Famous Vegans - Robert Hart

Robert Hart in his
forest garden, 1997.

Robert Hart

Born Robert Adrian de Jauralde Hart. He lived from April 1, 1913 to March 7, 2000. He died at the age of 86. He was an English horticulturist and regarded a pioneer of forest gardening in temperate zones, which is a type of veganic gardening.

Robert Hart started out with a twenty acre dairy farm in England with chickens, sheep, cattle, goats and bees. When he became vegan (eating a 90% raw food diet), he expanded his gardening project as a replacement for the food he used to get from his livestock.

According to Robert Hart, a forest garden can be achieved in under four years and needs very little maintenance. His system combines fruits, nuts, herbs, salad plants and vegetables in a self-sustaining perennial system without external fertilizers. His secret to a healthy forest garden is to keep plants cut back, so they don't encroach on the other plants and to keep everything well mulched. He named it forest gardening, since it replicates the plant layers of a forest.

He wrote the book Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape. This revised edition was expanded from the original version from 1991, to include tips for forest gardening in North America.

The model for his practice was the British deciduous woodland, divided into a seven-layer system consisting of:

Canopy layer: the highest layer of the seven layers of the natural forest. It consists of medium to large trees. Fruit trees are often chosen for this layer as a food crop, but non-edible trees can also be used. Nitrogen fixing trees such as Italian alder can be used to benefit the other plants in the garden. This layer can also be excluded if the garden doesn't have enough space.
Low-tree layer or under storey: this layer consists of shade tolerant short trees or large shrubs. Nut and dwarf fruit trees are often used in this layer.
Shrubs layer: consisting of currents, blueberries, gooseberries and other sorts of food bushes. They need to be able to tolerate shade.
Herbaceous layer: consisting of herbaceous perennials and evergreen plants. Good plants for this layer are mint, sage, comfrey and other herbs and perennial vegetables. This layer often merges and is sometimes part of the ground-cover layer.
Ground cover layer: this layer consists mainly of a carpet of horizontally creeping plants that cover the floor of the forest garden. They need to have a high tolerance of shade. This layer functions as living mulch, which helps to protect and nourish the soil and its structure. Examples of plants that can be used in this layer are Nepalese raspberry and apple mint.
Rhizosphere or root layer: plants in this layer are cultivated for their roots or tubers. This includes crops such as beets, carrots or Jerusalem artichokes. Crops like potatoes need a lot of sunlight. They can be grown in this layer, but there would have to be enough place in the forest garden to be able to create a clearing that catches adequate sunlight.
Vertical layer: consisting of vines and climbers. They can be placed near trees, trellis or fences to have something to climb into. They can grow through the layers and even reach the canopy in some cases. Examples of plants in this layer are grapevines, runner beans, raspberries, tayberries and boysenberries.

Quotes by Robert hart:

"Obviously, few of us are in a position to restore the forests.. But tens of millions of us have gardens, or access to open spaces such as industrial wastelands, where trees can be planted. and if full advantage can be taken of the potentialities that are available even in heavily built up areas, new 'city forests' can arise."

"Forest gardening offers the potential for all gardeners to grow an important element of their health-creating food; it combines positive gardening and positive health. ... The wealth, abundance and diversity of the forest garden provides for all human needs - physical needs through foods, materials and exercise, as well as medicines and spiritual needs through beauty and the connection with the whole."

"The advice I give to anyone who asks me how to start a forest garden from scratch, is to plant an orchard of standard fruit trees at recommended intervals, that is about 20 feet each way. Then plant dwarf trees in midway between the standard trees. Plant fruit bushes, currants and gooseberries, in between the trees. And plant herbs and perennial vegetables on the ground level."

"I think it's possible to say that it is a system combining maximum output for minimum labour."

"My primary aim was self-sufficiency, so I extended my system beyond livestock farming to include trees and other plants--mainly perennial--which would contribute to the health and welfare of human beings. In time, after I had adopted a vegan diet and for other personal reasons, the plant component completely replaced the animal one."

Quotes are from a clip where Robert Hart explains the basic principles of his 'forest gardening' method, an article in The Guardian, his book Forest Gardening: Cultivating an Edible Landscape and an article in Homestead.