Mid Wales Permaculture Network

Forest Garden Perennials for 2010

Last month I mentioned that we were about to start sowing seed for the big 2010 plant giveaway at the Rhayader Green Fair in July. Last year’s seedling swap was so successful that we thought we would do something even more ambitious this time, and focus on perennial vegetables and herbs, including lots of pollinator-friendly plants to help the bees and other pollinating insects do their job and maintain populations.

I was talking about this at a meeting last week and someone asked ‘what are perennial vegetables?”  So I thought lots of other people might like to know the answer to that, and I am sharing my list of species with you, together with the wonderful information on the habits, requirements and uses of these plants as set out by the seed provider -  the wonderful Agroforestry Catalogue – details at the end of this article.

All of these plants would be useful in a Forest Garden for understorey planting between and around fruit bushes and fruit and nut trees. They would also be good to establish in your vegetable garden so you always have something that perpetuates itself year on year and increases over time.  Lots of the plants we think of as wildflowers are great for bees and other pollinators  (see Sanna Burns’ recent article on this website),  and make a pretty and medicinal or culinary addition to flower borders and marginal areas in the garden, or mixed in with the herb patch.  All these species are for sowing in spring.

Here is my 2010 list, in alphabetical order.

A Permaculture Journey

As we approach the end of the financial year, we, as a PAVO supported project under the PEP Small grants Scheme, come to the evaluation of what Mid Wales Permaculture Network has achieved since its formation – only in July 2009. It seems amazing that we have only been in existence for such a short time, supported by PAVO since mid August.  Writing the report was so encouraging that I will share it with you so you can get an idea of the scope of activity.

For 'wassail' read 'requiem'

There was a suggestion locally that we celebrate old Twelfth Night, on January 17, with a wassailing party to serenade our apple trees. Bad weather stopped play however, but that's not all . . .

After the big freeze and the big snow we are all counting the cost in the garden. The rabbits have obviously been desperate - all remaining exposed green vegetables have gone right down to the stalks. Even the Green Wave mustard, which they previously ignored, has suffered a similar fate.  The worst damage however, has been to the newly planted apple trees we put in last spring.  These were all fitted with spiral rabbit guards, but the snow was so deep, we did not venture up the slope to the embryonic forest garden areas for several weeks. Disaster! The deep snow had enabled the rabbit population of the Wye Valley to climb higher up the young trunks and strip the bark all the way round for up to a foot above the guards.

A new forest garden model for temperate climates?

This month the guest writers’ section carries a question and answer session with Mark Briggs (Permaculture in Context), a student from St Andrew’s University, who came up with some very pertinent questions as part of the research foe his dissertation. Soon after our contact I had yet another request for input from another graduate student who wanted some ideas for lines of enquiry.

This is very promising. It means that Permaculture is spreading and being taken seriously by the scientific and