What crops for "semi wild" vegetable area?

[Jeremy Williams]

Our new house is on the edge of a forest on the east coast of Spain. At the end of the garden we will have a gate out into hundreds of square miles of pine forest.

A 30m wide area has been cleared as a fire precaution and we would like to plant edible plants in this semi wild area.

Needs?

1) mustn´t LOOK like a vegetable garden. Can´t plant rows of tomatoes on public property...either the council will complain or other residents will harvest.

2) musn´t need too much attention. We work from home though so needing to water regularly isn´t a problem, but we can´t be out there every day with gardening tools.

3) mustn´t be invasive...we don´t want to populate the entire country with mint.

4) dont NEED to be staples. We will have a 100m2 of vegetable garden inside the limits of our property for potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, peppers etc

At the moment our idea is to leave is to leave the native weeds and plants, it´s green and has loads of wild flowers, fennel, lavendar etc among the weeds and shrubs...and little by little replace certain "undesireables" with plants of our choice.

On our list is

Good King Henry
Turkish Rocket
Chayote (we know its a bit invasive but we´ll actively control it)
Amaranth

Any more suggestions??????

Jeremy Williams
Barcelona Spain

[Cornelian]

I would plant perennial herbs into this kind of area - things like Stevia (sweetleaf), spearmint, peppermint (I don't think they get out of hand! LOL), green tea shrubs and so on and so forth. They can look pretty scrappy and or shrubby in a garden, they don't give away their usefulness by their looks, and might just look like wildflowers to the un-discerning eye.

[Wombat]

Ummm, amaranth is also incredibly invasive. On season of seeding and you will be turning up amaranth all over the place. I suggest that one is used with discretion!

Nev

[Thomzo]

Um - are there any rules if it's a fire protection area? Are the local council likely to come along and plough it all up every year?

You'll need to be careful not to plant anything that would allow the fire to breach the firebreak. I would have thought that any woody bushes would be a definite no no.

[wulf]

Wild flowers, suitable for the region? Not a huge supply of edibles but it will look beautiful and encourage lots of garden-friendly insects.

Wulf

[arachnid]

Nasturtiums, wild garlic, babington leek, land cress (might be a bit too dry in Spain for this). I've always wanted to try pignut, Conopodium majus, but have never found any in quantity to harvest. I don't know how you'd get them started but a small colony of those might be productive. Sorrel, different sorts of orache, new zealand spinach, strawberry spinach.

What sort of soil is it? Could you plant berries - bilberries for example or some of the very low growing brambles, wild strawberries?

[Jeremy Williams]

Cornelian. Just received Stevia sedes. Definitely will use that sugestión. ¿Green tea shrub? I must look that one up. Thanks.

Wombat…thanks for the Amaranth info. I didn´t know that, though I suppose I should have imagined it with amaranth producing edible seeds in quantity, obviously it will be germinatable seed.

Thomzo. It won´t be ploughed up, no way. It was a miracle they actually did the fire break…and frankly it won´t stop a fire even if asphalted over.

Our garden<----30m---->Pine forest

Basically the only useful thing they have done is to create forest trails wide enough for a fire engine to drive along. The are we will cultivate is NOT a trail.

Wulf….wildflowers will be planted along the trails. Poppies and lavander above all as they are native. We do rather like edible flowers too. Nothing like having visiors help you lay the table, who say, ¿shall I remove the floral display? And have to answer "No, that's the salad"

Arachnid…I will look up your suggestions. The soil is a bit sandy. And as for strawberries the surrounding area is the biggest strawberry producer in Spain….so yes, ¿???berries is a definitely good idea.

Thanks to you all.

Jeremy