This wee Scottish forest is grown according to the Miyawaki method to grow them. Developed by Japanese botanist and ecologist Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s, it's a way of speedily restoring native woodland on areas of degraded land. It's a key aspect of what makes these areas "tiny forests", not just small patches of trees.
The method involves randomly planting a mix of native species in a soil intensively restored with organic nutrients. All layers of a forest are planted together, with species based on an established native woodland nearby. In Scotland, for example, this might mean planting a canopy layer of tall oak and Scots Pine, a sub-canopy of smaller trees like silver birch and rowan and a scrub layer of broom and blackthorn all at once. The densely planted young trees fight for sunlight and grow faster. The result, its proponents say, is a mature, native forest in 10 years rather than 100.
Widespread in Japan, Miyawaki's restoration methods have spread across the world, from the Amazon to India. It has its critics, though, with concerns around their cost and fears they are being used to compensate for virgin forest loss, despite not really being primary forest. Others argue they create an undue emphasis on dense forest creation at the expense of other types of ecosystems like open woodland or wildflower meadows, which may be just as important ecologically.
Still, the method, which works particularly well on derelict land, has found a natural home in urban areas, where fast-growing greenery can be a welcome relief. And there is some evidence that Miyawaki plots are an especially effective way of planting small forests. A 2023 report by the Tree Council, a UK non-profit, found they are better at surviving droughts, have higher biodiversity and are lower cost than similar small forests planted using more conventional methods. A recent council project in Kent, England, concluded that while the cost to plant a plot using the Miyawaki method was higher than standard tree planting methods, it actually cost far less per surviving tree, since trees had much higher survival rates.
A recent planting frenzy means the wider UK now has hundreds of young tiny forests. The non-profit Earthwatch has planted almost 300 of them in the past few years and aims for a further 200 by 2030. These are often financially backed by companies whose staff plant the forest as a corporate day out.