A group has set up a JustGiving page to buy the Forest Garden in Dartington and help secure it for future generations.

The Agroforestry Research Trust is a non-profit making charity which researches and educates about agroforistry and perennial crops.

They do practical research on their trial grounds, run courses, publish guides and sell seeds, grafting tape and books.

They are a carbon-negative organisation which means they store more carbon on their land than they produce from all their activities.

Forest gardens (also known as food forests) are long term sustainable integrated growing systems including trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals and fungi.

They produce food or other crops while being highly resilient to pests, diseases and weather extremes; and at the same time storing a large amount of carbon.

In the light of the climate crisis leading to a rapid increase in extreme weather events, the need for forest gardens has never been greater.

They started their two acre forest garden in 1994 from a grass field, and in that time it has become a highly biodiverse system which supplies numerous crops whilst also being very nature friendly.

A spokesperson said: “Over the last 32 years, some 50,000 people have visited the forest garden from all over the world.

“We've run over 1000 tours and 100 courses, and the garden has inspired Martin Crawford's books including Creating a Forest Garden which has sold over 100,000 copies.”

the Forest Garden is probably the most well known forest garden worldwide, and has inspired thousands of new forest gardens.

Research has been conducted there that shows how valuable it is to wildlife while still being productive and storing a lot of carbon.

In 2025 the garden was under threat when they were given notice to quit by their landlords.

The protest petition site at change.org gained 35,000 signatures and now they have an opportunity to purchase the site.

At the time of publication they had raised over £25,500 out of a £100,000 target.