A new crowdfunding campaign has been launched to save the world-renowned forest garden in Devon run by the Agroforestry Research Trust (ART) and founded by respected forest gardener Martin Crawford.
In 2025, the garden came under threat when the Trust was given notice to quit by its landlords, the Dartington Hall Trust. The protest petition site at change.org gained 35,000 signatures and helped stop the immediate threat of eviction.
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Now the Trust has the opportunity to purchase the forest garden, which would secure its future for good. It needs to raise £100,000 to meet the total needed to cover the sale price and legal fees. If the purchase goes ahead, the garden will be owned by the Agroforestry Research Trust, a registered charity.
"I'm delighted that we have this opportunity to secure our 32-year-old forest garden for future generations," says ART founder Martin Crawford. "This garden continues to inspire and educate throughout the world, and there has never been a more important time to highlight perennial cropping systems."
The forest garden was created in 1994 from a grass field and is now probably one of the most well-known forest gardens worldwide.
Forest gardens (also known as food forests) are a sustainable growing system made up of trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and fungi. They produce food or other crops while being highly resilient to pests, diseases and weather extremes. They also store a large amount of carbon.
Over the past 32 years, 50,000 people have visited the garden from all over the world. The Trust has run more than 1,000 tours and 100 courses, and the garden has inspired Martin Crawford's books including Creating a Forest Garden, which sold over 100,000 copies. The garden contains more than 500 different edible plants.
