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.
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| 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.
| Zeno | Epictetus | Ares | ||||||
| Common Name Cultivar | Family | Common Name Cultivar | Family | Common Name Cultivar | Family | |||
| African Marigold | Asteraceae | Courgette Zucchini Izobilna | Cucurbitaceae | Parsley | Apiaceae | |||
| Pot Marigold | Asteraceae | Courgette Zucchini Black Beauty | Cucurbitaceae | Dill | Apiaceae | |||
| Courgette Zucchini Black Beauty | Cucurbitaceae | Dwarf Yellow Bean Rocquencourt | Fabaceae | Red Onion | Amaryllidaceae | |||
| Squash Waltham Butternuts | Cucurbitaceae | Dwarf Borlotto Bean Lingua Fuoco Nano | Fabaceae | White Onion | Amaryllidaceae | |||
| Summer Squash Yellow Bush Scallop | Cucurbitaceae | Aubergine Black Beauty | Solanaceae | Dwarf Yellow Bean Rocquencourt | Fabaceae | |||
| Courgette Izobilna | Cucurbitaceae | Carrots Autumn King | Apiaceae | Dwarf Borlotto Bean Lingua Fuoco Nano | Fabaceae | |||
| French Climbing Bean Cobra Beans | Fabaceae | Carrots Rainbow Mix | Apiaceae | Kohlrabi Delicacy Purple | Brassicaceae | |||
| French Climbing Bean Hristo's Beans | Fabaceae | Kale - Borecole 'Siberian' | Brassicaceae | Paulownia tomentosa | Paulowniaceae | |||
| Tomato Citrina | Solanaceae | Kale - Borecole 'Scarlet' | Brassicaceae | |||||
| Tomato Black Krim | Solanaceae | Swiss Chard Rainbow Mix | Amaranthaceae | |||||
| Tomato Ukrainian Purple | Solanaceae | Beetroot Rainbow Mix | Amaranthaceae | |||||
| Tomato Marglobe | Solanaceae | Beetroot Saved seed | Amaranthaceae | |||||
| Tomato Tigerella | Solanaceae | Parsnip White Gem | Apiaceae | |||||
| Tomato Anna Russian | Solanaceae | Kohlrabi - Delicacy Purple | Brassicaceae | |||||
| Sweet Genovese Basil | Lamiaceae | Chilli 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.
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| 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.
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| 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
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
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| 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 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.
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| Natasha pruning out the infected branches |
Below is some more information on the disease cycle of Fire blight.
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Image from http://web.idiggreenacres.com/blog/fireblightRegenerative Landscape Design - Online Interactive Course
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