A garden of gifting plants

Words MORAG GAMBLE, Global Permaculture Educator and Ambassador

A beautiful edible garden doesn’t have to cost the Earth. Fill your landscape with luscious diversity – vegetables, herbs, flowers and fruits – without having to buy a plant.

Most of the plants in my permaculture garden have come from cuttings and seeds from community gardens, friends and neighbours, and I love passing the gift on. Over the years, I’ve shared thousands of cuttings from my garden, and the regular trimming helps make the plants healthier with new growth.

This simple way of gardening comes from a very long tradition. Taking cuttings and saving seeds is how people have nurtured and shared plants for thousands of years. It’s a great skill to cultivate – one that reveals the wonders of garden abundance.

It’s surprisingly easy to grow many plants from cuttings and start saving seeds. Here are a few to get you going:

PEAS

Saving pea seeds is satisfying for the novice seed-saver. Just let some of the pea pods go fully dry and brown on your vine, and that’s it, you have some pea seeds ready to share and plant next season! Make sure you tag the healthiest pods on the healthiest plant for saving and let your family know, as it’s tempting to eat those delicious looking pods right there in the garden.

ROSEMARY

One of the world’s favourite herbs, rosemary is a woody perennial from the Mediterranean. It’s great in pots, garden beds and even hedges. Both leaves and flowers are edible, and the stems can be used as BBQ skewers. To make a new plant, take a 10-20cm cutting, remove the bottom leaves and plant it straight into the soil. By giving one plant a trim, you can make dozens of new plants to share.

CALENDULA

Calendula is an easy-to-grow medicinal herb. Its orange and yellow flowers brighten up any garden. The petals are lovely in salads, rice, soups, stews and baking, or to a make a tea, home-made skin lotion, hair rinse and eyewash. Eat the young leaves too. To save calendula seeds, collect dried flowers from the plant. Gently pull them apart, and you will find the seeds. Let some self-seed in your garden and collect the rest to share with others. The bonus is that taking the dead flowers off makes calendula flower for longer.

FIGS

Have you ever tasted fresh figs from the tree? They’re so tender and delicious and have a gorgeous colour. Figs are a wonderfully hardy fruit tree for home gardens and grow really well from cuttings, so they’re great for beginner gardeners. Cut a 20cm branch about the thickness of your thumb, or a growing tip, and just pot it up. In a couple of weeks, a fig cutting will sprout new roots.

So next time you go walking or visiting, take some plant gifts to share, and a pair of secateurs, an empty bag and envelopes to collect cuttings and seeds everywhere!

www.moraggamble.com