Wild chicory powering skywards (June).

chapter 4

GROWINg IN P O LY c U LT U R e S
Diversity by Design

Great power lies in the choice of plants a carefully selected polyculture is a team that can effectively share the available resources to the maximum benefit of all its members.

What is a polyculture?

olyculture is not a buzzword. At its simplest it means more than one plant growing or being cultivated together. Diversity is not just interesting and fun, it is essential to health and fertility and a well balanced polyculture is a team that shares the available resources to the advantage of the whole team. In addition to a collection of perennial vegetables my garden is full of plants that serve specific purposes. Some keep pests at bay, others pull minerals from the subsoil or fix nitrogen from the air, keep the ground covered and feed bees and other insects. The ecological term for a natural assembly of plants that fulfils a complete set of requirements is a guild. It follows that all guilds will be polycultures, but not all polycultures will be guilds. Jacke and Toensmeier* give an excellent and readable explanation of the relevant ecological science.

* Edible Forest Gardens ecological vision and theory for temperate climate permaculture, Volume One:
Vision and Theory; David Jacke with Eric Toensmeier; Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Vermont, 2005

Growing in Polycultures | 37

Field beans (April).

The advantages of polycultures

Annual vegetables make heavy demands on soil fertility whereas growing perennials in a polyculture seems to help boost increase soil fertility. A healthy polyculture will have links to its surrounding environment, bringing in birds, insects and other life and establishing a two way benefit. As with soils the science behind ecological guilds is complex but thankfully it is not essential to understand its intricacies to create an effective polyculture. The following elements are all necessary and further details on choosing and siting the right plants for different purposes are given in Chapter Nine.

The elements of polycultures

Mineral accumulators Mineral accumulators are plants that store vital minerals in their tissues at particularly high concentrations. Often this is done via a deep tap root which garners nutrients from the sub soil. Well known mineral accumulators include comfrey, nettles, dandelion and chicory. Nitrogen fixers Nitrogen fixing plants, which are mainly in the pea and bean family, take nitrogen from the air and incorporate it into their tissues. In a forest garden you would usually look for perennial nitrogen fixers, which can include a variety of shrubs. However at the scale of a perennial vegetable polyculture it can sometimes be more useful and appropriate to use annual nitrogen fixers. Nectary plants Insects are essential for fertilising flowers. This means that specific flowers that are attractive to particular insects can be planted with the intention of attracting them to the garden. This strategy is becoming well known and widely adopted, particularly in recent years to help support honey bees. Ideally flowers should be available for as many months of the year as possible in order to supply the needs of all the insects that would like to set up home in our gardens.

38 | Edible Perennial Gardening

are favourite haunts of individual species or a whole gang of different creatures. Ladybirds like nettles and comfrey, beetles adore borage and spiders are happy in the crevices beneath yarrow, fennel and clover. Happily all of these plants also have other functions as dynamic accumulators, nectaries, nitrogen fixers and aromatic pest confusers.

Plant size, shape and form

As well as diverse roles, a polyculture needs diversity of shape and form above and below ground. Like a scaled down forest garden using plants of different heights helps to use the space effectively. One of the main considerations is to find a balance between bigger, brasher and heavier plants, like some of the kales, and more diminutive plants nearby. As well as sharing the same physical space, plants can also share the garden through the seasons by using the same space at different times. In the woods a flood tide of wild garlic in March and April and blankets of bluebells in April and May eventually subside beneath the new leaves of the tree canopy. Having captured their share of the years sunlight early on, they lie quietly beneath the trees until the following spring. In the perennial vegetable garden you can likewise plant wild garlic for successional spring harvests and take advantage of the ability of plants like lambs lettuce and claytonia to grow through the winter months. There is no hard and fast rule of any kind that perennial vegetables have to be grown in polycultures. However there are advantages to growing in polycultures and it is worth experimenting with them, even if the vegetables themselves are tried out initially in a more conventional setting. Chapter Nine provides a step by step guide to choosing plants for a polyculture and planning their position within it.

Flowers throughout the garden in July, including calendula, phacelia, toad flax, StJohns wort, foxglove and roses.

Different plant families have specific characteristics which make them accessible and attractive to particular groups of insects; they include fennel from the apiaceae family, chicory and dandelion (asteraceae), mints and thymes (lamiaceae). Aromatic pest confusers Aromatic pest confusers are highly scented plants, often used as medicinal or culinary herbs. Their volatile scents are able to mask the scent of other plants and send potential predators off course. Many are by definition also both edible and nectary plants. Insect habitat Insect habitat is provided by plants that have a diversity of shape and structure and provide a range of options for insects looking to set up home. Some plants

40 | Edible Perennial Gardening

Growing in Polycultures | 41