Forest gardening is a low-maintenance organic plant-based food production and agroforestry system based on woodland ecosystems, incorporating fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables which have yields directly useful to humans. Making use of companion planting, these can be intermixed to grow in a succession of layers, to replicate a woodland habitat.

Forest gardens are probably the world's oldest form of land use and most resilient agroecosystem. They originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions. In the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified, protected and improved whilst undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually superior foreign species were selected and incorporated into the gardens.

Forest gardens are still common in the tropics and known by various names such as: home gardens in Kerala in South India, Nepal, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania; Kandyan forest gardens in Sri Lanka;huertos familiares, the "family orchards" of Mexico; and pekarangan, the gardens of "complete design", in Java. Forest gardens have been shown to be a significant source of income and food security for local populations.

Martin Crawford is Director of the Agroforestry Research Trust, a British charity which conducts research into temperate agroforestry.

Martin Crawford has spent over twenty years in organic agriculture and horticulture and is director of The Agroforestry Research Trust, a non-profit-making charity that researches into temperate agroforestry and all aspects of plant cropping and uses, with a focus on tree, shrub and perennial crops. It produces several publications and a quarterly journal, and sells plants and seeds from its forest gardens.

Alys Fowler (born c.1978) was a presenter for a short period on the long-running British TV programme Gardeners' World and lives in Birmingham, England.

Fowler was born in Silchester, and had a rural childhood.  Her father was a doctor, and her mother ran various cottage industry businesses – she had 200 chickens and sold their eggs, trained gun dogs, and would dog-sit for wealthy Londoners.  After completing her education in 2002, Alys Fowler began working as a journalist for Horticulture Week, and Landscape Review. In 2005, Fowler worked for BBC Gardeners' World and Parks as a horticultural researcher. In 2006, Fowler became Head Gardener of the BBC garden at Berryfields in Stratford-Upon-Avon, and created features at the Gardeners' World Live shows. 2007 saw the publication of Fowler's first book, The Thrifty Gardener: How to Create a Stylish Garden for Next to Nothing. In 2008, after appearing occasionally in her Berryfields role, Fowler became a regular presenter on Gardeners' World, and continues to write a monthly blog on the programme's website. She was dropped by the BBC for the 2011 series, at the same time that Toby Buckland's contract as main presenter was not renewed.