Table of Contents

Edible Gardening

••••• Experimental guide set up to live from city-gardens •••••

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••• We want to make our ground more fertile ••• .

A full permaculture guild consists of 7 layers (from Permaculture Guilds: A Primer)

more see plant_guilds

Each plant guild needs 5 things

more see plant guilds

This experimental edible set up is made in a garden in Amsterdam [14 x 8 meter].

Plant considerations for this garden

  1. Are you edible?
  2. Do we want to eat you?
  3. Are you native or not, and do you want to live here?
  4. What sort of living conditions do you need (soil, sun, shade, care etc..)
  5. How do you multiply yourself?
  6. How - do you fit- in a guild?
  7. Who do you want to be your companions?

how does this guide work

you can choose plants from every chapter underneath to create your own edible garden; to come to a collection of plants forming an interdependent whole.

The central elements

The central elements in this garden are for instance: an Apple tree, a Mulberry and an Elderberry. Those three trees do tolerate each other very well. The idea is to make a guild or community around each tree and over time these guilds can slowly blend into each other. Other possible trees are for instance: Pear, Cherry, Plum… more on fruit

♦ Appletree - Appelboom - Malus domestica
An apple-tree plant community might include: daffodils, irises, or other early-flowering bulbs. While blooming under the fruit tree, they provide beauty for us and attract pollinators to the tree. Dill and onions planted under the drip line of the apple tree repel pests that are otherwise attracted to the tree. Beans, peas, or purple clovers fix soil nitrogen, improving the quality of the soil in which the tree is growing. Comfrey and borage are herbs with many human uses. In addition, they grow quickly and can be cut back and used as mulch around the tree.

♦ Elderberry - Vlier- Sambucus (L.)
Plant near a compost heap as it assists in breakdown soil. Elderberry is a natural Antiseptic, the leaves encourage compost fermentation and makes excellent topsoil. The flowers are very attractive to insects and the fruit is very attractive to birds – pigeons hang upside down in autumn to pick the berrys. It’s a general insecticide, the flowers and berries make lovely wine, pancakes, juices etc.

“Wolff Mischung” is a special groundcover mixture for under fruittrees. The mixture consists many nutrients, gives protector for birds, attract bees and misleads verminous (ongedierte).
composition Wolff Mischung:
7,5% Alexandrijnse Klaver - Egyptian Clover - Trifolium alexandrinum (L.)
25% Esparcette - Holly Clover - Onobrychis viciifolia
7,5% Inkarnaatklaver - Italian Clover - Trifolium incarnatum (L.)
5% Perzische Klaver - Reversed Clover - Trifolium resupinatum (L.)
2,5% Rode Klaver - Red Clover - Trifolium pratense (L.)
10% Lucerne Klaver – Alfalfa - Medicago sativa (L.)
25% Wikken – Vetches - Vicia (L.)
10% Bijenmengsel - bee-mixture
7,5% Kruidenmengsel – herb-mixture

Vines

All vines underneath area edible (exept the Whiseria but which is a good nitrogen fixer) Climbers can protect the cental elements

annual climbers seeding themselves easily:

Shrubs

in progress… Early flowering shrubs (currant) that attract insects and later on berries that attract insects and birds - our natural allies in pest control.

more see fruit: Dutch and Belgium places to find unusual& uncultivated fruits

Green manures or Covercrops / Groenbemesters

Cover crops act as a living mulch: to build and hold soil and to smother weeds. They range from long-growing perennials to short-term green manures meant to be slashed in place (mulch). Their leaves shield to soil from hammering rains and sun, and carpet the carpet the earth in fall with nutritious, humus building litter. Their roots drive deep into the soil, loosening the earth, drawing up nutrients, and placing organic matter deep in the ground.

The more varied covercrops (5- 10 species of which 60% are nitrogen-fixing crops) we plant: the more diversity in the soil’s life; this will subdue disease and can serve multiple functions: it can build humus, add nitrogen, mine minerals, bust up heavy soil and attract a wide array of helpfull insects.

There are old farm texts that list more then 15 varieties in their cover crops including 4 grass species – (grasses add carbon and build structure in the soil) , five clovers, Yarrow, Duizenblad - Achillea millefolium, Fennel - Foeniculum vulgare – Venkel, Dandelion -Taraxacum officinale – Paardebloem and more…

Nitrogin-fixing crops / Stikstofbindende planten

When building soil or feeding hungry plants, go heavy on nitrogen fixers. Nitrogin fixers come in all sizes from clover to shrubs, to trees such as black locust, alder, and acacia.

Many legumes, herbs and not to forget weeds! improve the soil by adding suitable nitrogen via their roots, surrounding plants then can absorb these nutrients (nitrogen). Experts both modern and ancient recommend that legumes should be mulched (slashed and leave it at the spot) before the seeds set, because the plant drains nitrogen from stem and leaves at maturity and concentrates in the seeds.

A to rich nitrogen fuel can actually deplete more organic matter than the cover crops adds. So its best to balans out the covercrops with 10% to 40 % non nitrogen-fixing plants.

All members of the Pea family (legumes)/ Fabacea / Vlinderbloemigen - are nitrogen-fixers and besides they all have a taproot to penetrate deep into the ground.

You can sow legumes seeds all year round. For specific legumes species see ‘Vegetables’

All clovers are great nitrogen fixers, attract beneficial insect, act as a mulch and provide trace minerals. They can be hacked down early in spring and in the mid till late summer:

[dont use the plants above before or after farming legumes because it increases the formation of moulds.]

If you mix white clover and the vegetable seeds; it will act as a living mulch, enriching the soil, keeping the ground moist and well aerated and hold back even the strong weeds as bijvoet - Artemisia vulgaris. As with the vegetables, it is important to choose the right time to sow the clover seed. (Late summer or fall sowing is the best, the roots develop during the cold months, giving the clover a jump on the annual spring grasses. Or you can also sow early in spring. Once the clover takes hold, you do not need to sow it again or 5 or 6 years.

Make sure you don’t have allopathic (die het tegeover gewilde effect bewerkstelligen) plants (plants that release toxins to nihilist the growth of neary plants) | like the Jerusalem Artichoke

Cabbage Family /Kruisbloemingen

[dont use the plants above before or after farming cabbages because the moulds which leave the cabbage family behind cant be broken down, but will be intensified]

Groundcovers acting as living mulch

Quick spreading plants will make a continuous living mulch: everytime you chop them down and leave the residu at its place: it will feed the ground.

Other green manures

Nutrient Accumulators

Most of these plants are considered as weeds; and they make their living as pioneer species: tough sundependent, fatgrowing and short lived.These early colonists invade bare or depleted soils. where one of there rolls is to accumulate nutrients in their roots and leaves. Each fall these plants die and rot, pumping a fat load of minerals into the soil. The enriched earth is then ready for the next successionary phase of less emphemerial, more fastidious plants such as perennial herbs, shrubs and trees. succession is the progression from bare earth to short annual weeds to perennials.

One can intercrop nutrient accumulators in between one's crops or cover bare earth for two years with nutrient accumulotors before planting fruit trees etc.

Pestcontrollers/under and above the ground

Some plants secrete compounds that repel a few specific pests in the soil or above. Examples are

Roots

The roots of trees and shrubs can go deep in the underground and even throught the underlying stoneground to get from there minerals and to suck water, and to make this available for themselves and their neighbours who don’t have these long roots.

When soil is compacted or clayey, plants are excellent tools to restore tilth and fluffiness. Species with deep, soil busting taproots are perfelt for the job. These include:

Others don’t have a single taproot but instead thrust a massive, fibrous rootsystem deep into the erath to accomplish the same soil loosening:

You can use these plants either of two strategies; sow them into afuture orchard or garden to work a year of two before the final planting or intercrop them among beds or under trees to continually break up the soil.

Plants attracting insects and birds for pestcontrol

Biodiveristy –is one of the main strategies to prefend pests

Pollinators

Bee-attractors

Bees are the best pollinators there are… (I read somewhere…)

source: http://www.hofmanap.nl

Mixture especially for bees and other insect. Composed from a very old recepy and still used by bee-keepers. It creates aswell quicly flowerfields

and some more edible bee attractors

all sort of clover attract bees and these are edible:

Butterfly attractors

And some more edible butterfly & bee-plants

source: http://home.hetnet.nl/~robjeanet/overzicht_planten.htm

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Vegetables

In permaculture its the best to have vegetables which:

Many interesting vegetables are available at http://www.vergeteneten.nl/ or or at Vreeken (voor losse zakjes zaden) https://www.vreeken.nl/ or from Flora http://www.wildebertram.nl/

A good combination are for instance: carrots and onion, strawberry and garlic.

Self seeding Annuals

Perennial vegetables

A perennial food garden can contain a wide variety of crops, and you can have a very low maintanance. some of them `I still have to research…

Legumes – Peulvruchten/Bonen

Legumes (peulvruchten - bonen) binden stikstof uit de lucht en zijn daardoor ook zeer geschikt als groenbemesters en voor het produceren van plantaardige compost. Its good to seed all year around legumes. Long beans attrack stinkbugs (wantsen. plant luizen), so also funstion as a sacrificial plants.

Cabbages – Kolen

Make sure you don't plant other plants from the Cabbage Family /Kruisbloemingen in the same place before seeding or after harvesting because the moulds which leave the cabbage family behind can't be broken down, but will be intensified]

Salads

Roots and Tubers (knollen)

By leaving a section of the root, or allowing the plant to grow large enough so send out smaller roots, some species can be perennialized.

Radish and Turnip (raap) are strong enough to copete succesfully with the weeds; leave a few unharvested to seed themselves year after year. Radish is doing well in the shade when you sow them late)

Bulbs & Onion family

Bulbs and herbs can breakdown soil, they will come by themselves year after year.

Leeks for instance can be perennialized: ifset flowers, many small bulblets will form at the base. If you pull only the main stem and bulb, the bulblets can grow the following season.

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Edible flowers

Some specific flowers I would like to add to the garden underneath some personnal choices:

Herbs

Underneath one can find herbs which are in general applicable in dutch/belgium guilds: herbs with “long taproot” can absorp unavailable nutriënts and when you cut them down they provide these nutriënts to the guild.

source: www.permacultuurnederland.org/planten.php www.self-willed-land.org.uk/permaculture/plant_guilds.htm, all seeds avialable at Flora: www.wildebertram.nl

Inspirations