Module 4: What Goes Where?
Introduction
Once you have your garden space made, your soil prepared, and all your starters a d seeds ready to plant, you'll probably be feeling pretty good. As well you should — that's real progress! But…
There will inevitably come the moment when you don your gardening gloves, gather your tools, plants, and seeds, walk out to your yard and think Now where I do I plant everything? How do I know if I'm doing it right?
Ok, so there's no really wrong way to plant a garden. But there are ways that will give you more enjoyment of your space, and allow your plants to thrive.
First, we'll take a big picture look at your space and help you understand how to map it out into sub-spaces called zones.
Then, we'll explore how to distribute the plants you want to grow within each zone to maximize their productivity and save you time and energy!
It's a very logical and beautiful system, so let's dive in.
The Big Picture: Permaculture Zones
If designing a garden is unfamiliar to you, let's start in a more familiar place: your kitchen.
How we arrange plants in your garden is not unlike how you set up a kitchen: we sort our culinary tools by shape, size, and usage frequency, all arranged to meet our needs as easily as possible at any moment’s notice.
Once we pause to think about it, it's obvious that we organize our living environments according to logic, and it explains why we don’t keep the forks in the cupboard above the fridge. Many areas of our home possess a similar time-saving quality: the shoes are kept by the door while the paper roll hangs off the wall next to the porcelain throne because it just makes sense this way.
These decisions come to us intuitively, without external influences. It’s not like the world kept the Charmin under the mattress until a YouTube video of “life hacks” told us to keep it mounted by the toilet. We structure our environments — our kitchens, bathrooms, and work spaces — based on our everyday actions and habitual patterns. The garden is no different.
Well, perhaps you're thinking, I've never designed a garden before. So I don't have a pattern to follow. Fair point. So let's try an exercise:
Go outside and look at the area around your home. Instead of looking at it as a static empty space that you need to "fill in" with plants, see yourself moving around in it, doing things.
For example, say you are making tea and want to grab a handful of fresh mint or bergamot. So those herbs should be very easy to access. The same goes for salad greens; put them as close to the door as possible.
Now imagine you're going out to harvest a bunch of veggies to blanch and freeze, kale and beans and such. Or a basket of apricots to make pie filling. For produce that you will harvest less often, a bit further away is fine.
By following natural inclinations towards efficiency, permaculture brings a method to the madness of dividing up the ground using a system of zones.
With you and your home at the center of the map, we can think of zones as radiating outward like the rings in a tree stump. Numbered 1 through 5, zones indicate both how often the human caretaker needs to visit a plant, and also how often any given plant needs you to visit it. Zone delineations, however, are not strict, and bleed into one another freely like a natural gradient of plants.
Zone 1
This is where every plant you’ll interact with on a daily basis lives. Your go-to herbs, leafy salad greens, that one heirloom tomato you love, the raspberry you can’t imagine a yogurt bowl without — they all live here. Zone one can even be inside the house in containers, but typically starts at the door and hugs the home. What we plant in this zone is never more than a few footsteps away, so braving a summer rain for A tomato doesn’t require a sprint across the yard and subsequent wardrobe change.
Zone 2
Moving further from the house, we find anything that doesn’t require as much vigilance. These plants you might harvest continuously but in larger batches, or perhaps even all at once. The bulk of your production lives here. A patch of tomato for canning and peppers for pickling go in zone 2. The goji, goumi, and gooseberry shrubs (any large perennial fruit bush) might find themselves at home here as well. An orchard of oak trees for harvesting acorns to mill into flour would live in zone 2.
Zone 3
Zone three is basically the halfway point between daily plants and natural wilderness. You may not even have this zone depending on the size of your yard. The larger, barely-touched plants that thrive as part of a larger ecosystem go here. The edible perennials and larger trees you’re less concerned with harvesting but may forage from time to time would thrive here. Zone 3 is also a great place for garden experiments, like figuring out how to train a squash vine to grow up a small tree.
Zone 4
Number four is found exclusively on larger properties, typically of an acre of more in size. Home to large timber trees, grain patches, or grazing animals, this zone is best described as “semi wild.” All native foraging for rare herbs and fungi happens here and beyond.
Zone 5
Zone five, perhaps the most important of them all, is fully wild and untouched land. Every property with land - no matter how small - has a zone five, even if it’s tucked into a fence corner in a city lot. This is the “undesigned” zone - the natural zone - where we observe nature in action and learn from her masterful displays of ecological harmony.
Wild land of any size can show us how different species relate to one another as part of a greater whole, and is our road map towards creating ecologically mature food gardens, aka food forests.
Every Zone is a Forest
In an urban or suburban yard, Zones 1 and 2 will naturally be where you spend most of your time preparing, planting, harvesting and improving. Be that as it may, the inspiration for how to organize any zone comes directly from Zone 5, the natural forest.
A food forest is simply a more common term for agroforestry, the practice of growing food in a system that mimics a natural forest. The size is not important; a food forest can be scaled up to a forty acre plot or down to a postage-stamp sized yard. The defning characteristic of a food forest is plant diversity.
Picture a "typical" farm or garden. In your mind's eye, you probably see a field of wheat or corn, or tidy rows of vegetables with each type of produce relegated to its poker straight line. A cultivated area dominated by a single plant species is called a monoculture.
A monoculture is inherently weak. The bare soil between the rows is exposed to the eroding forces of sun and rain. The plants themselves are a veritable buffet for insects. Of course pests will attack in droves when there is nowhere for their predators to hide and nothing else for them to eat.
A food forest is a polyculture, consisting of many species. Diversity makes it inherently much more resilient. For example, if an unusually hot June wilts your leaf lettuce, there's still heat-tolerant chard to eat. A rainy spell doesn't rot your potato plants because you tucked them in between water-siphoning groundcover plants. Cabbageworm caterpillars have a harder time getting to your brassica seedlings because they are guarded by a fortress of dill, where stingless wasps prey on the unwary caterpillars.
Well, that sounds like a system worth imitating! But how?
Well, let's go directly to the source to find out!
Take a walk in the woods...
At the very next opportunity, walk through a wooded area. Take note: Do you see orderly rows of the same kind of trees and plants, evenly spaced? Empty ground scratched bare of life? Do you find anyone weeding, or fertilizing, or laboriously tilling the soil? Has the leaf litter been raked into plastic bags awaiting a diesel-guzzling truck to pick them up?
Of course not. A walk through the forest reveals a diversity of plants growing in a seemingly mad jumble, some in clusters, others farther apart, few of them alike, and none of them standing alone. Fallen leaves form a soft thick carpet of mulch, food for beetles, worms, colonies of ants, networks of fungi, a whole universe below ground. No one fertilizes, no one weeds. Nothing is superfluous, nothing is wasted.
Now what if I told you that your little home garden, whether you have a yard, a terraced slope, or a box full of dirt, can be a miniature edible forest?
A Brief History of Food Forests
Food forests are not new. People have engineered their landscapes to suit their needs throughout history. The good news about food forests is that these human-made systems do not cause the usual destruction we associate with human activity. In fact, cultivated polycultures can actually enhance soil health and biodiversity — something our planet is in desperate need of at the present moment.
Thousands of years ago, the original inhabitants of the Americas crept through the undergrowth of the forests of the Eastern Shore, the Pacific Northwest, the basins of the great Amazon and Orinoco Rivers. They dug roots from the ground, sifted through the leaf litter to find good-smelling herbs, plucked berries from low bushes, fruits from overhanging branches, gourds and legumes from vines snaking up the trees, and waited for the towering canopy to rain edible nuts and seeds.
They tested and observed. Some things were good to eat, some things were better than others. They kept and planted the seeds of the better tasting things. Over generations, these people gradually replaced areas of forest with other forests, self-sustaining eco-systems that provided food, building material, animal fodder, and natural fertilizer.
They were the original forest gardeners.
The Multi-layered Forest Garden
Picture a canopy of giant sunflowers and okra growing in a narrow band of earth next to the fence that separates you from your neighbor. In between the towering stalks, a pickle cucumber vine winds its way up the fence. Joining the cucumbers are pole beans twining up the fence and the sunflowers themselves, tendrils reaching up to the overhang of the patio roof, making an edible archway of beans.
Under the sunflowers, tucked in the shade of their big flowering heads, sprouts a groundcover of tender greens--spinach, parsley, and arugula. A small crop of radish roots push gently into the clay soil, creating drainage for rain and opening tunnels for air. A border of calendula and borage flowers suppresses weeds and provides nectar for bees and butterflies. In a sunny patch next to steps there's a cluster of containers spilling over with strawberry shrubs, cherry tomatoes, nasturtiums, and basil. Poking out from the cracks in the concrete just beyond the steps are sprigs of oregano and thyme.
As you can see from this little journey, a small home-scale food forest can be just as complex and multi-layered as a natural forest.
The key is to identify the layers and include plants in each layer, scaled approximately to the size of your space.
Canopy
The tallest level of plants, the canopy serves to filter hard rains and harsh sun and protect the layers below. The canopy also hosts important predator animals like birds and lizards that control pests. In Zone 3, the canopy might be a stand of bamboo or grove chestnut trees. In a home-scale food forest, the canopy might be a dwarf Asian pear tree and a cluster of sunflowers - annual or perennial. It’s all about scale.
Shrubs
The shrub layer helps to provide dense shade, protection, and shelter for many smaller forms of wildlife — and tender seedlings. The leaf fall creates blankets of mulch that microbes can transform into humus. Also, shrubs tend to produce edible fruit earlier than the taller layers, providing food for people and wildlife alike.
Vines
Plants that snake up any available support, the vine layer is an excellent way to increase the productivity of a small space. In home scale food forests, pole beans, cucumbers, and squash are great choices for the vine layer
Groundcover
This often overlooked layer serves multiple important functions. Ground-hugging plants filtrate massive amounts of water and hold it like a sponge. They help to keep soil from drying out and provide shelter for important insects like ladybugs and beetles. Creeping herbs like thyme, oregano, and sprawling plants like nasturtium and yam make excellent edible ground cover choices.
Roots
Under the soil, the root layer delves into the soil, plumbing the depths to improve drainage and create passages for soil life and nutrient-laden water. From the heftiest cassava tuber to the humble potato, the root layer is absolutely fundamental to the health of the system overall.
Put the Pieces Together
So how does this all fit together into an optimal garden design?
It's a very simple two-step process. First, you make an outline by determining your zones. Secondly, you fill in the Zone areas with the specific plants you choose for each section. This is where you can really get creative and make your space a beautiful work of art!
STEP 1: Make a Map
With a piece of paper and a pencil, walk around your outdoor space and map out your Zones. Make your map as you are actually in your space. Being present in it will give you the clearest picture.
Keep in mind that you can have several areas that fit into a particular Zone. For example, maybe you want a flower and herb patch just outside your front door to attract butterflies to greet you in the morning. That's Zone 1. And naturally you want to have salad greens and cherry tomatoes at the ready a few steps from the back door. That's also Zone 1.
STEP 2:
Now, fill in each Zone with a multi-layered scheme of plants. Remember, each Zone is its own micro-forest! Not every layer needs to be in every zone, but aim for at least three.
Here's a few examples to get your brain working this way. These are just a very few of infinite possibilities!
Sample Zone 1 - Herb & Flower Patch
Groundcovers:
Perennial: lemon thyme, ajuga, Greek oregano
Annual: marigold, sweet alyssum, calendula, chamomile
Shrub layer:
Perennial: bee balm, lavender, rosemary, artemisia, sage, yarrow
Annual: borage, parsley, dill
Canopy:
Perennial: Maximillian sunflower, myrtle, mallow
Annual: Siberian sunflower, amaranth
Vine Layer:
Perennial: clematis, honeysuckle, hops
Annual: morning glory, climbing nasturtium
Sample Zone 1 - Everyday Veggie Patch
Root layer:
Perennial: Egyptian onion, garlic
Annual: radish, onion, early maturing carrot, beet (young greens can be eaten in salad or sautéed)
Groundcovers:
Perennial: sorrel, salad burnet, garlic chives, lambs quarters, purslane
Annual: baby spinach, all leaf lettuces, chard (harvested young), endive
Shrub layer:
Perennial: strawberry, raspberry
Annual: tomato, bell pepper, hot pepper
Vine Layer:
Perennial: perennial pea, yam
Annual: cucumber, scarlet runner or other climbing bean
Note: The Canopy Layer of Zone 1 is where Zone 1 naturally bleeds into Zone 2. So let's start at the canopy for a sample of Zone 2.
Sample Zone 2 - Longer maturing veggies, not used everyday
Canopy:
Perennial: any dwarf tree suitable for your climate e.g. paw paw, quince, apricot, damson
Annual: okra, corn, annual sunflower
Root layer:
Perennial: horseradish, sunchoke (also forms canopy), ginseng
Annual: potato, daikon, parsnip, rutabaga, turnip
Groundcovers:
Perennial: curly kale, Good King Henry, plantain leaf
Annual: kale, mustard greens, collards, escarole
Shrub layer:
Perennial: black currant, rhubarb
Annual: eggplant, Brussels sprouts, bush beans
Vine Layer:
Perennial: yam or sweet potato
Annual: all varieties of summer and winter squash
Sample Zone 3
If you have space for a Zone 3, this is where you plant saplings for larger trees. I also advise using this space to plant cover crops like alfalfa or vetch as "living mulch" that will add nutrients to the soil, repress invasive species, and make great "chop and drop" for your compost pile.
In designing and planting your micro-forests, this is where you can really explore different plants and let your creativity shine. Just be sure to keep in mind what will thrive in your climate. With respect to your environment, choose your favorite flavors, colors, and fragrances to make your space both ecologically functional and aesthetically pleasing to you.