The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture: Creating an Edible Ecosystem by Shein Christopher

Author:Shein, Christopher [Shein, Christopher]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: 2013-01-14T22:00:00+00:00

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Blackberries are normally part of the shrub layer, but they can also be trained up and over a bamboo trellis as I have done in my garden with these ‘Black Satin Thornless.’

Fruiting Ground Covers

The ground cover layer is a living mulch that helps to keep the soil moist, suppresses weeds, and provides an attractive carpet for the garden. It’s even better when your ground cover plants are loaded with fresh fruit. Strawberries, of course, are the fruiting ground cover plant that does well almost everywhere, and it’s a permaculture staple.

Strawberries

In general, strawberries are short-lived perennials that will last a few years. The plants send out runners that root themselves to form new plants, so you don’t need to prune strawberries, but you can renovate the strawberry beds periodically by pulling out the unproductive older plants and allowing the new plants room to spread.

Mulching with straw is the traditional method of keeping strawberries clear of dirt. If you find that your strawberries are plagued by lots of pests, try moving them to a different area, or even growing them in containers. ‘Seascape’ is one of my favorite strawberry varieties. It’s an everbearing type that can start producing really large berries in the spring and continue all the way until Halloween. It has a lot of disease resistance, doesn’t send out too many runners, and does well in most climates across the country.

Alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) are very small and flavorful, and they can grow in partial shade. You can also start them from seed, and they produce in the first year, so they’re a good plant for children to grow. I like the red varieties, like ‘Mignonette’ because of their intense flavor and productivity, but alpine strawberries also come in yellow and white varieties like ‘Pineapple’ and ‘White Delight’.

Other ground covers

On the West Coast, uva ursi or kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), a creeping manzanita relative, is really a good choice because it’s native, drought tolerant, medicinal, and has pretty red berries and red-brown stems with green shiny leaves. Wintergreen (Gaultheria species) is native to the East Coast, but it can be widely grown and makes a good-tasting berry. The leaves can also be dried and made into teas. ‘Emerald Carpet’ raspberry (Rubus pentalobus) is a thornless evergreen ground cover that produces yellow fruits. In the east, low-bush cranberry and low-bush blueberry can be grown if the soil is peaty and acidic enough.

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