Rev: 3.0; date: April 21, 2002
Prepared by Robert Waldrop, Oscar Romero Catholic Worker
House in Oklahoma City
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This is the third year of our project, which is to establish a "forest edge garden" on our urban lot in a working class neighborhood of Oklahoma city, which is about 210' north south, and 80 feet east west, with a duplex (1600 sq ft), garage, and small house (800 sq ft) on the property. It is on a corner, and has north south and east west sidewalks, plus a double car driveway.
We have 95 varieties of edible or useful plants planted or up and growing, of which 30 are annuals, 3 are self seeding. 65 are perennials or trees.
Besides these plants, there were 31 varieties that we have planted over the last three years but which didn't sprout, or they died, shriveled, failed to flourish, or didn't make it through the winter. Out of 126 varieties attempted in the three years, 75% are growing thus far. There are an additional 7 annual crops that are not being planted this year but were grown the first two years, 4 were successful, three were failures two years in a row.
The 96 usefuls and edibles include:
9 varieties of trees
8 varieties of bushes (7 producing berries)
5 varieties of ground
covers,
12 varieties of vines and cane fruit, 3 of which are annuals
20 varieties of herbs,
1 is an annual
20 varieties of salads and greens, 16 of which are annuals
7 varieties of
vegetables, 5 of which are annuals
6 varieties of root crops, 2 of which are annuals
2
varieties of grain, of which 1 is an annual
6 varieties of flowers, 1 of which is an annual
Most of these plants are multi function. Besides a practical use, they may have others, i.e. bee plants, ground cover herbs, nitrogen fixers, compost, nutrient accumulator.
(And then there's the bermuda and crab and quack grass which were here when we got here, plus some climbing ivy on the north side of the house.)
We have been blessed with abundant rainfall and mild temperatures, so everything is very lush. The following are currently in bloom: crimson clover, purple clover, blackberries, strawberries, perennial kale, turnips, dandelions. The sage and salad burnet have formed buds and are about to open flowers. Note: salad burnet is very hardy, it survived our post 10 degrees F. weather this winter, and stayed green throughout. It didn't grow any over the winter, but now it is bushing out with new growth.
Note: The trees tend to be planted close to the buildings, eventually also contributing shade in the hot summer, but by that placement also leaving a lot of space between the trees and the 2 streets (our property is on a corner) for "forest edge" planting (these areas will get a lot of light even when the fruit trees are mature, at least that's the plan). The berries and cane fruits are in that area, the vines are mostly on the house at this time, but are also going to on a little fence that will surround one section. The herbs and salads are in generally full sun areas.
TREES 9 varieties
1 mature pecan tree
1 just planted pecan tree
2 Peach (Elberta semi dwarf)
1
Apricot
2 apple (dwarf Jonathan and Gala semi dwarf)
2 plum (Superior and Toka, semi
dwarf)
1 Oklahoma redbud
BUSHES 8 varieties
1 high bush cranberry
1 aronia
2 bush cherries
2 sand plums
18
elderberries
6 Mature mulberries
3 bee balm (monarda)
2 oregon grape bushes,
GROUND COVERS 5 varieties
strawberries
crimson clover A
purple clover A
white clover A
hairy vetch A
VINES AND CANES 12 varieties
1 Cherokee rose
fredonia grape
niagara grape
venus grape
concord grape
4
dewberries
5 blackberries
5 boysenberries
6 clove currants
luffas A
scarlet
runner beans A
Passion flower A in this area
GREENS AND SALADS 19 varieties
Salad burnet
daylilies
Turnips A
Collards A
Perennial kale
a polyculture in
two beds of 8 varieties of lettuce, plus dill, swiss chard, radishes, and buckwheat, all
annuals
Maybe also self seeded arugula and pak choi, if it comes up (some sprouting noticed
04.21.2002.)
Dandelions
Radiccio A
3 French sorrel (perennial salad green)
VEGETABLES 6 varieties
Asparagus
rhubarb
4 habenero peppers
Cabbage
Broccoli
Cherokee
tomatoes
pumpkin (self seeded from a broken Halloween pumpkin)
ROOT CROPS 6 varieties
shallots
walking onions
potato onions
Garlic A
Camas lily
radishes A
GRAIN 2 varieties
Grain amaranth A
Agrotriticum
FLOWERS 6 varieties
2 Rosa rugosa
1 Rosa erfult
Purple echinacea
Iris
Maximilien
sunflowers
Self seeding Russian mammoth sunflowers A
HERBS 20 varieties
sage,
creeping thyme
common oregano
greek
oregano
tarragon
lovage
gotu kola
catnip
rue
garlic
chives
spearmint
apple mint
lemon balm
spear mint (or some kind of common
mint)
dill (A)
2 horehound
2 chocolate mint (the leaf tasted like one of those
chocolate mints you get at a restaurant checkout)
2 lemon mint
3 Roman chamomile
2 horseradish
rosemary (replanted this year)
30 total
Good king henry
comfrey
Kinnickinick
salah
lingonberries
service
berry
evergreen huckle berry
society garlic
bay laurel
apricot tree
north star
cherry tree
paw paw tree
sea buckthorn
red and black
currants
citronella
wintergreen
Siberian pea tree
natal plum
strawberry
tree
oregon grape
anise hyssop
edible chrysanthemum
akebia
passion
flower
vine peaches
Rosemary
Lavender
borage
sweet william
roman
chamomile
potatoes
Previous successes:
corn
green peas
butternut squash
Previous failures:
yellow squash
zucchini squash
Blue morning glories,
more perennial salad crops (mitsuba, bloody dock, and self seeding
lambs quarters),
another try at Good King Henry (this time I ordered some plants).
Sorghum
blackeyed peas