2014

Marcus Busby
Permaculture News
8/15/2014
Design and Build a Low
Maintenance Perennial Fruit and
Herb Garden (UK)
Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

2

Design and Build a Low Maintenance Perennial Fruit
and Herb Front Garden (UK)
Permaculturenews.org/2014/08/15/design-build-low-maintenance-perennial-fruit-herb-front-
garden-uk/
Published 15
th
August 2014

Not many people use their front garden. Front gardens are often laid to turf. Except for mowing the
grass, or using the front door, the front garden goes largely ignored. Some people plant a mixture of
plants including pollen plants which bring colour and can contribute towards the local ecosystem.
Using the following simple design, you can design and build your own garden, which will provide you
with fresh and seasonal fruit, herbs for the kitchen, for delicious healthy teas, plus lovely fragrances
and flowers throughout the year - with very little input. In fact this type of garden requires less
maintenance than the regular mowing of a lawn.

Introduction
This garden design focuses upon very low maintenance, perennial fruit and herb plants and easy
accessibility. It was an attempt at making a garden that might appeal to people even if they had not
heard of Permaculture as an alternative to their front lawn. It is meant to be highly functional whilst
looking attractive too. For this reason there is a wide path (90cm), quite a tall and easily accessible
herb spiral close to the kitchen, and generally easy access to all parts of the garden. It is true that
yield could be increased by intensive planting and introducing annual crop plants.
All the plants have been listed below if you have no idea where to start, these will get you off to a
good one. The names are in Latin so you can find the exact plants or very similar should you wish.
The trees are specifically chosen for a small garden (on dwarfing root stocks) and are either self
Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

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fertile or cross-pollinating. All the fruit providing plants have been chosen to give fruits throughout
the season early, mid and late. You can always add more or choose different varieties.
The plan has a scale and orientation, why not adapt it to your front garden if you are looking for a
design? There are many great examples of herb spirals shared on the internet made from all sorts of
materials, choose a material which best suits you and treat yourself to a free and perpetual supply of
fresh and dried garden herbs.
All of the materials and plants came to a total of 1,025 GBP (approx $1,800). Allow around 10-14
days to gather materials and construct the garden. New materials were used throughout totaling
550 GBP (approx $950) so to save money, use reclaimed, recycled or found materials. The trees and
fruit bushes cost 140 GBP (approx $250) bought from www.hattensfarmnurseriesmetfield.co.uk.
The herbs and other plants cost a total of 335 GBP (approx $600). The herbs were bought from
www.laurelfarmherbs.co.uk and the other perennials and seeds from www.woottensplants.com.


Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

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Survey
Make a rough sketch plan and annotate with measurements to make a scale drawing. Its really
worth doing a scale drawing as this helps to calculate the quantity of materials needed and the
number and positioning of plants. Once you have your base map drawn you can trace/photocopy it
to do sketch concepts that are in proportion. It can be helpful to draw a little sun shining towards
the garden to keep you orientated, and also a little stick person perhaps 1m80 tall/50cm wide on
your sketch plan to give you a context of scale.
Record all the information you can about the garden on your field sketch plan most important is
the aspect (to the sun) so use a compass ideally, otherwise at least note where the sun is and record
this on your sketch plan.
Note landscape feature such as wall, existing shrubs, plants and hedges, gates, pathways, taps, drain
covers, outdoor lights and plugs, it is also very helpful to know where any pipes or wires run
underground and to avoid planting trees and shrubs near these, and if digging deep down for any
reason, to exercise caution with your shovel!
Make a list, or take some photos of the existing shrubs if it is a clients garden so you can easily refer
to these if working from home/away from the site.

Existing Shrubs in this garden (forming the surrounding hedge)
Hypericum perforatum
Berberis julianae
Viburnum tinus
Rhododendron moerheim
Mahonia aquifolium
Buddleia davidii
Ceonothus sp.
Viburnum Sp.
Cotoneaster sp.
Syringa vulgaris
Potentilla fruticosa
Berberis sp.
Spirea sp.
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Variegata'
Philadelphus coronarius
Laurus nobilis
Rosa Sp. Pink
Rosa Sp. Red


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Assess
Consider the characteristics of the garden and site, think about all the potentials, imagine the garden
humming and buzzing with life and flowers, bring it to life in your mind and go through all the
features you noted in your survey, think about the potentials, whether its where and how you will
capture/collect water, or growing plants up or on something the design principles are excellent for
visualizing and covering all bases, plus acronyms such as PASE (Plants, Animals, Structures, Events),
even if its a little garden, you can still imagine friends and family visiting and how they may use the
garden, or if there is a toddlers birthday things that will delight them! Attracting animals or
accommodating for domestic pets, you may think about features such as pergolas for shade and
growing climbers or as in this case a herb spiral. REAP MORE (Reason, Explore, Assess, Place,
Maintain, Observe, Refine, Enjoy), all of these factors should be considered and projected into the
future when thinking about your design. If its not your garden you are designing, consider carefully
the needs and hopes of your client. If they work a lot, or go away often, or if they have children, are
active or not, social or keep themselves to themselves etc all these factors can influence your design
proposal.
Case Study
This garden has a great aspect with the sun blessing the garden most of the day. A south facing
garage wall just in the NE corner of the garden can be good for growing up. An existing concrete
path gives good access to the rear garden and all along the front garden. The garden already has one
existing triangular bed by the driveway and another bed under the kitchen window which is in shade
most of the day. The existing hedge is well established, a great windbreak and backdrop in the right
place - not shading the garden. Most of the existing shrubs are flowering and good for pollinators
too.
The soil is very dry, compacted and sandy, almost like rock! The garden has not been used for quite a
few years judging by all the metal and plastic that is grown into the lawn.
A few really rotten logs full of insects were placed carefully out of the way under the existing hedge
in the shade to preserve their habitat.
The garden already has some nice wild fennel, comfrey and a couple of roses that can all be easily
relocated. Transplant these into the shady bed by the house until replanting the following week,
water well when transplanting!
The client ideally doesnt want to have to do much gardening, only harvesting. The summers can be
hot and dry here, and the winters are pretty chilly being next to the North Sea. The client lives alone
and doesnt see her family much. She goes to the pub, social events and the theatre more than
having guests round generally speaking. She loves fruit trees, butterflies and the hum of bees. She is
very exuberant, colourful and a thespian! She is interested in herbs and the uses of them and would
like to get to know them. She is studying esoteric philosophy and astrology. She says I can do what I
want as long as there are fruit trees and no maintenance if possible. The budget is 1000 1500.

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Design
Front Garden with Perennial Fruit and Herbs, East Anglia, England, UK.
10 different fruits : 47 different herbs : 99% perennial : very low maintenance.
The garden in this example is 10metres x 10metres, the same principles can be applied to gardens of
various sizes by scaling up. As a guide, for easy access make pathways 90cm wide unless space is of
the essence and you wish to grow as much food as possible then make them thinner. Local 20mm
gravel stone was used for the pathways; to be a durable, cheaper and permeable alternative to
paving.
The layout can be orientated according to the sun. Keep the trees at the far end from the sun and
orientate the horseshoe bed and path like a magnet towards the sun, which in the Northern
hemisphere is in the South! Hopefully this simple design can be applied to lots of front gardens
wherever appropriate.

Design for a suburban front garden for Northern Hemisphere
Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

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Looking down on the newly completed garden

The main features of this garden are:
Herb spiral: with perennial kitchen herbs (Rosmarinus prostratus Spicata was planted at the
top, as this is dwarfing with a trailing habit).
Fruit Trees: Pear, Apple and Plum trees with a fan-trained Cherry, under-planted with guild
plants (pollinator plants, mulch plants, tap rooters, N fixers) including a great variety of
herbaceous perennials for culinary and medicinal use.
Fruit Bushes: A range of Raspberries, Gooseberries, Blackcurrants and Rhubarb with
cultivated and wild strawberries as groundcover.
Herbaceous Perennials: Under the fruit trees a range of culinary and medicinal herbs are
planted, mixed together with some of perennials which are really good for pollinating
insects. All of the plants in this garden produce flowers and many are aromatic.
Rose bed (with shade tolerant fragrant roses) with Sorrel, Strawberry, Garlic Chive (Allium
tuberosum) and French Sorrel (Rumex acetosa) for ground cover.
Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

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Implement


Before (August) and the first summer after (June)
Materials
Below is a table with retail prices from a builders merchant in the UK as a guide. You can probably
be more creative in how you source your materials and save yourself a load of money!
Description Price (incl. delivery) GBP
1500kg Type one road stone (two large builders bulk bags)
1000kg 20mm Gravel (two large builders bulk bags)
180 red bricks (Tanner Red Mix)
200kg Soft sand
100kg sharp sand
3 bags cement
3 rolls of landscape membrane (for under the path)
17 x Gravel boards (22x150x3m/1x6x10)
20 wooden pegs

Cardboard - collected
Large trailer of woodchip delivered
8 Bags Compost, Bonemeal, screws, diesel

Total:
85.75
71.55
150.17
22.56
11.28
15.33
32.71
75.31
15.04

0.00
20.00
50.00

549.70 (approx $950)

Garden Beds
The clippings and brush from the initial garden clearance/tidy were shredded with an electric
chipper and piled underneath upturned turves along with some sticks, small branches and some logs
to form new mounded Hugelkulture beds this provides slow release humus, retains soil moisture.
Over time this will break down and create worm food! Adding nutrients and retaining moisture was
very important for the sandy dry soil here. The rotten logs that were in the garden were carefully
placed under the existing hedge to remain as insect houses. These insects are essential in the garden
for decomposing and composting, saving you some work! You may even get mushrooms, or
inoculate some logs/wood chippings yourself with plugs, e.g. Shiitake on Oak chips or best, Silver
Birch logs.
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A Hugelkulture bed provides a long-term supply of organic matter and retains moisture.
Image source: Sepp Holzers Permaculture, p.40

Layering up the mini Hugelkulture beds: sticks, branches and logs at the bottom, chippings and clippings
next, soil and upturned turves, followed by cardboard sheet mulch and a final layer of woodchips.
Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

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Sheet mulching with cardboard and a layer of woodchips.
The mounded Hugelkulture beds were sheet mulched with cardboard (collected free of charge from
Co-operative Supermarket, you can use thick layers of newspaper equally as well). They were then
covered with 15cm of woodchip sourced from a local tree surgeon. In drier periods particularly,
water the beds well before sheet mulching them so you are locking in moisture as opposed to
blocking it out. When you layer the cardboard, once in position (making sure all the edges overlap by
15cm to make sure nothing can grow between the gaps) cover it with water so it goes floppy and
molds to the soil underneath. You can pin the cardboard down with sticks or bits of wire coat hanger
bent into a U-shape if needed. Try to cover with your top layer of mulch before the sheet mulch
dries out and starts to curl upwards. You are aiming to completely cover all the
cardboard/newspaper with woodchips/mulch. If you have a limited supply of top mulch available,
start with a thin layer all over, then top-up later once you have the whole mulch area covered to
avoid running out too soon and having to redo any work.
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Sheet mulch to block out the old lawn and turves. A good helping of horse manure too.
The horseshoe bed was designed so as to have easy access from both sides for harvesting the
currants and berries. Upturned turfs were arranged in the bottom, covered with a bit of soil and
chippings, covered in cardboard to blot out any re-growth I didnt add the manure to the bottom
layer to avoid it feeding the old grass and encouraging it to grow. The nice helping of horse manure
which is easily available in the locality in sacks on the side of the road was placed on top of the
cardboard. Horse manure isnt particularly rich in nutrients, but is a great source of humus; this was
mixed with some bags of soil conditioner/municipal compost collected from a local Council Recycling
centre and a sprinkling of organic chicken muck. If you have rotted manure its good for mixing in
with the soil and feeding the roots of your new plants directly. This was fresh manure so it was
placed on top of the sheet mulch, mixed with soil conditioner and clean soil, and covered with straw
mulch. The idea being that the fresh manure would breakdown in situ, blending with the soil and
conditioner, forming new topsoil for the following season. Make sure its not in contact with any of
your plant stems as fresh manure can burn or rot the stems of plants. Yes it smells but not for long!
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Gravel boards pegged in place.
The beds were layered as follows, from bottom to top: original soil, old lawn, turves of old lawn,
chippings from clearance, cardboard, horse manure and chicken muck, organic soil improver, straw
mulch. This was then ready to be planted with the berry bushes and a groundcover of strawberries.


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Herb Spiral

The brickys herb spiral!
The herb spiral was constructed from bricks to match the house. It was built using standard mortar
on a 10cm sub-base of compacted stone (Type 1 MOT road stone) to avoid any cracks from
movement. A small plumbers level was used to position each brick, with a pen line marked on the
bubble level to keep the incline consistent. The spiral is completely watertight to direct the water
down through the spiral and keep water locked in. This, for some, rather tedious approach to
construction was intended to test whether the spiral shaped construction is necessary. It was also to
act as a sculptural feature for the garden. In hindsight, there was no major evidence that a
watertight spiral shape serves any function with regards to growing physically healthier herb plants,
but using mortar to fix the blocks meant a tighter and taller herb spiral could be constructed without
risk of collapse reducing repair work later, having said that, it must retain water better than loose
stones, but not significantly enough to remark on it.
Using a mixture of natural and formal shapes in the garden can create interest; a 3D spiral certainly
creates a presence and animation within the garden.
It was intended to install a timed water sprinkler at the top of the spiral to water the semi-circular
garden. This would have been an additional upfront cost to save maintenance time later; however in
this garden the sprinkler system was omitted.
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Landscaping complete, ready to plant!


Landscaped front garden, ready for planting!


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Planting
Select and plant fruits/herbs which you personally use most, and experiment with their location in
the garden. If you plant a plant in a position where its not doing well or is a problem, try it
somewhere else for a season in the garden. This way you will get to know the plants and your
garden well.
I followed Toby Hemenways book, Gaias Garden, as closely as possible. The book has excellent
diagrams for herb spirals, mulching, and detail on guild planting; for instance constructing an apple
tree guild, p150.
Planting the herb spiral
The herb spiral creates a good range of favourable conditions which can benefit a variety of species,
from dry-sunny to moist-shade.
Planting positions in the herb spiral depend on the position of the sun. Bear in mind that some herbs
such as Rosemary and Thyme love dry sunny positions, and herbs such as mint and violets are okay
for the less sunny moister spots. If you find you have planted an herb in a place where its either
taking over or hindering other plants (mint can do this!) or it's not doing so well, try moving it to
another position. The herbs planted in this spiral are as follows, from the top to the bottom:

Rosmarinus 'spicata' (prostratus sp.)
Origanum vulgare compactum
Salvia elegans 'Tangerine Sage'
Viola sp.
Artemesia dranunculus
Thymus sp. 'Bad Hair Day'
Thymus pulegiodides 'Broadleafed Thyme'
Thymus pulegiodides 'Foxley'
Chamaemelum nobile 'Flore Pleno'
Viola sp. 'Lizzy Wooten'
Allium - thick leaved chives
Allium schoenoprasum polyvert
Petroselinum crispum 'Crispum'
Petroselinum crispum 'French'
Mentha x piperita f.citrata 'After Eights'
Mentha spicata 'Cyprus - Mint Sauce'
Allium cepa var. aggregatum
Diplotaxis muralis




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Herb and Groundcover Layer
Companion or guild plants were chosen and planted around the fruit trees, such as chives, common
chicory, bee balm, fennel, yarrow and comfrey. All the herbaceous perennials were planted into the
Hugelkulture beds. Apart from the chives, which were planted right around the bases of the fruit
trees, the guild plants were planted within the projected canopy of the fruit trees - so in close
proximity, but not in the way of being able to get to the tree for harvesting later on.
Make sure when planting new plants from pots that you dig a hole that is big enough, so as to not
have to pack in or squash the roots of your new plants. When you remove the plant from the pot,
just tap the rim of the pot and it will pop off. If not, look on the bottom of the pot and tear of any
roots. If there are some big looking roots then cut the plastic away. Use the pots to grow more
plants from seed, or for potting up. Portable living presents for friends and family!
Ruffle and free up the roots which may have become pot-bound. You are generally aiming for the
roots to be able to expand and spread out so as to gather water from a wide area, except for plants
with a tap root such as the Cichorium intybus (Common Chicory) where you can dig a deeper hole
and unwind the tap root which, if grown in a pot, has probably had to coil up. The roots are so
important, it is essential you take care with them, dont leave plants out of their pots, else wind and
sun will quickly dry them up and destroy them reducing the chances of the plants survival.
Heres the list of plant species in this garden:
Herbaceous Perennials

Achillea millefolium 'Terracotta' -Yarrow
Achillea millefolium 'Martina' -Yarrow
Ajuga reptans 'Catlins Giant' -Bee Bonnet (Groundcover)
Ajuga reptans purpurea -Bee Bonnet (Groundcover)
Allium cepa aggregatum -Evergreen Chives
Allium schoenoprasum -Chives
Allium schoenoprasum 'Medium Leaf' -Chives
Allium tuberosum -Garlic Chives
Aquilegia vulgaris -Woodbine
Artemisia abrotanum -Southernwood
Astrantia major 'Buckland' -Masterwort
Atriplex harimus -Sea Orach (Delicious salty salad leaf)
Bergenia cordifolia -Elephant's ears
Cichorium intybus -Common Chicory
Coreopsis verticillata 'Moonbeam'

Digitalis purpurea -Foxgloves
Dryopteris erythrosora -Autumn Fern
Echinacea purpurea 'Hot Summer'

Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus'

Filipendula ulmaria -Meadowsweet
Foeniculum officinale -Green Fennel
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Foeniculum vulgare 'Bronze' -Bronze Fennel
Foeniculum vulgare -Wild Fennel
Frageria Sp. (Honeoye, Alice, Symphony) -Early, Mid, Late Strawberries (G.Cover)
Frageria vesca -Wild Strawberry (Groundcover)
Galium odoratum -Sweet Woodruff
Geranium nodosum

Geranium pyrenaicum 'Bill Wallis'
Hemerocalis hyperion
Hemerocalis sp. -Day Lily
Hesperis matronalis -Sweet Rocket
Hyssopus officinalis -Hyssop
Lamium album 'Dead Nettle' -Dead Nettle
Lavandula sp.

Lavandula stoechas 'Fat Head Lavender'

Linum perenne 'Album' -Perennial Flax, Lint
Lupinus 'La Chatelaine' -Pink Lupin
Lupinus 'La Pages' -Red Lupin
Lythrum salicaria 'Robert' -Purple Loosestrife
Melissa officinalis -Bee Balm, Lemon Balm
Mentha x piperata -Black Peppermint
Myrrhis odorata -Sweet Cicley
Myrtus communis -Myrtle
Nepeta officinalis -Catmint
Oenothera biennis -Evening Primrose
Origanum marjorana -Marjoram
Penstemon 'Pink Candy'

Phlox panniculata 'Blue Paradise'

Physostegia virginiana alba 'Summer Snow' -Obedient Plant
Rosmarinum officinalis 'Greek Ginger' -Rosemary
Rumex scutatus -French Sorrell
Salvia officinalis 'Purpurascens'

Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain'

Sanguisorba minor -Salad Burnet
Santoline chamaecyparissus -Cotton Lavender
Satureja Montana -Winter Savory
Satureja spicigera -Creeping Savory
Scabiosa atropurprea -Sweet Scabious
Scabiosa atropurprea 'Chile Black' -Scabious (Dark red)
Sedum spectablie 'Indian Chief'

Symphytum officinale -Comfrey
Tanacetum parthenium -Feverfew
Teucrium x lucydris -Hedge Germander
Thymus herba-barona -Caraway Thyme
Thymus pulegioides 'Tabor'

Thymus serphyllum 'Pink Ripple'

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Thymus sp.

Thymus sp.

Thymus vulgare 'Greek/Turkey'

Verbascum 'Cotswold Beauty'

Verbascum 'Cotswold Queen'

Verbascum chaixii 'Album'

Verbena bonariensis



Annuals/Self Seeding/Seeds

Some seeds were scattered about the edges and in some gaps for pollinators, self seeding and to
add extra colour. If you have sheet mulched everywhere, you can reveal areas of soil and add
compost, sprinkle some seeds, sprinkle a thin layer of compost and replace thin layer of
chippings/mulch. Or, just part the mulch chippings, pack in a couple of handfuls of compost and
seed this.

Calendula officinalis -Pot Marigold
Phacelia tanacetifolia -Phacelia, Scorpion Weed
Anethum graveolens -Dill
Trapeolum majus -Nasturtium
Nigella sativa -Black onion seed
Cosmos 'Sensation Mixed' -Cosmos



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Trees and Shrubs

When creating new beds, or especially planting new shrubs or trees, it is really beneficial for the
new plants root growth to use blood fish and bone, plus compost mixed well with the original,
weed-free clean soil. Other soil conditioners are also very beneficial such as rock dust to add
minerals. You can also add some pot ash from the fire/stove and if the soil is very acid such as
where an evergreen hedge grows, you can add lime or limescale works, collected from copper
tanks etc.

Dig a circular hole that is as wide as the roots so you can arrange them nicely, and to the
necessary depth determined by the soil line you can see on the plants main stem. When you
dig the hole, pile all the soil into one pile just to the side, then add the bonemeal (blood fish and
bone) and compost, plus any other additions to this pile. Make sure you mix this very well (as the
blood fish and bone can burn the roots if in direct contact) before using the mixture to bed-in the
new plant. If the plants are bare root, make sure to carefully work the soil in between the roots
of tree or shrub using your fingers. If they come in a pot, free up the roots by dislodging soil.
Wear gloves whilst using bonemeal and other soil conditioners, they can burn your skin and are
not so good to ingest.

Bush/Shrub Layer

The Goji berry was planted into the surrounding Hugelkulture bed. The raspberries had their own
strip-beds, with timber gravel board surrounds to avoid them spreading. The raspberries are
planted in partial shade to the most easterly part of the garden indicated on the plan design. The
remaining bushes blackcurrant and gooseberries were planted into the horseshoe bed with a
strawberry groundcover.

The roses were selected for their scent, colour and form, and for being shade tolerant with a
small bush habit - max height 90cm. These were planted in a block in the bed under the kitchen
window, with a groundcover of Geranium nodosum, fern, wild garlic, Allium tuberosum (because
this bed is isolated preventing it from invading the garden), Sorrel, and French Sorrel. This bed
also contains the existing bay leaf shrub. The hydrangea was planted with the other perennials in
the Hugelkulture bed.

Lycium barbarum/chinense Goji/Wolf Berry
Ribes nigrum 'Ben Nevis' Blackcurrant Ben Nevis
Ribes nigrum 'Ben Connan' Blackcurrant Ben Connan
Ribes nigrum 'Ben Sarek' Blackcurrant Ben Sarek
Rheum x coltorum 'Victoria' Victoria Rhubarb
Ribes uva-crispa 'Hinnonmaki Red' Red Gooseberry
Ribes uva-crispa 'Careless' Prickless Gooseberry
Ribes uva-crispa 'Invicta' Gooseberry Invicta
Rubus idaeus 'Autumn Bliss' Raspberry Autumn Bliss
Rubus idaeus 'Glen Moy' Raspberry Glen Moy
Hydrangea macrophylla 'Ayesha' Dwarf Hydrangea
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Rosa 'Gertrude Jekyll' Yellow Smelly Rose
Rosa 'Teasing Georgia' Pink Smelly Rose
Rosa 'Sweet Juliet' Orangey Pink Smelly Rose


Tree Layer

I made sure that the fruit trees were planted in a place that meant when fully grown, they would
remain easily accessible, shaping them gradually as they mature. The key for pruning apple trees
is little and often. The key for pruning stone fruit trees is never in winter.

Malus 'Arthur Turner' MM106/2x/Aug-Oct Dwarf Arthur Turner Cooking Apple
Malus 'Self-fertile Cox' MM106/2x/Oct-Jan Dwarf Self Fertile Cox
Prunus avium 'Sunburst' Fan Trained Sunburst Cherry
Prunus 'Victoria Plum' Pixie Dwarf/1x/Aug-Sept Dwarf Victoria Plum
Pyrus 'Concorde' Quince 'A'/3/Oct-Jan Dwarfing Concorde Pear
Pyrus 'Doyene du Comice' Quince 'A'/3/Nov Dwarf Comice Pear


The freshly planted garden (September)

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Maintain, Assess, Refine, Evolve
Maintain
Revisiting the garden ten months later, the owner advised that there had been no maintenance. I
spent about 15 minutes pulling out some grass from around the edges, particularly the horseshoe
bed and a couple of little patches on the surrounding hegelkulture beds, the old existing concrete
path needed a sweep, but there was no maintenance other than that to do.

Revisiting the garden, ten months later in June, View from South East towards North West.
Observe
Being the first time I had used Cichorium intybus (Common Chicory), I was surprised at the size of
the plant and its appearance - being similar to a thistle. Good leafy mulch provider and dynamic
accumulator tap root.
More strawberries needed planting in the horseshoe bed to get the full groundcover effect under
the berry and currant bushes. It was good to see the herbs beginning to form their little clumps.
There was a hole in the herb spiral where the Tangerine Sage had been it is a really beautiful plant,
perhaps a magpie had whisked it away!
A watertight herb spiral shape probably serves no function with regards to growing physically
healthier herb plants, but using mortar to fix the blocks meant a tighter and taller herb spiral could
be constructed without risk of collapse reducing repair work later.
Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

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Revisiting the garden, ten months later in June, view from NE SW.
Yields
Time saving per year; its easier to say that the lawn didnt need mowing anymore, and only one visit
was necessary for maintenance, so 15 minutes for the first twelve months not bad.
No fuel or electricity used for the mower, no time needed to mow the lawn = a saving of 7 hours a
year mowing time, no need to buy herbs; some free berries and currants the first year, gradually
food and herb yields will increase especially when the fruit trees begin producing.
Refine
Most important of all: install water butts in your garden to harvest rainwater! This property had a
big one in the rear garden, however the front garden needs one too. You can never have too many
water butts for back up!
Planting Lessons
Dont plant rhubarb in full sun because it bolts, especially in dry soils.
Be aware that Cichorium intybus looks like a common thistle or a weed to the naked eye, but it has
that big tap root for drawing up and accumulating nutrients, pretty blue flowers, and it creates
biomass/leaf mulch.

Design and Build a Perennial Fruit and Herb Garden

23

Evolve
Keep your garden evolving and growing; keep feeding it and it will keep feeding you.
Ideally, top up the woodchips each year as they will break down gradually, and keep an eye on
encroaching strawberries and the spread of plants generally; separate and replant their new growth.
Its good to keep adding new plants generally to keep the garden evolving and maturing!

References

Books
Holzer, S. (2012) Sepp Holzers Permaculture A Practical Guide for Farms, Orchards & Gardens.
Permanent Publications.
Hemenway, T. (2000) Gaias Garden A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture. Chelsea Green
Publishing Company.

Websites

Original Article:
www.permaculturenews.org/2014/08/15/design-build-low-maintenance-perennial-fruit-herb-front-
garden-uk/

God on Lawns:
www.permaculturenews.org/2010/10/08/god-on-lawns/

Hugelkulture Beds:
http://www.google.com/cse?cx=005882427699693072259:ras--
hp8bwa&q=hugelkultur&oq=hugelkultur&gs_l=partner.3...1485499.1487326.0.1487744.0.0.0.0.0.0.
0.0..0.0.gsnos%2Cn%3D13...0.1965j507937j11..1ac.1.25.partner..0.0.0.#gsc.tab=0&gsc.q=hugelkultu
r&gsc.page=1
East Anglian Plant Suppliers (UK):
Herbs: www.laurelfarmherbs.com
Herbaceous Perennials: www.woottensplants.com
Fruit trees and Roses: www.hattensfarmnurseriesmetfield.co.uk