Transition to Spring? -
19th February 2009
-
updated 7th/11th/13th/16th/23rd/29th March/11th April/1st/27th May/
6th
July/2nd August/4th December 2009
Theme: Peak Oil, the Transition
Movement....
- and
how to turn a bramble-infested
wilderness into a vegetable garden!
PART 5: Growing
23rd March: I've now split this up into several pages as there are so
many images!
Quick links to the other parts:
1. Peak Oil
&
the Transition Movement 2. Garden Clearance 3. Garden
Rebuilding
4. Garden
Planting 5. Garden Growing 6. The Harvest
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UPDATE 1st MAY
Mid-April and the
shallots and garlic
are coming along OK....
....but slugs have been steadily eating the young radish plants:
Rather than use pellets, I thought it would be interesting to try
something a bit different:
Nematodes that specifically kill slugs!
This is what it looks like (a bit like a ready-meal and probably just
as tasteless!):
The method is easy - divide into "portions", mix with water in a
watering-can with a rose and water the milky-looking fluid into the
soil on a
damp day. This was enough to do the whole garden. According to the
website,
http://www.nemasysinfo.co.uk/nematodes.shtml:
"These
aggressive organisms attack the pest by entering natural body
openings. Once inside, they release bacteria that stops the pest from
feeding, quickly killing the pest. They do not stop there. The
nematodes reproduce inside the dead pest and release a new generation
of hungry nematodes, which disperse to hunt down further prey."
Nice!
The spuds are slowly starting to appear:
....as are some other
plants! This is Bittercress - it's abundant, it's edible.....
.....and will do as a
compost additive too! This was picked out from in between spring onion
seedlings - between the rows it can be hoed in before it seeds....
UPDATE 27th MAY
Things have been going
reasonably well in the last 3 weeks, but also there has been trouble in
the form of a suspected visiting rabbit. Here are some general shots
from mid-May:
And the first produce:
Just in time too! A visitor started cropping seedlings to ground-level.
It didn't like the shallots or garlic, fortunately, but has half-eaten
just a couple of the potato-plants. A bit of a mystery really - rabbits
usually leave droppings, yet there are none to be found, and it's
something with quite an appetite!
With a view to finding out, I've been setting a cage-trap nightly.
Better than a killer-trap - I don't want to injure any harmless or
useful creature, such as a hedgehog, but if it's a rabbit I'm afraid
it's going in the pot! So far no results, but I'll persevere!
This presented a dilemma: I had bean-seedlings ready to go into the
ground, but if it was a rabbit, they wouldn't have a hope! I had an
idea: individual plant protection. Take as many 2-litre plastic
water-bottles as you can get hold of, and cut off their tops and
bottoms:
Fit carefully over bean plant, then stake very firmly into the ground
so they cannot be pushed over:
Finally whitewash the sunward side to stop them "cooking"......
I can fit 4-6" extensions to these if they prove successful -
protecting the main stem to a height that rabbits cannot reach it is
the idea. To end this update, here's a view on May Bank Holiday
weekend. Ongoing jobs have included earthing-up the potatoes - an
endless task in the growing season that has involved bringing buckets
of soil from the top of the garden to supplement the available stuff in
the beds.
UPDATE - JULY 7th 2009
Through June everything grew and grew - although there were some
problems too! I now know I planted the potatoes too closely and perhaps
overdid the manure in the soil - the result being this luxuriant
foliage!
This was prone to damage from wind and rain - to the extent that it
became necessary to stake some plants....
....plus - the rabbit was having a field-day! Look at this damage
(below)! I finally caught and killed one in late June - whether it was
the only one remains unknown, although the area has been free of damage
since. We shall see.
These are three attempts at protecting lower-growing plants:
Milk-crates, an old bit of trawler-net washed up on the beach and some
old chicken-wire! As you can see, the protection is not extensive
enough, so that as soon as stems emerged through it, they were munched
away! However, I have since heard that the debris-netting used on
scaffolding is pretty effective so I will try and get hold of some.....
Here's a general view in early July, showing the incredible surge in
growth, The rabbit-protection of the runner-beans has so far worked and
they are coming into flower. Potato greenery is starting to obscure the
main pathway!
Weeds (I prefer to think of them as
free-growing biomass!) have been periodically harvested for
compost-greens, apart from bramble and bindweed and nettle. The latter
makes plant-food when left to go rotten in water, the former have to be
burnt. Mostly this is scarlet pimpernel, shepherd's purse, common
willowherb and bittercress. It gives bare soil good cover, protecting
against erosion - the trick is to keep pulling it before it seeds; this
is 10 minutes' worth! To my mind, this is working with nature, not
against it or trying to completely control it!
Here's where it ends up after harvesting. The lid stays on except when
dumping more stuff on top. Will be time to plonk a layer of soil on top
soon...
The main shallot-bed is
approaching harvest-time - perhaps in a week or
three....
More soon!
1. Peak Oil &
the Transition Movement 2. Garden Clearance 3. Garden
Rebuilding
4. Garden
Planting 5. Garden Growing 6. The Harvest
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