Vegetable Polycultures, Biodiversity Surveys and Plants. Week 5 - The Polyculture Project

Wow! can't believe how quick that week went. Here are some photos and news from the gardens 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

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

Market Garden

We're continuing our polyculture trials in the Market Garden, and this year will be the 4th year of the study. You can find the results of previous year's studies here. The below image is the general garden layout which includes various vegetable and herb polycultures, and control beds where vegetables are planted in block sequences in a more traditional system.  You can find out more about the vegetable polycultures we grow here.

Angela placing the tomato stakes and bean tripods in the polyculture and control beds. We'll start to plant everything out next week.

We continue to experiment with our annual polyculture Epictetus.  Swede, parsnips and beetroot seedlings sown in strips are germinating, and we plan to plant out dwarf beans, kale and marigolds next week 

Add caption

An illustration of  Epictetus  It's basically a strip pattern of various vegetables from different plant families arranged to reduce pests and diseases, optimize space and nutrient share whilst respecting the individual plant needs for space and light.

In the home garden we're trying broad beans with garlic. Fabacea (Bean family) and Alliacae (Onion family) are not a recommended mix according to common companion planting knowledge, so far they appear quite friendly. 

Broad Beans and Garlic Companion Planting 

Forest Garden

Observed this week was Chicken of the woods - Laetiporus sp. growing from a fine old Damson Tree - Prunus insititia  in the hedgerow of the market garden. A choice edible mushroom and a very beautiful specimen. Last days for the Damson though.  

Lesser Celandine -  Ficaria verna flowering on the edge of the wildlife pond. 

The herb layer in the emerging forest garden  Melissa officinalis - Lemon balm in the foreground with  Allium schoenoprasum - Chives behind and Aronia melanocarpa - Black Chokeberry shrubs in the background.

Two favourite biomass plants Symphytum x uplandicum - Comfrey growing from the base of a  Paulownia tomentosa - Foxglove Tree stool. The four poles are last year growth. They reached over 2m in one season. 

Our perennial vegetable polyculture with Asparagus officinalis - Asparagus,  Allium tuberosum  - Garlic Chives  and Fragaria x ananassa - Strawberry

Biodiversity Survey 

It was great to have Chris Kirby-Lambert back in town. Chris is working on the invertebrate diversity survey for the polyculture project. You can find the results of the May and June surveys from last year here. 

Chris Kirby-Lambert

Checking the sweep nets after sweeping the bed margins for invertebrates in Ataraxia - the perennial polyculture garden.   

Some  common invertebrates from the gardens

 The Bionursery 

An image here of Grape - Vitis vinifera cuttings taken in late winter of this year, buried 20 cm deep into a 50% river sand 50% sieved compost mix. Looks like a high strike rate this year. I take the cuttings at the same time I prune the vines. This 25 cm diameter 25 cm deep pot will take around 12 - 15 cuttings. Keep the mix moist like a wrung out sponge and 60 - 80 % of the cuttings should develop roots and be ready to plant out by the Autumn.   

Ginkgo biloba - Maidenhair Tree in leaf with the glossy backdrop of Mahonia aquifolium - Oregon Grape.

I still can't get over the fact that Gingko biloba has been knocking around this planet for 100 million years or so !!  It would make a great exclamation - for example, upon seeing a plane crashing into a sky scraper - "Gin ko be lo ba"  or "oh my Gingko" or perhaps "for Biloba's sake" 

  

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.

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