Once I found out about permaculture, I’m thinking it’s the new way to garden. So when I came upon The Green Barn Nursery from Quebec and saw their list of permaculture plants, I was thrilled.

If anyone would like to know what they should grow in their permaculture garden, how about giving these plants a try. They are easy to grow, good for the soil, and also have edible fruits/food/herbal usage that are packed with nutrients.

The following description of plants are excerpts from The Green Barn Nursery.

This Rogosa Rose is also known as Dart’s Dash and makes nice shrub roses. Photo/Illustration: Jennifer Benner of Fine Gardening.

Rogosa Roses: These are rugged, disease-resistant, self-rooted roses that are able to easily withstand harsh climates. White, pink or red flowers make a colorful fragrant hedge and nest area for thicket birds. Rugosa roses produce the largest edible rosehip which is be used to make jams, jellies, teas, etc. Vitamin C content is 10 times that of an orange. Very hardy and disease resistant.

Silver Absinthe: Ideal for hedges. Beautiful silver foliage shrub with intoxicating, aromatic smell. Both the scented leaves and flowers have a wide range of uses; salads, potpourris, dried flowers, repelling moths, attracting wildlife/bees, flavouring vermouth and medicinally for stimulating appetite, aiding digestion, expelling worms. Great for hedges as it will survive drought and total neglect.

Willows: Willows are usually sold as fast growing ornamental that take poor wet soils. But they are also very useful plants for visual barriers, windbreaks, beaver food, farm furniture/baskets, stakes, pussy willow flowers, etc.

Photo of hawthorn berries via swan-scot Flickr.

Hawberry or Hawthorns (Thorn Apple): Thorny tree produces masses of white flowers. The sweet red hawberries that are great fresh or in jellies, jams and preserves. Berries are a heart tonic – by improving blood flow to coronary arteries and regulating heart rhythm. Absolutely loved by wild grouse and other large game birds! Hawthorn berries are highly recommended for tough cold areas. Great barrier plant.

“These trees don’t require pruning as die-back is rare for any reason & it takes care of itself.” - Hawberry grower.

Coffee Berry: This indigenous tree is named for its dark brown beans which can be dried, roasted and then ground into a healthy coffee substitute (15 m/Z3). Indians even ate the roasted beans. Outstanding ornamental with its fern-like foliage (pink to olive-green) and reddish brown stripes. Tolerates summer heat, winter cold and pollution. It fertilizes your soil and the tree pods are used medicinally. These majestic trees are now becoming extinct (too many cut for hardwood lumber).

Bamboo: Hardy bamboo will grow in northern climates. Its young shoots are edible and the canes have a wide variety of uses from furniture to flutes.

And if you already have these plants in your garden, then you are already on your way to joining the world of permaculture!

Note: Rugosa roses are listed as an invasive plant in some areas, including Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Washington.

For more info, check out The Green Barn Nursery here. I only wished they had more photos along with the description of the plants.

If there was a way to farm or garden without having to weed, prune, water, use fertilizer or pestides would we do it? The answer would seem to be 100% YES! But unfortunately it’s not something we are used to hearing or think is remotely possible.

Welcome to the world of permaculture. It is defined as “permanent agriculture”- where the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. Or simply stated as farming along with Mother Nature alone.

Masanobu Fukuoka (February 2, 1913 – August 16, 2008) is a pioneer in the world of permaculture. He has written numerous books on the subject, starting with The One-Straw Revolution.

Abundant Rice field growing in Japan. Photo by Kjeld Duits. Duits has written a great article about Fukuoka: Farmer- Philosopher.

Here is a little more info about Fukuoka:

“At age 25, he began to doubt the wisdom of modern agricultural science. He eventually quit his job as a research scientist, and returned to his family’s farm on the island of Shikoku in Southern Japan to grow organic mikans. From that point on he devoted his life to developing a unique small scale organic farming system that does not require weeding, pesticide or fertilizer applications, or tilling.”

He is also considered to be a philosopher as well. Definitely someone I wished I had heard about sooner.

Bill Mollison is another pioneer of permaculture. Declared as “Ecologist of the Century” in Australia. Here is some info I’ve found about him from an interview with Seeds of Change.

“Permaculture is nothing less than a “sustainable earth-care system” capable of providing our food, energy, shelter, and other needs while conserving the world’s resources.”

He advocates local food production and regional self reliance.

Another amazing farmer to note in the world of permaculture is Sepp Holzer of Austria. Holzer’s farm high up in the Austrian mountains is a very unlikely place to be farming. But he’s been doing it successfully for the past few decades.

His farm includes forest gardens, terraces, and ponds. There are fruit orchards, including fruits you can’t imagine would grow in such high altitudes. There are also many garden variety vegetables that could feed a whole village. Holzer’s method of gardening is to throw seeds everywhere and just let them grow. Holzer believes the plants are beneficial to each other as well as the soil. It’s a really interesting concept that still amazes me.

Read the rest of this entry »