Category: Permaculture Plants
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Hawthorn: “Fairy Tree” and Treasure of the Food Forest
While considering what plant to feature this month, I took a stroll through my backyard and noticed a few bright red berries on the ground—hawberries, or haws—which had fallen from one of our hawthorn trees. We were fortunate to inherit two hawthorns when we moved into our house. Even though I knew what the two…
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December Plant of the Month: The Chestnut Tree
This month we’re talking about the chestnut tree. Also check out my previous Plant of the Month for November, The American Persimmon. December is the perfect month to talk about chestnuts (Castanea spp). The old-fashioned tradition of roasting chestnuts for the holidays conjures a cozy image, but most people alive today likely have never experienced…
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American Persimmon: Cold Hardy “Fruit of the Gods”
Welcome to the first official plant of the month post. Today we’re looking at American persimmon trees. I’ve selected the persimmon because it’s one of my favorite fruits (granted, I have about 20 favorite fruits!) and because they are one of the last to ripen—as late as November. Persimmon is a fruit that I didn’t…
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15 Flower Seeds to Plant this Fall for Beautiful Blooms Next Season
Summer is ending, and it’s the perfect time to think about flowers for next year’s garden. Usually, when I think of spring blooms, I think of bulbs. But fall sowing is another way to plan ahead for gorgeous spring and summer blooms. Below I list 15 annual and perennial flower seeds to plant in fall.…
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9 Winter Cover Crops for Gardens and How to Grow Them
Growing cover crops is a great way to protect and build garden soil in the off-season when your beds aren’t hosting summer veggies and flowers. Below, I’ll go over the basics of cover cropping in gardens and 9 of the best winter cover crops for gardens to get you started. A cover crop can be…
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All About the Mulberry: 10 Reasons to Grow This Remarkable Tree
If this title has put “Pop Goes the Weasel” in your head then my job here is done. Just kidding. This post is all about mulberry trees – the many reasons you might want to grow a mulberry tree, and some reasons why you might not want to. If you’re thinking about growing a mulberry…
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10 Perfect Plants for Your Chicago Hardy Fig Tree Guild
One of the best ways to support your Chicago hardy fig tree is by planting companion plants around it to provide services such as building soil, attracting beneficial insects, mulching, and creating a microclimate to shelter it in winter. This community of plants growing together and supporting each other around a central fruit tree is…
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12 Edible Vines to Grow More Food in Small Spaces
These annual and perennial edible vines, including 6 edible vines for shade, will add food and beauty to your garden in a small area.
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27 Powerful Pioneer Plants (That Build Soil and Nourish Your Garden)
When staring at a blank lawn, whether it’s green or brown, pristine or weedy, it can be difficult to imagine how it could possibly transform into an edible forest garden. Pioneer plants that build soil are the answer. Landscapes transition from prairie grassland to forests over time in nature. This is called succession. You can…
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A Simple Apple Tree Guild Example (With lots of Edible Plants)
A fruit tree guild is an amazing thing. By including other plants under and around a single tree, wonderful things happen. What once was a lonely tree in a field of grass—grass competing with the tree for nutrients — becomes a nurturing ecosystem in itself. That means the apple tree will need fewer inputs from…