Blogspot - Interia Dezain

The last few weeks have seen a dramatic drop in temperature, plenty of rain and some cold winds. We have carried on regardless and are making good progress with the study. Monday morning in the garden saw a chilly temperature drop of 18 C and strong northerly winds. Work in the vegetable garden included erecting supports for beans and tomatoes and preparing seed nests for beans and squash. Seed Nests  To facilitate better seed germination we make seed nests in the mulch. The mulch is pulled back and a slight depression is made in the soil. 2 hand trowels of seedling medium (a mix of 50% sieved compost, 50% river sand) are placed into the depression, and large seeds such as beans and squash are sown 2 per nest and watered in. A seed nest at the base of  a bean pole.   Bean tripods going in Although not ideal conditions for sowing and planting, the poor weather was punctuated with warm sunny spells so we decided to sow all the beans and squash into the seed nests and plante...

Here's an update of what we've been up to during the Market Garden Polyculture study. The full team is now here and what a great group of people to work with!  We're looking forward to productive seasons.   The Brilliant 2016 Polyculture Market Garden Study Team - (left to right) Marika - Ute - Alex - Charlotte - Kata Biodiversity Study The last 3 years we have been gathering data to show the productivity of our models (see here) but currently lack a measure of biodiversity to support the casual observation of enhanced levels within the gardens. This year we are beginning to explore this with three entomological surveys headed up by my brother Peter Alfrey. Here's a post on how the first study went. Photos from our first biodiversity survey - Photos by Ute Villavicencio a nd Peter Alfrey  Bio-blitzing one of our new plots that we'll be planting out as part of the upcoming Perennial Polyculture study. Garden Bed Preparation  We've been busy getting the bed...

One of the things I love most about the way we grow is how each year everything seems to improve -  richer biodiversity, more and tastier produce and healthier soils. We've been monitoring what effect our cultivation practices have on the soil to see whether our observations are confirmed by testing. We take two soil samples from our gardens, one in March before fertilising and another in November after the last crops are harvested. We started the market garden in March 2015.  The results below represent the first and second soil tests in the garden and results from samples taken in March of this year. Soil Mineral Analysis and pH    2015 March pH (KCI) N03N NH4N P205 K20 5.69 15.4 2.89 16.3 13 November pH (KCI) N03N NH4N P205 K20 6.44 16.2 4.45 43.9 14.4 2016 Nitrogen mg/kg Potassium and Phosphorous mg/100g March pH (KCI) N03N NH4N P205 K20 6.65 4.43 5.79 88 25.2 It's pleasing to see our market garden soils improving after the first year of cultivation and that's wi...