Looking north to the site which is located to the right of the gravel path
Inspired by Dr Grey Coupland’s talk Pocket Forest’s for the Inner City which we hosted in September 2024 we have decided to develop a pocket forest using the Miyawaki principles along the eastern boundary of the existing food forest located at the north western corner of the Britannia Reserve. The site will provide a local demonstration of how to develop a pocket forest using the principles developed by Dr Akira Miyawaki while providing a training ground for those residents who want to establish a pocket forest in their yard or courtyard as part of their My Healthy Soils Project.
Pocket forests:
- can be achieved with as little as 3 square metres of area
- contain 3 to 5 native plants per square metre
- reach maturity up to 10 times faster than traditional planting methods
A key part of the Miyawaki methodology is building up the soil organic matter and carbon before planting and colonising it with microbes from nearby bushland. A key point of difference to other pocket forests established in Perth will be the use of biochar in the initial soil preparation which will provide the resistant carbon found in natural soils.
For more information about pocket forests check out this website, video or listen to this podcast. This series of videos provides a very good overview of the process.
The Eddystone Primary School Pocket Forest site after 22 months
Key project activities which need to be undertaken include:
- Prepare project plan / communication plan
- Site planning
- Flora survey
- Soil analysis
- Order (or grow) plants
- Prepare compost and biochar
- Source soil microbes
- Site preparation
- Plant trees / shrubs (notionally on National Tree Day 28/7/2025)
For further information contact ian.kininmonth@ttv.org.au
Location of the proposed pocket forest
