Transition to Spring? -
19th February 2009
-
updated 7th/11th/13th/16th/23rd/29th March/11th April/1st/27th May/
6th
July/2nd August/4th December 2009
Theme: Peak Oil, the Transition
Movement....
- and
how to turn a bramble-infested
wilderness into a vegetable garden!
PART 4: Preparation and Planting
23rd March: I've now split this up into several pages as there are so
many images!
Quick links to the other parts:
1. Peak Oil
&
the Transition Movement 2. Garden Clearance 3. Garden
Rebuilding
4. Garden
Planting 5. Garden
growing 6. The Harvest
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March
11th
saw us setting off to a nearby farm with a large trailer, picks
and shovels. The scene for the action was an old barn, floored to a
depth of 1ft or more with ancient dung that we were to clear.
The
muck
was stratified - testimony to the three decades or more of lambing
that had gone on. The dry top layer was so hard that great slabs of it
came up, resembling chipboard, and resisting blows from the pick......
It was a well-loaded trailer that set off back through the drizzle
towards Machynlleth......
Unloading involved shovelling the stuff into a plastic dustbin and
carrying it halfway up the garden to a convenient storage-area. Taking
it in turns to carry ten loads and to load the bin, we finished the
task after a total of 40 loads of ~60lbs, which takes the weight to
just over a ton.
Following washing/changing, the first pint that evening was especially
tasty!
UPDATE
23rd MARCH 2009
Another
handy composting or mulching thing is seaweed. Slugs hate the salt, I
have been told - so long as you don't smother plants with the stuff!
Weed is a complete pain in the neck if you are fishing on local
beaches, draping itself on your line and leaving a great mass to be
pumped in (cheaper than joining a Gym though!!). At low tide, there's
usually plenty to be found washed up on local beaches and as I was near
the coast on the 21st I made a quick detour to pick up a couple of
boxfulls:
That
evening,
I arranged the seed-potatoes for chitting, when the sprouts
start to grow. L = Pink Fir Apple, R = Charlotte, half and half in the
middle. These'll be ready to go in in a while!
On the 22nd I planted shallot and garlic sets.....
I used an old ice-axe to pop the holes in for the sets - extremely
handy tool for the job!
Completed bed - 2 x Spring Onions (seed); 1
x Garlic; 5 x Shallots; 1 x Radish (seed). Now it's up to Nature!
The bed above was always going to be a headache due to its 40-degree
gradient! I had considered planting a few big bushy things in it, but
we had bought so many seed potatoes, something would have to be done
with it this year.....
In the end I divided it up into 4 terraces.
Above again, the top bed was made fairly level by raising its front
using a few logs:
Here's a quick tot-up of time spent and fuel consumed
up to March 23rd:
16 round trips from home to the garden = just under 20 miles. This was
because a
lot of heavy tools were taken to and from there each time during the
early stages.
The manure-gathering trip = 16 miles
Diversions to pick up seaweed and woodchips add up to less than 5 miles.
Total = just over 40 miles or less than two gallons of diesel (I get
50mpg from my vehicle - not sure what my mate's Discovery does)
Petrol consumed by chainsaw: approximately one gallon
Man-hours: approximately 70
Ongoing and still conclusive proof that the main energy input has been
of a muscular
nature!!
On
the 24th I went fishing - look at the weed washing ashore!
Bites were not forthcoming - it's still rather early in the season, but
it starts anytime now! So I gathered some more weed as the waves rolled
it along to me:
UPDATE
11th April 2009
Having been away for a week in which the weather
warmed up, I was still surprised to come back to a growing garden. The
garlic has taken the lead, some shooting up five inches in a few
days....
....but also lots of little seedlings are appearing everywhere! This is
what happens when sunlight reaches soil that has been hidden under
dense brambles for years. I shall take care to identify what these
various seedlings turn into and decide their fate accordingly. In
places there are certainly acorns "hatching out" and I'll transplant
them to the sides of the garden where there are obvious gaps. I'll only
root out stuff if it is a potential nuisance: if there are any useful
herbs or insect-beneficial plants I will leave them wherever possible.
April 11th saw the potatoes go in: I had fears we'd overdone it on the
seed-potato purchase....
...justifiably! These are what are left. Lesson learned: there are lots
of Pink Fir Apples to the kilo! I've even planted three rows in the
un-dug, unmanured thin soil above the top bed seen here. It will be
interesting to see how they do, by comparison with the pampered ones
further downhill!
Also in, via Suffolk Seeds, are Spinach Beet, American Cress and
Crimson Clover - the last ordered as a "green manure" crop for next
winter, but as it is a very powerful bee-attractor, I've sown it in
patches here and there, and especially down either side of the garden.
It's always important to attract beneficial insects (both pollinators
and predators). Today I had some colourful visitors in the shape of
three different butterflies - Orange Tip, Small Tortoishell and this
Comma:
They seem to like the sunny sheltered aspect of the place!
UPDATE 1st May 2009
Planting continues apace: the need for some bean-sticks saw me attack
one of the sycamores on April 13th. Only keeping them for timber -
non-indigenous rubbish otherwise!
....and the job completed!
More seeds are being
planted: runner beans, purple-sprouting broccoli and leeks in pots at
home and a mixture of well-known and obscure things directly into the
soil:
Land Seaweed is supposed
to taste a bit like Marsh Samphire! Calendula attracts bees and has
uses in herbal medicine too.... as is Echinacea - I had a good deal
from the plant stall at Machynlleth Market with a big potful for a
couple of quid so that's got a head-start!
Still need to be careful though - this was the frost on a nearby verge
on Easter Sunday, April 12th:
Next
part: How did the garden grow? Read
more....
1. Peak Oil &
the Transition Movement 2. Garden Clearance 3. Garden
Rebuilding
4. Garden
Planting 5. Garden
growing 6. The Harvest
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