The dramatic change in temperature started with the new week, and I really can't recall ever experiencing such humid conditions here, most likely a result of the heavy and significant rainfalls of the previous two weeks and sudden rise of temperature by around 15 degrees C. This week we welcomed Fanny from France to the group, and with our ESC volunteers back from Wake Up festival, we started the week by sowing some kale, beetroot and carrot seeds.
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| Fanny sowing carrot seeds |
With the soil moist and warm and hot sunny days that followed, it only took a few days for the kale seeds to germinate, shortly followed by the beetroot. The carrots haven't shown up yet as expected, but they will likely be making an appearance by the end of next week.
Here's a table providing the minimum and preferred soil temperature for a number of crop seeds and the estimated time it takes the seeds to germinate. For a more detailed look at this see our previous blog post here.
Minimum and Preferred Temperatures for Common Crops
The moist weather seems to have caused powdery mildew to appear on the leaves of some of the Hazel saplings. I thought perhaps the age of the plants might be a contributing factor to their susceptibility, but the same condition was also observed on some of the leaves of more mature plants. We'll keep an eye on them to see how this develops.
After the cherries finish and as the Raspberries come into peak early summer production, a fresh round of plants break into bloom. The below photo is of a south-facing border, and this week, two of the plants in the polyculture captured my attention. Purple Loosestrife - Lythrum salicaria and a 'Reuben' and Rubus fruticosus cv. - Blackberry cultivar we have been growing for a few years.
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| Rubus fruticosus cv. |
Purple Loosestrife is a very ornamental plant attracting welcome pollinators such as butterflies and bees. A very hardy plant, tolerating temperatures down to at least -25°c. It can be grown in a pond or as a wetland plant but may also be very invasive, so care should be taken when planning planting schemes.
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| Purple Loosestrife - Lythrum salicaria |
The ESC crew have been a massive help in the gardens this week as we race to cut all the biomass in the gardens and mulch the young trees with it before the dry season starts. It's intense work in our current temperatures, and we're starting to create a new rhythm of meeting at 6am to start activities before the sun becomes powerful, which at the moment seems to be as early as 8am. Many of the trees in our gardens on the East side of Shipka are predated upon by a local herd of goats, and we're in the process of looking into securing a larger area of land in one spot that can be fenced off to give establishing trees and shrubs a chance to mature.
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| Target area we are working on amalgamating in order to fence and develop a 3 ha world-class example of a regenerative landscape. |
It's a frustratingly slow process, but the vision is to publicly demonstrate regenerative practices that feature both local and ancient cultivars of fruit and nut trees, the incredible native biodiversity of the region and beautiful polycultures that provide resources for people while enhancing biodiversity.
Here the crew helps out in our garden Ataraxia. We slash the existing biomass, predominantly grasses, that will compete with the young trees and shrubs for water in the coming summer months and drop the cut matter directly onto the beds to build the quality of the soil. The trees are mulched with straw and this is topped up with the chopped organic material
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| This Loveage plant in the home garden grows among Raspberries and underneath a young Cherry tree. Borgs flock to the umbels long before the blooms actually emerge |
In the below photo you can see the Raspberries that grow next to the Loveage. The crew have really enjoyed gorging on them this week :)
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| Fanny and Tara tucking in :) |
For more info plants for Borgs , check out our previous post Five of Our Favourite Plants to Attract Beneficial Insects
Welcome to our Online Store where you can find Forest Garden/ Permaculture plants, seeds, bulbs and Polyculture multi-packs along with digital goods and services such as Online Courses, Webinars, eBooks, and Online Consultancy. We hope you enjoy the store and find something you like :) It's your purchases that keep our Project going. Yuu can also find our full list of trees. shrubs and herbs for forest gardens on our website here
The ESC Volunteers have started a new blog recording their experiences and reflections in Shipka. While we are hosting the volunteers and their activities include supporting us in the gardens, they are also getting involved with projects around Shipka, and going to be helping some of the elderly people in their gardens, while learning from them valuable skills in annual vegetable production.
While on the topic of vegetable production, we'll end this week with a look at just how much Zeno, our annual polyculture planted back in week 1 has grown. The photos were taken 9 days apart, and you can see the plants' response to the wet weather followed by 30+degrees c temps. So far all the plants look healthy which is encouraging.
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, 2022.
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 RLD2022 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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| 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 RLD2022 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!
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
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
 |
| You can also register for our online training, services, and products directly here. |
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