Deer-Proof Permaculture (With Plant Lists!)

While our garden supplies a variety of 300 species of fruit, nuts and vegetables, many of which are choice delicacies rarely found even in expensive health-food stores, the greatest yield we obtain from our Permaculture garden is our interaction with nature. We love watching the fleet of deer, turkeys, a huge variety of birds, groundhogs, squirrels, voles, moles, shrews, deermice, rabbits, toads, snakes, fox, owls, bats, etc. and a micro-managerie of colorful, whirling invertebrates who are all frequent guests in our garden.

"Our garden." 

A uniquely human but certainly in-humane concept. 

Really, there are quite a few individuals, friends, we've come to recognize as co-habiting, co-tending and even co-creating this habitat with us. Who are we to say its "ours?" 

Only us modern "civilized" humans would be so freakishly controlling and neurotic as to attempt to lay claim to a bit of land and only allow select individuals to serve our needs exclusively, strictly omitting all other species from meeting their needs off our "property." 

Why must we battle so with our non-human cousins? 

This struggle only makes us poorer, when we would be much better served by a diverse and healthy ecosystem, filled with willing volunteers from a wide swath of species, all making "our property" richer, more diverse, healthy and abundant. 

We don't need Ecologists to tell us that diverse ecosystems are healthier and more productive, and that they grow more healthy, fertile, and rich over time as they catch each drop of energy and store it in a network of species. We need only walk into a forest and compare it to our drab, needy, sick human landscapes.  

Permaculture is a system of design based on three ethics. The first ethic is "care for the earth." A Permaculture garden aims to be more than a vegetable garden, it's also an orchard, a medicinal garden, a pleasure garden, a recreation space, a garden for crafts and building materials, fuel for heat, and most importantly, a wildlife garden - all rolled into one. Most importantly, it's a way to "care for the earth." 

But Permaculture's second ethic is "care for people," and we want a garden that will obtain a good yield for its human stewards, rewarding and incentivising good earth care. We recognize that there's a place for everything, including deer - and that place probably isn't your Hosta garden. So, this article will look at how we can design a system with a place for wildlife, including the hungry, vegetable-eating kind like deer and rabbits. 

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"Pest" Vision

The standard American garden is a deer and rabbit paradise. 

First, it's typically way out in the backyard somewheres, far from where they're likely to run into those obnoxious, angry two-legged animals who are always yelling and chasing everybody else away. I mean, WE HUMANS hardly ever go out there, and we haven't even marked it as our territory, so obviously we didn't put it out there for us!

Next, it's so neat and tidy, where everything's easy to see and find and all their favorite plants are placed together in a nice neat rows like a buffet. There are no weeds or anything in the way that might confuse them. No spots where predators might be hiding to be warry of. Usually there's a clear line of sight to the house to see if the grumpy humans come out. 

And there's no place else like it! It's a unique, distinctive environment that's set aside from everything else in their habitat - something that's sure to stick in their minds and attract a lot of interest and attention. It's so obviously a special place JUST for good deer and bunny food. 

They're sooooooo happy you made it just for them!

And so long as we do things like that, we should just plain expect deer, rabbits, etc. are going to be spending some Q.T. in our gardens. Really, we're just being silly if we don't. 

 (Wild beastie, Mu, sleeping by my leg while I write.)

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Get Zoned Out

One of Permaculture's most important design concepts is arranging land and uses into "zones" based on how often each space is naturally visited and how much energy each takes to work. Basically, the uses that require the most human energy and attention, should go in the places that we naturally visit most often. 

Duh, right?

For example, the garden plants that require daily attention could be placed right next to the door you use every day when you go to work so that you naturally see those plants without having to make a special, separate trip. Meanwhile, plants that only require weekly or monthly visits can be placed together in locations you naturally visit once a week or once a month. Now, you don't have to waste time or energy on any special trips.  

Brilliant!

This "cares for the earth" because it replaces fossil fuel energy like tilling and chemical interventions like spraying with easy human energy like daily hand-weeding and "spot mulching" (placing a little mulch to smother out emerging weeds.)  And it "cares for people" because it naturally saves us time and energy and makes life easier. 

(Sketch of zones for Lillie House)

But the idea of "zones" is also Permaculture's first line of defense against "pests and weeds," including deer and rabbits. 

Actually, this was the MAIN strategy for dealing with pests and weeds in almost every human culture throughout history right up until the 1920s/30s, when the US government enacted a policy of drastic agricultural reform intended to evict farmers off their family farms to create an army of poor and needy, low-cost labor for urban industrialization. Since then, we've taught governments around the world to commit the same crime against their citizenry. In my opinion, this was probably the cause of the single greatest loss of technology, wisdom and knowledge in human history. But I digress....

Here's how that forgotten common-sense technology used to work:

Zone 1-2: Close to the home, the main outdoor living area. 

Look familiar? This is the classic homestead pattern found world-wide prior to The Great Stupiding of the "green agricultural revolution." 

How about this one: 

First, this area closest to the home, with the most human traffic is naturally suspect to wildlife. It's the riskiest place to visit for a snack. But it's also a place where a quick sprinkle of cayenne pepper or garlic tea can help protect nibbled plants. Since critters are naturally warry of this zone, anyway, extra deterrents go a long way, and a plant that unreliably smells and tastes bad isn't worth the risk. 

(A Zone 1-2 garden guild including sensative plants.)

Finally, if you're going to fence or hedge an area, zone 1 is the easiest place to do it. A small fenced or hedged area is all you need to grow all the crops that really require protection from deer and rabbits, and the hedge can itself be a multi-species, food-producing area.

(Colorful edible hedgerow surroundsd   our zone 1-2 garden)

What goes here? Everything you'd complain about getting eaten by rabbits or deer. Basically, if we're going to be neurotic humans trying to exclude other species, it's going to go better if we keep that strategy to as small a space as possible. 

What additional control measures do you use? Sprays of comfrey or nettle tea with garlic or cayenne pepper added. Powdered cayenne pepper. Not much else should be necessary. 

Zone 3-4: Everything beyond the immediate "home garden" area. Areas that will receive maintenance once per week or less.

(A "wild" natural food forest of deer-friendly species at a church. No "pest-deterrent" being used on this bike-trail through deer country, but it yields a large quantity and variety of fruits all season long. )

Typically, zone 3 refers to crop areas, especially market crops and "calorie" crops intended to provide carbohydrates. Zone 4 refers to managed "semi-wild" areas where crops are grown in forests or areas returning to forests ("agriforest" systems.)

This also includes any "public garden" areas, business, workplace, churches and other public landscapes.

The key is a shift in perspective: in these zones, the wildlife are your greatest asset, your aids and teachers. They are there to help tend your land, fertilize, provide pest and weed control through increasing diversity, and prune your plants for you. 

They'll sure teach you about which plants are truly "wildlife proof!"

They also teach you the vital lost knowledge of what it means to be a member of an ecosystem with a direct natural relationship with nature - deep wisdom that almost all of our human ancestors treasured, but that is extremely rare today. 

You pay for these valuable services by allowing these non-human neighbors to "make a living" off of a small share of "your" crops.

In these zones there is only one tool for dealing with wildlife, to work together to evolve a STABILIZED   ecology that integrates wildlife interactions and productivity - a complete ecosystem, where we are just one point in the web of life. 

(Another wild beastie lurking in its natural habitat.)

To co-create your deer-stable agro-ecology, what you plant is of utmost importance and while I can give you some pointers based on research and my own experience, your best teachers will be your wildlife. Remember, you're co-creating a stable ecology, and their feedback is vital. They'll teach you what kind of system will stabilize with them. 

The other key is high diversity. In any given year, if one crop or plant is harmed by over-predation, others will fill in the gaps. With enough diversity, overtime the system will "pop" in such a way that it will be productive to humans and integrate the positive interactions of wildlife. 

(Garden of Deer-Stable crops in our zone  3 area.)

There are two categories of plants that are most useful for these zones:

Deer/Rabbit TOLERANT Plants? WHA...?

These vigorous plants will get browsed by wildlife with relative frequency, but are almost never killed by them. They quickly recover and can grow and thrive despite ocassional browsing. 

I've often recommended these as deer-resistant plants and had people exclaim "but deer eat that at my place!" 

To which I respond: "did they KILL the plant?" 

"Well... no." 

Remember, the point isn't to completely exclude all other species. We're not trying to win a war against nature, what we want is a truce.

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Here's a SHORT, INCOMPLETE LIST of FANTASIC DEER-TOLERANT FOOD PLANTS for a zone 3-4 Permaculture system or forest garden. These will probably work best in an integrated, decentralized polyculture system like a forest garden, rather than planted in clean, tidy, centralized monoculture deer-buffets of single plants. Most of these are often found on researched lists as "infrequently browsed" or "rarely browsed."  

Chestnut. This gets its very own mention, as the single most important Permaculture plant we can grow in the Great Lakes region, on any property where there's enough room for it. Chestnuts are an expensive, valuable commercial crop. But more importantly, they're our most important sustainable staple carbohydrate crop in cold climates, and our most viable option for growing calories outside of energy-intensive tilled fields of grains. For properties much larger than 3/4 of an acre, I always recommend trying to find a place to plant it. It will require caging as a deterrent as it gets established, but once mature, the tree will be impervious to wildlife assault. The crops will be shared with deer and other wildlife, but there will almost certainly be plenty left over for the humans to take advantage of. 

Perennial Veggies:

Rhubarb

Asparagus (pay extra for larger "crowns" in deer-prone areas to get them established.)

Turkish Rocket

Sweet Rocket

Blood-veined sorrel

French Sorrel (on the edge, sometimes this gets severely set back, but I've never seen it killed.)

Marshmallow

Garlic

Ground Nut (Apios Americana)

Hops

Oregano

Thyme

Smallage

Endive

Jerusalem artichokes

Annual crops for an "extensive," low-maintenance garden

Squash plants (Cover the seeds with Burdock leaves to protect them prior to germination.) I particularly recommend Long Island Cheese and Seminole pumpkins in our climate. 

Zucchini and summer squash

Tomatoes (deer often prune our vines, but wild varieties like Galapagos are worth a try.)

Potatoes (These are perennialized at our site and the deer almost never bother them.) 

Borage

Fruit:

Blackberry

Black raspberry 

Elderberry

Currants

Gooseberries

Strawberries

Aronia Berry

Highbush cranberry

Mulberry

Nuts:

Hazel

Black Walnut (buy varieties selected for easier cracking.)

(Allium unifolium kickin' it with walking onions and Turkish rocket, all holding their own against grasses and "weeds" in a heavily deer and rabbit area in our zone 3.)

Deer-RESISTANT Fruits and Vegetables:

These are the stronger category of plants that I have never once seen browsed, even with our overstock urban deer population. Even if your deer get a little crazy some night and try a nibble or two, they're almost certainly not going to ravage your entire populations of these. Our zone 3-4 garden is overrun with deer, rabbits, groundhogs and so on, but I have never seen these touched:

Veggies:

Egyptian walking onions

Welsh onions

Chives

Garlic Chives

Single-leaf onion

Ramps

Claytonia Virginica

Cammas (great vegetable!)

Lovage

Potatoes (these are perennialized in the sunnier areas of our zone 3/4 garden 

Daylily

Ostrich fern

Milkweed

Stinging nettle

Fruit:

Goumi

Paw paw

Rugosa roses

And finally, here's a list of plants to experiment with. These are still being tested here, but have shown good potential of being deterrent/resistant thus far:

Veggies:

Celery

Wild tomatoes

Ground cherries

Cardoon

Fruit:

Quince

Medlar

And that's just a start. There are more fruits and vegetables that can be grown in such a wildlife-friendly garden. Beyond this, there are a whole great variety of HIGH VALUE deer-stable crops for a for-profit system, if you expand into plant stock and medicinal herbs that can really add value to a Agriforest.

Which brings us to Permaculture's third ethic: "Fair Share." These days, it's frequently also expressed as "re-invest the surplus" or as it was originally stated: observe and respect natural limits. Really, these are all the same. If we can produce a system that values the diversity of plants and wildlife, and mindfully "reinvest" in our non-human partners, then this abundant, self-maintaining system will provide for us better than any corn field ever could. But that requires us to step back, observe limits, and make some room in this world for our non-human cousins. 

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All of the plants mentioned in this post are, conveniently enough, available through our Lillie House Community Supported Permaculture program, where we help you create your own Permaculture design, supply you with plants and teach about Permaculture gardening techniques. If that sounds interesting, you can learn more here: 

https://lilliehousekzoo.wordpress.com/the-basic-home-garden-membership/

Low Maintenance, Resilient "Food Forest:" A Case Study

There's a stretch of bike path in McHenry Illinois where the wild has long been attempting to reassert herself. It's a place where many come to forage on berries, wild fruits and vegetables, one I've written about many times as an "unofficial" community forest garden tended lightly by those who come to share in the harvest. 

And those who do harvest this site have much to share in. With almost no mainteance, the site produces a wide diversity of fruits and vegetables, including strawberries, black raspberries, blackberries, mulberries, chokeberries, highbush cranberries, particularly nice wild grapes, elderberries,  black walnuts, hickory nuts, various wild greens, mushrooms, milkweed pods, harvestable wild grasses, wild onions, grape leaves, solomon's seal, and probably many other things I'm missing. 

But the main harvest was the blackberries, mulberries, and black raspberries, which were plentiful and very delicious grown in this semi-shade. When would come here for berries, we'd easily fill up our own containers, and we'd very often see others foraging, too, some taking far more than we ever did.  

This site has long been in my mind as a model for edible forest gardens, since it perfectly demonstrates several important principles I seek to emulate in my designs. Many of these "principles" invoke the design of the historic, traditional "forest garden" systems  of temperate climates. In fact, since this site (and a few other "wild" systems like it) seemed more "successful" at providing usable space with high yields and very low-inputs than any planned "forest gardens" in my knowledge, it provided the theoretical basis (plant spacings, configuration, etc.) for our "low input" designs at Lillie House. 

So, lets look at this site and see what principles and patterns we can derive from it:

I. Designed and "hardscaped" for success. On the broadest scale, as seen from space, this "forest garden" represents a set of patterns of resilience, low maintenance and high productivity worth replicating. 

In this case, the most productive parts of our system lie in three "rows," along a bike trail and a creek, set between two parking lots. In many ways, this replicates the pattern of "hedgerows," a traditional forest garden system in Europe, that are often found along road ways. This pattern comes with a variety of benefits:

A. Light. This location and hardscaping mean that plant spacings are kept at a fairly open "row spacing," allowing plenty of light to penetrate into the system This means that even under a dense canopy of trees there's still enough light for plants like raspberries and blackberries to produce heavily. 

B. Access. Hardscaped access is maintained on both sides of the system, as well as along the trail down the middle. 

C. shelterbelt. This forest garden system provides a windbreak and shelterbelt that benefits the church to the east. It also provides shade along the sports fields and bike trail. 

D. Maintenance. In almost any garden situation, maintaining paths becomes one of the most intensive chores. In this system, the paths require very minimal care. Such paths could be designed to last decades in between maintenance inputs. 

E. Water access. In this case, deep-rooted trees and perennials have constant access to water through the creek. Even on dry sites, it might be possible to emulate this factor, giving plants access to natural water sources. 

II. "Stacked social functions." This "forest garden" has a good chance at lasting a long, long time, since it is integrated in with social functions which are valued and protected. The integration of social functions protects uses like "forest gardening," and ensures that valable plants won't be removed to make room for social space later. The more social functions can be integrated the better. 

A. Sacred/ritual/ceremonial space. This side of the "forest garden" is bounded by an outdoor ritual space and a picnic area  used and maintained by the church. 

B. Recreational space: This "food forest" area is also used for a bike path, sports fields, baseball, soccer, and other recreational activities. 

C. Parking. Yes, even parking lots can provide value to a forest garden. Foragers need to park, too. If we're going to use resources to maintain parking areas anyway, why not "double up" the impact of those investments to help produce food! Which brings us to:

III. The Principle of Incidental Maintenance. The best maintenance scheme for a food forest is no maintenance scheme. When we can plan food forests to be maintained incidentally, through other activities and uses, or by use alone, we come out way ahead. In this case, the "forest garden" is maintenaned prmarily by maintaining a set of parking and recreational uses. The most "energy intensive" maintenance is the mowing of the sports field, which would be done anyway. 

IV. North/south orientation. Again, this allows maximum light into the system. 

V. Multi-layered. Tall trees, shorter trees, bushes, perennial herbs, ground covers, root crops, vines and mushrooms all in one place. 

VI. Naturally Dense Spacings: While many modern planned "forest gardens" aim for the field spacings promoted by university extensions, when it comes to low maintenance I have learned that nothing beats naturally dense plantings. So long as light penetration is maintained through some means (such as integrated social space and incidental maintenance) plants in systems like this one remain naturally very productive despite natural tight plant densities. In reality, there is no available research to suggest that the "research based" plant spacings optimized for high-input monoculture cropping are transferable to low-input polyculture systems. However, we do have a whole history of low-input polyculture agriforest systems to learn from, such as the hedgerows and tapestry hedges of Europe, which are invariably planted in very tight naturally occurring spacings. 

VII. Planned for resilience. If the humans of planet earth all decided to shove off to neptune for a few hundred years, this particular "system" would almost certainly still be waiting for us when we got back, filled with fruits, nuts and vegetables. This is due to many of the features above, especially the long productive life of the hardscaping, which ensures the light penetration necessary to keep a productive, diverse understory. This is probably the most important feature of this system to learn from. It would actually take a large amount of energy over many years to destroy this system or even to make it less productive. As a point in fact, some government agency DID expend a fair bit of energy to reduce the productivity of the planting. When we visited this year, many trees (especially mulberries) and brambles had been removed. I don't know why this was done. But I do know it was done in vain. Already the brambles were making a come-back and young trees were racing up to the canopy to replace the removed ones. Despite the energy and money spent to reduce the functionality of this food forest, next year, this system is likely to be as productive and dense as ever! 

VIII. Maintenance-Free Plantings. One thing that seperates this "food forest" from most planned gardens, is that the naturally-occurring, "wild" plants require no maintenance. No one has to spray, weed, or fertilize to get high-quality fruit from this "forest." Meanwhile, we rarely stop to pick apples, pears, or plums from the multitude of planted fruit trees around town. If they haven't been sprayed into oblivion (orchards typically spray multiple times a month!) or otherwise maintained, then the fruit will usually be riddled with bugs and disease. Now, there are some great uses for buggy fruit! But, with all the perfect, beautiful "spray-free" fruit out there that requires no "cleaning" or processessing, even avid foragers like us will rarely bother with "wild" apples. Now, this doesn't mean that you shouldn't have an apple tree in your forest garden, just that if you do, expect to "work" to get clean fruit. And if you balance those "intensive" choices with lots of fruit that will perform well without additional work, you'll probably be a lot happier for it. 

Of course, with a little thought and work this unofficial "food forest" could be improved and expanded to become an amazing "official" forest garden. More public uses could be integrated in and a greater diversity of food plants included. But, in the other direction, there are many things that our official "food forests" could learn from naturally evolved, resilient systems like this one.  

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For more perspectives on "planting densities" and spacing for forest gardens, click here!

Living with a Forest Garden

Our scholars are learning that forest gardening has been nearly universal amoung human cultures, "the oldest human land use," it's being called. It's certain that some form of "Agriforest gardening" system has been a large part of the way that most humans who have ever lived have met most of their needs, right up until very, very recent history. 

Becoming forest gardeners, we re-take our rightful place as the gentle, kind "keystone species" of our ecosystems, learning to work with nature, as a part of it, rather than against it as an outsider. 

How to start? You already know. We evolved doing this, making healthy, rich ecosystems that support all forms of life. Our eyes, ears and all our senses tell us when we're in such a place and we know it by its "beauty." We instinctively know healthy soil, good compost and healthy forests when we see them. 

A forest garden doesn't have to be your only garden, you don't have to give up your veggie patch. But if you've got a garden you're struggling to keep up with, a patch of lawn you're spending your precious time mowing, or a spot you want to "landscape," then you can turn it into a beautiful, productive ecosystem that grows food in cooperation with nature. 

Almost every property could benefit from a hedgerow, a traditional forest garden system, loaded with flowers, wildlife and fruit like these nanking cherries. Or perhaps a few fruit trees, guilded with diverse vertical layers of fruits and vegetables. And the whole natural community around you will be healthier for it. 

In return, this healthy ecosystem will supply you with food, medicine and beauty throughout the year. At the moment, ours is giving us amazing daily salads with mixed greens, self-sown butter lettuce, flowers and strawberry vinaigrette, a weekly pot of soup or stew, and more veggies for cooking and fresh eating than we ever get around to picking. 

Here's a spire of Babington's leek, a perennial wild leek, finally flowering in its third year, and we're hoping its seedlings will join the dozen or so other perennial alliums in our garden. 

Welsh onion is another beautiful perennial allium. Having such a variety means they are available throughout the year, as a source of healthful food, a potent source of calories and flavorful meals. 

In fact, variety might be the single most important key to a successful forest garden. Variety means you're giving mother nature the tools she needs to create a healthy, functioning ecosystem, rich with connections and a vibrant "economy" between elements. 

And that diversity should extend to the "architecture" of the garden, with "hetrogenous" textures and spacing being the norm, rather than "homogenous" ones. Such diversity virtually guarantees that SOMETHING will work and your garden will begin to reward your work with low-maintenance yields. 

(Perennial Chamomile flowers)

And you'll begin a journey of co-creation with nature, evolving along with your forest garden, as one part of a self-organizing, natural system... a uniquely human experience you'll share with almost all of our human ancestors going back to the dawn of time. 

It's my sincere hope that this blog can help inspire others to become forest gardeners and join the journey back to this lost way of human being. 

Permaculture Jardin de Cure´

The French "Jardin de Cure´" might just be the original "Permaculture garden" of temperate Europe. I believe we have a lot to learn from these old, evolved gardening systems of traditional cultures, so our front yard at Lillie House was deeply inspired by this style of garden. Let me take you on a tour of our "Permaculture Jardin de Cure´" while I share some garden pictures from this morning.  

The "Curate" or "Cure´" was the head parishioner in the French Presbyterian Church and his garden had to be multi-functional and easy to care for. The curate himself would have planned and maintained his garden, with the help of some volunteers from his congregation. So, not only did it provide an important source of fresh fruits and vegetables for the curate and his family, it also had to help provide for the needs of his congregation, and be easy to maintain in the busy curate's free time.  

As the most learned man in his community, he was often called upon to be a healer of physical ailments as well as spiritual ones. So his garden needed to be a true "physic garden," one of the town's most important sources of herbal medicines, such as the beautiful flowers of wild perennial flax above, which--once cooked--can be used like regular flax seeds. The plant material can also be used for a rustic linen. 

And, of course, the curate had to attend to the spiritual needs of his flock in times of crisis, when they were in need of comfort. Soft colors dominated by shades of blue, lavender and white painted a soothing spiritual backdrop. 

And when it was time for celebration, the curate's garden provided the church with a sorce of beautiful cut flowers, again in soft, spiritual colors. Even today, many french flower and rose cultivars in these soft colors bear the names of saints, a testament to their history in the Jardin de Cure´. In fact, curates and their gadens were important in the history of French plant breeding. The "dames rocket" (above right) would have figured as both a vegetable and a flower in the curate's garden. 

And, since this multi-purpose garden had to be both beautiful and easy to care for in the spare time of the curate and his congregation, a polyculture system of formal beds with informal plantings was used to cut down work and keep things tidy. Hidden inside these geometric beds called "parterres," vegetables, medicinal herbs, fruit trees, flowers, and what many today would call "weeds," grew together in a wild profusion similar to the English Cottage Garden, only surrounded with edging of box, or with useful herbs such as thyme or lavender. At Lillie House, our oregano and lavender hedge imitates the low box edging in the exotic formal gardens that the well-educated curate would have seen at gardens like Versailles. Unlike a boxwood hedge, when we trim our edging, it's time for oregano pesto, or Greek potatoes!

And finally, at the end of the day, this edible, medicinal, flower garden had to be a spiritual retreat and meditation sanctuary for the curate. 

It had to be a meditative space of natural beauty, but also of spiritual importance. Formal beds were typically laid out in the form of a cross, with other symbols and spiritual reminders woven throughout. Our secular Permaculture-inspired version takes the shape of an ankh, an ancient symbol of permanence and a fitting symbol of the goals of Permaculture which are spiritually important to us. 

The garden was enclosed by walls, mixed hedges or espalier trees--or a mix of these--to create the feeling of sanctuary, in the manor of Christendom's oldest spiritual gardens the Hortus Conclusus, which is so often seen depicted in medieval art. 

(wikimedia)

This was thought to symbolize the garden of eden or perhaps to even invoke heaven. 

And--just as in Permaculture--water was a mandatory element in the garden, usually located at the center of the cross, in the form of a simple pond or well. 

Today, there's renewed interest in this very old style of multi-functional garden, but it's not for the first time! Back when our house was built, this form of garden became a brief fad in the US, especially for victorian enterance gardens in the "beautiful" style of architecture. While the English Cottage Garden style would have been recommended for "picturesque" homes like the gothic style, the Jardin de Cure could have been the template for our Italianate home. Who knows, perhaps ours is not the first garden of this style to adorn our front yard.

For home Permaculture gardeners looking to invoke some of the social elements of this traditional garden style, here are some patterns from the Jardin de Cure´ that could be helpful:

1. Formal Beds with Informal Plantings. Oregano or Thyme "edging" can help keep things looking neat, while using "messy" looking polycultures that require less maintenance than "tidy" plantings would. Mix up fruits, veggies and flowers together, as in a "forest garden." 

2. Include water. Humans and wildlife are naturally drawn to water. 

3. Create comfortable places to sit for contemplation, with beautiful views. 

4. Make nice paths for a walk, with interesting things to see along the way.  

5. Use spiritually meaningful symbols, these could be symbols of nature, secular humanism, philosophy or religious meaning--Anything you can connect with personally. This will add a layer of depth to your garden and what it has to offer you. 

6. Rely on cool, calming colors like the blues and whites of the Jardin de Cure´. These provide an overall theme for the garden that can still harmonize well with pops of of other colors, such as the reds of roses or the yellows of brassicas gone to flower. 

7. Include gifts (plants, statues, pots...) from friends and family, and your garden will speak to you on a personal level. 

8. Create a feeling of enclosure and privacy with mixed, hedges of fruit and flowering plants. 

9. Plant many aromatic plants! The multi-functional Permaculture garden should appeal to all the senses. 

A few more recommended resources on the Jardin de Cure´:

https://www.frenchgardening.com/aujardin.html?pid=1180631017121740

http://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jardin_de_curé

Or see our article on Post Wild Edible Gardening for more ideas about beautiful edible landscaping design.