The pictures here are not organized in any particular way but I wanted to show where we left off last year after an initial planting frenzy. This will help me think through what needs to be done this spring and summer and hopefully show readers that a "forest garden" can be anything that fits into a persons land, lifestyle and dietary needs. I am not strict at all about the rules myself at this time.
When I talk about having weeds, this is what I mean. The frame here is the roof of a gazebo I used to use to garden in the shade but the wind finally destroyed the legs so now the roof is a frame that we will use as a hoop house some day. What is growing on purpose here is berries-seaberries and goji. Seaberries should do well. Goji? Not sure-I hear lots of contradictory information on zones for that one. We shall see.
This is towards the front of the forest garden. My husband wanted to contain the weeds so he built a frame for the rhubarb-a perrenial in our area. You see a peach tree and in the center is the chamomile that I am naturalizing. Chamomile reseeds itself but its anybodies guess as to where the seeds will land and grow. I only know that I will have chamomile in the vicinity again.
We also built a raised bed for asparagus. This is to the right if you look at the top picture. This also divides the "forest garden" with the annual one my husband is in charge of (tomato cages to the left of the pictures. We expanded the fencing. We then planted basil in the cinder blocks-not sure that it was the best way to go-the basil thrived but its growth was stunted.
This is actually at the back right corner of the fence and its Walking Onion-a plant that was on our land when we got here but in an odd spot so I transplanted some of it here. Walking Onion propagates by bending its seed heads down to the grown and dropping them in a new spot-thereby traveling all over a property in time. We eat the greens and the bulbs. They are perrenial to our area.
I think that I will try to use my husbands GoPro to document this project rather than using photos as its a little hard to orient people without a map of what is happening. There is much more planted in the area and I am even expanding into the annual garden area because my goal was to have food even as we are too old to garden in the future. To that end, I'd like to phaze out most annuals over time.
I was outside cleaning up the garden yesterday after a long winter and I noticed how easy it was to actually tidy up in comparison to an annual garden! That is an added bonus to me.
I welcome your comments on this project and your advise! What to do with such prolific weeds?
I'm looking forward to seeing how this little area develops, though its great to see where it all began too! Were these pictures taken after some rain? It looks incredibly moist. If your garden looks like this most of the time, you're very fortunate and no wonder your weeds are taking over.
ReplyDeleteThere are two approaches you can take with this garden and it depends how you want to use it. You could mow the weeds down to control them and every time you do, you're feeding the soil. Or you could let some of the weeds live out their full life cycle, and once they go to seed you can cut them down and mulch your trees and garden beds with them. Letting them grow bigger allows for more mulch material. You could do a hybrid of these two approaches and mow the footpaths to the garden beds, but allow the weeds in the other spaces to grow. Once your asparagus stops producing, for example, you won't need to access them, so you can let the weeds grow on the footpath next to the bed. Before winter you can cut the weeds down and mulch the asparagus bed with them.
I suspect you're going to need a few more canopy trees to create a better micro climate, some shrubs (maybe some berries or tea shrubs) and perhaps some nitrogen fixing plants? You've got a lovely eclectic mix of weeds already, but those nitrogen fixing plants will really put the cherry on the pie! I mention the shrubs to act is windbreak, but also allowing light into the centre. When I suggest more canopy trees, I wouldn't plant them too thickly - space them out with your shrubs.
I am really excited by this project because its non conventional, its flexible and you're growing your own mulch and nutrient amongst your food producing plants. Forest gardens can be a lot of work initially, but over time they become less so!
We do actually have a hybrid method going-I weed around some of the plants but not all. I couldn't contain the area where we are trying to grow berries for some reason! But we mow about twice a year as well. I think that we need to be more precise in our timing and in our mowing-more often perhaps and before seeds set though we have such a variety that its going to be hard to become that detailed in our approach.
ReplyDeleteI would like more shrubs for sure and I will have to research more about nitrogen fixers that are perennials-I do grow beans in the area for that reason but as I said-trying to phaze out the annuals as much as possible. Canopy trees take a long time to grow so I am watching to see what is going to happen with the peaches, pears and the witch hazel. I don't want to crowd out too much sunlight-so Its a wait and watch approach right now.
We cannot be conventional in our area because alot of the suggestions on food forests won't grow here as perennials so I have had to decide to custom tailor my approach to suit my needs and the climate.