Adaptation, Resilience, and Living Knowledge

Research at Nourish Land also explores how plants adapt when they are moved beyond familiar conditions. This work is guided by curiosity rather than certainty — observing how species respond to marginal climates, new soils, and changing environments over time. By working with diverse plant material, including resilient root systems, heirloom varieties, and locally valued species, the focus is on strengthening plants through relationship rather than control.

Across different contexts, this approach supports the sharing of living knowledge — bringing together plants from different histories and environments, and allowing them to adapt, evolve, and continue producing in new places. Rather than preserving plants as fixed forms, the aim is to support their capacity to respond, endure, and remain meaningful within changing landscapes and cultures.

Research and Plant Literacy

Research and plant literacy at Nourish Land focuses on understanding plants as living systems within long-term food-growing contexts. The aim is to support informed, flexible decision-making rather than fixed formulas or prescriptive designs.

This work is grounded in observation, practice, and comparison—using real gardens and plant collections as reference points for learning.

Plant Literacy

Plant literacy is the ability to read plants in context. It involves understanding growth habits, functional roles, environmental tolerances, and how plants interact with one another over time.

Rather than memorising species lists, plant literacy supports the ability to choose, place, and manage plants based on how they behave in real conditions—across seasons, soils, and stages of maturity.

Research Focus Areas

Food Forest Multi-Layered Database
A structured system for documenting plant roles, layers, and interactions within food forest environments, used to support design, teaching, and ongoing observation.

Crops of the Future
Exploration of perennial, underutilised, and climate-resilient food plants with potential relevance to future growing conditions.

Adaptation, Resilience, and Living Knowledge
This research looks at how plants respond when grown beyond familiar conditions. Rather than aiming for control or uniform outcomes, the focus is on observation—how species adapt to different climates, soils, and management approaches over time.

By working with diverse plant material, including resilient root systems, long-lived perennials, and locally valued species, the emphasis is on strengthening plants through relationship and use. Knowledge is treated as something living and evolving, shaped by ongoing interaction between plants, people, and place.