Refreshing vitalizing herbal teas, a living first aid cabinet, wildlife habitat, beauty, and interest throughout the year, with some strawberries, currants, and salad leaves to boot! This Polyculture is ideal for small gardens taking up no more than approx 6m2 but also working well in a larger space as a beneficial island that fills a gap within the wider garden ecosystem of fruit, nut, and ornamental trees.
During this post, we'll take a look at the species included, their function and uses, how to choose a site for the polyculture, how to manage the plants, and when to harvest, and you'll find some planting plans with guidance on spacing.
Species Overview
All the plants in this polyculture (apart from Agastache foeniculum) are native to Europe and all are well adapted to the climate and ecology of the Northern Temperate zone. We have been growing these plants in hardiness zone 6 for years, and all the plants have tolerated temperatures down to -15C and less. Most of the plants are well adapted to dry conditions and will survive on the average annual rainfall of 560mm. That said, we want the plants to thrive, and irrigating the plants during periods of drought will make for thriving plants. Irrigation is also necessary if you would like a decent yield of strawberries and black currants particularly when the fruits are forming.
The plants are well suited to most soils excluding heavy clay, waterlogged soils, and soils with pH in the extremes of acidity or alkalinity. If you have these types of soils they can of course be amended, but selecting plants to suit soils is a better option, both ecologically and economically.
Functions and Uses
My goals when designing this polyculture were that every plant included can be used for making both fresh and dried herbal teas and that as a community the planting scheme should benefit the garden ecosystem. Below is a chart indicating the other uses and beneficial functions of the plant community.
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When choosing the position in your garden for this polyculture the main thing to consider is the positioning of your bed in relation to the sun and to match this up with the individual needs of the plants, ensuring that the sun-loving plants are on the Southern facing side and the shade tolerant plants are on the North. (light needs listed below)
Depending on how much annual precipitation you receive in your area, it may also be important to position the bed so that it can passively collect water from rainfall e.g with a slight dip in the middle or at the base of a slope laid out on contour. This is a relevant practice in Bulgaria where we can expect 8-12 weeks without significant rain during high summer, but not so relevant in the UK. The area where the rainwater accumulates should feature the plants that are more water-demanding and obviously the area that will receive the least amount of water should be planted with drought-tolerant species.(water needs listed below).
This self-replenishing Chai Store/Salad Bar is there to be picked so making it easily accessible to you is an important factor when choosing its position.
Once you have established the footprint of your bed you can begin to build it. This can be as simple as piling up topsoil mixed with well-rotted compost to a height of 50-70 cm in the desired shape and bordering your mound with large rocks or boulders laid in a small trench around the soil. Simple if you have lots of rocks and boulders nearby which we do. You could also build a retaining wall first and then infill it with your topsoil and compost. Bear in mind the bulk of the soil will reduce over the first 3-6 months as the soil settles.
Chai Polyculture - Built and planted in November 2012
Plant selection
Aside from selecting plants in relation to their space, light, and water need their ecological characteristics are also considered. Achillea millefolium - Yarrow is very drought tolerant and I use these plants evenly spaced in gaps between the boulders on the South facing edge(sunny side). The plant puts down deep roots that mine the subsoil for nutrients that would otherwise leach away with the groundwater. The plant will spread very quickly, cutting back the spreading plants and dropping the material around the bed provides a source of these rescued nutrients to the other plants. Fragaria vesca - Wild Strawberry is planted on the edge of the sunny side for ease of picking and will over time provide a self-spreading ground cover throughout the bed suppressing weeds and protecting the topsoil from wind and rain erosion. Trifolium pratense -Red Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant that can be planted on either side of the Blackcurrants - Ribes nigrum and in close proximity to the Fragaria vesca - Wild Strawberry. Cutting back this plant after you have used the flowers for a cup of tea will release some of the nitrogen fixed into the surrounding soil.
In the first season whilst your perennial plants establish you can plant annuals such as Tagetes patula or Centaurea cyanus to keep the ground covered. Both can also be used for teas.
Chai Polyculture - August 2013 with annual Tagetes patula and T.erecta added in the first season to fill space before the perennials grow.
Management
The plants in this polyculture will be competing
for space both above ground and below ground. Above ground, we can
position our plants in a way that fills the available space. Pruning
back growth that may be interfering with a slower growing plant should be
practiced as you see fit with the cut material applied to the soil
surface as a mulch and harvested for teas. I usually combine pruning with harvesting.
In
the spring a 3 or 4-cm thick application of well-rotted compost under the black
currant and strawberry plants will ensure good fruit cropping. The windward side of the bed will act as leaf catchment in the autumn and raking up the
leaves from the path and applying them to the surface of the soil will provide a good source of nutrients for the community.
Irrigating during dry periods will keep all the plants stress-free and in good health. Always water heavily and infrequently as opposed to lightly and frequently. A good soak every 10-14 days in the dry season will be more than sufficient. As mentioned above the black currant and strawberries will benefit from watering when the fruit is setting.
Plants such as Mellisa officinalis -Lemon Balm, Spearmint - Mentha spicata, Tansy - Tanacetum vulgare, and Achillea millefolium will spread via rhizomatous growth (underground horizontal stems). After a few years, these plants can be cut to ground level with the top growth applied to the surface then divided and moved to other areas around the garden or composted. You will need to hot compost the roots of these plants to ensure the destruction of the rhizomes. These plants provide a great diversity of mineral nutrients to your compost. If you don't have hot compost leaving the roots and stems of these plants in hot sun will destroy the rhizomes or soaking them in water for a few weeks and using the liquid as plant feed is another way of recycling the nutrients.
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Planting
Harvest
Some of the plants included in this polyculture are known to cause skin irritations and can have toxic effects if consumed in large quantities. Please be aware of any known hazards associated with every plant you consume. Caution aside we enjoy mixing and matching leaves and flowers from the plants in this guild to make phenomenal brews of healthy and invigorating teas and salads
Green Salad harvested in late April
Salads are best picked in the spring as the lush growth develops and in the autumn when the cooling temperatures and increased rainfall reinvigorate the plants. Summer growth can be quite tough and bitter but a few leaves mixed with more tender greens provides great flavor and interest. Do not include leaves of Leonurus cardiaca - Motherwort in the salads. Please remember that although Ribes nigrum - Blackcurrant leaves can be used for tea other species in this genus such as Ribes rubrum - Redcurrants have leaves containing the toxin hydrogen cyanide.
As for medicinal value, all of these plants can be used to treat ailments but the best cure is prevention so get growing, get picking and drink up :)
Habitat Provision
If you have an available source of rocks and boulders they make great bordering material. The gaps between and under the rocks provide excellent habitat for arthropods. Some of these, such as Woodlice and Millipedes function as decomposers, speeding up the return of nutrients to the soil. Some of these are generalist predators such as centipedes and spiders. These creatures seek refuge from the sun and heat in the cool damp microclimate under the stones. I often find Praying Mantis egg cases overwintering in a rock crevice protected from the rain but warmed by the winter sun. These egg cases can hatch hundreds of baby Mantids that have a voracious appetite for aphids. The rocks will also harbor creatures not so friendly to your plants such as slugs and snails and other phytophagous (plant-eating) organisms. In our garden, the frogs and toads seem to keep these under control.
Praying Mantis - Mantis religiosa egg case
Another benefit of using rocks is that being rocks they are laden with minerals that are released from the rock via chemical and physical weathering. These weathered minerals contribute to the soil's stock. They can be thought of as the ultimate slow-release fertilizer.
The above-ground plant architecture itself also provides many habitats for many beneficial invertebrates to nest, feed, overwinter, hunt, and reproduce as will the mulch layer covering the topsoil.
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Beneficial Insect Interactions and Flowering times
Not only do the plants provide us with fine teas, salads, and fruits they attract beneficial organisms such as ladybirds and hoverflies, and lacewings the larvae of which are efficient predators of aphids. Furthermore, a
succession of nectar-bearing flowers keeps the bees and other pollinating invertebrates active and well-fed
in your garden for most of the growing season where they can assist
with the pollination of your surrounding fruit and vegetable crops. The table below provides information related to this.
We have all of the plants featured in this polyculture available from our Nursery and you can find full profiles of the plants and other plants great for herbal teas below
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Generally I live at ease with aphids in the garden. Occasionally they infest a bean plant but they are usually swiftly brought under control by the natural predators that roam the patch such as ladybirds, lacewings, hoverfly larvae and braconid/chalcid parasites before they do any lasting harm. They are also noticeably attracted to fresh apical growth of Prunus spp. such as cherry and peach, but soon come to the attention of a goldfinch that devours them over the course of a few sittings. However, in the greenhouse during the winter months, free from predation, they thrive and wreak havoc on the defenseless plants. My chilli pepper plants are the victims this year.
Leaf from Capsicum chinense inhabited by various generations of Aphis fabae subsp.
Having been away for Christmas for a few weeks I returned to find the pepper plants in a spot of bother. The aphid populations, well established on the plants, pierce the epidermis (plant skin) and suck the nutrient laden sap from the plants. The aphids do little visible harm and a healthy plant is able to cope with sharing some nutrients. However, aphid populations grow extremely fast and eventually they take their toll on the plant. Furthermore, the "honey dew" excreted as excess liquid by the aphids attracts sooty molds that feed on the excretions. As the mold grows, a greyish tissue blocks the plants ability to photosynthesize, thereby reducing its sustenance. Aphids are also vectors of many plant viruses - the aphids may not be the original source of infection but are instrumental in spreading the virus through a crop.
Eager to promote the healthy well being of the pepper plants I removed them from the greenhouse and set out to identify what aphid I was dealing with. There are about 4,400 species of 10 families known. My guys were brownish black and on closer inspection with a x10 microscope the cornicles (small horns on the rear) clearly visible on the abdomen suggested that the offenders are from
the Aphididae family. Different aphid species generally target different plants. Pepper (Capsicum spp.) being from the Solanaceae family led me to believe
that my guys are a sub
specie of Aphis fabae aka blackfly. I am not certain, but it doesn't really matter in that the methods to control aphids remains the same for all species.
I set the aphid ridden plants on the kitchen table and after a while I noticed that the winged aphids had gathered in a warm corner of the kitchen window. As aphid populations grow and become crowded the females start to produce winged individuals that take to the air in order to find a fresh host plant, settle and begin to reproduce again.
Female aphid cloning herself.
The swarm of winged aphids on the window were, I assume, seeking new plants. Unfortunately for them they ended up a step closer to being mineralised. With winged aphids absent I took the plants outside (9C in January!!) and gave them a good shake. I know that heavy rains are known to significantly reduce aphid populations so I sprayed the plants with water using a pressurized hand sprayer and left them to bask in the sunshine. Aphids have a poor grip and cannot hang on very well and they will generally die before they can climb back onto the plant.
This seemed to do the trick for all but one of the most heavily infested plants. My son, eager to get his hands on the sprayer, repeated the showering over the next few days making sure to get the water on the underside of the leaves as this is where the aphids tend to congregate.
If the problem persists I'll try a simple anti-aphid spray I found on the web. Not sure how effective it is but here is the recipe.
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Home made anti-aphid spray
Boil 5 large cloves of garlic and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a
litre of water for 40 minutes. Strain it, and when cool use a
mister bottle to spray it onto your plants.
Looking pepped up after the spray :)
For more information on these fascinating creatures click here
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