1. Soil matters
A garden that has been mostly lawn, flowers and shrubs will probably have soil that is fairly low in organic matter.
One of the first tasks of edible landscaping is to work in as much bulky organic matter as possible.
It must be well rotted - animal manure, bird feathers, sheep wool, shredded bark, wood, straw, cardboard, thick newspaper or compost are all ideal.
Where there is organic matter, there will be earthworms, and where there are worms all is right with the world.
2. Start with easy plants
Rhubarb and courgettes, with their big foliage, are quite easy to work into a design and they’re both very low-maintenance and productive.
3. Grow plants in modules
Plants grown in modules are easier to place and they allow you to make attractive patterns from an early stage. Plus you can replace any gaps.
Try violas together with lettuces and pretty little mangetout peas that trail and twine - they look attractive and are also productive.
4. Plan the layout
You need to be able to move in and out of your garden and you need spaces to pick and harvest from, preferably without compacting the soil.
A successful solution is to have stepping stones or keyhole paths where you can reach into a space and replant or harvest the latest crop. I use square pavers that I had kicking around as stepping stones.
I like them because they are not too heavy, so if I want to change positions they are easy to pick up and move elsewhere.
5. Celebrate the beautiful
You can get colour into a vegetable garden by simply planting flowers around the vegetables, either edible flowers, flowers for cutting or just flowers that you love.
Another way is to celebrate the flowers of vegetables.
The girlie pinks in my garden come in part from potato flowers of 'Red Duke of York’ and 'Maris Peer’, the dusky pastels include the blues and pinks ofmangetout pea flowers.
6. Consider spacing
All vegetables and flowers have an optimal spacing distance from their neighbours to allow them to grow big, fast. Sweetcorn is relatively thin and tall and the space around its feet is wasted if nothing is planted there.
Courgettes, pumpkins and lower growing vegetables can all be used as living mulch to keep the soil moist (which is how corn likes it) and to make the most of available space.
7. Drifts, not lines
A drift is a group of five or more plants of the same variety planted together, generally in a teardrop shape that is thicker in the middle and further apart on the outsides.
Using drifts of vegetables in an edible garden means creating a band of, say, lettuce around a courgette, or a drift of radishes along the edge of large, slower-growing vegetables.
You can give the majority the spacing they require, making a few compromises around the margins.
8. Use microclimates
You can’t grow kiwi or peaches in the middle of most gardens, but if you have a sheltered, sunny (south or south-west facing) wall or fence it’s a perfect microclimate for tender fruit.
Brick walls are particularly good as bricks absorb heat through the day and release it slowly overnight, keeping the plant that bit warmer.
9. Shop wisely
It is worth buying greenhouse-raised plants if you don’t have suitable space to raise seeds and want to grow heat-loving seedlings such as cucumbers, chillies, tomatoes and peppers.
To get ahead of the season, I quite often buy young chilli plants.
The best way to get lots of fruit is to raise a chilli plant in a greenhouse and bring it out into the garden for July, so you’ll get a better crop if you buy a young, greenhouse-raised plant and grow it on. This also works for tomatoes and sweet peppers (bring them outside in June).
10. Weed control
Once a polyculture system gets established there should be few weeds, as there is little bare ground.
The more you mulch with a thick covering of organic matter (homemade compost, bark, straw, newspaper) the less weeding you have to do.
Once your seedlings are established in the garden, weed carefully and mulch around them with compost and the best part of the job is done.
You’ll need a good 3-4in to smother weed seeds, so mulch as thickly as possible without smothering your young plants.
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