FOREST EDGE GARDEN PROGRESS

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.)

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