Why Feral?
I sometimes feel that there are two types of permaculture. In “replacement” permaculture you try to replace the kind of things that you might normally buy at the supermarket. So you use organic gardening methods to grow normal and obvious veggies like cabbages, brussel sprouts, beans and peas and normal and obvious fruits like pears, apples, peaches and so on. Of course you won’t be able to replace things that are brought to your supermarket from somewhere with a different climate. Still, you can get together a set of things that will work for your area and grow these normal foods.
My own experience and conversations with people who are just learning to garden makes me a bit cautious about this “replacement” approach. Growing annual veggies, the kind you mostly eat, is one of the hardest and most time consuming kinds of permaculture food gardening. Many of our most common supermarket veggies and fruits are a total moral to be destroyed by flocks of lorikeets or eaten by hordes of fruit flies or cabbage moths. Very depressing indeed. Organic gardening solutions to these pest problems are complicated and can be expensive. Reading some of the advice in “Earth Garden” or “Permaculture International” you might think that it’s easy to grow tasty organic food. Most of the people who give this advice live on rural properties, spend vast amounts of time in their gardens, don’t have full time jobs and are not studying full time. Maybe they’re lucky, but think of all the city life that they miss out on.
Depressing experiences of plant disasters has led me to the idea that “feral permaculture” is the way to go. Get together a set of plants that are a snack to grow in your area, only have to be planted once because they’re perennial, can get by without watering once they’re reasonably established, and don’t get massively attacked by birds, animals and insects. Unfortunately, some of these are things that you’d never normally eat and lots of your family, friends, household won’t want to eat. Who do you know that loves chokoes? But luckily there are many other plants that are familiar and delicious.
Some Feral Plants for the Hunter.
Fruits:
Any kind of citrus is really easy round here. They like water, a sunny spot sheltered from winds and manure and mulch every now and again.
Mulberries are a knockout. They don’t get fruit fly or get destroyed by birds. Don’t ask me why! The English black mulberry is much much nicer to eat than the common one (called the white or Hicks mulberry). The other good one to get is called the Turkish mulberry. It has long fruits that are white/ green at maturity.
Although the Hunter is not really tropical mangoes do really well. They like being watered when it’s hot, though they will survive neglect once established. They seem to have too tough a skin to let most fruit fly in. A big mango tree produces enough fruit to get round the birds and most of it is hidden under leaves.
Bananas that you grow yourself taste a lot better than those you buy. They are easy to establish from a sucker. A common permaculture technique is to grow them on the edge of a large 2 metre depression and channel the grey water from the laundry into it.Pawpaws are also good in that spot.
Grapes will be massively attacked by birds. One way to deal with birds is to grow grapes against a wall. The leaves hang over the fruit, hiding them a bit. You also have to choose varieties that aren’t susceptible to mildew. Good varieties for this area are Carolina Black Rose, Golden Muscat, Isabella and Labrusca.
Other good fruits are avocado, thornless blackberry, blueberry, feijoa, fig, guava, lilly pilly, loganberry, loquat, monstera, passionfruit, persimmon (the fuyu variety is hard enough to avoid fruit fly), pomegranate (there is a variety with large fruit that are delicious).
Nuts:
There is a much smaller stock of suitable nuts. A lot of nuts like colder winters than we get. However two nuts are wonderful in this area. Macadamias are very successful but require some watering to fruit properly and to survive establishment. Pecans are excellent for this climate and also like to be well watered. If you have a huge yard or a park Bunyas are amazing but take about 20 years to fruit!
Perennial Veggies:
Some of these are a bit hard to get hold of. The best thing is to buy a copy of Permaculture International Journal or Earth Garden and ring up suppliers. Plants can be sent through the post and this works well. Some of these veggies can be collected at supermarkets and established from roots or fruits.
Arrowroot is a kind of canna (edulis) and you eat the roots. They are very easy to establish in any wettish spot. Water chestnuts can be grown in ponds made from black plastic or old baths filled to 10 cm from the top with a mixture of manure (about a third) and dirt. Taro likes a dampish spot but does not have to be actually grown in water. There is also a variety of taro where you eat the stems ( Xanthosoma brasiliense). This can be obtained from Crystal Waters. Choko likes a bit of watering but goes really well. You can eat the fruits – they taste best when young – and also the tips. Sweet potato is easy to grow from cuttings or pieces of the potato. The tips of sweet potato vines are also edible. Jerusalem artichokes are very easy to establish from tubers bought in supermarkets. Globe artichoke and asparagus require a bit of work but they are easy to get hold of, grow well in the Hunter and are delicious. New Zealand Spinach (Tetragonia) is easy to grow from seed and is also a native to this area. It is a good edible leafy perennial vegetable. If you have a bit of room a big clumping bamboo that will spread to two metres is Bambusa oldhamii. Good tasting shoots and also good timber. It will take occasional frosts.
Perennial Herbs:
Herbs are really easy to get hold of in nurseries and there are a lot that are normally used and a snack to grow – such as lemon grass, a bay leaf tree, perennial basil, oregano, thyme, rosemary, curry leaf, Vietnamese coriander, mint and so on. Sugar cane, tea and coffee can also be grown here, and you’ll sometimes see them in nurseries.
Final Encouraging Comments:
Do not be deterred by disasters. Just keep on planting new stuff and having another go. Read permaculture and gardening books and expand your knowledge. Work out how to save your rainwater and grey water and use them in the garden. Think of yourself as part of the struggle against the environmental disaster that is contemporary commercial agriculture.