Plants for pollinators and ground cover
Plants for the allotment forest garden
In my previous post about creating a forest garden on a small patch of the allotment I talked about the idea of a permaculture guild. A community of plants that complement each other to create a harmonious ecosystem. Each plant fulfils a role from attracting pollinators, repelling pests, pulling nutrients from deep in the soil, being edible, fixing nitrogen and ground cover. I’ve listed the perennial veg I’m growing. Here are some of the other plants I’m thinking about.
Attracting pollinators
Flowering plants that will bring in the insects to pollinate the veg and fruit crops. You can maximise pollen and nectar in the garden by having a variety of flower shapes.
Borage - already plenty of this growing on the allotment so they will be left to self-seed and can be moved into position. Plus the flowers are edible (and look lovely in a G&T…)
Ox-eye daisy - another that we already have self-seeding around the plot.
Feverfew - I have lots in my garden so I can dig some up and move - free plants! Feverfew also makes a good groundcover but I will make sure to cut most of it down before it sets seed though otherwise it may take over!
Yarrow - Again I have a few self-seeded in the garden but I also know this can be bought from a local nursery.
Bronze fennel - Beautiful structural plant with good height, umbellifer so especially good for insects.
Wild carrot - Similar to cow parsley with delicate white flower heads. Home grown from seed collected from my Mum’s garden meadow.
Wild carrot, yarrow, forget-me-not, borage.
Ground cover
I hate bare soil. It’s a missed opportunity to plant more plants! Bare soil will naturally try to become covered in vegetation and weeds will spring up in no-time. Ground cover plants act as a carpet, filling in the bare spaces between plants and preventing weed seeds from germinating.
Alpine strawberries (Fragaria vesca) - tough and reliable the fruit are smaller than the usual cultivated strawberries. Alpine strawberries form clumps and are less vigorous spreaders than the related wild strawberries that propagate via runners. I have a few yellow varieties that will hopefully be less appealing to the birds!
Bugle (Ajunga repens) forms a mat of dark greeny/blue leaves and has the added bonus of spires of blue flowers loved by bees.
Deadnettle (Lamium purpureum) - While they look similar to nettles they don’t sting. Small purple flowers rise above the basal leaves. Edible - slightly like spinach when cooked. Young leaves or bright green tops of larger plants are usable for cooking. Flowers can hold a drop of nectar and make an interesting addition to a salad.
Lambs lettuce - already self-seeding around the place so we will continue to encourage it and move any in unwanted areas into the forest garden. Also edible and delicious in a salad.
Forget-me-nots - another existing staple of the allotment. It self seeds profusely and we use it as ground cover over winter and into spring. The whole place is awash with tiny blue flowers come April. We dig up the plants when the space is needed to plant crops.
