Blogspot - Interia Dezain

The Chai Guild is your homegrown one stop shop for refreshing vitalising herbal teas and a living first aid cabinet. It also serves to attract a host of beneficial insects, provides habitat for many others, accumulates essential mineral nutrients and displays beauty and interest throughout the year. Oh  - and I forgot to mention the strawberries, currants and salad leaves. This is a perennial guild, meaning that the plants will live for more than two years, but in fact most of the plants in this guild will flourish for much longer than this. This community of plants is ideal for small gardens taking up no more than approx 6m2. It also works well in a larger space as a beneficial island that fills a gap within the wider garden ecosystem of fruit, nut and ornamental trees. Species Overview  All the plants in this guild (apart from Agastache foeniculum) are native to Europe and all are well adapted to the climate and ecology of the Northern Temperate zone. We have been growing...

Generally I live at ease with aphids in the garden. Occasionally they infest a bean plant but they are usually swiftly brought under control by the natural predators that roam the patch such as ladybirds, lacewings, hoverfly larvae and braconid/chalcid parasites before they do any lasting harm. They are also noticeably attracted to fresh apical growth of Prunus spp. such as cherry and peach, but soon come to the attention of a goldfinch that devours them over the course of a few sittings. However, in the greenhouse during the winter months, free from predation, they thrive and wreak havoc on the defenseless plants. My chilli pepper plants are the victims this year. Leaf from Capsicum chinense inhabited by various generations of  Aphis fabae subsp. Having been away for Christmas for a few weeks I returned to find the pepper plants in a spot of bother. The aphid populations, well established on the plants,  pierce the epidermis (plant skin) and suck the nutrient laden sap from...

During this series of posts we will be looking at a range of beneficial organisms commonly known as bugs, critters or creepy crawlies,  that can contribute to a healthy, productive and pest free growing environment in your temperate garden. As well as identifying  key species that serve as allies to our efforts in the garden, we will look at ways to attract and keep these organisms around. "It may be doubted whether there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized organisms." Charles Darwin (1881) Old Charlie boy is not referring to the environmental activist but to animals belonging to the order Megadrilacea, the earthworms :) So why are Worms so important and what makes them a garden ally? There are many species of earthworms on our planet,  each specie specially adapted to particular soils and particular areas of the soil. Their chief role is that of the decomposer, keeping nutrients flo...

For the last 9 years we have been experimenting with growing annual vegetables and herbs in polycultures. Over the years I have stuck with what works, discarded what has not, and now have what appears to me to be a good model of productive ecological design. Productive in that it provides us with a harvest from early spring until early winter, ecological in that it provides habitat and food for many other organisms too. Garden produce    This post is an introduction and overview to our Annual Herb and Vegetable Guild/Polyculture that we call Zeno. If you would like to find out how much food we have harvested from this polyculture and how much time it took to grow this food you can read the results of our polyculture study here  Introduction to our Annual Vegetable and Herb Guilds Our Annual Vegetable and Herb Guilds are situated in six raised beds each 1m x 6m and approx 30cm high with 50 cm paths between the beds. Surrounding the beds are  a diversity ...