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Emilia Hazelip Synergistic garden bedsI’ve taken procrastination to whole new levels on this one and for that I apologise. We showed the Synergistic Garden video by Emilia Hazelip at the May Seedy Sunday.  Finally, I manage to get the notes up and a couple of links for your edification.

I have to admit, I’ve become a little obsessed by these beautiful beds, all curved and mounded in sweeping lines. I also love the very way they are constructed, in sort of gentle sweeping movements. Due to my terrain I’m not able to do them at my house, so I’ve been eyeing up other people’s gardens to work on.

Anyway, here are notes on the video including links to some other pieces on Emilia…

 

 

 

 

Emilia Hazelip – Synergistic Gardening

 

Based on work of Masanobu Fukuoka, The One Straw Revolution. 1978. Rodale.

 

 

 

Need to modify systems to our own location. Want to get high-yields whiile maintaining the soil’s own fertility.

 

No cultivation

 

No chemical or organic fertilisers

 

No chemical treatments

 

No compaction of the soil

 

Set out beds with sticks and then clear paths for your feet, mounding the soil into beds. Mounds should be 4 feet wide with 20 inches for the path. 10 – 30 inches for the beds deeper the beds the more room for the roots. Give them any shape you wish but make sure you can reach the centre of the beds easily.

 

Sheet mulch – cover the ground with cardboard. A good way to clear ground and you can grow potatoes at the same time.

 

Plants synthesise from light. Plants only take 2.5% of their mass from the soil. The rest comes from air and light. Plants give back much more to the soil then they take out.

 

Use marigolds all through the garden.

 

Beans and peas are legumes and fix nitrogen into the soil. You can use ash, which contains potash, to help grow your beans. This provides free fertiliser for your soil, the bacteria providing many benefits to your plants. These plants will also provide a living mulch between your plants. After harvest, the plants can simply be cut off, leaving the roots in the soil. the plant matter can simply be left on top of the beds. providing further mulch.

 

Synergistic gardening uses compost in the greenhouse or flats to start the plants – it doesn’t ‘force feed’ your soil with it.

 

Onions, garlic and leeks can be planted on the side of the garden beds. They function as pests controllers as well as being nutritious. They can be intermixed with other plants like lettuce or swiss chard.

 

Many plants reseed themselves – an advantage of letting plants finish their life cycle.

 

Mulching the mounds – Newspaper, cardboard, straw, leaves, wool. You can use grass clippings as mulch, but make sure you cut it and let it dry before it starts to seed. The first year the soill will be eating the mulch but as the organic contents in the soil improves, the amount of mulch needed will reduce. You will still need to weed, but it will gradually reduce – it’s all part of the evolving cycle.

 

Ducks (Indian Runner ducks), some birds, hedgehogs, lizards all eat slugs. Copper cuffs, or ones made from coke cans can protect plants from slugs.

 

When harvesting plants like lettuce, cut above the ground allowing the plant a chance to regrow, or providing dead matter for the soil to feed on.

 

Don’t stand on your beds! this will damage and compact the soil

 

Flowers are very important as they may attract beneficial insects, secrete chemicals to protect other plants (eg marigolds), or have edible, medicinal, or economic benefits as well as looking very attractive.

 

 

 

Diversity = a healthy, rich soil. Plants lots of plants with different root structures and leave those root structures in the soil when you harvest. Emilia says that force feeding your soil will create an imbalance or indigestion – let things work naturally – synergistically.

 

 

 

In nature, nothing happens in exactly the same way twice in the same spot. Diversify.

 

 

More information

The Synergistic Agriculture of Emilia Hazelip at the Fukoka Farming website

Watch Emilia Hazelip’s video on Synergistic Gardening

gutter_gardensSometimes you just have to get a bit imaginative with it, like this Alaskan resident.

Using old guttering  provides the perfect depth for lettuce, spring onions, radishes, some cute little Parisian market carrots and most of your herbs. It’s easy maintenance and a great way to recycle.

How does your garden grow? (Juneau Empire via Make)

(via Lifehacker)

Obama White House GardenWASHINGTON (AP) — Twenty-six elementary schoolchildren wielded shovels, rakes, pitchforks and wheelbarrows to help first lady Michelle Obama break ground on the first day of spring for a produce and herb garden on the White House grounds.

Crops to be planted in the coming weeks on the 1,100-square-foot, L-shaped patch near the fountain on the South Lawn include spinach, broccoli, various lettuces, kale and collard greens, assorted herbs and blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

There will also be a beehive.

Read the rest of the article

(via Transition Towns Kapiti)

Borlotti beans: wonderfully tasty and homegrownGrow your own food! But be patient – this is how long it will take. The chart looks at how long you can expect to wait for your vegetables to grow from seed. These are estimated times – climate, soil conditions, water supply, different cultivars, farming methods can all give different results.

There’s no time like the present to start growing food, especially when you see how long it takes for veges to grow. The economy is going insane, nobody knows what’s going to happen… you need a little security in your life. Being able to grow food to feed your family is really the best security you can get. Then you know that if you lose your job, or the supermarkets run out, or your country goes bankrupt you can eat.

It’s a baseline to work from – you need to eat. If you grow your own food (or even just some of it) :

—  it will save you money;
—  it will give you mana, strength, self-worth;
—  it will give you better health, keep you active, help you lose weight.

Read more

Zucchini Blossom End RotSo I was wondering why the zucchini plants growing in one bed were half the size of the ones growing in another. The answer became apparent as the zucchs set. The soil in one bed is lacking in calcium. The signs being a nasty little problem called Blossom End Rot.

I’m ok with it as I’m drowning in zucchini at the moment and I’m choosing to see this as a valuable garden lesson. Still, I don’t like to see unhappy plants. I’ll be laying them to rest in the compost and adding lime and crushed egg shells to the soil, reapplying mulch and hoping for better healthier plants next time around. I’ll do a soil test in the future to see if I got it right.

Zucchini Blossom End Rot is not your friend! Make sure you look after your soil and avoid these problems!