Juneberries and elderberries will be planted in the bed on the right, along the fence. The two smaller trees at the top middle and right are the paw-paws, the slightly larger one on the top left is the witch hazel. The nut and berry shrubs surround the existing pear tree in the middle of the tear-drop shaped bed, along with some smaller planting barrels, and three rhubarb that were planted last year.
Today is the day. The day when, here at 43 degrees N. latitude, we are back to ten hours of daylight. This is significant because ten hours is the minimum light exposure for plants to begin growing again. It means the things I started in the cold frame last fall – that made it through our recent -20 cold snap, anyway – will slowly start to perk up. The weather is still cold; in fact, on average the second week of February is our coldest of the year, but that ten hour day length represents a real psychological turning point, at least for me.
In anticipation, even the birds have been more vocal and chirpy the past few days. If you pay attention to such things, you’ll notice their songs are more spring-like too.
So, spring is really on its way. There’s light at the the end of the tunnel. If you’ve never gardened before, I hope you have plans for a small plot this year – or even a few pots on the patio. If you intend to order any seeds or plants, now’s the time!
I fear I have once again done what I always do – despite promises to myself that this year will be different. I sent in my plant and seed orders a couple days ago and I probably bit off a little more than I can chew. It’s just that it’s freezing cold here (again) and all the stuff pictured in those beautiful seed and nursery catalogs looks so lovely and I’m dying for some sign of spring!
And so, like gardeners everywhere, I ordered too much and spent more than I’d intended. Sigh.
The area I’m working on was actually started a couple years ago. It’s behind my shed and used to be just lawn until it was all torn up with the installation of a new dry well maybe five years ago. It then grew up to weeds (fortunately it’s not very visible from the road) like burdock, asters and goldenrod. It was rough and rocky enough that mowing was no longer a possibility. But bordering the woods as it does, it’s a good spot to begin the food forest I talked about a few posts ago.
As for the money spent, most of the plants I’ll be putting in are perennials, meaning they’ll come up and yield year after year, once established. And since many are natives, they’re already adapted to this area and should require very little fuss and bother. A well-designed food forest should behave in the same way a regular forest does; it just keeps on keepin’ on, indefinitely and with very little human input.
A food forest is a permaculture concept. It’s a garden area that mimics a forest in its three dimensions, utilizing not only width and depth but height as well. It has the typical forest layers: canopy, understory, tall and short shrub layer and ground cover. Tubers can add a below-ground layer and vines can add to the mix as well. While I’m certainly not an expert in this, with some reading, it all begins to make some sense. And gardening is, if nothing else, an ongoing experiment and I’m giving it my best shot.
So, while taking into account the sun, soil and moisture levels this area of my yard typically receives, I developed a plan and ordered up quite a plant list. Keep in mind that each property is different so there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all plan but hopefully some of you will find what follows useful or inspirational. (Or just plain crazy.)
Anyway, here’s what’s going in this spring:
From St. Lawrence Nurseries in Potsdam, NY
2 – Nannyberry (Wild raisin), Viburnum lentago. A native shrub or small tree with edible, sweet berries.
2 – Dwarf ground cherry, Prunus fruticosa. Very hardy, three to five foot shrub with dark red, tart cherries good for jam.
3 – Hazelburt, Corylus sp. Tall shrub, a cross between hazelnuts and filberts.
2 – Elderberry (‘Johns’ and ‘Adams’), Sambucus canadensis. A native shrub, 6 – 7’ tall, bears berries that are good for pies, jam, juices, and wine. Elderberry juice tonic is said to be excellent for colds and flu.
2 – Juneberry (larger ones, Amelanchier canadensis ‘Prince William’, and A. alnifolia ‘Honeywood’)
4 – Juneberry, (Amelanchier stolonifera, ‘Fergie’). Known in Canada as “Saskatoons”, also called Serviceberries or Shadblow. Juneberries are easier to grow than blueberries as they don’t require acid soil.
From Miller Nurseries in Canandaigua, NY
2 – Paw paw, Asimina triloba. Native small tree with large chocolate/purple flowers in spring and bearing an edible fruit, said to taste like banana custard. It has virtually no shelf life so it’s not something you’d ever find in a grocery store. Paw-paws are also larval hosts to the zebra swallowtail butterfly.
1 – Witchhazel, Hamamelis virginiana. Native shrub, can bloom as late as November in upstate New York. A source of the medicinal astringent of the same name.
From Johnny’s Selected Seeds, Winslow, Maine
- Lupine, Lupinus perennis. Perennial native flower, “fixes” nitrogen from the atmosphere, collecting it in nodules on the roots where it eventually becomes available to nearby plants. Host plant to the endangered Karner blue butterfly.
- Oswego Tea or Bee Balm, Monarda didyma, ‘Panorama Red Shades’. Native perennial. This is the bright red flower adored by hummingbirds and bees. It grows so densely that I’m using it as a companion plant ‘ground cover’ of sorts.
- Common lemon balm, Melissa officinalis. Medicinal herb, ground cover, insectory.
- Anise (or Lavender) Hyssop, Agastache foeniculum. Native medicinal herb, insectory. Annual up here in zone 4b.
- Wild Bergamot, Monarda fistulosa. Native perennial or medicinal herb, insectory plant.
- Garlic chives, Allium tuberosum. Perennial herb.
- American Ginseng, Panax quinquefolius. Native medicinal herb, shade-loving ground cover. Will be shipped and planted in the fall.
- Goldenseal, Hydrastis canadensis. Native medicinal herb, shade-loving ground cover. Will be shipped and planted in the fall.
- Common St. John’s Wort, Hypericum perforatum. Native medicinal herb.
- Mammoth Red Clover, Trifolium pratense. Biennial nitrogen-fixing ground cover.
- New Zealand White Clover, Trifolium repens. Perennial nitrogen-fixing ground cover.
From Prairie Nursery, Westfield, Wisconsin
- Wild Ginger, Asarum Canadense. Native woodland groundcover
- Tall Ironweed, Vernonia altissima. Native, very tall, insectary wildflower.
I’m sure a bona fide permaculturist could come up with more additions but I think this is a pretty good start. There are lots of food species here, many natives, nothing invasive as far as I know, and the birds, bees and butterflies should also find habitat in the food forest. It exemplifies, I think, the permaculture ideals of care of people (food), care of the earth (wild habitat), share the surplus (give some away, it’ll be more food than I could ever eat!).
And it’s just the beginning (but enough for this year, especially since I didn’t list the vegetable seeds I ordered). Remember, my ultimate goal is to totally get rid of all my lawn!
How about you? Let’s hear about your garden plans!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Kathy, I just can’t keep up with you. How do you write so many great posts? We are on the same path, but you are forging ahead and I am ambling along. I recently cut down from twice per week posting to once to give me more time to write free reports for my readers, which go beyond the blog posts.
I’m totally into the permaculture idea and food forests, though I have no space for any more trees in my garden. This year I will be focusing on edible groundcovers, shrubs, and native perennials for the butterflies.
I’d advise you to axe the idea of using lemon balm. I made the mistake of planting it and it is unstoppable. I now only advise it for container planting. This year I plan a war on lemon balm and I will try to remove all of it! I’ve also pondered elderberry, but I’m not convinced. I used to have it in my garden in Scotland and it tends to spread and form a thicket – fine if you have the space, but I don’t. I’ve also decided against using the non-native clovers, except as green manure crops in my raised vegetable beds.
I already received my seed order, but I’ve not yet ordered any plants. I’d better get to it!
Alison Kerr | Loving Nature’s Garden recently posted..How to eat seasonally from your garden
Hi Alison,
I went back and forth on the clover for awhile because they’re not native. Since I put in my order and wrote the post, I discovered that Prairie Nursery has both white and purple prairie clover seed, which only grows 1′ – 2′ high. I don’t know that it’s native to NY State, but it is a US native, so I may substitute that. Maybe experiment with the other clover in my veggie beds as you said. Most of the permaculture garden photos I’ve seen actually get very wild looking which is why I’m starting behind the shed. I figure no matter what, it can’t look much worse than the 6′ tall burdock that were growing there!
Kathy, did you want to sew a nitrogen fixer among grass or is the clover for the understory in your food forest? The non-native clovers are more shade tolerant; the US-native prairie clovers need full sun, like they’d get out on the tree-free prairie. I can probably help you to find a native alternative if you let me know what role the clover is fulfilling.
If you need a shade-tolerant understory species for ground cover look at using native violets rather than the lemon balm. At least some of the native violets are edible (both flowers and leaves). I’ve found that they self-seed easily. I started out with just 3 plants in my side woodland garden ten years ago and now they are all over my back yard too. Or if you need something a bit more aggressive there are some native flowers which are part of the mint family (the same family as lemon balm).
Well, here is a page at the USDA plants database that shows the different violets and their native ranges: http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=VIOLA
Alison Kerr | Loving Nature’s Garden recently posted..How to eat seasonally from your garden
The clover is for both ground cover and nitrogen fixing. I plan to put clover seed down in the area that gets the most sun – the fat part of the teardrop faces south and gets enough sun for the pear tree – the rhubarb is out there too. It gets full afternoon sun (it’s not pleasant to work out there in the afternoon) so should do okay. The shadier area, back toward the woods – around the paw-paws and the witch hazel is where I plan to put the goldenseal and ginseng since they love shade. When I went to order the prairie clover the shipping came to more than the seed (!), so I looked around for some other things that would work – I also ordered some white and blue false indigo, which is also native, fixes nitrogen and tolerates partial shade. It’s more shrubby but I think that will be okay – I’ll find room. And I don’t plan on planting lots of any one thing, even the clover, I thought I’d scatter pinches of it here and there and let it go where it will over time. Thanks for the suggestion on the violets. I have tons in my lawn but I don’t think they’re native. Once I see what’s working and it’s all in, I may include some. I know some people also use strawberries for ground cover, but I’d do that with the full knowledge that the chipmunks would get all the fruit.
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