Help me plan an edible hedge
Xty G (z4)
8 years ago
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digit (ID/WA, border)
8 years agoredtartan
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Help me decide between Siberian Elm and Chinese Elm for a hedge
Comments (20)Bonita: I see your question was from January but had a couple of thoughts even if they are a bit late. Or did you plant something already? First we have ordered TONS of plants and trees from Forest Farm (link below) and you just cannot go wrong. Everything always arrives in a very timely fashion and well packaged. I have ordered a couple of plants from Gurneys and it has always been a nightmare. I'll never do it again. If you want lush plants that are the size described order from Forest Farm. They also have an unbelievable selection. On that note, we ordered six Thuja Green Giant trees from Forest Farm this year for the purpose of creating a privacy screen in the back yard. Although I thought they perhaps could have been a bit lusher they were nice trees, about five feet tall and very healthy. I would recommend these trees for being reasonably fast growing. In my experience with the five I have from a few years ago they don't grow three feet in a year like the hype says but they are lovely, tough little trees that make a hedge. And they don't really require pruning and trimming to look nice. Hope this helps. Kate Here is a link that might be useful: Forest Farm...See MoreHelp! My edible forest garden is getting the better of me.
Comments (6)most weeds are and medicinal, if you start a foodforest there is not way around it - you will get dandelions and other weeds. the only way around is is heavy mulching with mulch made from bark ( large particles ) like pine bark mulch. OR you can plant groundcovers that supresses weed..MOST groundcovers are invasive. when you choose a groundcover choose one that is really good looking and reliable, do not get groundcovers that become very high or bushy. Alot of groundcovers have medicinal properties and alot of them are edible. pachysandra terminalis looks natural and is easy to pull Ajuga reptans lysimachia nummelaria ''aurea'' ( less invasive cultivar ) some bergenia cordifolia cultivars do not get too large and are evergreen, will grow in any type of condition. Fragaria 'Lipstick' for example is edible one ( doesn't taste like normal strawberry tho). you also have creeping chamomille which has edible foliage ( for herbal tea), Creeping thyme, Creeping prostrate rosemary ( just layer all branches, rinse and repeat ). if your zone isn't too cold you may consider growing gotu kola. Cornus canadensisis a edible creeping groundcover, there are 2 cultivars that stay smaller than one foot. you also have small shrubs like Gaultheria procumbens, certain edible dwarf mahonia species, Certain grass species like acorus gramineus '' licorice'' has sweet tasting foliage that is edible , its low creeping evergreen species that can be easily propagated. 2 links : http://www.pfaf.org/user/cmspage.aspx?pageid=81 http://www.pfaf.org/user/DatabaseSearhResult.aspx just check the edible rating and medicinal rating and what parts are edible from each plant. Just make sure that you get the right plant for proper locations, in edible / foodforest gardens it's often shade tolerant species. This post was edited by Lodewijkp on Mon, Aug 25, 14 at 16:13...See MorePlanning Your Plantings In the Edible Garden
Comments (38)Mia, Yes , I think it will work. Interplanting tomatoes with other crops is something I do all the time. I often grow smaller plants like lettuce and carrots underneath and between tomato plants, essentially using them as a living mulch beneath the taller tomato plants. I also mix all kinds of herbs into the tomato beds as well, and think those herbs help explain how I grow so many tomato plants and yet only rarely see even a single tomato hornworm or fruit worm. You sometimes will get less yield per plant when you interplant multiple kinds of crops together using close spacing, but since you have a lot more plants occupying the soil, you still get a good harvest . The best carrot crop I ever had was a result of me broadcast sowing lettuce and carrot seed randomly into the tomato bed after the tomato plants already had been transplanted into the ground. My garden was smaller then and I had run out of space, so was packing as much into each bed as I possibly could. I just thinned carrots and lettuce after they sprouted. When I grow onions with tomato plants, normally I hammer a stake into the ground where each tomato plant will be planted later, and leave a small unplanted spot there as I plant the onions. When it it time to transplant the tomato plants into the ground, I put one tomato plant next to each stake. If I have to pull up a couple of onions to make room for a tomato transplant, it isn't a big deal . We eat those onions as scallions. I started interplanting multiple types of plants together long ago, after reading John Jeavon's book "How To Grow More Vegetables...." book. It is amazing how much you can pack into even a small space when you interplant. Even when I grow tomato plants in molasses feed tubs, I generally have pepper plants, herbs and flowers mixed into each container with the tomato plants. Look at how Mother Nature mixes everything up together. On the eastern edge of our woodland, for example, we have native pecan and oak trees growing as the dominant plants, but underneath them we have wild cherries, American persimmons, possumhaw hollies, and redbuds, and beneath those understory trees we have American beautyberry bushes, native blackberries, inland sea oats and brushy bluestem, peppervines and several native wildflowers which ebb and flow with the seasons. All of them happily co-exist. Why can't our gardens be the same way? To garden bio-intensively in this manner, you need to pay careful attention to soil fertility and irrigation (if adequate rainfall is not being received). Obviously when you interplant several types of edible crops together, the plants will be competing with one another. I get smaller onions in interplanted beds than I get from onions grown in a monoculture with recommended spacing, but still get tons of onions. We still have several dozen onions from last year's crop, though now they are starting to sprout. There pretty much is nothing grown in our veggie garden that isn't interplanted with several other things. If I ever were to plant even one single monoculture bed, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't like the way it looked and would be out there trying to fix the bed by adding more stuff to it. In fact, I do have my onions planted as monoculture beds right now, but that is because they are the only thing I've put into the ground so far this year. The onions will not be alone in those beds for long. Hope this helps , Dawn...See MoreHelp me plan an edible hedge
Comments (20)Yeah, we already have a five foot tall fence In the area. That is as high as the HMO will let us go with a fence. There is a road and bike path that are elevated about 4 feet above our yard so the fence doesn't help much with privacy, hence my desire to grow a living fence. We have a swath of land on the other side of the fence along the bike path where we can plant this hedge (quite long and about 15 feet wide). The more reading I do, the more I think elderberries or Highbush cranberries are my solution. Fast growing to 8 to 10 feet, native, zone 3 compatible, easy to grow, useable fruit, etc. I have loved reading everyone's ideas though! Thanks for your help!...See Moretreebarb Z5 Denver
8 years agoredtartan
8 years agoXty G (z4)
8 years agowindybloom
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoXty G (z4)
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agowindybloom
8 years agoDan _Staley (5b Sunset 2B AHS 7)
8 years agoTheDerek
8 years ago
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Xty G (z4)Original Author