What is Polyculture?

polyculture potager

Over the past few years of growing my own fruit, veg and herbs, I’ve learned a lot. I started with books (and still reference them frequently), garnered bits and pieces of information from my mum and other growers, and gleaned snippets of knowledge from gardening programmes. I haven’t seen much about polyculture in the mainstream media though, and it seems a shame.

In Britain, I suspect many of us green-fingered types tend to think of a “good garden” or “successful allotment” as a tidy space, where neatness and order abounds. But that just isn’t me. What I love about nature are the blurred lines between order and chaos. I’ve always felt that my garden should be a glorious collision between art and science. That means looking to the natural world for inspiration and guidance, especially when it comes to my planting schemes. That’s where polyculture comes in.

When you try to inflict absolute order over the underlying chaos, I feel like it becomes a fight with nature. I cannot stand reading posts on allotment or gardening forums about the various ways to kill this pest or spray that weed. I feel that many gardeners are at war with their plots. Really, gardening should be more about balancing and nurturing.

polyculture - gyo

That’s why I’m increasingly moving my thinking over to polyculture and permaculture. Polyculture, in essence, means “the simultaneous cultivation or exploitation of several crops and animals“. In gardening, allotmenteering and in agriculture, we often see planting done in large blocks (monoculture). There is a lot of uniformity, and this can lead to creating an ecosystem that is vulnerable to quick and widespread attack from pests and disease. This means the blocks of crops or animals can require a lot of support with fertilisation/feeding/antibiotics. In agriculture, soil can become arid and depleted because of the continued drain on its minerals.

But in nature, even the smallest patch of wild land is a mish-mash of plants of different varieties, heights and distances. Each plant has a function, growing pattern or yield time that often benefits other plants, such as companion plants or intercropping. Sowing the same crop in different places at different times can extend the harvest period, and keeps groups of plants safer if one group falls foul to a pest or disease.

And polyculture can also extend the growing capacity of one plot throughout the year, keeping both plants and soil healthy and thriving whilst helping to reduce the need for weeding. Yes, less weeding!

Together with a no-dig approach, polyculture has helped me to reduce the time required on the plot maintaining the soil from weeds and trying to tackle hungry pests, like aphids. Essentially, in between a little weeding here and there, my veg plots look happier and much fuller. OK, they might not look particularly orderly or neat, but they are thriving.

The nasturtiums were planted next to my beans, and have proved a total success. Whilst some of my flowers in the borders and the elder was ravaged by blackfly, the little suckers have been attracted to the leaves of the nasturtium and left my peas and beans well alone. The marigolds have not only produced a burst of colour on the plots, but I also think their strong scent has served well as a deterrent against munch-happy bugs too.

There is so much more I can do this year, with plenty of time to sow and plant into my plots. I’m excited to learn more.