Monday 6 June 2016

Polyculture Project - Market Garden Study - Update 5

We said goodbye to Charlotte who has returned to Norway to make a start on her upcoming project. Thank you Charlotte, for all of your help, it was a pleasure to have you here:)  We're pleased to welcome Natasha from New Zealand to the team. 

But first just to let you know we've revamped our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture Plants, Seeds, Cuttings, Bulbs, Rhizomes and Polyculture Multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy and finally we've added a Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree order form for Farms, Orchards, Nurseries, and Large Regenerative Landscape Projects. If there is anything in the store you would like to see but is not there, please let us know. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. Thank you. Enter Our Store Here

Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes.

The Market Garden Polycultures 

We are growing 3 annual polycultures this year. Ares includes a perennial support crop, but the main crops are annuals. Here are the plant lists for the polycultures.

ZenoEpictetusAres
Common Name
Cultivar
FamilyCommon Name
Cultivar
FamilyCommon Name
Cultivar
Family
African MarigoldAsteraceaeCourgette Zucchini
Izobilna
CucurbitaceaeParsleyApiaceae
Pot Marigold AsteraceaeCourgette Zucchini
Black Beauty
CucurbitaceaeDillApiaceae
Courgette Zucchini
Black Beauty
CucurbitaceaeDwarf Yellow Bean
Rocquencourt
FabaceaeRed OnionAmaryllidaceae
Squash Waltham ButternutsCucurbitaceaeDwarf Borlotto Bean
Lingua Fuoco Nano
FabaceaeWhite OnionAmaryllidaceae
Summer Squash
Yellow Bush Scallop
CucurbitaceaeAubergine
Black Beauty
SolanaceaeDwarf Yellow Bean
Rocquencourt
Fabaceae
Courgette
Izobilna
CucurbitaceaeCarrots
Autumn King
ApiaceaeDwarf Borlotto Bean
Lingua Fuoco Nano
Fabaceae
French Climbing Bean
Cobra Beans
FabaceaeCarrots
Rainbow Mix
ApiaceaeKohlrabi
Delicacy Purple
Brassicaceae
French Climbing Bean
Hristo's Beans
FabaceaeKale - Borecole
'Siberian'
BrassicaceaePaulownia tomentosaPaulowniaceae
Tomato
Citrina
SolanaceaeKale - Borecole
'Scarlet'
Brassicaceae
Tomato
Black Krim
SolanaceaeSwiss Chard
Rainbow Mix
Amaranthaceae
Tomato
Ukrainian Purple
SolanaceaeBeetroot
Rainbow Mix
Amaranthaceae
Tomato
Marglobe
SolanaceaeBeetroot
Saved seed
Amaranthaceae
Tomato
Tigerella
SolanaceaeParsnip
White Gem
Apiaceae
Tomato
Anna Russian
SolanaceaeKohlrabi - Delicacy PurpleBrassicaceae
Sweet Genovese BasilLamiaceaeChilli Pepper
Saved
Solanaceae


This week we planted out the support species- Calendula officinalis and Tagetes erecta into Zeno. Both of these plants are reliable self seeding annuals.



 As long as you don't mulch where last season's plants were, you can expect many seedlings to emerge in the spring and can use these to stock the beds. Three or four plants can produce 100's of strong seedlings.    

A patch of self seeded Calendula officinalis 

It's been more of the same cool and wet weather over the last few weeks. Parsnips, carrots, chard, dwarf beans and kale in Epictetus have all responded well to the cooler weather, but many of the warm weather crops such as squash, peppers and aubergines are struggling.  Hopefully, they should take off with warmer temperatures forecast.  

Siberian Kale - ready for the first of many harvests

Grasses 

With no clear break in the weather so far, hay making is still on hold and we've had plenty of time to try and identify a range of grasses we have growing on the site. Thanks to Ute for identifying the following grass species from the garden:

Cock's Foot (Dactylis glomerata)
Meadow Brome (Bromus commutatus)
Great Brome (Bromus diandrus)
False Oat grass (Arrhenatherum elatius)
Wall Barley (Hordeum murinum)
Bent or Bentgrass (Agrostis sp.)
Probably also both Poa trivialis and Poa annua


Photos by UteVillavicencio

Forest Garden 

Cherries - It's been a poor year for cherries with what little fruit that set quickly spoiled by heavy rainfall. We still managed to pick at least 20 kg from some very reliable trees in the back garden and have some late ripening cultivars yet to harvest from the orchard. On the bright side, it looks like we're in a for a bumper plum harvest.




Fireblight - For the first time I can remember one of our "semi-wild" pear trees is hosting  Erwinia amylovora - Fireblight,  a pathogenic bacteria.

Natasha cut out all of the infected branches and we removed them from the site for winter kindling. With more wet and stormy weather forecast for June, the bacteria are likely to spread. It's interesting to see how the windward face of the tree carries the majority of the infected branches.

Natasha pruning out the infected branches 

Below is some more information on the disease cycle of Fire blight.

Image from http://web.idiggreenacres.com/blog/fireblight



Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course 


Want to learn how to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes?  Join us for our Regenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course from May 1st to Sep 13th, 2023. 

We're super excited about running the course and look forward to providing you with the confidence, inspiration, and opportunity to design, build and manage regenerative landscapes, gardens, and farms that produce food and other resources for humans while enhancing biodiversity.

Regenerative Landscape Design Online Course

You can find out all about the course here and right now we have a 20% discount on the full enrollment fees. Just use the promo code
 RLD2023 in the section of the registration form to receive your discount. 

We are looking forward to providing you with this unique online learning experience - as far as we know, the very first of its kind. If you are thinking of reasons why you should do this course and whether this course is suitable for you, take a look here where we lay it all out. Looking forward to it!

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We offer a diversity of plants and seeds for permaculture, forest gardens and regenerative landscapes including a range of fruit and nut cultivars. We Deliver all over Europe from Nov - March. - Give a happy plant a happy home :)


Our Bio-Nursery - Permaculture/Polyculture/ Regenerative Landscape Plants 

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