This is part of a new series of blog posts for beginner gardeners. These posts may be a little shorter and more specific in nature.
Often, when I meet people and tell them I do Permaculture in my garden, their eyes widen with a bit of respect, and then they say that Permaculture is cool, great, awesome, or some other positive adjective, but it’s so complicated they wouldn’t know where to begin.
They think of the gardens they’ve seen on YouTube – the gorgeous properties filled with raised beds containing perfect and huge vegetables, the pristine pathways lined with wildflowers, the free ranging hens, the enormous rainwater collection tanks, and the dammed up reservoirs on the side of a hill, positioned perfectly at the point of inflection.
I’ve seen a few of these properties, and they’re impressive indeed, but they’re out of reach for most people. Simply put, very few of us can afford such a spread, not to mention the cost of the design and its implementation.
But here’s the good news – Permaculture doesn’t have to be anything like that.
You can have a Permaculture garden under the only tree in your tiny backyard, or on a parking strip (check out Ron Finley, the Gangsta Gardener here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzZzZ_qpZ4w) You can use Permaculture techniques when you make a container garden on your apartment balcony. Some people in cities even garden on the roof of their apartment building, but you must not only get permission from your landlord to do this, but also work very carefully to ensure that no water leaks into the apartments below.
Let’s look at a starter garden for the person who has a very small outdoor space with one fruit tree already there.
For this exercise, let’s assume an apple, pear, or plum tree. You might think, what can I do with that? The answer to that is plenty. You’ve gotten off to a great start. You have a mature tree, and now you can plant around the tree in ways that feed you while benefitting the tree. This is called a tree guild – an association of plants around a tree, with each plant performing a function or two to benefit the others around it.
A Persimmon tree also works well as a guid tree.
A medlar tree works well too.
First, orient yourself. What side of the yard is your tree in, and where is the north side of the tree? You’ll want to plant shade tolerant plants on the north side in the northern hemisphere (in the southern hemisphere it’s the opposite), and sun-loving plants on the south side. If you live in the far north, your sunshine will be in the north at noon in midsummer, but not all day. At our house, the summer mornings are usually cool, while the afternoons are hot. For us, that means we plant the most sun- and heat-tolerant plants on the west or southwest side of the tree to catch the hot afternoon sunshine, and those that tolerate moderate sun but not too much heat on the east side.
Here’s a graphic with an example…
An example of an apple or pear tree guild
As you can see, the currants, lettuces, dill, hostas, and hellebores are all on the north side. I would definitely put spinach there too, as spinach, along with lettuce, tends to bolt (send up a flower and make seeds instead of edible leaves) when it gets hot. Rosemary, lavender, artichokes, and blueberries all like the sun, so they’re on the south/southwest side. There are two ground covers: violets and strawberries. Both are edible. (Actually, all the plants in this guild are edible or medicinal, with the exception of southernwood, lupines, and hellebores.) I plant violets close to the tree and on the north side, and strawberries to the south and west, as well as near the drip line. Violets can handle more shade, but strawberries won’t produce as well if they’re planted in the shade.
The plants in this guild all serve functions and fill niches.
The strawberries and violets keep weeds down while making food; the dill is popular with pollinators, as are lavender, lupine, comfrey, and rosemary. Comfrey also mines the soil for nutrients with its deep taproot, and it makes a nutritious mulch. It feeds the tree roots (plant it on the drip line). The southernwood deters pests that would eat your apples and pears, and the chives, walking onions, and garlic chives perform the same function.
This guild contains a few natives, such as lupine, and it contains a variety of size plants. This is mimicking the structure of a forest: the tree, the large bushes and small bushes, the herbs, the roots, the mycelium, and the vine (not shown on this graphic: you can get it to climb the tree). Vines that come to mind in the temperate zone are hardy kiwis, native honeysuckles, grapes, and maypop (passion flower).
If this list is too long, remember that you can start with a very simple guild. I have a witch hazel tree surrounded by strawberries. The strawberries were extras that had wandered onto pathways, and I didn’t want to waste them. At some point I popped a kale plant or two in there, along with a couple of leeks. Both of those reseed themselves.
This guild works well. Instead of planting bulky comfrey plants into it, I just throw some comfrey leaves from another part of the garden in there to feed everyone, and the plants are all happy. You don’t even need to plant comfrey if you don’t have the space for it. Try harvesting some fallen tree leaves in the fall and layering them on your plants. This gives many small creatures a spot to nest in over the winter, and it adds nutrients to your soil. You can also simply plant herbs and onions or leeks around your tree, omitting the bushes and other ground covers.
Witch hazel tree with strawberry ground cover and the occasional leek or kale (hard to see here)
