Design

Gardens Aren’t Just for Plants, So What Else Is There?

Like any budding permaculturalist, I spend a lot of my design time obsessing about what plants to include, how I’ll be piecing together this guild or time-sequencing that bed. I want my crops to fix nitrogen, provide food, deter pest, create mulch, make shade, prevent erosion, and, oh, how the functions add up. Who can help it? It’s a wonderful world we live in, and wonderful task we are involved in, when we are designing permaculture gardens.

But, as of late, I’ve definitely been thinking beyond the plants, considering what other elements go into a garden and how they, too, perform many functions. And, it only makes sense, really. Natural eco-systems are not composed of plants alone, so why we would design our gardens to be that way? Recently, I’ve been thinking of both what I want that mimics natural systems, as well as what works for me in a deeper design sense.

So, what else is there?

Rockeries

Rockery (Courtesy of amberdc)
Rockery (Courtesy of amberdc)

What seems like a pile of rocks here and there, or just a massive boulder in the middle of everything, is actually quite useful. Firstly, we know that rockeries provide great habitat for beneficial garden animals like snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads. They are also good at creating microclimates and producing shade. The base of rocks is a great gathering place for debris and nutrients. Rocky areas heat up more in the day and maintain that heat further into the night, helping with plants that aren’t so keen on the cold. Rockeries also make great bed borders, defining edges and preventing erosion with aesthetically useful garden additions. Or, a stack of rocks can be a great way to diffuse water that overflows during heavy storms. It’s an easy, basic element to include in gardens.

Ponds

Water catchment is a big part of permaculture design, as hydrating landscapes is a proven route to production. It’s no wonder, really, because all life—plants and animals—needs water to keep on kicking. Swales are all the rage for soaking water into the landscape, but keeping some of that water around is also great. Ponds add an amazing visual element to a garden, but they fulfill many functions as well. They provide drinking water and bathing spots for all those beneficial animals the rockeries and hedges have housed to help fill out the ecosystem. They keep a bit of humidity in the areas surrounding them. They can help to provide a steady source of nutrient-rich biomass, and if they house fish, the nutrient-rich water, too, can be applied to the garden bed. Plus, they add the potential for a whole different set of plants to be included in the mix.

Insect Hotels/Bat & Bird Houses/Bee Hives

Bat House (Courtesy of SFAJane)
Bat House (Courtesy of SFAJane)

We could sum this up by saying that creating animal habitats is a wonderful thing for the garden, a welcome piece, specifically houses for creatures that help with pollination and pest control. It makes sense to encourage bats to set up shop (with something gathering that guano) to keep bugs at bay at night. It makes sense to provide habitats appropriate for predatory insects that’ll get out in the garden and keep the food safe from the peskier insect varieties. Bees actually come in great variety, and collectively they are great for honey, for pollination, and for predation. Birds are also great for pollination, for dropping manure, for hunting down insects, for scratching and for watching. All of these components provide us the opportunity for creativity in the garden, artistic pizzazz, and the chance to watch nature work in real time (much more exciting than watching grass grow).

Pathways & Stepping Stones

I used to kind of begrudgingly put pathways throughout my gardens. Of course, we need them so that we aren’t stepping in the beds, compacting the soil and/or crushing productive plants. The shrewd among us have long included them in our water catchment systems, either making swale paths or designing clever run-off systems to gather the water into the aforementioned ponds. They are also what is on the other side of the edges for our garden beds, so as we twirl and curve them into longer lines, we are maximizing the edge effects for our garden beds. They are the perfect place to put stubborn, slowly decomposing organic matter, such as hardwood shavings or nut shells or palm seeds (I’ve used all of these).

Rain Barrels

Rain Barrel (Courtesy of Katie Elzer-Peters)
Rain Barrel (Courtesy of Katie Elzer-Peters)

Ponds are a beautiful way to catch rainwater, and they provide a viable habitat for plenty of animals. I also like to just put some rain barrels out in the garden, whether they are attached to gutters or simply open and catching water as it falls. The overflow water can be sent to specific areas (such as an adjacent pond hooked to a swale with a safe overflow elsewhere) and later, when things are a bit drier, the full rain barrel is in the perfect position for easy irrigation. It’s yet another way to store water, and as opposed to ponds being sunken into the ground, water barrels are higher, creating enough water pressure for drip irrigation. Plus, they can be used much the same way as rockeries, creating microclimates around the edges of the barrels, including shade relief, nutrient build-up, and animal shelter.

Vermiculture and Composting Buckets

Worms or no, sticking composting buckets out in the garden just seems sensible to me. My Paw-Paw Pete’s method was to drill holes into the bottom rim of the bucket, bury it about a third of the way down into the soil, and then plant his tomatoes around it. He’d put all his cutting board scrapings in the bucket, and as that got juicy, oozing out into the garden bed, the hungry tomato plants would feed on it and produce knock-out tomatoes. With worms, it’s a great way to compost on the small-scale in a small garden, getting double-duty out of the compost, letting it seep into the surrounding garden as it amasses, then spreading it out as worm castings when its done. For larger beds, the buckets can be installed every few feet, and the garden won’t know what to do with all the goodness. Low maintenance, simple, and so beneficial.

Mulch

Mulch (Courtesy of Raymond MacFarlane)
Mulch (Courtesy of Raymond MacFarlane)

What permaculture garden wouldn’t be complete without mulch. We’ll have to exclude living mulches here (in order to stick with our theme), but I’ll cheat and allow recently deceased plants and/or shed plant parts. Mulch makes the garden tick. It keeps the soil moist by allowing water to soak in beneath it without falling victim to evaporation. It prevents erosion, both wind and rain. It protects soil life, creating safe havens for the microbes and tiny insects and worms. It adds nutrition to the soil. It absorbs the compacting that heavy rains might cause. It helps with controlling weeds. It turns into the next rich layers of topsoil, full of variation and oxygen and more. Mulch is a must.

Sitting Areas

Lastly, I believe it is imperative to put sitting areas, be them benches or small patios or simply old stumps throughout the garden, however big it may be. This provides places from which to observe. They can be places to rest while working or to put down materials, such as baskets full of freshly harvested fruits and veggies. They are encouragement to get out into the garden, to visit it and to monitor it and, mostly, to enjoy it. A good garden is one that we want to be in, as that garden will be well looked after, it will be harvested from regularly, and it will provide a setting for our lives, not just the lives of our plants. Then, of course, there are many ways to make those sitting areas function beyond that: sending water to the garden, spots for pot plants or trellising for productive vines, places to store garden tools, and more and more and more.

There is no debating it: The garden is not just for plants anymore, and that’s a good thing. Other possibilities include trellises/pagodas, sculptures, wind chimes, bird baths, short walls for vertical gardening and borders, chicken/rabbit runs, swales/mini-swales, exercise spaces/platforms, composting toilets, full-scale compost bins, sinks, garden sheds…How many ways can each thing work for us?

Feature Image: Garden Patio (Courtesy of Antonio Navarro)

Jonathon Engels

The financially unfortunate combination of travel enthusiast, freelance writer, and vegan gardener, Jonathon Engels whittled and whistled himself into a life that gives him cause to continually scribble about it. He has lived as an expat for over a decade, worked in nearly a dozen countries, and visited dozens of others in the meantime, subjecting the planet to a fiery mix of permaculture, music, and plant-based cooking. More of his work can be found at Jonathon Engels: A Life About.

5 Comments

  1. Your thoughts are very true an support the reality of the scale of ecosystems ! We as Gardeners can bring an apply if available all the necessary ingredients to perfect a eco system which will provide a habitat for many creatures….I notice the bees an butterflies , Birds an Reptiles, insects an worms , an the shaded areas which provide cover as well as fruit for many others besides my family….All because of being an accountable overseer with the gift of Nature….If we take a Interest there is always more to learn !

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