject is pedagogy on the Forest Food Garden module, specifically alternative ways of approaching education. She loves how the module evolves with every new cohort in line with the developing stages of the Garden. A postgraduate researcher in Life Sciences, Adrian’s PhD is focused on pollination, agroforestry, the sustainability of food systems and planting. For him, volunteering today is very relevant to his research. For Geography student, Theo, not only is the Forest Food Garden a nice break from his “day job”, sustainability is very much a life ethos for him. He didn’t know what a Forest Food Garden was and had no particular expectations of the module at the start, but says that if he’d any they would have been more than met.

Reflecting on the afternoon, Lecturer and Module Tutor, Perpetua Kirby, said:

“The day was a hopeful reminder of the value of working together across the university to tackle pressing sustainability issues. Students, professional services staff, grounds staff team and faculty brought their skills, ideas and muscle to finish the mammoth task of planting and fencing. We were helped too by a pause in the rains and, essentially, by the vegetable stew, apple cake and nettle bread that Daphne Lambert created from garden produce.”

Mulch will be added to the new plants on 14 March by visiting school pupils from Ratton, Downs Junior and Priory schools.