Designing a Small New Edible Nursery Patch

Hey all,

I'm working on small bed and looking for plant and design suggestions.

Goal: Primarily, I'm most interested in using it as a nursery space to grow perennial edible plants that I would actually eat from. Secondarily, I would like to eat from it directly. Bonus, it looks nice for the passerby.

Context: I'm in the North Eastern USA in zone 7b. The bed is 12.5' x 2.5' (3.8m x .75m), on the NW of the property, and gets afternoon sun. The majority of it was under paving stones. I removed them, forked the "compacted" clay soil, and laid a few inches of greenwaste compost on top.

Each colored line in the picture shows a plant:
red - ornamental rose
green - mint
purple - anise hyssop
yellow - rooted black currant cuttings

The rose and mint were already there and I would like to keep them.

The currants I got for free and I would like to grow them and rehome most them as they outgrow the space in a year or two. Maybe leaving a couple to eat from and harvest cuttings from.

In it's first couple years I'm happy to pack plants in to fill the space and later re-home them to other properties. Early this season, there will be a lot of bare soil. Instead of just mulch, what plants can I use to fill it in that won't out compete what I already have? Edible ground covers? strawberries? nitrogren fixers? herbs? annual veggies?

Any suggestions of plants or design considerations would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

I'm not sure if you have encountered it, but I find mint to be a rather aggressive spreader in my zone. I would just keep that in mind in case you see it starting to bubble out of where you intend to grow it.

My property is too cold to keep figs outdoors year round unless I dig them into the ground but perhaps a smaller fig variety might be up your alley? Lovely plants really.

I really like asparagus plants, but they take a few years before you can really get them into production. I just worry the fronds might be too big or overtake part of the space. You could put them to one side IF you wanted to but that is kind of touch and go depending on your vision.

Hey Chris!
Way to go with this polyculture design!  I think the mint is fine as long as you are always harvesting from it.  And yes, who doesn't love a rose.  The number of currants you put may need to be edited as one currant can get as wide as 5 feet.  So maybe fewer currants (Though you can certainly start the twigs there, let them grow and the repot elsewhere.  
I think it's lacking a nitrogen fixer to help the currant along.  That's my first take on it.  If I keep looking at it, I will add too many things for a tiny space.  

Just wanted to share our permaculture design app at https://www.permaculturegardens.org/sage where we use a guild building wizard to help us design.

is a video intro to Permaculture Guilds and a sneak peek into how the app does it in case it helps you along your permaculture journey

#permacultureguild
#guilds

Black currants tend to reward a well fed soil. I think this is because we tend to prune out the old wood, so they are always having to replace it. I think you will probably want to add organic material - your composted green waste, or leaves, grass cuttings etc. each year. I really like having edibles hiding in plain sight, so having your currants right by the sidewalk I think is great. As you say though it would be nice to cover up that bare soil. As Nicky suggests, a nitrogen fixer would be a good idea although you really want one that returns to the soil, rather than a cropping bean or pea, maybe a few alfalfa? It has small attractive flowers for pollinating insects and is perennial.
I'm thinking if you are going to be digging the bed to remove plants every now and again, then an edible tuber that you can dig at the same time may be appropriate. You don't want something too tall to compete with the bushes, so maybe a bulb that increases, like potato onions or chives. Erythroniums are tasty and really ornamental for a front garden, flowering in spring and disappearing in summer. They may prefer a bit more shade perhaps, as you will get fairly warm in the afternoons I guess, and they are a woodland plant. We've got a thread about them here
Poached egg plants (Limnanthes Douglasii) are insect attracting plants, not edible but very pretty and good for attracting insects. They are shallow rooting so would not compete with the currants and would probably self seed around happily for you (maybe too happily!?)
An edible that I am wanting to grow much more of that might be happy there is Scorzonera. Usually grown annually for it's roots, it actually is perennial and has really tasty leaves and flower shoots. It's a bit tall when flowering, but the root is a tap root, so again won't be too competitive.

source
I'm trying to do something not entirely dissimilar around Aronia bushes, so you may want to see my plan here. I'm probably quite a bit cooler and damper in summer than you however, and I'm planning for a long term bed rather than a nursery bed.

Timothy Norton wrote:I'm not sure if you have encountered it, but I find mint to be a rather aggressive spreader in my zone. I would just keep that in mind in case you see it starting to bubble out of where you intend to grow it.

My property is too cold to keep figs outdoors year round unless I dig them into the ground but perhaps a smaller fig variety might be up your alley? Lovely plants really.

I really like asparagus plants, but they take a few years before you can really get them into production. I just worry the fronds might be too big or overtake part of the space. You could put them to one side IF you wanted to but that is kind of touch and go depending on your vision.

Hey Timothy,

I don't mind chopping and dropping the mint throughout the season. I'm not sure I'd want to go through the effort of eradicating it anyway, it's roots have a strong foothold in this bed.

Right next to this picture is a nice sized 60+ year old family fig tree, picture attached . This got me thinking about growing out some fig cuttings as nursery stock.  

I like the asparagus idea maybe not for this bed

Nicky Schauder wrote:Hey Chris!
Way to go with this polyculture design!  I think the mint is fine as long as you are always harvesting from it.  And yes, who doesn't love a rose.  The number of currants you put may need to be edited as one currant can get as wide as 5 feet.  So maybe fewer currants (Though you can certainly start the twigs there, let them grow and the repot elsewhere.  
I think it's lacking a nitrogen fixer to help the currant along.  That's my first take on it.  If I keep looking at it, I will add too many things for a tiny space.  

Just wanted to share our permaculture design app at https://www.permaculturegardens.org/sage where we use a guild building wizard to help us design.

is a video intro to Permaculture Guilds and a sneak peek into how the app does it in case it helps you along your permaculture journey

#permacultureguild
#guilds

Yes the currants will be mostly nursery stock and I agree about the nitrogen fixer. Not sure what kind would do well here. I wonder if a carpet of white clover would overall be a net benefit for the currants.

I love the idea of the app and looking forward to seeing more.

Nancy Reading wrote:Black currants tend to reward a well fed soil. I think this is because we tend to prune out the old wood, so they are always having to replace it. I think you will probably want to add organic material - your composted green waste, or leaves, grass cuttings etc. each year. I really like having edibles hiding in plain sight, so having your currants right by the sidewalk I think is great. As you say though it would be nice to cover up that bare soil. As Nicky suggests, a nitrogen fixer would be a good idea although you really want one that returns to the soil, rather than a cropping bean or pea, maybe a few alfalfa? It has small attractive flowers for pollinating insects and is perennial.
I'm thinking if you are going to be digging the bed to remove plants every now and again, then an edible tuber that you can dig at the same time may be appropriate. You don't want something too tall to compete with the bushes, so maybe a bulb that increases, like potato onions or chives. Erythroniums are tasty and really ornamental for a front garden, flowering in spring and disappearing in summer. They may prefer a bit more shade perhaps, as you will get fairly warm in the afternoons I guess, and they are a woodland plant. We've got a thread about them here
Poached egg plants (Limnanthes Douglasii) are insect attracting plants, not edible but very pretty and good for attracting insects. They are shallow rooting so would not compete with the currants and would probably self seed around happily for you (maybe too happily!?)
An edible that I am wanting to grow much more of that might be happy there is Scorzonera. Usually grown annually for it's roots, it actually is perennial and has really tasty leaves and flower shoots. It's a bit tall when flowering, but the root is a tap root, so again won't be too competitive.

source
I'm trying to do something not entirely dissimilar around Aronia bushes, so you may want to see my plan here. I'm probably quite a bit cooler and damper in summer than you however, and I'm planning for a long term bed rather than a nursery bed.

Hey Nancy,

That's a good point about feeding I'll definitely be giving them plenty of love (organic material).

I had not considered alfalfa.
I like the chives idea.
I've grown potatoes here once and they'll definitely carpet the bare soil which I like but will also require feeding and taming.
Erythroniums I've never heard of. I agree they seem better in a woodland context and don't seem like I'd be able to harvest much.
Alfalfa, seems better since they will add more nitrogen.
Limnanthes Douglasii has beautiful flowers, wow. I wonder if nasturtiums would check a similar box, I have quiet a few seeds of it.
I could definitely see some scorzonera in here I haven't heard of that either.

Thank you for all of the suggestions, it would be cool to have a collage of them in this bed.

Depending on your chaos tolerance, you could put  Apios americana, aka groundnut/ hopniss in next to the currant.  It’s a tuber-producing native edible perennial from the legume family, so probably some nitrogen fixing. Vines and flowers are pretty, but will climb all over the fence and everything else.

Mk Neal wrote:Depending on your chaos tolerance, you could put  Apios americana, aka groundnut/ hopniss in next to the currant.  It’s a tuber-producing native edible perennial from the legume family, so probably some nitrogen fixing. Vines and flowers are pretty, but will climb all over the fence and everything else.

Hey Mk,

Thanks for the suggestion, I haven't come across Apios americana yet. I suppose my chaos tolerance is lower than I thought. I'd love to have this in a place where it can climb, maybe the backyard.