What would a 'permaculture cutting garden' look like?
Last year I did a Permaculture Design Certificate with Social Landscapes. It was a truly satisfying deep dive into how to embed sustainability into the fabric of your garden, and it got me thinking a lot about this question.
There’s a lot to say on permaculture, as anyone who’s studied it will know. But one of the key aspects of making a cutting garden as 'permaculture' as possible is to focus on a planting scheme based on perennials - for instance, herbaceous plants, shrubs, tubers, bulbs, grasses & trees, that are going to stay in the ground all year round.
If planted in the right location, and with the right companion plants (in what permaculture often refers to as ‘guilds’), this mix should be capable of providing you with a productive, year round yield, that is also lower input, easier to maintain, and more drought resistant than a more annuals-based garden – whilst also building soil health, supporting wildlife, and increasing soil carbon as well. That sounds like a lot to like, right?
If you want to get seriously into using perennials for cut flowers, then Rachel Siegfried’s new book ‘The Cut Flower Sourcebook: Exceptional Perennials and Woody Plants for Cutting’ is an absolute must. And if you want to learn more about permaculture, my favourite book is ‘Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture’ by Toby Hemenway.
But I thought I’d share a few of my own personal favourite perennials for cutting here, based on my experience of growing in the clay soils of Bath. These are all classics which are easy to grow and provided masses of beautiful flowers and foliage for me every year.
Firstly, the herbaceous perennials. All of these can be woven into a classic herbaceous border, which can both look beautiful, and provide a constant supply throughout summer for the vase. Some of my key favourites to grow for cutting are: Astrantia major, Nepeta (catmint), Alchemilla mollis, Salvia (there are lots, but I especially love Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna'), Cenolophium denudatum, Achillea (yarrow) (I especially love Achillea millefolium 'Summer Berries' and the rich yellow Achillea filipendulina 'Parker's Variety', which also dries beautifully), lavender, feverfew, applemint, common mint, and perennial Scabious (especially the sublime S. caucasica 'Perfection Blue').
In terms of shrubs with beautiful flowers and foliage, I love Hydrangea (especially H. paniculata 'Limelight'), Physocarpus (especially the red-leaved 'Diablo'), Pittosporum (including red leaved 'Thom Thumb' for wreath making), Eucalyptus, raspberry greens (any raspberry canes cut as foliage early in the season), smokebush (e.g. 'Dusky Maiden'), lilac (which provides stunning flowers during the tricky 'May gap') and tree ivy (which cuts amazingly all year round, is lovely for wreaths, and also fantastic for bees in autumn).
In terms of trees or hedging plants, I love field maple, hawthorn, blackthorn (for early blossom), privet, dogrose, oak and beech, alongside hazel early in the year (for catkins and early greenery). Tree prunings like apple and hazel can also be brought inside in late winter when they will 'force' into blossom/leaves. I use lots of box for winter wreaths too, and any conifer that happens to be going spare.
Bulbs can help you start the season early, and I grow a range of narcissus, tulips, and alliums (the latter which dry beautifully too). I try to only buy organic (Organic Bulbs & Natural Bulbs seem to be the suppliers with the best range at present, but hopefully availability will grow), as the chemical input in non-organic bulbs is usually significant. I always plant out any hyacinths I get given as bulbs, and they reward me with robust, scented blooms in March, that look wonderful mixed with similar colour hellebores.
I also grow a lot of dahlia tubers, which can be propagated easily by taking cuttings and dividing, and although half-hardy, effectively behave like perennials, since I tend to leave mine in the ground over winter (under a bed of mulch). There are so many to choose from here, but I especially love the smaller pom pom and ball dahlias, which stand up best in the heavy rains.
Finally, there’s nothing wrong with a few biennials and annuals, and tucking a few of these in among the perennials will extend your season and variety, as well as offering more delights for your pollinators – see this post for my favourites. Many biennials will also last more than two years if you’re lucky, like fennel, sweet williams and sweet rocket.
There's so much more to say on the theme of a 'permaculture' cutting garden, and it seems an overly shallow take to just focus on the planting. But weaving in more perennials into our gardens - be they vegetables or flowers - is something we can all do to help our gardens be more sustainable. And with the right choice of perennial flowers, you’ll be rewarded with the added benefit of free vasefuls of great-for-cutting blooms, at minimal cost and effort, for many years to come.