I went yesterday, to water the vegetable garden of a friend that is away for a few days. It was a slightly cloudy day and the area that I was going was new to me, so I thought that it is a nice opportunity to treat it as an amusing stroll! Of course I took my camera along :)
The thriving plane trees and the sound of running water greeted me in a place that looks more like a forest and less like farm land. The vegetable gardens here, have been formed many generations ago, around the spring and the abundance of water that it provided.
Last week that my friend and I come here to show me the route to the garden, we had a discussion, if it is better to start creating a new food-forest on an empty, flat plot or continue the tradition of the elders and keep cultivating the way they did.
Starting from scratch a food-forest is a fascinating procedure and an empty plot gives you all the freedom and the flexibility to design everything the way you want. On the other hand continuing a tradition gives you a lot of all grown and productive trees but the limitations of your ancestors too! My friends vegetable garden, as well as many more around it, have been made with manual labour, on very small properties, following the, usually steep and hard to reach, terrain of our mountains.
All those fruit trees are more or less scattered around, in every available spot. Our grandfathers that planted most of them, acted out of need, in order to make good use of as much land as they could. Their motivation wasn't any lofty permaculture ideals but simple poverty. The result though is an amazing combination of forest trees, volunteer herbs and hundreds kind of grasses, along with fruit trees and of course vegetables! It is way beyond the imagination of the best landscape architect or permaculture guru. It is also as hard as hell!
Take a look at the scenery and remember the narrow paths in the first pictures. They are the only access and everything has to be carried by hand. Not so pleasant, eh?
But I have promised you a vegetable garden and I have shown you nothing but trees. So here is it! Cucumbers, tomatoes, corn and beens, melons and water-melons, they are all here :)
If you are wondering what is that blue stuff on the plants, it is a mixture of sulphur and copper. It is used widely by organic farmers and my friend seems to be very fond of it. I have to admit though, that this is not my style.
The detail that really blew my mind was the discovery of a rosebush under a lemon tree. Those roses are from a very old variety, not very impressive to look at them and with many thorns but the smell of them, is just divine! As I was smelling one of them, I kept thinking of the farmer of the past that planted it just for the pleasure of his senses, when he was working hard trying to produce some food for his family. Into my mind he should have been a very noble soul!
I will end this post with one last look to the view as I was returning home and a couple of shots of my favourite fruit for the current days. The mulberry trees are ripe since last week and I have already consumed hundreds of them :)
All the pictures and the words are mine.
Thank you for reading and if you want to know more about me you can check out my introduction post.
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