From lbarnes@primeline.com Tue Jan 27 14:06:46 1998 Date: Tue, 27 Jan 1998 08:27:15 -0500 From: lbarnes To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu Subject: Re: Urban Permaculture (In Japan) [The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set] [Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set] [Some characters may be displayed incorrectly] Ken and Lisa, Your request for plants for intensive plantings reminds me of an article I am beginning to write. You can grow a lot in a small footprint, esp. if you take advantage of vertical space, plant in re-used containers, or even plant in bags of soil(make them from scrap plastic bags, etc. and fill with collected silt and composted leaves, etc.) Here's a brief summary of my Pc Porch garden: Lee^Òs 1997 Permaculture Porch Garden (USA Zone 6, 0* to -10* F. Southern Appalachian Bioregion) While I^Òm still town-based in an apartment with little growing area, I managed to develop a 45- 50 square foot bed -1.5 ft. by 20 ft. strip along the front of my porch and a 5 ft. circular bed around a dying dogwood tree. I^Òve added some large nursery containers (2-15 gal.), and a 10 gal. container which I cut additional planting holes in the sides like a ^Óstrawberry pot ^Ô which increases my planting area by an est. 10 sq. ft. I only get 1/2 day of sun since the porch faces east, but I have sun-loving plants in containers which I can move to maximize sun exposure. I plant the more sunloving plants on the sunnier SE end. My goals were to experiment with plant guilds, both spacially and temporally, and to shift to mostly perennial species and many self-seeding annuals. While I have a little bit of a lot of things, my garden partially feeds me (most of my herbs and edible greens) and is beautiful. My goal is to save seeds or propagules from all spp. grown. Next I^Òm going to focus on more root-crops, beneficial insect plants (more umbels and composites), and gourds. I believe I have about 23 perennial spp., 5 biennials; and 13 annuals in +/- 75 square feet. I^Òve also got 2 cvs. of timber bamboo growing in 12 gal. pots so I can take them with me when I buy permanent land. I^Òm also growing 6 cv. lettuce in slits in two 40 lb. plastic bags of cow manure, which can be moved to sunnier spots and covered for season extension from light frosts. 1997 species Perennials- vines - akebia, native clematis, virginia creeper, maypop (Passiflora grown in bottomless pots which I lift and store over winter to save half-hardy perennial root);. roots/tubers - ramps; 3 cvs. Jerusalem artichokes (planted in 1 gal. pots with bottoms cut out to to control aggresiveness); chives; variagated sweet flag; asian poke (ornamental/dye plant); groundcovers - yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolan ^Ñvariagatum^Ò, an aggresive (controlled by harvesting/transplanting), semi-evergreen edible ^Óliving^Ô mulch which serves as an ornamental background, under which I add kitchen plant refuse to compost in place; spearmints, pepperments; dandelions (cv. ^ÑLionheart^Ò ); chives; oregano; 4 cvs. thyme; everbearing strawberries; comfrey(contained in buried pot); cucumber endive; 3 spp. native violets (E,M); globe thistle (Centaurea macrocephala); sweet grass; plantains; 2 cvs. dayflower. herbaceous shrub-sized - 2 cvs. jerusalem artichokes (grown in pots) and trained with vines to maximize vertical growing space. trees- walnuts (planted by squirrels) which I may remove to avoid alleopathic problems. Biennials - elephant garlic; dusty miller; 2 cvs. parsley; pansies (Viola X); ornamental cabbage in fall/winter. Annuals (many self-seeding - I save seeds, but let a few self-sow, many volunteer in small silt trap) - vines - black-eyed susan vine (Thunbergia-), 2 cvs. cherry tomatoes, 2 cvs. cucumber; 2 cv. pole beans (purple, scarlet runner); red leaf Basella half-hardy tubers/ roots - 2 cvs. Irish potatoes, 2 cv. ornamental sweet potato; herbaceous shrub-sized - cleome (long blooming self-seeder) groundcovers - celosia; salvia; lovage; 6 cvs. lettuces; 2 cvs. dayflower; eggplant; basil; Smoky^Òs Rainbow Hot Peppers; yellow purslain (plant source of omega oils).