turning sand into fertile soil

Nowhere else at Cordwood is the sandy soil more of a problem than in the Vegetable Garden.

Where we need a fertile, moisture retaining, healthy soil we have thin sand and stones over a tangle of tree roots.

How will we turn sand into fertile soil?

We need to create a soil that has the necessary pH balance, organic matter and invertebrate and mychorrizal life that indicates a healthy soil -this will not happen quickly.

The first task is to break up the roots with mattock, azada and fork: heavy physical work. Gary thought that this archaic practice was due to an ethical aversion to using mechanised gardening tools. Not so. No machine available to me could cope with the thick roots or remove the thinner ones from the soil. It's man and muscle I'm afraid. Gary stayed for half an hour!!

The beds I am working on at the moment are 4 feet by 16 feet. Once the roots have been removed, in goes half a trailer of well-rotted manure plus two barrows of leaf mould per bed.

Although this will become our vegetable garden, during this first phase we are using the beds to bring on perennials, and so have planted the first bed with leucanthemum, geum, geranium and sedum divisions.

We completed the second bed today, and so the next part of our strategy comes into play: green manures. We sowed bed 2 with phacelia. The phacelia will germinate and produce bushy green growth that will help give structure to the soil and prevent the loss of fertility. The bushy growth will be incorporated into the soil, adding organic matter and a further source of fertility. The photo on the right shows a range of green manures growing on our allotment in 2008.

A further phase will see thick mulches of organic matter applied to lock in water.

The hottest March temperatures ever recorded in some parts of the country this week. Too hot for hard work!

staying green in december

Still green!

December in the garden and a period of prolonged sub-zero temperatures is behind us - if only briefly.

It's pleasing then to see how much ground is green.

We can see field beans punch (green manure), broad beans aquadulce; grazing rye (green manure), leeks, phacelia (green manure), brussels sprouts, broccoli and the stems of maize left for overwintering insects. Most of the ground is covered and ground not planted is mulched with leaves.

As the winter rains and snow leach nutrients from others' soils, the roots of our plants will hopefully hold onto the fertility and retain soil structure.

grazing rye green manure

We have cleared summer onions and the ground in this bed will not be used again until the spring when it will have a mulch of compost and manure and the potatoes will be planted.

So, to conserve fertility and soil structure an overwintering 'green manure' is needed. This plot is shaded in the winter and so a quick germinating plant is needed. Grazing rye meets the needs perfectly and is showing great growth after only three weeks.

Its name gives away its weakness: grazing rye. Hungry winter rabbits are likely to love it and so we made need to think of some protection if we are to get full value until the spring.

natural protection against caterpillars

Now we have planted our overwintering early purple sprouting broccoli and brussels sprouts, it is time to use the bare earth beneath the little plants.
Research shows that there is less infestation from large white (cabbage white) butterfly caterpillars if the ground beneath the plant is under sown.

Trefoil is a native wild flower. It is a member of the legume (pea/bean) family and so enriches the soil with nutrients as it grows.
It is also the food plant of the small blue butterfly.

So, a marriage made in heaven!

Caterpillars of a pretty and non damaging butterfly benefit while the caterpillars of one of the worst of the garden pests are deterred.

The ground cover will also benefit other invertebrates and prove a happy hunting ground for hedgehogs and toads. If the trefoil flowers, late flying insects will have a snack stop too.

I broadcast seed beneath the plants and then watered in.

wet

Winter soils are now waterlogged after an exceptionally wet month that has seen the worst floods on record in Cumbria, England.
Waterlogged soils are bad enough, but compacted soil with poor drainage and nutrients washed away is a real problem waiting for us in spring. Our poor soils!

So, once again, I commend the planting of 'green manures' that:

• provide leaf cover to dissipate heavy rain and limit soil compaction
• give root structure within the soil helping to limit leaching of nutrients
• store up nutrients in stems and leaves
• (when combined with no dig methods) provide optimum conditions for worms to work, providing the best aeration and drainage that the soil could ask for.

Here, phacelia has been sown. This will also provide a nectar source for insects in the spring if allowed to flower.

You will spot too, that a few 'volunteer' borage plants have been left. In a mild winter, these will come into flower early, giving bees in particular, a real buzz!

Recent posting limited due to work; family health; baby seals... and poor weather.
It's good to be back!

accompanying overwintering broad beans with phacelia

Preserving the nutrients and structure of the soil over winter is a priority in the autumn for the organic gardener.

Here, overwintering broad beans V. Aquadulce Claudia show good germination. They will preserve nutrients and soil structure - and give a us a useful bean crop as well.

The beans have been helped by the unusually mild weather we have enjoyed recently. In other years, cold ground has limited germination or vigour of growth in the vital first weeks.

With luck, these will grow on to make strong bushy plants that will give a good crop of beans by May or June.

The bed next to the broad beans has been sown with phacelia. This is a green manure and will prevent soil compaction by the heavy winter rains, will store up nutrients in its leaves and stalks and limit leaching of nutrients.

We would normally plant field beans into next years legume bed. Phacelia, rather than field beans, have been planted next to the broad beans for a simple reason. In spring, the phacelia will have attractive purple flowers which will attract early season pollinating insects. These will then find our flowering broad beans too tempting to pass by.

The result should be excellent pollination and a bumper crop!

preparing the allotment for winter

October - and work preparing the allotment for winter and the next growing season is well in hand.

Leaving the soil bare is not good for wildlife. Ground cover provides habitat for invertebrates in the cold winter months.

Leaving the soil bare also leaves it vulnerable to compaction by winter rains as well as the leaching away of vital soil nutrients.

Looking up the plot..

In the ground formerly filled with potatoes we have a strip of phacelia followed by several strips of field beans. This will become the legume and corn bed next year.

Further up the allotment, grazing rye has filled space that had grown summer onions. Overwintering leeks will stand tall until next spring when this will soil will be mulched with enriched compost ready for potatoes.

the bare necessities

Winter is coming, and with it heavy winter rains. The nutrients we have spent so long trying to build up in our soils are in danger. They may disappear through our bare, winter plots, like dry sand through our opened fingers.

For organic growers, loss of fertility can be a real problem. We do not use chemical fertilisers for a ‘quick fix’. We treasure the natural fertility that mulching, manuring and composting give us. Our aim is to build fertility over years by careful rotation of crops and use of organic matter.

Winter rains can wash nutrients away and compact the soil. To prevent this, organic gardeners use ‘green manures’ so that the soil is not left bare and unprotected.

Typically, we plant green manures in early autumn after our main crops have been taken. They are allowed to grow through the autumn and on into spring. They are usually chopped down before flowering when their stems may become too woody for easy incorporation into the soil. They are either chopped down or hoed off to act as a mulch, to be dug into the soil or they are removed for composting.

Their job over the winter is to:
hold soil structure together and reduce leaching of nutrients
provide leaf cover to dissipate the compacting effects of heavy winter rains
store nutrients in stems, roots and leaves that can be released back into the soil when needed.

There is a wide range of green manures to call on. The Organic Gardening Catalogue has a great choice and your own allotment association may sell them.

We have had success including the following in our four year organic rotation:

When potatoes are lifted, field beans are sown. Beans, peas, squash and corn follow potatoes for us. We have, therefore, found field beans to fit into our rotation and they are highly vigorous and reliable. They produce great quantities of leaf and stems that are ideal for bulking up the compost or for leaving on the soil surface as a mulch. Broadcast the seed then rake over or push the small beans in with your thumb. Many plotholders have seen our field beans and complimented us on the vigour of our broad beans. I wish my broad beans were as reliable!

We follow beans with the cabbage family (brassicas). So, mustard is sown after the beans, peas, squash and corn have finished because mustard is a brassica. Not as vigorous or as frost hardy as field beans, mustard is still a reliable green manure that once again produces lots of compostable material. Sow in drills or broadcast.

Following brassicas in our organic cycle are roots and the onion family. The winter ground is usually pretty full with overwintering leeks, red and white onions, garlic and then shallots in the New Year. If we have any gaps we sow grazing rye. Very vigorous, it is also popular with pests like rabbits and wood pigeons,. It does sometimes need protection to get it going unless you are that rarity – a rabbit and pigeon loving gardener! As with the other green manures, grazing rye can be hoed or chopped down in the spring and used as a mulch or composted if you don’t want the bother of digging it in. Sow in drills or broadcast.

After the summer onions have been lifted, once again we sow grazing rye to cover any unused ground as the bed prepares itself for potatoes in the spring.

This year we will also be sowing shade tolerant trefoil beneath Brussels Sprouts and Early Purple Sprouting Broccoli as well. I’m sure the organic police will scream that this is a legume. I know, I know. But it’s good for bees and is said to deter pests because the green of the undersown trefoil makes less of a contrast than the bare soil does against the juicy big leaves of brussels and broccoli. It is said that the butterflies can’t find the leaves quite as easily. We’ll see. But even if this doesn’t work, we’ll be getting an extra green manure fertility boost beneath those hungry brassicas.

Those of use who are passionate about encouraging wildlife to our gardens are keen to use green manures too. They provide excellent invertebrate cover overwinter and the improved soil quality is welcomed by earthworms.

A word of caution when sowing your food crops in the spring. When organic matter has been dug into the soil, this tends to inhibit germination of small seeds. So, remove green manures to the compost bin if you are planning to sow seeds – or transplant young plants into the bed if you have dug in your green manures or are planting beneath mulches.

Text of article published in Allotment and Leisure gardener Autumn 2009

bee food

Trev was complaining of there being no bees at the allotments. And he's right, there are very few around.Early flowering plants like broad beans need pollinating insects - or we have no beans! One third of our food comes from flowers pollinated by insects.

But as I looked across the allotments, the consistent colour was green. What are we doing to attract and support bees at the monent. Not enough, is the answer.

I have a whole range of plants that will provide food for bees later this month and well into the autumn.

But after the primroses, cowslips , apples and plums there is a 'hungry gap' for bees and pollinating insects on our allotment that stretches through April and May. What can fill this gap?

Here's one candidiate, photographed at the Hope Farm RSPB reserve in Bedfordshire, England. It is the overwintering phacelia.

This can be sown as a green manure, but the advice when planting green manures is to dig them in or chop them down before the flower. Little use to bees!

This phacelia crop was considered highly attractive to bees and I will seriously consider planting areas that will host broad beans next year with phacelia in the autumn.

green manure: mustard

I've extolled the virtues of green manures many times in the past.

Here, we have mustard doing really well. Mustard fits into the organic rotation as a member of the brassica family. Next year this ground will be planted with calabrese and broccoli. The mustard will either be dug under or composted in the spring.
The bushy, established plants were planted after peas were cleared from the ground. The recently germinated plants were sowed later - after sweetcorn had been cleared.
The established plants were sown in my usual diagonal drills, but have so much growth that you can't see the pattern any more.

Beyond the mustard is the bed that will be planted with legumes next year. The green manure is the ever-reliable field bean.

mr mustard

The season is rolling by and bare earth is appearing as crops are taken. Bare soil is bad soil, so into the ground go the green manures.
We have now established an annual cycle of green manures and overwintering plants to follow our crop rotation.

This years potato bed is planted with field beans and with broad beans to be followed by legumes in the spring...
This years legume bed is planted with mustard to be followed by brassicas in the spring...
This years brassica bed is planted with garlic, onions and shallots...
This years onion bed is planted with grazing rye... to be manured and planted with potatoes in the spring.

As Hannibal Hayes said 'I love it when a plan comes together'.

round and round

Organic systems rely on a rotation of crops so that pests and diseases do not build up in one area and so that fertility can be built up in the soil.

Our four-year cycle begins with potatoes after the ground has been well composted or manured. Field beans are sown into the ground after potatoes are lifted as a 'green manure'.

The following spring beans are planted. Their roots are mini nitrogen factories that pack extra nutrients into the soil.

Brassica (cabbage) family plants follow in the third year.
With onion tribe plants completing the cycle.

Here's the bean bed plan for this year.

sweet corn planted with beans: climbing blue lake
early peas: feltham first
sweet corn planted with beans: climbing blue lake
marrowfat peas: marro
strawberry: marshmello	french beans for drying: horsehead
broad beans: aguadulce
beans: climbing blue lake	french beans for drying: horsehead

broad is beautiful

An allotment specialty is the broad bean.
Planted in the autumn, it serves the purpose of a green manure but then goes on to yield a delicious crop. they are cropping from May and so are one of the earliest of the new season vegetables.

Here, the pods are still developing and the beans inside are tiny. At this stage they are picked, chopped and used in stir fries or are delicious steamed. We use half the bed for these baby broad beans.

The beans on the other half of the bed are allowed to grow onto maturity. Then, the pods are picked, the pods discarded and the big, creamy beans eaten.

Perfect in salads when cooked and allowed to cool.

When braod beans appear on the plate you can confidently predict you are in the home of a gardener.

treasure lost?

Washing out through our bare, winter soils, like dry sand through our opened fingers, are the nutrients we have spent so long trying to build up.

For organic growers this can be a real problem. we do not use chemical fertilisers and treasure the natural fertility that mulching, manuring and composting give us.

When the soil was bare in autumn, we planted field beans to:

• hold soil structure together and reduce leaching of nutrients
• provide leaf cover to dissipate the compacting effects of heavy winter rains
• store up in stems, roots and leaves soil nutrients that could be released back into the soil when needed.

Here, the roots have been hoed and stems and stalks chopped and left on the soil surface for incorporation by worms. The end quarter of the bed has been covered with opaque plastic to see whether this speeds the worm activity.

Meanwhile, back in the greenhouse, early peas 'Feltham First' have been raised and now the first batch have been hardened off ready for planting out.

I just need time!!!!!

bare earth is bad earth!!!!!

Although it is traditional for gardeners to clear their land and leave it empty for the winter, there is another way.
This photo shows one quarter of the vegetable garden - the section given to legumes (beans and peas) next year.
The bed is is now planted with green manures - red clover and field beans- and broad beans were sown today.
The leaves of the growing plants will dissipate the compacting effects of winter rains. The roots of these leguminous plants will enrich the soil for a longer period.
The stems and leaves will store nitrogen that will be released in the spring when green manures can be 'dug in' or chopped off and used as a mulch or composted.

Green manures

Heavy winter rains are bad for bare soil.
Nutrients are leached away and soil is compacted.

There is still time to plant 'green manures' into earth that has been cleared to prevent these problems.

Green manures benefit the soil by:
providing foliage protection - their leaves take the impact of the rain and prevent soil compaction
their roots provide structure and reduce leaching
their stems, leaves and roots take up nitrogen from the soil and store it over winter so that they can be released again through composting or mulching in the spring.

So far, bare soil has been planted with buckwheat and field beans. Today I hope to complete coverage by sowing grazing rye.

Then I will feel that the garden has been 'tucked up' for the winter.