by James Alexander-Sinclair
It is my wife who holds sway over the kitchen garden and who dictates what, why and when: I just do what I am told.
Good morning and happy 'Grow Your Own' Week to you all.
There are, I have to admit, many other gardeners who are hotter on vegetable growing than me. Give me herbaceous borders and I can muddle through and make them look pretty good, but when it comes to vegetables I am on far less stable ground. It is my wife who holds sway over the kitchen garden and who dictates what, why and when: I just do what I am told. But I have been reading quite a lot recently about forest gardens and it is here that perhaps we can bring our two skills together.
The idea of forest gardening is to get away from the traditional vegetable plot (neat rows of annual vegetables that need to be sown every year) towards a more perennial way of growing edible plants. Perennial vegetables and shrubs involve much less work than annual vegetables.
The rough principle is this: imagine that you live in a clearing in a forest: on the edges of that forest there is enough light and sunshine to grow all sorts of edible plants. There should be layers of food from tall trees through shrubs down to perennials and ground cover. So starting with things like chestnuts (Castanea sativa); cornelian cherries (Cornus mas) and obvious things like apples, mulberries and plums. Then shrubby stuff like elder (both common or garden and American, Sambuccus canadensis); bamboos (what’s good enough for pandas is good enough for us) and all the normal currants, raspberries etc. Finally a layer of perennials like cardoons, rhubarb, crambe or daylilies.
It also introduces a number of things which are not generally considered edible - for example solomon’s seal (the shoots are a bit like asparagus), Hosta 'Big Daddy' (leaves), Mahonia aquifolium (edible berries) and varieties of gleditsia. There are many more.
All this is augmented with plants grown specifically to boost fertility of the soil (so obviating any need for fertilisers) and plants to encourage bees and other pollinating insects.
One of the slight disadvantages is that, obviously, a forest garden won’t fit that comfortably on your average allotment. It is possible if your local committee is broad minded and doesn’t mind you planting trees. You need about 140 sqm of free space. Also forest gardening is not in any way instant and is probably not going to take over from traditional vegetable gardening just yet. But it is an exciting idea that cleverly melds traditional 'grow your own' with plants that are not only edible but also look a great deal more attractive than your average kohl rabi.
I think it is all rather fascinating although I am but a novice. If you want to know more then you should immediately go and watch Martin Crawford's excellent YouTube video and look at the Agroforestry website. Also the website and blog of Mark Diacono at Otter Farm - he grows all sorts of weird and wonderful stuff (interspersed with peregrinations about darts, pain and biscuits).
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