Maddy Harland, PM‘s editor, gives a tour of her small, no dig garden, on a woodland edge.
Filmed in August, Maddy explains how her raised veggies beds produce a modest amount of food for most of the year plus culinary herbs and apples and gooseberries.
There are plenty of flowers mixed in with the veg, so much so that there are very few pests.
The garden has woodchip paths that help reduce slug traffic (although I do collect slugs on rainy evenings) and every bed is mulched with home made compost and some with well rotted woodchip.
All the veg and flowers are mixed together, in mixed polycultures.
The garden is north facing and is under mature trees, so the planting has to take account of shade and nutrient loss to the trees. Despite all of this, I eat from the garden every day in spring, summer and autumn.
The Plant Lover's Backyard Forest Garden
by Pippa Chapman
The Forager's Garden
by Anna Locke
No Dig Organic Home and Garden
by Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty
Maddy Harland is the co-founder and editor of Permaculture magazine and author of Fertile Edges – Regenerating the land, culture and hope.