Ask the Expert: Poppy Okotcha on the Wild Edible Garden
Photography courtesy of Create Academy.
While we are all beginning to understand the benefits of rewilding our gardens, the idea of a wild edible garden may be slightly more novel.
But Poppy Okotcha, a model-turned-horticulturalist and one of a new generation of hugely influential Gen Z gardeners, is a passionate advocate of a much looser, wildlife-focused approach to growing your own food.
Poppy in her garden in South Devon. If you are cutting back crops that have come to the end of their lives, leave their roots in the soil as they will rot away and also create useful channels in the soil structure.
Soil is far and away the most important thing in a sustainable garden. Healthy soil will support all your plants and in turn the garden’s wildlife too.
Beautiful fennel is left standing in winter; its sturdy stems are a favorite hideout for overwintering ladybirds, who by spring will be hunting for aphids to eat.
Beautiful goldenrod was already growing on the plot and has been kept as a food source for insects and as well as an herbal.
Poppy inherited four mature apple trees, which provide valuable food sources and opportunities to preserve for the winter months.
No space is wasted in her vegetable beds, which are edged with multi-purpose annuals that are both pretty and edible, and can easily self-seed—like chives, calendula, poppies, or cornflowers,