A note from lead gardener, Moe Wendt

2023 was the year the Root Garden began to take form. Beds, terraces and paths were built, cover crops were planted, then mulched. A total of 50 varieties of plants were planted including trees, berries, medicinal and culinary herbs, native plants, and a few perennial edibles and flowers. 

   In 2024, we plan to double the number of varieties of edible, medicinal, and native plants, working toward building tree guilds for a total of 15 fruit and nut trees. We have a good number of plants already donated for this, and we are looking for volunteers to help with the installation. This installation will move the garden forward to being a little over half full.

To volunteer please email: wendts@telus.net

What we will be planting this Spring with your help:

Trees: Desert King Fig, Airlie Red Fleshed Apple, Black Elderberry, Persimmon, Mulberry, Walnut.

Berries: Sea buckthorn, Black Currant, strawberries, Josta Berry, Lingonberry.

Herbs: Calendula, arnica, goldenrod, lady’s bedstraw, chervil, chamomile, tansy, rue, other kinds of thyme, catmint, St. Johns’ wort.

Native plants: fireweed, pearly everlasting, gum weed, Saskatoon berry, red flowering currant, camas, Sea Blush, Sea Thrift, all-heal, Oregon Grape, Kinnickinnick,

Other edibles: mache, French sorrel, sea kale, salad burnet, Maximillian sunflower, Other flowers, etc: meadow foam, Jupiter’s beard, low growing comfrey

Plants we would like, but have yet to source are below. If you or anyone you know has plants they'd like to donate we're looking for:

Trees: 2 pears, Frost Peach, a second fig variety (Violet de Bordeaux?), Medlar, Ginkgo, Cottonwood, Pomegranate.

Berries: Aronia Berry, additional raspberries, gooseberry.

Herbs: echinacea, angelica, germander, wormwood, rhodiola.

Native plants: Yampah, desert parsley

Other edibles: artichoke, Good King Henry, mountain spinach, oca.

Other flowers: daylily, baptisia, Cistus, Nepeta.

We look forward to seeing you this season!

April at the permaculture garden

The months of February and March saw some good changes at the Root permaculture teaching and display garden. Volunteers showed up to help me on every other Sunday morning and on most Tuesdays, late afternoon.

Six of the ten tree guilds planned for the two large terraces have now received their tree: two heritage apples, two black elderberries, a fig, and a mulberry. The four remaining trees have yet to be sourced, but hopefully will be planted this coming autumn.

Companions are beginning to be planted in these guilds. So far we have more skirret (an edible perennial root) to hold the slope, some flowers to attract the pollinators, like this beautiful pasque flower, a lupine to fix nitrogen, and some comfrey as a dynamic accumulator. I am hoping to get many more companion planted this spring with help from volunteers.

Native plants have begun to be planted along the perimeters of the upper garden as well as in the lower garden. We have added pearly everlasting, trailing strawberry, Saskatoon Berry, fireweed, red flowering currant, and Oregon Grape, and more wooly sunflower.

Native plants are also the focus of the newly constructed rock wall terraces in the upper garden. In time, this will showcase a Garry Oak tree with camas bulbs, sea blush, a second red flowering currant, gum weed and more. The oak tree is planted but it is less than a foot tall at this point. Gardens require much patience!

Berry gardens are developing on the upper terraces. Eight black currants were planted one sunny Sunday, plus two Josta berries, an Aronia berry, and more raspberries. More berries will be added, but perhaps not until the fall.

Some companion sedums have been planted at the edge of this rock wall.

The lower of these terraces is planted to medicinal herbs. With volunteer help, the lemon balm has been moved to the pond area where it can stretch out more comfortably, as it likes to do. Instead we will plant motherwort, echinacea, and arnica there sometime this spring.

Eventually many of these herbs will be incorporated into the tree guilds, but the idea of having an herb section, with signage, to teach about the herbs is also desirable. Both are possible with time.