Reducing hard labour in the garden

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The Food Forest is working hard but the effort is all in the design of the garden and the thriving ecology ... not in human labour.

I’M ALL about reducing labour in the garden so that the time I spend there is pure enjoyment: smelling the scented plants, admiring the blossom and flowers, appreciating the insects and frogs, checking on the progress of harvest.

The technical term for this approach is a Low Maintenance garden. In the horticultural world Low Maintenance usually means a garden full of arid desert plants, but here it is used to describe a lush Food Forest whose low-labour secrets rely on clever design and ecology.

The Food Forest is working hard but the effort is all in the design of the garden and the thriving ecology, which has multiple self-sustaining benefits, not in human labour.

I like to go out into the garden early each morning and pick what we will need that day – perhaps a variety of greens for a salad at lunch, herbs for a pot of tea, Marjoram for some savoury French toast for breakfast, Parsley for a Walnut pesto for dinner. It depends on what we feel like, the weather (soup in the cold weather and salads when it’s hot) and what plants are rioting and need a a gentle trim to curb their enthusiasm.

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If I give the garden really small amounts of attention while I am harvesting, I don’t need to spend large blocks of time on maintenance.

Here’s the thing: if I give the garden really small amounts of attention while I am harvesting, I don’t need to spend large blocks of time on maintenance. The harvesting is the garden attention and takes care of bolting greens, veg that needs to be picked before it flowers such as asparagus and harvest that comes all at once like peaches and nectarines. It’s also a good time to check on the condition of plants and observe any predators or pathogens. Best of all there is reward in the piles of fresh leafy greens, fruit, veg and sweet-smelling herbs that go straight to the kitchen.

Planting with perennials means there’s always plenty of harvest such as greens and veg for salads and stir-fries, as well as culinary and medicinal herbs. Berries and fruit arrive once a year but ideally you have designed the garden to produce a large variety throughout the year. While it’s best to harvest from the garden at each meal if you want optimal freshness and nutrition, back in the real world we’re often time-strapped. The next best solution is to plunge what you won’t be using straight away into a jug of water, as though they’re flowers, and use them in your cooking later that day.

At the moment the Rhubarb is rioting along with the Swiss Chard, Sorrel, Chicory, Asparagus, Wild Rocket and Botany Bay Spinach with ripe Pepino melons on the vine, the last of the Mulberries and the Babaco coming into harvest with each large yellow fruit weighing half a kilo. Sounds like a leafy green salad for lunch with fruit salad, and a dinner of cheesy Spanokopita full of greens with a Rhubarb Crumble to follow!