Blogspot - Interia Dezain

Shelterbelt/ Windbreak Protecting your garden from the wind will increase productivity and decrease workload. Often overlooked, it should be one of the first things you consider when designing your garden or choosing a site. Wind can be a major suppressant of plant growth desiccating the soil and increasing the transpiration rates (water loss) of  plants considerably. Strong winds can cause soil erosion, damage to plants and deter beneficial winged insects. This tree signifies a prevailing wind coming from the right side of the picture. The growth directly exposed to the wind has been suppressed.     The advantages of a windbreak are many, however there are some disadvantages and if designed poorly one can create a bigger problem rather than finding a solution. So lets take a look at the potential problems first. Frosts Poorly designed windbreaks can encourage frosts and although generally are no problem during the winter as the plants have adapted protection, late sp...

Essential Elements There are seventeen elements known to be necessary for plants to complete their life cycle,  the essential elements . The Primary and Secondary Nutrients labelled in this diagram I collectively refer to as Macronutrients Of the seventeen essential elements, hydrogen (H), oxygen (O), and carbon (C) come from the air and water and are readily available.  Although nitrogen can also be found in the air, its gaseous form is not useable by plants.  Along with nitrogen, the rest of the elements are found in the soil.  Depending on the soil properties, however, some of these elements may be present but not in forms that are useable for plant use.   Still some soils may lack one or more of these elements.   When one or more of the essential elements is deficient, plants cannot complete their life cycle.  Such deficiency will be expressed in deformed plant growth and a supply of the lac...

I am currently working as part of a design team for a 11.9 hectare farming project here in Bulgaria. The project will consist of an  Organic Cherry Orchard designed by  The Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL)   and a Forest Garden with Cherry featuring as the dominant Upper Canopy specie. My role is to design a Forest Garden area as well as looking into the rainwater harvesting potential of the site. View from the top of the watershed looking South The immediate challenge is to provide an irrigation solution that will meet the water needs for the whole site. Its a difficult site in that although flanked by two streams to the east and west and the river Chervishtitsa  to South , the land is like a huge wedge rising up above the flanking streams. Relying solely on water from the streams is not feasible or desirable, as water levels are very low in the dry months. Interception will inevitably disrupt the existing ecosystems and expensive pumping will...