A Little About Us and Where The Food Forest Has Started From

Katrina & Peter and their children are a Vegan living family of 5 in East Ayrshire, Scotland. 3 children aged 12-15. Their eldest Clayton who is Autistic and Non verbal is Home Educated by Katrina and has developed a keen interest and eye for the garden and is most happiest when planting seeds, potting up and watering what he has grown. This year Clayton started the Grow and Learn Course with the Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society.

“ Grow & Learn is a person-centred award, recognising individual progress and achievement in horticulture. Our awards are inclusive, individualised and offer life skills based education for all. Grow & Learn aims to address a large gap in provision in the world of horticulture by offering an alternative learning opportunity for those who find mainstream learning challenging“ The Caley

Clayton watering the vegetables in the planters

You can follow Katrina & Clayton on their instagram page buildingafoodforest_scotland watching them around their garden while they build up their Food Forest with Fruit, Nuts & Berries. Their Kitchen Courtyard Garden using Vertical Gardening techniques, their Vegetable Planters & Clayton’s Flower Beds.

12 steps of permaculture design
Image Source: gethunted.com

The family have lived in Scotland since 2013 and decided to finally make it their home in 2019 and bought a property in East Ayrshire with large enough grounds to start building a food forest approx 1/4 acre to start having fresh basic food supplies for their family. Peter completed Permaculture Design Course online at Oregon State University (certified by the Permaculture Institute of North America) and has designed the grounds using the 12 principles of permaculture design, they started with the fruit trees and fruit & nut bushes to get them established (all under net cages for Deer protection) while they slowly but surely continue to build the area around them.

Oakmount House when we first moved in, Feb 2019

Ongoing progress of the grounds Sept 2021

Check out more of our progress on these blogs:

Starting to Build a Food Forest, Where Did We Start? (Year 1 & 2)

Building a Food Forest in Scotland. Starting with the Tree Layer (Year 1)

Making Every Bit Of Space Usable. Building A Long Planter Raised Bed

Building a Mini Food Forest in a Small Area. Ours is On A Fence (Year 1)

From a full grass area, they have split it up into difference sections, first is a seating area, which will also house a greenhouse & potting shed for Clayton to continue his skills in the garden, there is a slope onto the 2nd tier that is in the process of becoming a full lavender hedge for a wonderful sensory experience, all grown from seed on their window sills around the house. There is the kids area, for play, for running, for waterslides and swinging. The slope into the 3rd tier & their growing area with tall planters and a food forest establishing across the back, is home to what will be a stunning flower slope for the bees, full of colour and texture, which also seem to be a love of the Deers that run across the garden every morning & evening. This whole area is very much a working progress which they are documenting their progress on instagram buildingafoodforest_scotland

Behind the house they have built a Kitchen Courtyard Garden growing herbs & salads. A beautiful practical vertical garden is in this area too, they have made great use of this space along a black fencing that retains the heat and gives the plants an extra heat boost, 66 milk cartons kindly collected by their neighbours are attached on a curtain rail, planted out with the seasons food. A great use of recycling, reusing & repurposing, showing no matter the space you have you can always start growing something, even if it is using toilet rolls, paper cups, cutting up plastic bottles to use the bottom to plant & the tops for mini greenhouses or EVEN old shoes!