Jo at work in her secret Coromandel food forest. Photo / Josephine Meachen
A Coromandel food forest rooted in permaculture that grew out of the Covid lockdown stars in a new book about New Zealand’s secret gardens.
Secret Gardens of Aotearoa, written by Jane Mahoney and Sophie Bannan, features Jo’s Greenhills Paradise.
Jo Sanderson and her husband Sandy moved to Coromandel township in 2019 and purchased an 850sq m property with a newly built house.
“We retired up here to be near family and wanted a newish low-maintenance home, so bought in the new subdivision here in Coromandel.”
The property had a simple garden featuring four fruit trees, a hedge and a “lot of lawn”, Jo said.
During the Covid-19 lockdowns, Jo discovered a Facebook page called Grow Food Not Lawns, and enthusiastically set about absorbing information about permaculture - growing agricultural ecosystems sustainably and self-sufficiently, without the use of pesticides.
“I have always strived to be as self-sustaining as possible, and wanted to create a food forest but just didn’t know how to start.
“Even when we owned a small lifestyle block, it seemed too daunting and I never got there. Now I am on the smallest section I have ever owned, and have an amazing food forest growing! If only I had had this knowledge many years ago.”
A circular patch of bare soil was considered the perfect spot to try building the hugelkultur (mound bed) patches paramount to the principles of the seven layers of a food forest.
The seven layers of the food forest, built on the mounds, are canopy trees; a lower tree layer; a shrub layer; a herb layer; the soil surface; roots; and a vertical layer.
Jo’s hugelkultur experiments multiplied and she began planting fruit trees. All the while, she was learning everything she could about growing a food forest.
“I have just about every fruit tree imaginable including bananas and pineapples growing. Also the normal veges and a huge variety of berries!”
She has never had a garden plan, rather a guiding set of principles — organic gardening, sustainability, feeding themselves, and feeding the birds and insects.
The three pillars of permaculture have been enthusiastically adopted by many around the world. When asked why she thought growing and eating your own produce is so popular now, Jo believes “people are so aware of nutrient-dense, unsprayed, healthy and unprocessed food.
“That we are actually what we eat. Also, I think with the price of fresh fruit and veges - it is a no-brainer to me to grow what you can yourself.”
Like other horticulture and agriculture on the peninsula, Jo’s forest did not escape the ravages of last summer’s cyclones.
“Cyclone Gabrielle has had a huge impact on the garden, and the other cyclones to a lesser extent. The continual rain has killed my avocado tree, which has really upset me! The wind has blown over many young trees which have since died.
“We are going to have to learn to garden differently as these are the weather patterns to come in the future.”
Jo has no plans to grow commercially, preferring to keep the fruits of her labour close to home.
“I only grow for me, my family the birds and bees.”
Plant list for a seven-layer food forest
Canopy trees: Banana, avocado, inga bean, dogwood, apple, plum, apricot, peach, nectarine, pear, orange, mandarin, lemon, juneberry, quince, fig, nīkau palm, mānuka, mountain pawpaw, Japanese raisin, bay, loquat.
Lower tree layer: Elderberry, Aronia berry, dwarf peach and nectarine, senna, tree medick, red and yellow guava, tagasaste, camellia, jabuticaba (Brazilian grape tree), bottlebrush, feijoa, kōwhai*, shrub layer raspberry, boysenberry, gooseberry, Worcesterberry, stinging nettle, artichoke, canna lily, yacon, Chilean guava, hebe, koromiko, blueberry, currants (black, white and red), herb layer dill, fennel, mint, rosemary, thyme, parsley, salad burnet, plantain, Vietnamese mint, tarragon, coriander, lavender, sage, lemon balm, lemon verbena, horseradish.
Soil surface: Strawberry, violet, herb robert, creeping thyme, pumpkin, gourd, cucumber, roots potato, Chinese artichoke, kūmara, yacon, Jerusalem artichoke, vertical layer grape, kiwifruit, pumpkin, gourd, runner bean, cucumber, boysenberry, raspberry, basket willow, caigua, star jasmine,* geranium, clematis*. *These three plants are considered poisonous.
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