Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
chapter 4
GROWINg IN P O LY c U LT U R e S
Diversity by Design
Great power lies in the choice of plants a carefully selected polyculture is a team that can effectively share the available resources to the maximum benefit of all its members.
What is a polyculture?
olyculture is not a buzzword. At its simplest it means more than one plant growing or being cultivated together. Diversity is not just interesting and fun, it is essential to health and fertility and a well balanced polyculture is a team that shares the available resources to the advantage of the whole team. In addition to a collection of perennial vegetables my garden is full of plants that serve specific purposes. Some keep pests at bay, others pull minerals from the subsoil or fix nitrogen from the air, keep the ground covered and feed bees and other insects. The ecological term for a natural assembly of plants that fulfils a complete set of requirements is a guild. It follows that all guilds will be polycultures, but not all polycultures will be guilds. Jacke and Toensmeier* give an excellent and readable explanation of the relevant ecological science.
* Edible Forest Gardens ecological vision and theory for temperate climate permaculture, Volume One:
Vision and Theory; David Jacke with Eric Toensmeier; Chelsea Green Publishing Company, Vermont, 2005
Growing in Polycultures | 37
are favourite haunts of individual species or a whole gang of different creatures. Ladybirds like nettles and comfrey, beetles adore borage and spiders are happy in the crevices beneath yarrow, fennel and clover. Happily all of these plants also have other functions as dynamic accumulators, nectaries, nitrogen fixers and aromatic pest confusers.
Flowers throughout the garden in July, including calendula, phacelia, toad flax, StJohns wort, foxglove and roses.
Different plant families have specific characteristics which make them accessible and attractive to particular groups of insects; they include fennel from the apiaceae family, chicory and dandelion (asteraceae), mints and thymes (lamiaceae). Aromatic pest confusers Aromatic pest confusers are highly scented plants, often used as medicinal or culinary herbs. Their volatile scents are able to mask the scent of other plants and send potential predators off course. Many are by definition also both edible and nectary plants. Insect habitat Insect habitat is provided by plants that have a diversity of shape and structure and provide a range of options for insects looking to set up home. Some plants
Growing in Polycultures | 41