You can read about what we got up to in week one here and here's what we've been up to this week.
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
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| Plants, Seeds, eBooks, Consultancy, Bulk Fruit and Nut Tree Orders for Permaculture, Polyculture, Forest Gardens and Regenerative Landscapes. |
The Perennial Polyculture Trial Garden
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| Ataraxia - The Perennial Polyculture Trial Garden |
We are experimenting with three categories of plants in the biomass beds.
Nitrogen Fixing Trees and Shrubs - Paulownia tomentosa - Robinia pseudoacacia - Alnus cordata - Elaeagnus umbellata
C4 perennial grasses - Miscanthus x giganteus - Aruno donax
Fast growing perennials - Symphytum x uplandicum ' Bocking 14' - Morus alba - ' Vratza 24'
The pioneer plants will be in blocks of 1.5 m wide x 8 m long as shown in the below image.
The biomass plants are planted at 50 cm between plants, 3 rows per bed. This season the plants will establish good root systems and settle into the beds and next season we will begin various pruning regimes, weigh the biomass and measure regrowth rates of each species.
Alex measuring out the spacing between the Paulownia tomentosa.
Angela planting out Narcissus poeticus - Poet's Narcissus as a bulbous layer in the polyculture beds.
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This beautiful spring ephemeral attracts bees and other pollinators and is the species considered to be one of the first daffodils to be cultivated. It's likely to have adorned the gardens and window sills of the Romans, Greeks and perhaps the Egyptians and Sumerians before them.
We also added the shrub layer to the productive polyculture beds which consisted of Gooseberry between the Hazelnut in bed B and Loganberry between the Hazelnut in Bed D
Here is an overview of the trial beds showing the biomass beds and the productive beds
The Market Garden
We picked up a few trucks full of spoiled straw from a local farmer and a truck load of composted farmyard manure for the market garden.
The bed preparation work flow is as follows; sprinkle 100 -120 g of ash per m length of bed, fork over the beds to relieve compaction, spot weed the beds chop and dropping all plants back to the surface (apart from those with rhizomes that should be removed), rake back surface mulch, deposit 20 L of compost, replace the surface mulch, wait for a heavy rain to saturate the soil and then top up the surface mulch.
Mountain Hike and Wild Garlic Pesto
We took a hike up in the mountains to a spot where Wild Garlic - Allium ursinum can be found hugging the forest floor and harvested some to make a wild garlic pesto from the leaves.
This time of year the forest floor, still fully bathed in spring light from the lack of leaves on the Beech trees, is full with flowering spring ephemerals and other forest herbs. These plants play a vital role in the cycling of nutrients by fixing minerals into biomass during the dormant season thereby preventing them from leaching out of the soil profile during the winter rains and snow melt. As the deciduous plants emerge from dormancy and fill with leaves the ephemeral plants having completed their reproductive cycles for the season release their herbaceous tissue back to the forest floor and hibernate in bulbous form until the next season. This resource sharing in time and space is a vital part of effective polyculture design that we try to integrate into our landscape designs for gardens and farms.
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| Some Spring Ephemerals and woodland herbs from the surrounding forests |
Wild Garlic Pesto
What you need - Wild garlic (a few bags full!) lemons, walnuts, olive oil, salt, food processor or blender
What to do - Wash the garlic and put it inside the blender, pour in the oil, squeeze in some lemon juice, sprinkle some salt and walnuts, crumbly goats cheese and blend it until it is a paste. Taste it and add whatever of the ingredients you feel it needs more of (which definitely won't be the garlic!) Spoon it into jars and put in the refrigerator. Eat it with toast, pasta, cheese and meats.
Here are some photos from around the gardens:
Pyrus communis 'Early Boliaka 'planted 2 years ago and flowering for the first time, hopefully we'll get some August Pear
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Gingko biloba emerging from winter dormancy
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Prunus spinosa - Sloe under Juglans regia - Persian Walnut . Lots of these shrubs forming thickets on the edge of the native living hedges that surround the garden. They do not seem at all inhibited by the Walnut.
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Upcoming Forest Garden Courses
If you would like to create a forest garden and gain some practical hands-on experience come and join us for our Desing and Build a Forest Garden Course. We'll be covering site surveying, landscape design software, installing access, beds, irrigation channels, planting tree, shrub, herb and ground layers, and wildlife ponds. All in 3 days! And plenty of follow up material to take away with you to digest slowly.
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'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.
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| 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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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
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
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| You can also register for our online training, services, and products directly here. |
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