I’ve got the typical plant starts for the garden going already: tomatoes, peppers, a few herbs, scallions, flowers. But I have something new joining the crew this year! Something that will hopefully be a part of the landscape here for many years to come. I’m talking about perennials, of course!
Many of these plants will be sprinkled amongst the trees in the orchard, as additional food for beneficial insects and pollinators. Those “good bugs” can’t live off of apple blossoms alone, after all, since the trees only bloom for a short time in spring. Keeping those beneficial insects happy will keep the trees happy! And since many of these plants flower and smell great, they’ll keep the resident humans happy too.
Lavender: An herb that’s great for tea, smells wonderful, and looks great. It’s also quite difficult to start from seed, as it needs a period of cold stratification (moist, cold conditions that simulate winter). I attempted to sow a packet of seed without stratification, and out of about 80 seeds, I have 7 plants right now (one just germinated yesterday). Germination takes a VERY long time without stratification – 3 weeks or even longer. I have a second packet of seed in the fridge that will be sown soon, and this may germinate much more quickly (3-10 days). I hope so, at least! I would love to have at least 1 lavender plant per tree – nearly 100 plants, in other words.
Coneflower: Giant purple flowers that bloom over a long period of time. Also known as echinacea, it’s native to the Eastern U.S. Like lavender, this needs a period of stratification before it will germinate, but isn’t quite as finicky as lavender. I stratified my seeds for 1 week, sowed them a few days ago, and they’re already germinating. These will be planted all over the place, as a consistent source of insect-food, but also because I think the giant purple flowers are fun.
Shasta daisies: These are simple white daisies, nothing particularly fancy. They bloom over a long period, and attract a host of beneficial insects. From an aesthetic point of view, they’ll also provide a nice contract with the purple flowers above. They’re way easier to grow too – no stratification required. The little seedlings are reportedly quite tough, which means I’m mass-sowing seeds in a small area, then dividing them up once they’re tranplanted: 9 cells of daisies will be potted up into 18 containers; then when they’re planted out, they’ll be divided again, yeilding 36+ plants.
Blanketflowers: I have a few seeds starting, simply because I had them. They look neat, with bright orange and yellows, and are native to the U.S. They do attract pollinators and beneficials, but since I’m not as familiar with the plant, I’m starting small. I have just 9 cells started right now. The nice thing about this plant is that it’s open-pollinated, so I can save seed in the future and start more if I’d like!
Thyme: Thyme is an herb everyone’s familiar with, but it flowers too! Small, purple flower spikes attract pollinators of diminuitive porportions. And it smells great if you happen to step on it, which will be AOK with me in the orchard. I have these mass-sown, like the daisies above, but on a much larger scale: I have 36 plugs started, which will be potted up into 72 containers, and those will be divided again at transplanting to yeild 144 plants. That will be plenty for an herb bed in the garden, as well as 1-2 per tree in the orchard.
There’s more in store for the orchard – comfrey will be divided and transplanted this spring. Alyssum, calendula, buckwheat and clover will be direct sown. I’d also like to harvest seed or transplant Queen Anne’s lace for the orchard, as they attract several beneficial insects. I’m still waiting on my lemon balm seeds, but those will be hopefully be here soon. And I may transplant some extra garlic this fall, and let it do its thing.
Since this is a very young orchard, I’ll have plenty of time to grow more perennials and flowers in future years. And not just for the orchard, but for around the house! All of those plants above are wonderful landscaping plants, and I’ll be sure to have fun planting them here and there around the property. I’m especially excited about the lavender, I’d love to have the scent right by the windows.
At the moment it’s still looking very snow-covered outside, but I’ve got lots of green things growing inside to tide me over. Sowing a few seeds makes me feel like spring must be right around the corner…
Beane Hill Farm 