PFAF Newsletter

Pre-announcement, August 2016.

We would like to revive our popular Newsletter and we would love to hear from users of our free online plants information service.

Tell us what you think of the new website design, especially the Home page which now takes you straightaway into the very flexible search facilities, which we expect are appreciated by designers of perennial plantings such as forest/woodland gardens. But everyone is busy with their work on their land so we don't often hear. So if you are one of those busy designers, could you find a little time to write and tell us what you are doing, with pictures, please - everybody has pictures these days.

We are also in the process of adding 700 new plants to the 7000 already on the database, with resources from the 2016 Appeal and a generous donation from the Schöck-Family-Foundation. We expect to make these new entries available later in 2016.

Plants For A Future
The main aims of the charity are researching and providing information on ecologically sustainable horticulture, promoting a high diversity, holistic and permacultural approach namely 'woodland gardening'. With the aim to use a minimal input of resources and energy, create a harmonious eco-system and cause the least possible damage to the environment whilst achieving high productivity.



The Plants for a Future Concept
It is our belief that plants can provide people with the majority of their needs, in a way that cares for the planet's health. A wide range of plants can be grown to produce all our food needs and many other commodities, whilst also providing a diversity of habitats for our native flora and fauna.
There are over 20,000 species of edible plants in the world yet fewer than 20 species now provide 90% of our food. Large areas of land devoted to single crops increase dependence upon intervention of chemicals and intensive control methods with the added threat of chemical resistant insects and new diseases. The changing world climate greatly affecting cultivation indicates a greater diversity is needed.