Blogspot - Interia Dezain

The rains and low temperatures continue here with regular downpours followed by some sunshine. A great time to plant out, with no need to worry about the young plants getting sun scorched or having to water them. The downside is that the squash seeds do not tolerate very wet conditions and it seems the majority of them have rotted in the ground.  The rain and low temps are also providing ideal conditions for around the clock feeding for the slugs and snails. Indeed the tiny slugs are tucking into our young plants, and it seems the partially decomposed straw we picked up from a nearby farm comes complete with slug eggs!  We'll keep an eye on this and may need to take action if our pest predators do not respond. Kale transplants under slug attack Planting Out With the chance of frost behind us we've been planting out the tender annuals such as Basil, Chili, Aubergine and Tomatoes. Basil seedlings grown in 30 x 50 x 15 cm trays are separated for planting out. Looking forward to t...

We've been looking into fencing a garden , and how to meet fertility demands of the fruits, nuts, herbs and perennial vegetables on the plot without relying on animal manures and imported compost, and have come up with a polyculture that may meet both of these needs that we call the biomass belt. What is the Biomass Belt ? The biomass belt is a simple closed system, perennial polyculture dedicated to growing mulch and fertilizer for annual and perennial crops. How does it work? The polyculture is composed of mineral accumulating comfrey in raised beds, Nitrogen fixing ground cover sown into pathways and a Nitrogen fixing hedgerow. Illustration by Georgi Pavlov  -  www.georgipavlov.net The comfrey is grown in raised beds for biomass and can be cut from 4 - 7 times each year with the material being used to make liquid fertiliser or used directly as mulch. The deep rooted comfrey mines nutrients deep in the subsoil that would otherwise wash away with the underground soil water or...