Lawn Replacement: Woodland Garden

By Jami Scholl | May 10, 2011 | 3:21 am | Comments (0) |

Wild Edible Woodland Garden.

Planting is now in full swing! I have been getting gardening questions about lawn replacement, and what this might be… one option to consider is a woodland garden. In my quest to learn more about edible wild plants, I am developing in one part of my little front yard a native edible forest garden.

A benefit of a garden of this sort can be immediate: no money and time spent on mowing. Other benefits include tolerance to shade, and VERY low care. The caveat is that this very low maintenance yard (or portion of a yard) cannot be had quickly. The key to making this type of garden work is the soil.

Solomon's seal after spring rain.

When I began building my soil, I asked my neighbors for their yard bags that they would normally have sitting by the street for the city garbage/recycling trucks to pick up. One neighbor carried 5 bags of grass clipping to my house, which is a bit uphill – how sweet! My neighbor across the street rakes all of his leaves up like he normally does, and then calls to me (he is hard of hearing) to come over to his yard, at which time he will give me his leaves. And if I don’t get them immediately, he will remind me when the city will come around with the big leaf sucker to slurp them up and cart them away.

Fiddle Heads: Ostrich Fern.

I’ve also added some soil amendments, such as kelp meal and a bit of phosphate, but have mostly been building up the soil as a forest would do for itself… which also includes larger sections of a box elder tree I had taken down a few years ago. Some people refer to this type of tree as a weed tree as the wood is too soft for building with or burning in anything other than a fire pit. The great thing about this type of wood for a garden is that it is so soft and breaks down so readily.

Wild Ginger.

During this process you are creating homes for a multitude of insects and adding a wonderful source of carbon to the soil. When you are building a native woodland garden, you’re not just gardening, you are creating a little world, a habitat that invites all sorts of wonderful little creatures and beauty. I have included in this post photos of my own little forest garden that consists of hostas from my mother (yes, these are edible) Soloman’s seal, wild ginger, ostrich ferns, and a pawpaw.

Comments (0) | | Categories: Food Traditions,Medicinals,Permaculture,Plants,Urban Agriculture,Wild Edibles | Tags: Gardens, Lawn Replacement, Medicianl Plants, Medicinal Plants, Urban Agriculture, Wild Edibles, Woodland Garden