Blogspot - Interia Dezain

Inspired by the work of Lawrence D Hills (1911–1991) who undertook extensive research on comfrey during his lifetime,  we decided to start some comfrey trials of our own to see just how much biomass these plants can produce for us, how well they fertilise our crops, how attractive they are for garden wildlife and whether they have a beneficial impact on the soil. We sought to do this by planting out a test bed and measuring the weight of each cut we took. The biomass was then processed to make a liquid concentrate that was applied to our market garden crops. During the season we casually observed invertebrate activity in the patch and also during cutting times and finally each year after the cuts are complete we send a soil sample from the patch off to the lab for analysis of pH N,P and K to compare with a base sample taken before we established the patch. We also record all inputs of mulch, ash, compost and water applied to the bed. If you would like to learn more about comfrey an...

For the previous three years we have been testing the practice of growing vegetables and herbs in polycultures (or what is known as guilds within permaculture circles). We have been using our home garden for these tests and recording the inputs and outputs from the growing seasons. Our aim is to discover whether or not growing in polycultures offers benefits over conventional methods of growing, and to see to what degree we can obtain good yields of nutrient dense food whilst providing habitat for garden wildlife. Garden produce and wildlife  What follows is a description of the garden layout and planting scheme, an overview of our cultivation practices, the results from year three of the study, our record keeping methods, and some notes and observations from this year. If you would like to see a summary of  results from previous years click here. Last year we started a scaled up version of this study looking at polyculture growing for a market garden. The results from year 2 ...

It's the end of the second year of our Polyculture Market Garden Study marked by the end of season soil sampling, picking green tomatoes, mulching the crop residues and packing the tomato and bean supports away (leaving some for the birds to perch on over the coming winter). Once we get the soil samples back from the lab. and finish writing it up we'll be posting the results here on the blog. S ee here for the results of our polyculture studies from 2014 - 2016 Packing away supports and last harvests We'd like to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to everyone who helped with the study this year. Peter Alfrey , Natasha Barbier, Jack Carlowe, Alexandre Duclouet, Susan Eggers, Johannes Heuschkel, Sandra Koljackova and her 2 beautiful daughters,  Biljana Kostovska,  Pauline Lousteau, Tadeo Melvin, Ala Pekalska, Kata Prodanov, Jan and Keith Roberts, Dimo Stefanov from  Wasteno Farm ,   Ute Villavicencio , Marika Wanklyn and Charlotte Wrist Kirk.   Polycultu...