Summer Time - Polyculture Study 2017 - Update 3

We had a perfect spring in many ways, bright and warm with rainfall just when it was needed. The summer has started off equally well and the fruits are filling the canopies while the vegetable garden is yielding well.

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.

This month we said goodbye to Gabrielle Landi who has been absolutely amazing, thanks so much for all of your help and support, we hope you come back soon.

Gabriele Landi

We also said goodbye to Chris Mallorie, Abi Ryder and their son Ed who stayed with us for a month during their European Permaculture tour. Happy travels guys and thanks for everything.

We're pleased to welcome Wil Kunkle from the US of A to the study who I think actually may be Jared Leto secretly escaping Hollywood for a few months.

Chris Kirby Lambert also joined us for his second biodiversity survey of the year and we're looking forward to see him again in August for the final survey of 2017.

Special thanks to film makers Simon Rogowski from www.inspiria.de and David Pavlašević www.vimeo.com/davidpavlasevic who came for a 4 day shoot for our upcoming crowd funding campaign that we'll be releasing this winter. Thanks also to Kathy, Fergus and Gabriele for presenting under the gun :)

 Simon Rogowski from www.inspiria.de and David Pavlašević www.vimeo.com/davidpavlasevic and Archie  

So here's an update of what we've been up to during the last few months;

Coppicing the Robinia Woodland  

One of our plots on the east side of Shipka has been left to naturally succeed for the last 15 - 20 years the result being a small Robinia pseudoacacia woodland.

I've been meaning to get a coppice going in this area for a few years now and this year we made a start. Some of the trees are the perfect size for fence post now, around 15 cm diameter, and other trees will make great fire wood for this winter. The largest trees in the area we have left there as they really are excellent specimens and provide a bounty of forage for bees.

The Robinia woodland in late spring 

Fergus Gabrielle, myself and Chris spent a few mornings in the woodland felling the trees stripping the branches and hauling the wood out.

Felling the trees and striping the branches to the main stem. The large straight diameter wood we'll use for round wood  construction , the low diameter wood for fence post and the curved pieces for fire wood. The branches were piles along the western perimeter for temporary fencing.  

About 2 weeks after the cut the stools were already starting to send out shoots of regrowth

First shoots emerging from dormant buds buried under the bark

and a week later multiple shoots were clearly visible

and the last time I checked in late June they were over 1m :)

Market Garden 

Market Garden

Vegetables Boxes  - Our veggie boxes are out again, packed full of fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs from the gardens.  If you would like to order a box you can find more out here or send us an email to arrange delivery.

    

Comfrey Trials - We're on the third comfrey cut of the year in the trial bed and hoping to get 5 cuts this year, one more in mid August and another in late September.  If we irrigate the beds well during late July and early August it should be attainable. We've been applying grass trimmings to the beds after each cut but other than that have applied no fertliser since the records began last year (see here for last year's results)

Comfrey Cuts  2017
	Date	Flowering	Days between cuts	Sample Weight from 14 plants	Weight per plant	Est .Weight kg x 42 plants (13 m2 Bed)
Cut 1	8.5.17	yes	n/a	6.795	0.4853571429	20.385
Cut 2	5.6.17	partial	27	8.6	0.6142857143	25.8
Cut 3	17.7.17	partial	42	7.84	0.56	23.52
Cut 4
			Total			69.705

Comfrey Trial Beds 

We're not making comfert (comfrey liquid fertilser) this year as the soils are fertile enough so instead we are using the comfrey leaves directly as mulch.

Our 13 m2 bed with 42 plants so far, from 3 cuts, has produced 69 kg of biomass that we have used to mulch approx. 13 m2 of beds (10-15 cm deep layer of leaves.)

Just under 8 kg of comfrey biomass covers 1.5 m2 bed with a 10-15 cm deep layer 

That works out that each plant has so far produced biomass to provide cover 0.31 m2 of ground. 

Pond Installation in the Perennial Polyculture Trial Garden Ataraxia 

We've added a new pond to the perennial trial garden. You can read more about that in the blog posts below.

Small Pond Installations for Irrigation and Wildlife - Part 1 - Planning and Digging 

Small Pond Installations for Irrigation and Wildlife - Part 2 - Liners

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!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Support Our Project 

If you appreciate the work we are doing you can show your support in several ways.

• Make a purchase of plants or seeds from our Bionursery or Online Store 

• Consider joining us for one of our Courses or Online Courses

• Comment, like, and share our content on social media.

• Donate directly via PayPal to balkanecologyproject@gmail.com or via FTX Pay

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Design and Create Webinars - Forest Gardens, Urban Gardens, Permaculture, Regenerative Farming   

We're hosting a range of online learning sessions including how to create habitat to enhance biodiversity, how to design and build a forest garden, polyculture design software tutorials, regenerative farm, and landscape design, urban gardening and much more. If you would like to be notified when our next sessions are coming up please add your email below and hit subscribe and we'll be in touch.

You can also register for our online training, services, and products directly here.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------