Meet Finsbury Park's 'edible landscapes' community

Bethany Anderson lifts the lid on an awe inspiring eco-initiative in Finsbury Park

Edible Landscapes is a community garden and education project that has been inside Finsbury Park for over ten years. We specialise in forest gardening, a food growing system that mimics natural ecosystems, involving a variety
of perennial plants and trees. We have drop-in volunteer sessions twice a week to help Londoners learn to grow their own food, and to propagate plants that we give away to local projects and sell to the local community.

We run a variety of community workshops on related subjects; host local schools for outdoor education; run after-school nature clubs and a parent and toddler drop in; help adults with special educational needs gain experience in gardening; and partner with Salters Institute on their wild city project teaching biodiversity and building new forest gardens in schools. The seven-layer, pesticide-free system of fruit and nut trees, perennial crops, fruit bushes, climbers, medicinal and dye plants means small spaces can be designed for maximum yields.

In a time where we have high levels of declining biodiversity, obesity, deprivation, mental ill health and social isolation, a cost-of-living and climate crisis and limited protection and investment in our green spaces, community forest gardens have never been more important.

We know times are hard

If you are struggling to make ends meet, we are keeping Haringey Community Press free because of you. We know that many people cannot afford to pay for local news, so this website and our print paper will always be free. If you can afford to, and value what we do, a small monthly or one-off contribution can support us to keep providing quality journalism for Haringey to our community for free.

Monthly direct debit

£5 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else, £10 per month supporters get a digital copy of each month’s paper before anyone else and a print copy posted to them each month.