UNHIDE Agroforestry booklet 2025.09.22 - Flipbook - Page 9
Sweet chestnut tree (Castanea sativa)
Initially, the intention with the emergency garden
was resilience through the combination of high
quality timber production and biodiversity, offering habitat and creating connectivity in the open
agricultural landscape. The composition is 60%
native tree species and 40% fruit and nut trees.
Walnuts (Juglans nigra), sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa), sweet cherry trees (Prunus avium)
and the wild service tree (Sorbus torminalis) - an
ancient-woodland indicator, providing pollen and
nectar for insects, berries for birds and leaves for
the caterpillars of moths, were planted relatively
sparsely to provide plenty of room to grow.
The lessons Tor learned about
the importance of biodiversity for
resilience in livelihood production
systems - and the importance of independence at all levels, are equally
relevant in a Swedish context.
With time the emphasis on timber changed to
food security.
At the time of establishment, the land, which had
previously been used as pasture, was overgrown
with gray alder (Alnus incana). Tor started by
cutting it down to introduce new alder stands for
nitrogen fixation.
At this time, nut seeds were not easy to find in
Sweden. Some he got from friends, others he
collected on his morning and evening walks in
central Stockholm, he recalls. He also bought
grafted walnuts from Denmark. 4-5 hectares were
planted in groups with hazelnut, sweet chestnut
