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Preface. As some of you might know, I was heavily involved into a very intensive 7 months weekly online PDC in 2017.… by my-permaculture

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Welcome We have enjoyed 29 years of produce, delights, building know-how, and ethical social enterprises. Our food forest sustains our Permaculture lifestyle. Here are some of the lessons from our …

When Bill Mollison and David Holmgren were envisioning Permaculture, they worked out some very important and useful design principles for us to follow.

Refreshing vitalizing herbal teas, a living first aid cabinet, wildlife habitat, beauty, and interest throughout the year, with some strawberries, currants, and salad leaves to boot! This Polyculture is ideal for small gardens taking up no more than approx 6m2 but also working well in a larger space as a beneficial island that fills a gap within the wider garden ecosystem of fruit, nut, and ornamental trees. During this post, we'll take a look at the species included, their function and uses, how to choose a site for the polyculture, how to manage the plants, and when to harvest, and you'll find some planting plans with guidance on spacing. Species Overview All the plants in this polyculture (apart from Agastache foeniculum) are native to Europe and all are well adapted to the climate and ecology of the Northern Temperate zone. We have been growing these plants in hardiness zone 6 for years, and all the plants have tolerated temperatures down to -15C and less. Most of the plants are well adapted to dry conditions and will survive on the average annual rainfall of 560mm. That said, we want the plants to thrive, and irrigating the plants during periods of drought will make for thriving plants. Irrigation is also necessary if you would like a decent yield of strawberries and black currants particularly when the fruits are forming. The plants are well suited to most soils excluding heavy clay, waterlogged soils, and soils with pH in the extremes of acidity or alkalinity. If you have these types of soils they can of course be amended, but selecting plants to suit soils is a better option, both ecologically and economically. Functions and Uses My goals when designing this polyculture were that every plant included can be used for making both fresh and dried herbal teas and that as a community the planting scheme should benefit the garden ecosystem. Below is a chart indicating the other uses and beneficial functions of the plant community. Welcome to our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture plants, seeds, bulbs and Polyculture multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. You can also find our full list of trees. shrubs and herbs for forest gardens on our website here Enter Our Store Here Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes. Choosing the site for the Polyculture When choosing the position in your garden for this polyculture the main thing to consider is the positioning of your bed in relation to the sun and to match this up with the individual needs of the plants, ensuring that the sun-loving plants are on the Southern facing side and the shade tolerant plants are on the North. (light needs listed below) Depending on how much annual precipitation you receive in your area, it may also be important to position the bed so that it can passively collect water from rainfall e.g with a slight dip in the middle or at the base of a slope laid out on contour. This is a relevant practice in Bulgaria where we can expect 8-12 weeks without significant rain during high summer, but not so relevant in the UK. The area where the rainwater accumulates should feature the plants that are more water-demanding and obviously the area that will receive the least amount of water should be planted with drought-tolerant species.(water needs listed below). This self-replenishing Chai Store/Salad Bar is there to be picked so making it easily accessible to you is an important factor when choosing its position. Once you have established the footprint of your bed you can begin to build it. This can be as simple as piling up topsoil mixed with well-rotted compost to a height of 50-70 cm in the desired shape and bordering your mound with large rocks or boulders laid in a small trench around the soil. Simple if you have lots of rocks and boulders nearby which we do. You could also build a retaining wall first and then infill it with your topsoil and compost. Bear in mind the bulk of the soil will reduce over the first 3-6 months as the soil settles. Chai Polyculture - Built and planted in November 2012 Plant selection Aside from selecting plants in relation to their space, light, and water need their ecological characteristics are also considered. Achillea millefolium - Yarrow is very drought tolerant and I use these plants evenly spaced in gaps between the boulders on the South facing edge(sunny side). The plant puts down deep roots that mine the subsoil for nutrients that would otherwise leach away with the groundwater. The plant will spread very quickly, cutting back the spreading plants and dropping the material around the bed provides a source of these rescued nutrients to the other plants. Fragaria vesca - Wild Strawberry is planted on the edge of the sunny side for ease of picking and will over time provide a self-spreading ground cover throughout the bed suppressing weeds and protecting the topsoil from wind and rain erosion. Trifolium pratense -Red Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant that can be planted on either side of the Blackcurrants - Ribes nigrum and in close proximity to the Fragaria vesca - Wild Strawberry. Cutting back this plant after you have used the flowers for a cup of tea will release some of the nitrogen fixed into the surrounding soil. In the first season whilst your perennial plants establish you can plant annuals such as Tagetes patula or Centaurea cyanus to keep the ground covered. Both can also be used for teas. Chai Polyculture - August 2013 with annual Tagetes patula and T.erecta added in the first season to fill space before the perennials grow. Management The plants in this polyculture will be competing for space both above ground and below ground. Above ground, we can position our plants in a way that fills the available space. Pruning back growth that may be interfering with a slower growing plant should be practiced as you see fit with the cut material applied to the soil surface as a mulch and harvested for teas. I usually combine pruning with harvesting. In the spring a 3 or 4-cm thick application of well-rotted compost under the black currant and strawberry plants will ensure good fruit cropping. The windward side of the bed will act as leaf catchment in the autumn and raking up the leaves from the path and applying them to the surface of the soil will provide a good source of nutrients for the community. Irrigating during dry periods will keep all the plants stress-free and in good health. Always water heavily and infrequently as opposed to lightly and frequently. A good soak every 10-14 days in the dry season will be more than sufficient. As mentioned above the black currant and strawberries will benefit from watering when the fruit is setting. Plants such as Mellisa officinalis -Lemon Balm, Spearmint - Mentha spicata, Tansy - Tanacetum vulgare, and Achillea millefolium will spread via rhizomatous growth (underground horizontal stems). After a few years, these plants can be cut to ground level with the top growth applied to the surface then divided and moved to other areas around the garden or composted. You will need to hot compost the roots of these plants to ensure the destruction of the rhizomes. These plants provide a great diversity of mineral nutrients to your compost. If you don't have hot compost leaving the roots and stems of these plants in hot sun will destroy the rhizomes or soaking them in water for a few weeks and using the liquid as plant feed is another way of recycling the nutrients. Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes? Join us on our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course. We look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity. Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course You can find the course details here and at the moment we have a $350 ( 20%) discount for full enrollment to the course. Just use RLD2024 in the promo code section of the registration form to receive your discount. Planting Harvest Some of the plants included in this polyculture are known to cause skin irritations and can have toxic effects if consumed in large quantities. Please be aware of any known hazards associated with every plant you consume. Caution aside we enjoy mixing and matching leaves and flowers from the plants in this guild to make phenomenal brews of healthy and invigorating teas and salads Green Salad harvested in late April Salads are best picked in the spring as the lush growth develops and in the autumn when the cooling temperatures and increased rainfall reinvigorate the plants. Summer growth can be quite tough and bitter but a few leaves mixed with more tender greens provides great flavor and interest. Do not include leaves of Leonurus cardiaca - Motherwort in the salads. Please remember that although Ribes nigrum - Blackcurrant leaves can be used for tea other species in this genus such as Ribes rubrum - Redcurrants have leaves containing the toxin hydrogen cyanide. As for medicinal value, all of these plants can be used to treat ailments but the best cure is prevention so get growing, get picking and drink up :) Habitat Provision If you have an available source of rocks and boulders they make great bordering material. The gaps between and under the rocks provide excellent habitat for arthropods. Some of these, such as Woodlice and Millipedes function as decomposers, speeding up the return of nutrients to the soil. Some of these are generalist predators such as centipedes and spiders. These creatures seek refuge from the sun and heat in the cool damp microclimate under the stones. I often find Praying Mantis egg cases overwintering in a rock crevice protected from the rain but warmed by the winter sun. These egg cases can hatch hundreds of baby Mantids that have a voracious appetite for aphids. The rocks will also harbor creatures not so friendly to your plants such as slugs and snails and other phytophagous (plant-eating) organisms. In our garden, the frogs and toads seem to keep these under control. Praying Mantis - Mantis religiosa egg case Another benefit of using rocks is that being rocks they are laden with minerals that are released from the rock via chemical and physical weathering. These weathered minerals contribute to the soil's stock. They can be thought of as the ultimate slow-release fertilizer. The above-ground plant architecture itself also provides many habitats for many beneficial invertebrates to nest, feed, overwinter, hunt, and reproduce as will the mulch layer covering the topsoil. Want to learn more about Regenerative Landscape Design? Join The Bloom Room! The Bloom Room is designed to create a space for more in-depth learning, for sharing projects and ideas, for seeking advice and discovering opportunities. Ultimately, it aims to build a more intimate, interactive, and actionable relationship between members, a way for the Bloom Room community to support each other’s projects and learning journeys, and to encourage and facilitate the design, build, and management of more regenerative landscapes across our planet. What you can expect as a member of the Bloom Room As a member of the Bloom Room you can expect; Access to an interactive forum where you can ask questions, direct what type of content you would like to see as well as share your own content and projects. Monthly live session featuring general Q&A and tutorials on design software for creating and presenting polycultures. Live session every month for members to showcase your projects, plans, designs, and gardens, with guest speakers from the community. Full Access to all of the content on Substack A 50% discounts on all of our online courses Future opportunities to join our Global Regenerative Landscape Design and Consultancy Service, with potential roles for those with the will and skill to join our design team. An opportunity to take part in the group ownership of a Regenerative Landscape. You will find more details on that here. Become a paid subscriber to our Substack to join. The annual subscription is currently $70 and the monthly subscription is $7 (monthly subscription excludes discounts for products and services) . You can join here, we look forward to meeting you! Beneficial Insect Interactions and Flowering times Not only do the plants provide us with fine teas, salads, and fruits they attract beneficial organisms such as ladybirds and hoverflies, and lacewings the larvae of which are efficient predators of aphids. Furthermore, a succession of nectar-bearing flowers keeps the bees and other pollinating invertebrates active and well-fed in your garden for most of the growing season where they can assist with the pollination of your surrounding fruit and vegetable crops. The table below provides information related to this. We have all of the plants featured in this polyculture available from our Nursery and you can find full profiles of the plants and other plants great for herbal teas below Achillea millefolium - Yarrow Agastache foeniculum - Anise Hyssop Foeniculum vulgare - Fennel Helichrysum italicum - Curry Plant Lavandula angustifolia - Lavender Melissa officinalis - Lemon balm Mentha × piperita - Peppermint Origanum vulgare - Pot Marjoram Salvia officinalis - Sage Satureja montana - Winter Savory Sideritis scardica - Ironwort Sideritis syriaca - Mountain Tea Tanacetum balsamita -Alecost Tanacetum vulgare - Tansy Thymus sp. - Narrow Leaved Thyme Thymus x citriodorus - Lemon Thyme​ Support Our Project If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways. Become a member of the Bloom Room. A $70 annual or $7 per month subscription to our Substack provides you with access to live sessions, design tutorials, a members forum and more, see details here. Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Nursery or Online Store Joining us for one of our Practical Courses or Online Courses Comment, like, and share our content on social media. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We offer a diversity of plants and seeds for permaculture, forest gardens and regenerative landscapes including a range of fruit and nut cultivars. We Deliver all over Europe from Nov - March. - Give a happy plant a happy home :) Our Bio-Nursery - Permaculture/Polyculture/ Regenerative Landscape Plants

Plant guilds are an important aspect of permaculture design. Food forest garden design examples, plant guild examples & the 7 layer food forest

Permaculture gardening isn't only for big pieces of property, it can also be implemented in suburban backyards! These six easy backyard permaculture projects for beginners will get you on your way to a mini permaculture paradise!

Qu'est ce qu'une haie brise-vent et pourquoi en installer une en permaculture...

One of the key concepts in permaculture is the idea of energy efficient planning. In order to create the maximum effects with the minimum amount of work,

"Afristar Foundation utilises Permaculture design systems as the primary methodology of our community development strategy. Permaculture is an optimistic,

Permaculture zones and the elements that are placed into them are chosen according to the amount of labor input those elements require for success.

A Blacksmith Guild http://www.traditioninaction.org/OrganicSociety/Images_1-100/A_023_Blacksmith.jpg A guild, according to Webster's Dictionary, is an association of people with similar interests or pursuits, also, or more particularly, a guild is a medieval association of merchants or craftsmen. The word guild comes from the Old English and means Payment or Tribute. Historically, for example, a carpenter could pay tribute to join a carpenter's guild. He would then be protected by the society of fellow carpenters... protected from price gouging, unfair trade, etc. and protected from others stealing their "secrets", i.e. skills or "tradesecrets". This is where a lot of the secret societies were initially formed (like the Masons... initially, stonemasons). That carpenter could then focus on being the best carpenter he could be while making a good living for himself and his family. But enough of the history... This term has been applied to Permaculture to describe a collection of plants (a polyculture) that individually could survive on their own, but perform much better when grouped together. One of the first, and most well known, Permaculture Guilds... the Three Sisters. http://api.ning.com/files/H5c*qJE70zhPQyH0YVPLwQTZm7xxzW5HhxqQf3ys9D5bzDh3u1xjKrMLIm1PFfQfidvTx9s5CF7cyNJ4onNzkzWx6ClHtR4q/3sistersmain_Full.jpg The classic Permaculture Guild is called the "three sisters" named by the Iroquois (native American tribe). The three sisters are corn, beans, and squash. The corn provides support for the beans. The bean is a legume and pulls nitrogen from the air and puts (fixes) it in the soil with the help of bacteria and fungi. The nitrogen fertilizes the corn and squash. The squash, with its large leaves, shades out weeds and prevents moisture evaporation, and has prickly leaves which deter animal pests. Finally, squash, beans, and corn are nutritionally complementary. Permaculture Guilds then are "groups of species that support each other in beneficial ways, aiding self-maintenance, and reducing the work required to maintain the system." - Martin Crawford (Creating a Forest Garden) An Apple Guild design by Bill Mollison http://www.labocacenter.org/Portals/3/Templates/IdealAppleGuild.jpg Polycultures (as opposed to monocultures like a field of corn) offer many benefits according to Dave Jacke (Edible Forest Gardens): As a whole, yield more than comparable monocultures Require fewer labor, energy, and material inputs Minimize stress, competition, and herbivory Maximize harmony and cooperation Generate self-renewing fertility Live within a sustainable water budget Remain stable with little to no maintenance Ideally, a Permaculture Guild will provide the following: Increase vital nutrients: mainly nitrogen with nitrogen fixing plants, but also phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and other minerals with mineral accumulating plants, and general fertility plants. Attract Beneficial Insects (like ladybugs, lacewings, mantises, predatory wasps, etc.) to reduce pests. Attract Bees (including honey bees) through the use of honey plants (nectar producing plants) to increase pollination. Confuse pests with strongly aromatic plants (so pest can't find the one plant they normally prey on). Give support to a diverse population of bacteria, fungi, insects, and animals which increases diversity. Contain plants with differing soil profiles (plants with different root patterns and systems, i.e. shallow vs tap roots... so the plants are not competing for the same soil space). Contain ground cover plants that suppress unwanted species, i.e. "weeds". Contain plants with the genetic diversity and/or selective breeding that resist pests and disease A guild design by Toby Hemenway (Gaia's Garden). http://smartpei.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451db7969e2011570d7df9a970b-800wi There is so much to building and designing guilds, and so many benefits from them, that it is impossible to convey it all in one post. I'll add more, a bit at a time, about constructing Permaculture Guilds and provide as many examples as I can. I just wanted to introduce the concept in this post.

Adam Grubb and Dan Palmer are some of the most accomplished urban permaculture designers I know. Aside from being the founding forces of the Permablitz

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Everything you need to know about setting up guilds in your permaculture garden.

Preface. As some of you might know, I was heavily involved into a very intensive 7 months weekly online PDC in 2017.… by my-permaculture

Qu'est ce qu'une haie brise-vent et pourquoi en installer une en permaculture...

One of the key concepts in permaculture is the idea of energy efficient planning. In order to create the maximum effects with the minimum amount of work,

"Afristar Foundation utilises Permaculture design systems as the primary methodology of our community development strategy. Permaculture is an optimistic,

Microclimates and their benefits. Week three studying Permaculture, and learning about how to utilize microclimates in design.

If you're interested in learning about permaculture design principles. check out these 13 websites that are full of free info for beginners.

Diversity reduces vulnerability to a variety of threats and takes advantage of the unique nature of the environment in which it resides.

Permaculture zones and the elements that are placed into them are chosen according to the amount of labor input those elements require for success.

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A Blacksmith Guild http://www.traditioninaction.org/OrganicSociety/Images_1-100/A_023_Blacksmith.jpg A guild, according to Webster's Dictionary, is an association of people with similar interests or pursuits, also, or more particularly, a guild is a medieval association of merchants or craftsmen. The word guild comes from the Old English and means Payment or Tribute. Historically, for example, a carpenter could pay tribute to join a carpenter's guild. He would then be protected by the society of fellow carpenters... protected from price gouging, unfair trade, etc. and protected from others stealing their "secrets", i.e. skills or "tradesecrets". This is where a lot of the secret societies were initially formed (like the Masons... initially, stonemasons). That carpenter could then focus on being the best carpenter he could be while making a good living for himself and his family. But enough of the history... This term has been applied to Permaculture to describe a collection of plants (a polyculture) that individually could survive on their own, but perform much better when grouped together. One of the first, and most well known, Permaculture Guilds... the Three Sisters. http://api.ning.com/files/H5c*qJE70zhPQyH0YVPLwQTZm7xxzW5HhxqQf3ys9D5bzDh3u1xjKrMLIm1PFfQfidvTx9s5CF7cyNJ4onNzkzWx6ClHtR4q/3sistersmain_Full.jpg The classic Permaculture Guild is called the "three sisters" named by the Iroquois (native American tribe). The three sisters are corn, beans, and squash. The corn provides support for the beans. The bean is a legume and pulls nitrogen from the air and puts (fixes) it in the soil with the help of bacteria and fungi. The nitrogen fertilizes the corn and squash. The squash, with its large leaves, shades out weeds and prevents moisture evaporation, and has prickly leaves which deter animal pests. Finally, squash, beans, and corn are nutritionally complementary. Permaculture Guilds then are "groups of species that support each other in beneficial ways, aiding self-maintenance, and reducing the work required to maintain the system." - Martin Crawford (Creating a Forest Garden) An Apple Guild design by Bill Mollison http://www.labocacenter.org/Portals/3/Templates/IdealAppleGuild.jpg Polycultures (as opposed to monocultures like a field of corn) offer many benefits according to Dave Jacke (Edible Forest Gardens): As a whole, yield more than comparable monocultures Require fewer labor, energy, and material inputs Minimize stress, competition, and herbivory Maximize harmony and cooperation Generate self-renewing fertility Live within a sustainable water budget Remain stable with little to no maintenance Ideally, a Permaculture Guild will provide the following: Increase vital nutrients: mainly nitrogen with nitrogen fixing plants, but also phosphorus, potassium, calcium, and other minerals with mineral accumulating plants, and general fertility plants. Attract Beneficial Insects (like ladybugs, lacewings, mantises, predatory wasps, etc.) to reduce pests. Attract Bees (including honey bees) through the use of honey plants (nectar producing plants) to increase pollination. Confuse pests with strongly aromatic plants (so pest can't find the one plant they normally prey on). Give support to a diverse population of bacteria, fungi, insects, and animals which increases diversity. Contain plants with differing soil profiles (plants with different root patterns and systems, i.e. shallow vs tap roots... so the plants are not competing for the same soil space). Contain ground cover plants that suppress unwanted species, i.e. "weeds". Contain plants with the genetic diversity and/or selective breeding that resist pests and disease A guild design by Toby Hemenway (Gaia's Garden). http://smartpei.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451db7969e2011570d7df9a970b-800wi There is so much to building and designing guilds, and so many benefits from them, that it is impossible to convey it all in one post. I'll add more, a bit at a time, about constructing Permaculture Guilds and provide as many examples as I can. I just wanted to introduce the concept in this post.

Adam Grubb and Dan Palmer are some of the most accomplished urban permaculture designers I know. Aside from being the founding forces of the Permablitz

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"Afristar Foundation utilises Permaculture design systems as the primary methodology of our community development strategy. Permaculture is an optimistic,

Principle 7: Design from patterns to details By stepping back, we can observe patterns in nature and society. These can form the backbone of our designs, with the details filled in as we go. Every...

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What permaculture is and what it is not Article – Dr Ross Mars Permaculture deals with our existence on this planet and it encompasses many different aspects of this. Firstly, permaculture is…

A permaculture swale is a technique for capturing and storing water in a garden. Learn how to build a swale in the home landscape.

Everything you need to know about setting up guilds in your permaculture garden.

Preface. As some of you might know, I was heavily involved into a very intensive 7 months weekly online PDC in 2017.… by my-permaculture