At the present, more and more people are selecting garden making as their favorite leisure pursuit, as self sufficiency is an obvious approach in times of financial down turn. It is also nice to have one of the most beautiful gardens around you, and the woodland garden is well suited to being an extension to the kitchen garden for an additional food source for the kitchen table – if care is taken when choosing plants and design.
What is the wood land garden?
A woodland garden is basically a type of garden in which we choose shade Giving trees as our major species for plantation. To achieve a seamless wood land garden environment you can arrange all sorts of plants in your garden area ranging from edible plants and trees to simple shady species. The wood land garden is mostly defined by the amount of filtered shade and the leaf litter it gives. This type of garden can have filtered shade period followed by full sun or preceded by shade. If you landscape your woodland garden agreeably then you can even attract a wide variety of birds, butterflies and animals. The only thing which is important relating to the wood land garden is its preservation. Once you ignore its regular maintenance you will definitely lose it.
Moreover, many people find the wood land garden very opulent. The reason behind this is that a diverse variety of plants are put together in the wood land garden for proper utilization of the land. More variety always results in greater overall growth of the plants and this is aesthetically pleasing. This way, you can invariably select tall trees with shrubs or climbing plants. Now, let us check the planning of the wood land garden.
How to plan the wood land garden?
If you have the space where you are already cultivating large trees, then you could always consider developing it into a wood land garden. It is just that you need to acquire a little knowledge about the design of the wood land garden to create a splendid environment. So, here are some points through which you can start building your own wood land garden:
Tree roots: it is must to consider those trees as part of your wood land garden, so the root systems do not cause a trouble in future. Mainly because the plants absorb most of their water from the soil for their sustenance. Another difficultly can be thick network of root systems of trees which may hamper the growth of small tress under it. But, you can always select from flowers like lilies, azaleas and daffodils which can create a wonderful shady environment. For ground covers you go for moss, ivy, and ferns.
Sunlight: you should always study deeply about plant characteristics before placing them into the wood land garden. This is because some plants can give you surprising amount of growth in little sunlight or even deep shade while other will die.
Water: Most of the plants in the wood land garden prefer soil with good amount of compost and leaf material. They require soil to retain moisture most of the time. Moreover, plants like trillium, jack in the pulpit, ferns and blue cohosh need a lot of moisture. Try having a composter to utilize the leaf material. The soil easily becomes home of the insets like centipedes, worms and millipedes creating an exclusive environment for the wood land garden for toads, frogs and even salamanders.
After taking every consideration into account, take time and plan the wood land garden on a paper first. Try to utilize the existing trees to plan beds for rhododendrons, mountain laurels, snowberry, spicebush, honeysuckle and beautyberry. You can even try edible perennial ferns or reseeding annuals like warrigal greens.
Which are edible plants that can give produce and add beauty to the wood land gardens?
The wood land garden usually has many different levels in it. By choosing correct species you can always turn your wood land garden into a productive one. Given below are the names of few edible plants that can be grown in the wood land garden.
Trees and shrubs:
Amelanchier alnifolia: Also known as “June berry” is a small shrub that grows about 6ft tall and sucker to form a thicket. Its fruits usually available in July. It is quite juicy and tastes like an apple. Even birds adore this plant a lot.
Araucaria araucana: this plant is best known with name “The monkey puzzle” and is a large tree that is rated as the highest yielding nut tree. It is basically a sort of native nut used in Britain and India. Its nuts are about the size of the almond. But, it is a slow growing tree.
Castanea sativa: Sweet chestnuts are very fast growing trees that have an abundant crop of nuts, delicious boiled and baked and grow great in acidic soil. You can buy its seeds in shops also. Basically, sweet chestnut suits a sub-tropical climate.
The other varieties may include walnut, hazel, cornelian cherry, Japanese plum, holly oak, gooseberries, lime trees and many more.
Climbing pants:
Actinidia deliciosa: this species in the wood land garden can give you sustainable amount of delicious kiwi-fruit for use. It is a very vigorous climbing plant and can be shaped into amazing sculptures or arbors.
Lathyrus tuberosus: these herbaceous climbers have pretty pink flowers and give small black tubers and look rather delicate in the wood land garden. They taste delicious when baked.
Schisandra grandiflora rubriflora: this climber grows up to 20ft and produces good bunches of red fruits. These bunches are somewhat like our grapes. They are sweet in flavor.
Actinidia polygama, also known as silver vine, can grow 5 to 6 meters and is deciduous, frost tender the fruit is somewhat like a kiwi-fruit only orange in color.
Ground Cover:
You can also chose other perennial plants like Allium ursinum – bares garlic whose leaves can used for baking. Aethionema cordifolum – Lebanese cress a fern like edible ground cover, delicious in salads or stirfrys.
Solanum muricatum – Pepino, is one of my favorite ground covers, a small bush with dark glossy leaves which puts down roots as it spreads and little mauve/purple flowers followed by large creamy colored fruit with a purple stripe when ripe and sweet – they taste somewhat similar to honey dew melon, or species like harebell, Japanese parsley, Dog’s tooth violets, etc.
How to you add beauty to the wood land garden?
You can always create a great tranquil area in your garden. If the wood land garden is mixture of beauty and self-sufficient food plants then it is a great combination. So you can choose the items given below to add beauty to the wood land garden.
Shade loving trees: the wood land garden always makes you focus on the property of shade. There can be great variety of flowers and trees which can contribute to this property. You can plant flowers like hostas, daffodils, or azaleas. For the embellishment of the wood land garden try ivy, moss, and other ground covers.
If your garden has seating then it could be a glorious place to shelter on hot sunny days.
Seating area: visitors to your garden should always feel coziness of your garden. If you create a serene atmosphere in the wood land garden then you don’t require any other pace to relax in summer. For this you can chose log chairs, stone benches, and even wood patio furniture. You can include round tables with coverings.
Paths: path development is very important for the wood land garden. Whether you have a large or small garden try splitting it into small beautiful parts for visits. You can use a trail of debris, bark chips, pebbles or brick pavers.
Water features: you can create a bizarre environment in the wood land garden by adding fountains or small ponds. This even attracts wildlife and you can create methods of water harvesting into it.
So, now you can very well create a wondrous wood land garden at your place. Just try appropriate methods and plants and you will be rewarded with beauty and produce for the larder, even small amounts will help make you self sufficient.