Also known as the groundnut or potato bean this curious vegetable is a legume and shade- tolerant climber that produces strings of edible tubers up to about 2″ long:

I bought my original pea-sized tubers from the ART in Devon two years ago and grew them up a support made of reinforcing iron bar threaded through alcethene pipe and pushed into the ground; you can then easily tie wire mesh onto the hoops which stand about 2m high. The apios had been sorely neglected and were competing for both root space and space on the wire with a vigorous climbing berry. I didn’t harvest any last year, it is recommended to give them 2-3 years to get established- the tubers grow away and you can harvest at any time of the year, which is quite an advantage.

Oikos Tree Crops in the States supply larger varieties- but the cost of a plant passport to import them is expensive (which is why I havn’t done so yet.)

I saved most of the little tubers and ate about half a dozen of the larger ones- cooked for 15 minutes, tastes like potatoes with a nice nutty flavour. Quite exciting to finally get a small harvest of this promising crop- apparently with 15% protein content. Will definitely grow more next year and take more care of them! This might also be something that you could establish on the forest garden edge to climb into trees.

After two weeks of driving it was a relief to bring the car back and get onto the train to Seattle. Amtrak’s Coastal Starlight is considered one of the great scenic train journey’s in the world. Leaving in the evening, it was stunning to wake up and see the early morning light across the plains of southern Oregon.

Volcanoes seen from the train

No shortage of forests in these parts:

Portland had been on the list but in the end I couldn’t spare the time to stop over. This was all I got to see of the city as the train passed through:

A grey and blustery Seattle awaits:

A “P-Patch” community garden brightening up Seattle:

Oregon grape Mahonia Aquifolium in the sculpture park

Jimi:

and the Tango!

After a day looking round the very modern city of Seattle I took a trip into a more primitive lifestyle at Feral Farm, about an hour and a half east from Mount Vernon. Here Matt VanBoven and his friends combine perennial gardens with…roadkill deer. The roadkill- not only deer but that what the fare while I was there- is collected and processed by the residents of Feral farm, the skins tanned, the meat made into jerky or served up in delicious stews. There is a great commentary on Matt from a previous visitor here, with a great photo of Matt and the deer.

There was much discussion of the imminent collapse of the modern world and survival strategies that would be needed thereafter. Matt admitted one of the great drawbacks would be the likely decline of the availability of roadkill post-collapse, and mentioned something about getting a bow-and-arrow (though he didn’t mention how he would manage without the neighbors’ freezer).

Matt was a mine of information about local plants and ecology, and his garden full of fruit. This part of Washington seemed to be berry heaven and new discoveries for me included the Thimbleberry rubus parviflorus:

These are a exquisite- melt in your mouth!

Salmonberries rubus spectabilis are also good- another new one for me:

Matt counting the rings of a giant Douglas Fir

Beneath a giant Western Red Cedar:

In the Forest Garden at Feral Farm

Common Milkweed Asclepias syriaca-something I haven’t yet managed to propagate myself

Pokeweed phytolacca americana- something I am growing successfully, often considered just a weed in the US.

Mat had built some really col mini-cabins, this one with cordwood masonry:

In the Northern Cascades:

As in Yosemite unprecedented late snow- we met folks who were skiing here:

Primeval forest:

Oyster mushrooms:

From Feral Farm I traveled to Anacortes with my guide and local permaculture networker Kelda who had arranged for me to visit the famous Bullock Brothers on Orcas Island. We arrived just at the start of the three week Permaculture Design course. Here Sam Bullock gives the students a tour of the farm:

The Bullock’s extensive permaculture nursery:

The Bullocks became famous some 30 years ago after an appearance on the Cool Temperate episode of Mollison’s Global Gardener series, where they demonstrate the results of grafting apple cultivars onto the wild apples growing in their area. Here is Sam Bullock showing something similar:

Although there was no end of fascinating things to see at the Bullocks’ the most impressive to me was their veggie gardens- one beautiful well-kept and productive garden after another serving the three Bullock families and interns.

Elecampane planted as companion mineral accumulator with apple trees:

Amazing chinampas: a “chinampa” is a mini peninsular or “tongue” extending into a lake or pond providing more edge for growing plants which may thereby need little or no irrigation. A Mexican word, chinampas are used there for growing crops. The Bullocks have constructed lakes and wetlands and dredged up mud to make islands and chinampas on which they have planted willows and fruit trees:

Lots of bamboos:

Giant perennial vegetable called “Fhuki” from Japan:

I was asked to give a presentation on forest gardens in Ireland, which I was pleased to do to the new permaculture students, but was rather embarrassed as one slide after another showed plants that, while fairly unknown outside permaculture circles at home, are commonly found in the forests in the Pacific North West, including Salal Gaultheria Shallon

japanese wineberries, siberian purslane, pokeweed phytolacca americana…

Doug Bullock giving a talk on permaculture history:

View from Orcas twards Vancouver Island:

After a short stay on Orcas I travel back to Seattle and catch another Washington State Ferry to Vashon Island. Puget Sound is eery and atmospheric in the fog:

On Vashon I stayed with friends and past Permaculture students Bob and Jen who live on a wonderful farm run by the local Montessori school.

Bob inspects the tomatillos:

Bob and Jen pick Basil:

Jen, Jamie and Whitney harvest garlic:

Scorzonera and salsify:

Bob takes me around the forests on the island

Our English Ivy is considered a real invasive exotic here- quite a pest in the woods!

There are quite a few smallholdings and farms within a few miles on this idyllic rural island- which has all the peace of west Cork but is just a short ferry ride away from the huge market of Seattle. This is a farm we visited nearby where they were growing wheat on a small scale:

A previous owner had planted hundreds of fruit and nut trees on Bob and Jen’s farm some thirty years ago, including Turkish Hazel:

I spent most of my time picking cherries

which were sold to Molly Moos’ Ice-cream Parlor in Seattle:

Taking the water taxi back to town:

Mount Rainier dominates the landscape from the train heading back to San Francisco:

Panoramic views of San Francisco from Bernal Heights:

The Madrone Tree Arbutus menziesii, native to the Pacific NW and related to our own Strawberry Tree Arbutus Unedo but with much larger fruits:

Leaving the west coast behind the final stop on the American Odyssey was Upstate New York where I visited Christina and Michael near Warwick. Seems there could always be a job for me there pulling pints of Guiness!

A short hike along part of the Appalachian Trail. This is actually in New Jersey:

Very different forest ecology compared to the west coast, mainly deciduous with maples and oaks. Another permaculture plant eleagnis umbellata is common here.

American Balddernut Staphylea trifolia growing in the hedgerow. Inside the bladder-like sacs are small but tasty nuts:

A visit to Sister’s Hill Farm where owner Dave shows us his rotating root-crop washer:

Solar powered tomatoes!

Sister’s Hill is run with the help of interns and volunteers and runs as a CSA- Community Supported Agriculture- shareholders take a share of whatever is in season each week:

Drying onions:

Wine tasting and tour of vineyard nearby:

Details of vine-pruning on a display board:

Last stop: Manhattan. The Empire State Building:

View from the top with the Statue of Liberty a speck in the top right-hand corner:

Haven in the urban jungle- Central Park:

Times Square:

by Marc Diacono

Hdbck 192pp Quadrille publishing 2011

Marc Diacono runs Otter Farm in Devon, “the UK’s only climate change farm where we’ve planting olives, peaches, pecans, persimmons, apricots, szechuan pepper, vines and much more.” He is also leads the Garden Team at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage. He has worked closely with forest garden guruMartin Crawford whose influence in some of the choice of plants described here is evident, and the two appeared together on a recent R4 Food programme.

The notion of a climate change farm is an interesting one: facing the prospect of a warming climate Marc has started growing crops like those listed above that would have been considered marginal for Britain until recently. “The idea is beautifully sustainable” explains Marc- “if we can take advantage of climate change to grow food usually sourced from overseas we will be producing low carbon food for a domestic market – helping arrest the acceleration of climate change. As a result Otter Farm has become known as the ‘Climate Change Farm’.”

In this video clip from Jan 2009 Marc can be heard saying how mild the winters have become and how the grass doesn’t stop growing- this is quite surprising since it was in the middle of the first of the past two really cold winters we have had in Ireland at any rate, and I am wondering if he still thinks the winters are likely to be that mild, and whether he has lost some more tender stuff recently. For example, I lost many of my small Myrtus Ugni during the past two winters- and in this book, Marc does advise “if you live in a colder region, I’d be tempted to keep your plants undercover, at least through the colder months.” I live in a milder part of Ireland, and this is a plant that should be hardy to -10degrees C, so this does perhaps give an indication of the difficulties of adapting in terms of the plants we might grow to a climate that is unlikely to change in a linear fashion.

That being said, this is a sumptuously illustrated book full of good ideas and lots of sensible practical advice on both growing, preparing and cooking some really interesting food crops not found in the average allotment.

Marc’s philosophy is very simple and makes a lot of sense: why grow the same old standard staple veg like potatoes and cabbage, which can easily be bought cheaply (good old intensive industrial agriculture) when you could fill your garden with exquisitely delicious food crops like mulberries, Szechuan pepper, apricots and yacon?

he also advises to choose “easy winners” and going for perennials and plants that don’t need too much attention.

There is a great chapter on nut trees, in which he recommends perhaps surprisingly, in addition to chestnuts and walnuts- if you have space for them- also pecans which apparently he is having success with.

Under soft fruit he includes blue honeysuckle, autumn olive -Eleagnis umbellata- and fuchsia (ever tasted a fuchsia berry?).

Many of the plants he includes I am familiar with and am growing myself; one that was quite new to me is the perennial vegetable Kai lan, apparently a cross between kale, asparagus and broccoli, which sounds fantastic and definitely one I will try for next year.

All in all a lovely book, the perfect present etc., an essential addition to the forest gardening bookshelf and a great companion to Martin Crawford’s Creating a Forest Garden.

Siberian Purslane- claytonia sibirica excellent perennial salad, beet-flavoured leaves, grows to about 8-12”high and wide, semi-evergreen in mild areas, ready to eat very early, from late February onwards; shade tolerant. Tasty!

This is a new one for me, only in its second year so I have not been eating from it yet. Growing here on a sandy bank through a ground cover of creeping raspberry Rubus “Betty Ashburner”. It seems to have been blown over by the wind or possibly knocked over by hares the little divils.

Good king Henry Chenopodium bonus-henricus -Perennial greens, can be eaten cooked like spinach (too bitter raw); Good ground-cover, happy in some shade under trees. This is a native wild edible, uncommon though- I’ve never seen it in the wild.

One of my favorites, Turkish Rocket Bunias orientalis is very easy to grow, highly productive tough perennial, grows 80cms high and 30-40cms wide; produces abundance of small broccolli heads from March, followed by edible flowers; quite a strong pepper-flavour, and the leaves are far too bitter to eat raw, maybe cooked they are ok but I don’t bother. I had a good few meals of this in the spring and then cut some of them back hard; they are now producing another set of heads. The strong flavour is not for everyone but I love them and this is a really hardy plant that can easily hold its own against weeds once established. Essential for the forest garden.

Pokeweed- phytolacca americana- a known wild edible from North America, this plant provides asparagus-like spears edible up to about 2ft- the plant itself will grow 6ft or more. Highly recommended by Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust he warns in his book Creating a Forest Garden how to cook it:

The shoots are toxic when raw and must be prepared properly. Place in cold water, bring to the boil, then discard the water and replace with new boiling water and boil for 10minutes. The cooked shoots are delicious- like a larger version of asparagus- great with butter or a sauce.

I have a patch of pokeweed now in its second year, and tried my first shoots a couple of weeks ago- I found them very nice and tender. Much easier to grow than asparagus, productive and shade tolerant, and the extra hassle of boiling twice is no bother really- highly recommended.

Not really a vegetable, more a herb, Sweet Cicely Myrrhis odorata is worth growing as an ornamental for its show of white snowy flowers in the spring, aniseed flavored leaves- used for sweetening acid fruits and rhubarb- and crunchy seeds which are ready now like an aniseed sweet. The roots are also edible apparently. Seems very happy even in deep shade. Lovely! Grows to about 2-3ft high and over a foot wide.

In the forest garden. Chives and Turkish rocket in flower in the foreground beneath apple trees.

Finally, couldn’t resist posting up this picture of one of the hares I share the land with, right outside the backdoor!

Actually they are not mine, but the logs were inoculated about 2 years (!) ago by permaculture students during a field trip to John Dolan’s site near Ballingeary, West Cork.

Dowels inoculated with mushroom spawn were purchased from Ann Miller’s Specialty Mushrooms. Holes are drilled into the logs- birch in this case- every few inches, and sealed with wax.

This should be done about 2 weeks after felling the logs, but no longer than 6 weeks after- seemingly when the logs are just cut they may have resistance to colonization by fungi, while if you leave them too long they will quickly be colonized by some other fungi that you might not want!

The logs should be kept in a moist dark place, care needs to be taken to ensure they do not dry out. They can be wrapped in black plastic sacks for the first few months. After 6months to a year- Oyster mushrooms can fruit from about 6 months onwards- the logs can be “shocked” to try to promote fruiting, by soaking in water for 24 hours and then banging them on the ground a few times which is supposed to simulate a branch falling.

Growing mushrooms on logs is a fantastic way to add yields to forest gardens and add value to firewood, and an ideal activity for wet cloudy climates such as Ireland.

John told us the very week they started to fruit he had a volunteer from Japan staying who was… an expert mushroom chef! She was able to show him how best to flame-cook them. Tasty!

The first day will include charcoal making (a potential business opportunity), biochar (which improves soil while also combating climate change), rocket stoves, DIY stoves, site surveying & observation techniques, basic triangulation, measurement and levels.

One of the main practicals for the day will be charcoal & biochar making.

The second day will focus on forest gardening, which is an approach that works with nature as much as possible, to generate a high food yield with minimum effort.

Topics for the day include natural succession, deciduous forest layers, canopy distances, wild plants and canopy design. The main practical exercise for the day will focus around design & work in the new forest garden at Carraig Dúlra organic farm.

Both days are open to beginners, however those with some Permaculture experience will also benefit from the practical exercises and demonstrations. You can attend one or both days.

This event takes place at Carraig Dúlra organic farm in Glenealy, Co Wicklow. Participants are welcome to camp at the farm during the course. The cost for the event is €60 each day (coffee/tea/camping included), and pre-booking is required.

More information and booking: Carraig Dúlra · Glenealy, Co Wicklow info@dulra.org · www.dulra.org/practical-permaculture · 0404 69570

Working with nature to grow edible Crops

by Martin Crawford

Green Books Hardback 384 pp

Forward by Rob Hopkins

Martin Crawford, Director of the Agroforestry Research Trust in Devon, UK, has produced a beautiful and practical book which seems sure to become the definitive text for cool temperate forest gardens.

As part of his work at the ART Martin is already the author of many encyclopedic manuals covering dozens of topics and thousands of plants, and has been producing the essential Agroforestry News since he began his forest garden in the Dartington estate 15 years ago.

Above: Martin engulfed by bamboo with Italian Alder growing behind him at his garden at the ART

Creating a Forest Garden is eminently practical and down-to-earth, packed with information and good advice, and illustrated throughout with really gorgeous colour photos, including many full-page ones making it of interest to the general lover of plants and gardens as well as the serious forest garden designer. As such it succeeds in bringing together the technical issues of forest garden design, comprehensive details on edible and useful plants as well as introducing the concept to the non-specialist.

The concept of edible “food forests” -combining tree crops such as top fruit and nuts with various understory layers such as small and large shrubs, perennial vegetables, ground-covers, herbs and climbers- expresses many of the principles of permaculture: multiple function; stacking different layers; diversity and use of biological functions such as nitrogen fixing plants.

The book is clearly laid out into three sections:

Part 1 How Forest gardens Work

This section introduces the reader to the concept of forest gardens and how they evolved in British climates from the work of Robert Hart;

There follows a survey of forest garden features and products;

a fascinating look at the effects of climate change on the UK climate and the relevance of forest gardens to landscapes resilient to these changes;

and a brief discussion on the “native-exotic” debate- Martin points out that many definitions of what constitutes a “native plant” are in fact arbitrary:

…plants introduced by other animals to a new area are “allowed” as native but those introduced by humans (deliberately or not) are not. This is an example of the all-too-common attitude of the last few centuries, of humans being separated off from the natural world as though they are not a part of it. Just look where that has lead us!

This is an important issue to forest gardeners – as Martin points out, the range of “native” wild edibles is quite small in this part of the world; productive forest gardens here will need to introduce many plants, but it should be remembered that few of our food corps- much less ornamental shrubs- are actually “native” anyway.

This section ends with a detailed look at fertility in forest gardens. Martin shows how to make an assessment of the nutrient demands of your plants and average this out over the area you have, and then how to calculate how to meet this demand from nitrogen fixing plants and mineral accumulators like comfrey.

This key idea in forest gardens of achieving a high degree of self-maintenance is one of the great strengths of Martin’s approach. Unlike conventional annual veg growing, which tends to rely on inputs of manures for fertility, a forest garden would ideally cycle its own nutrients as far as possible and limit any extra inputs.

Part 2 Designing Your Forest Garden explains the other major aspect of the self-maintaining nature of edible forest gardens- they should have perennial or evergreen groundcovers to minimize weeds.

The key to this is how to establish useful ground covers that you want in the first place. In the book Martin shows how to first eliminate the existing vegetation with plastic or cardboard mulches, which should be down for a year before removing and then planting the area with suitable beneficial ground cover plants. In my experience this is the aspect of forest gardening that is most commonly neglected or poorly implemented- people’s initial interest tends to draw them to the trees and shrubs, but in many ways it seems to me that it is the perennial vegetable and ground cover layers that really define it as such- rather than an orchard with grass that needs mowing, and this takes careful preparation and selection of species.

The chapter on growing your own plants will be essential to most gardeners- the number of ground cover plants needed to fill a space quickly and keep those weeds down can be considerable and beyond most people’s budget. Martin takes you through the main propagation techniques for a range of plants including grafting trees and shrubs.

Chapters 9 and 10 take the reader from first design steps -starting with the selection of a suitable site if one is the market for buying land- and the important aspect of wind-break design.

Then follows a series of chapters for designing each in turn the canopy layer; the shrub layer; the herbaceous perennial and ground-cover layers; and annuals, biennials and climbers, with a chapter for each with comprehensive plant lists that make for hours of happy browsing and nearly justify the book purchase on their own

Part 3 Extra Design Elements and Maintenance covers the landscape features of paths and clearings and how design them into your forest garden for maximum light.

This followed by a chapter on one of the most fascinating potential yields that an be added into a forest garden- edible fungi and how to grow them on logs or sawdust;

-harvesting and preserving- tips on what to do once you have an abundance of yields;

and finally chapters on maintenance, including weeding (which is essential but should take minimal time in a forest garden) and pest control; and ongoing tasks.

Four useful glossary’s are found at the back of the book: Propagation tables; trees and shrubs for hedging and fencing; plants to attract beneficial insects; and edible crops by month of use.

Resources- useful organizations, suppliers and publications- complete the book

There is very little I could suggest to improve this comprehensive book. I would have liked to see a couple of references to research in places- for example in the first chapter he states “there is plenty of evidence that crops from perennial plants tend to be more nutritious than similar plants from annual plants”- it would be interesting to have some references to follow up.

My visit to Martin’s 2-acre forest garden in 2008 was an inspiration, reinvigorating my interest in the potential of the concept, and showing how multiple yields can be obtained efficiently with relatively little maintenance required.

While there is still little data to demonstrate to what extent forest gardens can really feed people in this part of the world- Martin does not claim they can or should completely replace annual vegetable gardens or conventional farming- this wonderful book is another demonstration of how the edible forest garden concept can successfully integrate productive food gardens with diverse habitats, and providing many other ecological and aesthetic qualities. It is sure to inspire many more new forest gardens and gardeners over the coming years.

The course was wonderfully hosted by Niamh and Ian and Cathy of KEEP at their centre at the  Gortback Organic Farm, near Tralee, Co. Kerry.

On the course we looked at Permaculture design Principles; the theory of natural succession; forest garden design and plants; and mulched and planted the start of a forest garden.

Gortbrack Farm is a 10-acre smallholding established in 1991, and the dedicated team have been promoting and teaching organic gardening, school gardens, teacher training and biodiversity programmes since then.

They have recently put up some very pleasant timber “eco-cabins” complete with solar water heaters and wood burning stoves which are available to rent for holidays and courses, where I was very comfortably ensconced for the two nights of the course.

KEEP have also just produced a wonderful 50-page booklet on The Year Round Organic School Garden written by Lucy Bell, Niamh Ni Dhuill and Aine Ni Fhlatharra, complete with garden designs, steps to setting up a garden, monthly garden projects and many more resources.

This is an essential resource for teachers, parents and anyone interested in seeing a school garden be established in their school. Contact KEEP for details.

Thanks for everyone’s support and participation on the weekend and good luck to you all with future permaculture and forest gardening adventures.

Permaculture offers one vision of a future where human ingenuity and adaptability will allow us to survive, and indeed thrive, in the age after oil, writes JOHN GIBBONS

High time agriculture got back to its healthy roots

IF YOU go down to the woods today, prepare to be surprised. A new movement is taking root that in a low-key way challenges almost everything we think we know about agriculture and our relationship with food. Last week’s column asked: how can we feed ourselves without ready access to the fossil fuels upon which conventional agriculture depends utterly? It wasn’t meant to be a rhetorical question.

The basis of all agriculture is soil. Healthy soil positively teems with life, including earthworms, fungi and essential bacteria. Mature topsoil is the product of hundreds, even thousands of years of slow growth, decay and decomposition. Within human timescales, soil is essentially a non-renewable resource.

The plough has shaped human history even more profoundly than the sword. Where for 10,000 years we depended on a delicate balance of nutrients to maintain the soil upon which our civilisations stood, the energy revolution and industrial farming in the last century saw us throw away that rule book. Full Article here