permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/09/how-we-made-a-garden-of-edible-delights-monoculture-to-permaculture
How we made a garden of edible delights: monoculture to permaculture

Maddy Harland on growing an extraordinary range of food when a field of
poor soil was transformed into a permaculture paradise

   -
   
<https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jul/09/how-we-made-a-garden-of-edible-delights-monoculture-to-permaculture>Before
   and after. Photograph: Maddy Harland

  Years ago, before our children were born and after two years of
searching, my husband Tim and I found a dilapidated flint cottage up a lane
on the edge of a semi-rural village in Hampshire. Its hideous ‘60s back
half extension with no foundations was capped by a flat roof in dire need
of repair … and the garden was the size of a handkerchief. But it
overlooked fields and was near a footpath that led to semi-ancient beech
woods and the South Downs Way. Its advantages meant we were in a beautiful
location, and its disadvantages meant we could afford to buy it.

Our dream of having a bit of the adjoining field at the back of the house
to extend the garden soon materialised in 1990 when we were offered the
opportunity to buy a part of it. We begged and scraped together the cash
and became proud owners of a third of an acre of bare, flinty subsoil that
had been degraded by intensive farming and regular exposure to the
elements. Our first job was to secure and build the soil, so we planted it
up as a wildflower meadow bordered by a hedgerow made up of 23 native
species, all grown from native Hampshire seed stock. The soil was poor and
wounded like a scab. Nature quickly covered it with wildflowers, initially
mainly ribwort, used as an ancient herbal remedy to heal infection and
staunch cuts. Very appropriate.
[image: Live Better: Maddy Harland Permaculture Garden Before] Maddy and
Tim extended their garden by buying part of an adjoining field, but the
soil was poor and 'wounded like a scab'. Photograph: Maddy Harland

We were amateur conservationists at that time and our focus was
biodiversity. Then along came permaculture in the form of a Channel 4
documentary called In Grave Danger of Falling Food
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjWaP0iQmWw&feature=kp>. Tim was smitten.
Why couldn’t we have our conservation project and eat it too? I wasn’t so
sure. I wanted to read about it and test permaculture out. But Tim had what
I would describe as a brainstorm – he could see that conservation alone was
not enough and his enthusiasm was relentless. He went on a forest garden
course with Patrick Whitefield (a permaculture teacher and author) and the
late Robert Hart (the pioneer of temperate forest gardens), and was soon
working out a permaculture design for the whole site.

Permaculture uses nature’s principles as its guide and the principle of
"stacking" – using every niche and level to create different layers of
plants – is most useful when designing a forest garden. In a natural
woodland, for instance, the top storey might be oak, beech or ash, with a
shrub layer of hazel or holly, and an underlayer of bramble and other
ground cover. We swapped this for walnut, apples, plums, cherries and
hazel, on top of currants, gooseberries, goji berries, perennial kale and
Himalayan rhubarb, on top of Nepalese raspberry, mint, wild strawberries
... to name just a few of our many choices.

We initially planted more than 60 fruit and nut trees, all carefully spaced
so that when they matured there would be enough room and light for them
all. At first, the site was so exposed that we used spoilt straw bales as
individual windbreaks to protect the trees and then, as the straw rotted,
used it to mulch the trees.
[image: Live Better: Maddy Harland Permaculture Garden After] Initially,
Maddy and Tim planted more than 60 fruit and nut trees to bring life to
their garden. Photograph: Maddy Harland

Over the years a few trees have not survived and some have not been
productive or tasty enough to warrant keeping. We are on chalk downland and
so the soil is very alkaline. Quince doesn't thrive. We have too much
rainfall for outdoor peaches and almonds, and they get peach leaf curl.
Apricots and green gages also struggle.

But this has given us the opportunity to indulge in our passion for
planting unusual fruiting trees. There is so much that loves chalk downland
so we work with species that thrive here and it also attracts all the
native insects, birds and reptiles. We have added Chinese dogwood, Nanking
and pygmy cherry, mulberry (Illinois Everbearing), saskatoon and our much
loved Nepalese pepper.

I also have a little tree nursery where I am raising more trees in the hope
that Tim will let me squeeze a few more into his design. Waiting to be
planted next winter are two Szechuan peppers, an unusual raspberry and a
juneberry. Last winter we planted a special apple – a Red Love from a Swiss
nursery – which has a bark, blossom, fruit and flesh that is red, and is
high in antioxidants. Other existing favourites include a Bardsey Island
apple (a delicious and rare variety that thrives on chalk), Laxton’s
Fortune (a quintessential apple in Tim’s book), Merton Pride pear (as juicy
as a tropical fruit), and Oullins Golden Gage (sweet as honey).
[image: Live Better: Maddy Harland Permaculture Pear Tree] The Merton Pride
pear tree – one of Maddy and Tim's exisiting favourites. Photograph: Maddy
Harland

We have also added further edibles into the hedgerow to grow out as
standards above the hedgerow, such as cherry plum, damson, wild service,
tayberry and Oregon grape. We have created a no-dig raised bed garden as
well to grow annual veg for favourites such as broad beans, broccoli,
spinach, cut-and-come-again salads and garlic (a fantastic money-saving
crop).

We renovated a greenhouse that had been clobbered by the big storm in 1987
and added a Heath Robinson-style rainwater harvesting system to it. Here we
also incorporate the idea of stacking with plants growing at different
levels to make the very most of the light. Against the back wall is an "own
root" peach tree that provides us with juicy red peaches every summer.
Underneath, we have a variety of tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet and chilli
peppers, basil, coriander, tarragon, parsley, thyme and hanging
strawberries from the roof frame. I use the ancient idea of an "Ollas", a
terracotta flower pot sunk into the soil and filled with water. The roots
of the plants wrap themselves around the pot and draw the water from it. It
is useful if you are going away for a weekend and don’t have someone to
come in and water.
[image: Live Better: Maddy Harland Permaculture Ollas] The 'Ollas' allows
the roots of the plants to wrap themselves around the pot and draw the
water from it. Photograph: Maddy Harland

Time has always curbed our ambitions in the garden. We have always aimed
for self-reliance, not self-sufficiency because when we started the garden
we also had two baby girls to look after. They were, bless them, to grow up
quite feral. They rarely wore shoes and became adept foragers from a young
age. There also came the opportunity to start a small publishing company –
publishing books on permaculture – and Permaculture magazine
<http://www.permaculture.co.uk>. With two kids, a business and later, in
1995, the opportunity to recycle 55 acres of a nearby redundant naval base
into the sustainability centre, we were a little busy.

Our passion however was always permaculture, and in our case this was about
eco-renovating our house to be as energy-efficient and happy a family home
as possible, and creating our own little Eden of a semi-wild, biodiverse,
100% organic edible landscape.

Time has passed. The wildflower meadow has become a habitat for common
lizards, slow worms and countless butterflies and other insects. We cut it
in the autumn with an Austrian scythe – hard but satisfying work. Buzzards
soar over us, and bats and martins forage in the evening light. Where once
there was no wildlife at all there is now birdsong, buzzing insects, a
paint palette of flowers and, of course, delicious food everywhere.
[image: Live Better: Maddy Harland Permaculture House] The view of Maddy
and Tim's house and raised beds from the garden. Photograph: Maddy Harland

Our children have grown up. They once told us they thought we loved our
garden more than we loved them. Not true! But the reality is – besides a
period of teenage rebellion when they wanted PlayStations, high-street
brands and fast food like their friends (none of which we could afford) –
they have both grown up to love fresh, homegrown food and have become
accomplished cooks. The time we spent outside together playing in the
meadow and planting seedlings, picking apples, beans, plums, strawberries
and sprouting broccoli, has formed them into healthy, independent young
women with a love of nature, wilderness and adventure.

When we started we were the village hippy eccentrics. “What will they do
next?” thought many of our neighbours. Then when the Brownies asked to do
their green badge in our garden we knew things were changing. Within a few
years we were filmed for the BBC2 programme Alan Titchmarsh’s Garden Secrets
<http://www.permaculture.co.uk/videos/wild-permaculture-forest-gardening>,
which told the story of great formal gardens across Britain. Our wild
edible paradise was the last garden in the series, and was billed as the
future; sustainable (requiring few inputs), biodiverse and edible. We
certainly offer sanctuary to flowers, bees, butterflies, birds and reptiles
and a small collection of unusual edibles and we hope, in time, to another
generation of our little family.

*Maddy Harland is the editor of Permaculture
<http://www.permaculture.co.uk>. Follow her on Twitter @PermacultureMag
<https://twitter.com/PermacultureMag>.*

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