My dad has been very keen to move (and no doubt kill off) my favourite Viburnum shrub (strictly ornamental, but a good bee plant and early flowering, and to top it all it just has the BEST smell in the ENTIRE world) to allow more light into the garden, and I have been very keen to stop him. I think I have managed to persuade him with my plan to create a calm, shady nook behind the shrub, with a bench, nice shade-tolerating plants etc. And I think it could be the perfect opportunity to try out some unusual edible plants.
This is the nook as it is now - full of rolls of wire and bags of gravel and sand. Apart from that it's in pretty good shape - ground could do with some improving and it is a bit shady, but gets some good sun in the afternoon and evening. On one side is an area of bare fence, which admittedly isn't all that nice to look at and could do with some greening up. On another side it is bordered by a raised bed, and beyond that, one of the enormous ash trees that used to be coppiced but have been neglected for many years, to the extent where they form a "feature" and the council won't let us cut them down or coppice them again. But hey ho. On the other two sides are some mixed shrubs - my Viburnum, some hawthorn, another ash tree, dog rose, privet and lilac.
My plan is to green up the fence, with a climbing rose and some climbing/cane fruit - at the moment I'm thinking Japanese wineberry (Rubus phoenicolasius) and/or a passion fruit (Passiflora edulis or cerulea). I'd keep the shrubs trimmed a bit, stick in a bench, and some other plants. Here are a couple of quick scribbly sketches I did.
I'd like to make this corner a bit more forest garden-ish, so eventually I may try growing some edible ground cover, such as Mahonia repens, underneath the Viburnum, where it will receive dappled sunlight. I'd also like to try some unusual root vegetables, Camassia quamash and Apios americana (Ground Nut) which according to Plants For A Future are delicious. Obviously any plants I do grow will have to tolerate at least some shade and survive the ravages of clay soil and free range chickens, ducks and rabbits, but there are some other places I could try these out if they don't work out in the shady nook. Here is a plan I've drawn. The nook is the bit marked in orange.
Elsewhere in the garden I want to try growing Good King Henry (edible leaves, flower shoots and seeds that can be cooked like rice apparently), a Nepalese Raspberry (Rubus nepalensis), some Fuchsias (all of which produce edible fruits), and some Day Lilies - highly ornamental, with edible bulbs, flowers... I also like the sound of the orange peel bush, Houttuynia cordata, which apparently can be quite ornamental and is used in Vietnam as a flavouring. As we like Asian food this could be quite fun to grow.
I also plan to try and grow some climbers up some of the existing trees, and put in a really spiky one where the neighbours' cats like to come in to shit on my veg plants, sleep on my compost heap (haha! not since we turned it and released the smell) and frighten the poultry.
So, I will have 3 miniature areas of forest garden by the end, I hope (the nook and two corners outside our garden wall), some in shade and some in sun. So I can have a proper experiment.
Next steps are to start clearing up the nook, locate nurseries that sell the plants (the Agroforestry Research Trust seems to have them all so I may start there) and finding out when's the best time to plant them all. Fun!
Finally, I leave you with some pictures of the bluebell wood we went walking in on Easter Monday - the bluebells weren't quite out yet, in fact the ramsons weren't even in flower yet, but there were a few here and there. We also came across a hen pheasant who didn't seem able to believe that yes, actually we were looking right at her!
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