Thursday, 23 January 2014

A Polyculture for Herbal Tea, Salad, Fruits and Wildlife

Refreshing vitalizing herbal teas, a living first aid cabinet, wildlife habitat, beauty, and interest throughout the year, with some strawberries, currants, and salad leaves to boot! This Polyculture is ideal for small gardens taking up no more than approx 6m2 but also working well in a larger space as a beneficial island that fills a gap within the wider garden ecosystem of fruit, nut, and ornamental trees.



During this post, we'll take a look at the species included, their function and uses, how to choose a site for the polyculture,  how to manage the plants, and when to harvest, and you'll find some planting plans with guidance on spacing. 

Species Overview 


All the plants in this polyculture (apart from Agastache foeniculum) are native to Europe and all are well adapted to the climate and ecology of the Northern Temperate zone. We have been growing these plants in hardiness zone 6 for years, and all the plants have tolerated temperatures down to -15C and less. Most of the plants are well adapted to dry conditions and will survive on the average annual rainfall of 560mm. That said, we want the plants to thrive, and irrigating the plants during periods of drought will make for thriving plants. Irrigation is also necessary if you would like a decent yield of strawberries and black currants particularly when the fruits are forming.


The plants are well suited to most soils excluding heavy clay, waterlogged soils, and soils with pH in the extremes of acidity or alkalinity. If you have these types of soils they can of course be amended, but selecting plants to suit soils is a better option, both ecologically and economically.

Functions and Uses


My goals when designing this polyculture were that every plant included can be used for making both fresh and dried herbal teas and that as a community the planting scheme should benefit the garden ecosystem. Below is a chart indicating the other uses and beneficial functions of the plant community.



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. You can also find our full list of trees. shrubs and herbs for forest gardens on our website here 
  

Choosing the site for the Polyculture


When choosing the position in your garden for this polyculture the main thing to consider is the positioning of your bed in relation to the sun and to match this up with the individual needs of the plants, ensuring that the sun-loving plants are on the Southern facing side and the shade tolerant plants are on the North. (light needs listed below)

Depending on how much annual precipitation you receive in your area, it may also be important to position the bed so that it can passively collect water from rainfall e.g with a slight dip in the middle or at the base of a slope laid out on contour. This is a relevant practice in Bulgaria where we can expect 8-12 weeks without significant rain during high summer, but not so relevant in the UK. The area where the rainwater accumulates should feature the plants that are more water-demanding and obviously the area that will receive the least amount of water should be planted with drought-tolerant species.(water needs listed below).

This self-replenishing Chai Store/Salad Bar is there to be picked so making it easily accessible to you is an important factor when choosing its position.  

Once you have established the footprint of your bed you can begin to build it. This can be as simple as piling up topsoil mixed with well-rotted compost to a height of 50-70 cm in the desired shape and bordering your mound with large rocks or boulders laid in a small trench around the soil. Simple if you have lots of rocks and boulders nearby which we do. You could also build a retaining wall first and then infill it with your topsoil and compost. Bear in mind the bulk of the soil will reduce over the first 3-6 months as the soil settles.

 Chai Polyculture - Built and planted in November 2012

Plant selection


Aside from selecting plants in relation to their space, light, and water need their ecological characteristics are also considered. Achillea millefolium - Yarrow is very drought tolerant and I use these plants evenly spaced in gaps between the boulders on the South facing edge(sunny side). The plant puts down deep roots that mine the subsoil for nutrients that would otherwise leach away with the groundwater. The plant will spread very quickly, cutting back the spreading plants and dropping the material around the bed provides a source of these rescued nutrients to the other plants. Fragaria vesca - Wild Strawberry is planted on the edge of the sunny side for ease of picking and will over time provide a self-spreading ground cover throughout the bed suppressing weeds and protecting the topsoil from wind and rain erosion. Trifolium pratense -Red Clover is a nitrogen-fixing plant that can be planted on either side of the Blackcurrants - Ribes nigrum and in close proximity to the Fragaria vesca - Wild Strawberry. Cutting back this plant after you have used the flowers for a cup of tea will release some of the nitrogen fixed into the surrounding soil.
 
In the first season whilst your perennial plants establish you can plant annuals such as Tagetes patula or Centaurea cyanus to keep the ground covered. Both can also be used for teas.  

 Chai Polyculture - August 2013 with annual Tagetes patula and T.erecta  added in the first season to fill space before the perennials grow. 

Management


The plants in this polyculture will be competing for space both above ground and below ground. Above ground, we can position our plants in a way that fills the available space. Pruning back growth that may be interfering with a slower growing plant should be practiced as you see fit with the cut material applied to the soil surface as a mulch and harvested for teas. I usually combine pruning with harvesting. 

In the spring a 3 or 4-cm thick application of well-rotted compost under the black currant and strawberry plants will ensure good fruit cropping. The windward side of the bed will act as leaf catchment in the autumn and raking up the leaves from the path and applying them to the surface of the soil will provide a good source of nutrients for the community.

Irrigating during dry periods will keep all the plants stress-free and in good health. Always water heavily and infrequently as opposed to lightly and frequently. A good soak every 10-14 days in the dry season will be more than sufficient.  As mentioned above the black currant and strawberries will benefit from watering when the fruit is setting.


Plants such as Mellisa officinalis -Lemon Balm, Spearmint - Mentha spicata,  Tansy - Tanacetum vulgare, and Achillea millefolium will spread via rhizomatous growth (underground horizontal stems). After a few years, these plants can be cut to ground level with the top growth applied to the surface then divided and moved to other areas around the garden or composted. You will need to hot compost the roots of these plants to ensure the destruction of the rhizomes. These plants provide a great diversity of mineral nutrients to your compost.  If you don't have hot compost leaving the roots and stems of these plants in hot sun will destroy the rhizomes or soaking them in water for a few weeks and using the liquid as plant feed is another way of recycling the nutrients.  

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Planting   





Harvest 


Some of the plants included in this polyculture are known to cause skin irritations and can have toxic effects if consumed in large quantities. Please be aware of any known hazards associated with every plant you consume. Caution aside we enjoy mixing and matching leaves and flowers from the plants in this guild to make phenomenal brews of healthy and invigorating teas and salads 

Green Salad harvested in late April

Salads are best picked in the spring as the lush growth develops and in the autumn when the cooling temperatures and increased rainfall reinvigorate the plants.  Summer growth can be quite tough and bitter but a few leaves mixed with more tender greens provides great flavor and interest. Do not include leaves of Leonurus cardiaca - Motherwort in the salads. Please remember that although Ribes nigrum - Blackcurrant leaves can be used for tea other species in this genus such as Ribes rubrum - Redcurrants have leaves containing the toxin hydrogen cyanide.

As for medicinal value, all of these plants can be used to treat ailments but the best cure is prevention so get growing, get picking and drink up :)

Habitat Provision


If you have an available source of rocks and boulders they make great bordering material. The gaps between and under the rocks provide excellent habitat for arthropods. Some of these, such as Woodlice and Millipedes function as decomposers, speeding up the return of nutrients to the soil. Some of these are generalist predators such as centipedes and spiders. These creatures seek refuge from the sun and heat in the cool damp microclimate under the stones. I often find Praying Mantis egg cases overwintering in a rock crevice protected from the rain but warmed by the winter sun. These egg cases can hatch hundreds of baby Mantids that have a voracious appetite for aphids. The rocks will also harbor creatures not so friendly to your plants such as slugs and snails and other phytophagous (plant-eating) organisms. In our garden, the frogs and toads seem to keep these under control.

Praying Mantis - Mantis religiosa egg case

Another benefit of using rocks is that being rocks they are laden with minerals that are released from the rock via chemical and physical weathering. These weathered minerals contribute to the soil's stock. They can be thought of as the ultimate slow-release fertilizer.

The above-ground plant architecture itself also provides many habitats for many beneficial invertebrates to nest, feed, overwinter, hunt, and reproduce as will the mulch layer covering the topsoil.

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Beneficial Insect Interactions and Flowering times


Not only do the plants provide us with fine teas, salads, and fruits they attract beneficial organisms such as ladybirds and hoverflies, and lacewings the larvae of which are efficient predators of aphids. Furthermore, a succession of nectar-bearing flowers keeps the bees and other pollinating invertebrates active and well-fed in your garden for most of the growing season where they can assist with the pollination of your surrounding fruit and vegetable crops. The table below provides information related to this.


We have all of the plants featured in this polyculture available from  our Nursery and you can find full profiles of the plants and other plants great for herbal teas below


 

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Monday, 13 January 2014

Aphid Attack

Generally I live at ease with aphids in the garden. Occasionally they infest a bean plant but they are usually swiftly brought under control by the natural predators that roam the patch such as ladybirds, lacewings, hoverfly larvae and braconid/chalcid parasites before they do any lasting harm. They are also noticeably attracted to fresh apical growth of Prunus spp. such as cherry and peach, but soon come to the attention of a goldfinch that devours them over the course of a few sittings. However, in the greenhouse during the winter months, free from predation, they thrive and wreak havoc on the defenseless plants. My chilli pepper plants are the victims this year.

Leaf from Capsicum chinense inhabited by various generations of  Aphis fabae subsp.
Having been away for Christmas for a few weeks I returned to find the pepper plants in a spot of bother. The aphid populations, well established on the plants,  pierce the epidermis (plant skin) and suck the nutrient laden sap from the plants. The aphids do little visible harm and a healthy plant is able to cope with sharing some nutrients. However, aphid populations grow extremely fast and eventually they take their toll on the plant.  Furthermore, the "honey dew" excreted as excess liquid by the aphids attracts sooty molds that feed on the excretions. As the mold grows, a greyish tissue blocks the plants ability to photosynthesize, thereby reducing its sustenance. Aphids are also vectors of many plant viruses - the aphids may not be the original source of infection but are instrumental in spreading the virus through a crop.
    
Eager to promote the healthy well being of the pepper plants I removed them from the greenhouse and set out to identify what aphid I was dealing with. There are about 4,400 species of 10 families known. My guys were brownish black and on closer inspection with a x10 microscope the cornicles (small horns on the rear) clearly visible on the abdomen suggested that the offenders are from the Aphididae family. Different aphid species generally target different plants. Pepper (Capsicum spp.) being from the Solanaceae family led me to believe that my guys are a sub specie of Aphis fabae aka blackfly. I am not certain, but it doesn't really matter in that the methods to control aphids remains the same for all species. 


I set the aphid ridden plants on the kitchen table and after a while I noticed that the winged aphids had  gathered in a warm corner of the kitchen window. As aphid populations grow and become crowded the females start to produce winged individuals that take to the air in order to find a fresh host plant, settle and begin to reproduce again.
 
 Female aphid cloning herself. 
The swarm of winged aphids on the window were, I assume, seeking new plants. Unfortunately for them they ended up a step closer to being mineralised. With winged aphids absent I took the plants outside (9C in January!!) and gave them a good shake. I know that heavy rains are known to significantly  reduce aphid populations so I sprayed the plants with water using a pressurized hand sprayer and left them to bask in the sunshine. Aphids have a poor grip and cannot hang on very well and they will generally die before they can climb back onto the plant.

This seemed to do the trick for all but one of the most heavily infested plants. My son, eager to get his hands on the sprayer, repeated the showering over the next few days making sure to get the water on the underside of the leaves as this is where the aphids tend to congregate.


If the problem persists I'll try a simple anti-aphid spray I found on the web. Not sure how effective it is but here is the recipe.    

A quick intermission 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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Home made anti-aphid spray
Boil 5 large cloves of garlic and a teaspoon of cayenne pepper in a litre of water for 40 minutes.  Strain it, and when cool use a mister bottle to spray it onto your plants.
 
Looking pepped up after the spray :)

For more information on these fascinating creatures click here

   

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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 :)


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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 
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Sunday, 22 December 2013

Garden Allies - The "Megadriles"

During this series of posts, we will be looking at a range of beneficial organisms commonly known as bugs, critters or creepy crawlies,  that can contribute to a healthy, productive and pest-free growing environment in your temperate garden. As well as identifying key species that serve as allies to our efforts in the garden, we will look at ways to attract and keep these organisms around.

During this post, we'll look at Megadrilacea, the earthworms. here's what Charles Darwin said about them 1881 "It may be doubted whether there are any other animals which have played such an important part in the history of the world as these lowly organized organisms." 




So why are Worms so important and what makes them a garden ally?

There are many species of earthworms on our planet,  each specie specially adapted to particular soils and particular areas of the soil. Their chief role is that of the decomposer, keeping nutrients flowing through life and death, but all play other very important roles in our ecosystems.

Plumbing and Ventilation  
Worms spend most of their life tunnelling through the soil. In a healthy soil the top 20 cm or so contains an extensive network of such tunnels created by the worms. This is also the layer of soil that contains the majority of plant roots. Plant roots need a good supply of oxygen to maintain growth and the worm tunnels allow air to circulate freely among the roots ensuring a good supply. At the same time the tunnels allow the delivery of rain water into the root zone whilst allowing the excess water to drain away.
As well as helping the plant roots directly, this aeration encourages the decay of dead material which releases nitrates and other plant nutrients into the soil.

Mining and Redistribution of Minerals
Certain worms are active deeper than the top 20cm of the soil. This deeper tunnelling provides another  major contribution of the earth worm. Their vertical movement through the soil can bring nutrients washed deep into the soil by rainwater, where they are unavailable to the majority of plant roots, to upper levels within reach of the plant roots.

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 
.

Fertilisers  
The worm casts that are often seen on the surface of the soil are also deposited throughout the soil profile. These castings are rich in minerals. In fact, the worm castings are of such benefit to plant growth, that breeding worms to harvest these castings has become a very successful biological method of supplying fertiliser, known as vermicomposting. Some of the benefits of vermicompost include,
  • Microbial activity in vermicompost  is 10 to 20 times higher than in the soil and organic matter that the worm ingests. This microbial activity ultimately provides mineral nutrients to plants.
  • Improves water holding capacity of the soil 
  • Enhances seed germination, plant growth, and crop yield
  • Improves root growth and structure
Eisenia fetida 

I use worm castings mixed with river sand 50/50 for the nursery plants we produce here. Its a great medium providing water retention, slow release fertilisation and keeps the young plants healthy and pest free.  

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Where you will find worms in your garden ecosystem.

There are some 3000+ named species of earthworm on this planet, researchers have broken them into three categories, largely descriptive of their habits in the soil. These three categories are Endogeic, Anecic and Epigeic.



Endogeic worms build complex lateral burrow systems through all layers of the upper mineral soil. These worms rarely come to the surface, instead spend their lives in these burrow systems where they feed on decayed organic matter and bits of mineral soil. They are the only category of worm which actually eat SOIL and not strictly the organic component. Endogeic worms tend to be medium sized and pale coloured and make great miners and re-distributors of valuable plant minerals

Anecic worms such as Lumbricus terrestris build permanent, vertical burrows that extend from the soil surface down through the mineral soil layer. It is not unusual for these burrows to reach a depth of 2 meters or more. The anecic species feed in decaying surface litter, so come to the soil surface regularly, which leaves them exposed to predators. These worms require a stable burrow environment in order to thrive. In the absence of this burrow, anecic worms will neither breed nor grow. There deep burrows contribute greatly to the redistribution of plant minerals

Epigeic worm are the guys  used in vermicomposting systems, like Eisenia fetida. In nature epigeic worms live and feed in the top soil and duff layer on the soil surface. These small, deeply pigmented worms have a poor burrowing ability, preferring instead an environment of loose organic litter or loose topsoil rich in organic matter.

How to encourage earthworms

Worms like the type of soil that the majority of our fruit and vegetable crops like i.e not too acidic, not too alkaline, moist but not bone dry or sopping wet. If your soil is of moderate pH and moistness you will almost certainly have a healthy population already. If you do not have many earthworms in your soil, introduce some of the practices described below. It is surprising how quickly they build up in favourable conditions.

Have plenty of worm food available 
Many worms eat dead or decaying plant remains, including straw, leaf litter and dead roots and will breed exponentially in the presence of such organic matter. Applying these materials to the surface of the soil i.e mulching, will increase your populations. Leaving the stubble and roots of annual plants to rot down in the soil will provide a good source of food. Permanent pasture such as a lawn provides plenty of organic matter as leaves and roots die and decay, worms love this kind of habitat.
Animal manure is also an attractive food for many species of earthworms. A pile of animal manure is a great way of attracting and breeding up worm populations in your garden. You may have to wait 3 months or more if using fresh manure before the worms start to move in.

Do not use fertilisers and fungicides
Highly acidifying fertilisers such as ammonium sulfate and some fungicides reduce worm numbers. Researchers have found that orchards sprayed with bordeaux or other copper sprays contain few earthworms.

Keep soil moist
Worms can lose 20% of their body weight each day in mucus and castings, so they need moisture to stay alive. Ground cover such as pasture or shrubs and herbs reduce moisture evaporation as will applying mulch to the surface. In dry times some species burrow deep into the soil and are inactive until rain 'reactivates' them. Having a good steady supply of organic matter cycling through your soil and building humus will also provide higher water retentive properties in the soil.

Reduce soil compaction
It is difficult for earthworms to move through heavily compacted soil and no tread beds are a great way to avoid compaction. On larger sites it is necessary to keep vehicle and animal traffic to a minimum, especially in wet conditions.

Reduce cultivation
Digging the soil is obviously going to create disturbance and stress for our elongated comrades. No dig gardening , no till or minimal till agricultural practices are all excellent ways to keep the megadrilles around and happy. Researchers have found that after four years, zero-tilled paddocks had twice as many worms as cultivated soils. However, shallow cultivation may not affect worm numbers.



Part 2 in this series looks at Wasps click here to take a look.

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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 

Thursday, 17 October 2013

Annual Vegetable and Herb Guild/Polyculture : Zeno and Introduction and Overview

For the last 9 years we have been experimenting with growing annual vegetables and herbs in polycultures. Over the years I have stuck with what works, discarded what has not, and now have what appears to me to be a good model of productive ecological design. Productive in that it provides us with a harvest from early spring until early winter, ecological in that it provides habitat and food for many other organisms too.

Garden produce   
This post is an introduction and overview to our Annual Herb and Vegetable Guild/Polyculture that we call Zeno. If you would like to find out how much food we have harvested from this polyculture and how much time it took to grow this food you can read the results of our polyculture study here 

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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Introduction to our Annual Vegetable and Herb Guilds


Our Annual Vegetable and Herb Guilds are situated in six raised beds each 1m x 6m and approx 30cm high with 50 cm paths between the beds. Surrounding the beds are  a diversity of  perennial plants including herbs, shrubs and trees with some small ponds and various micro habitats such as rock piles, old tree stumps and stick plies. These Six beds are dedicated to annual herb and vegetable production and are the most intensively cultivated areas in the garden providing us with the majority of our annual vegetables.

The Annual Vegetable and Herb beds, early morning in mid spring.

Design

The 1m x 6m bed dimensions enable access to the soil and plants without ever having to tread on the beds. The beds are laid out on contour, lengthwise running east to west. This provides the plants within the beds with the maximum amount of sunlight and determines that rainfall will collect on the northern side of the bed and permeate into the soil slowly rather than draining away. This layout also enables us to flood irrigate the beds.

Irrigation 

We are fortunate to have access to water channeled from a nearby mountain stream. When needed, we can divert the water into the garden where it flows along the paths between the beds. We raise the water level to 15-20cm  in any particular bed by simply placing a barrier (sack filled with sawdust) at the end of a bed. The water is absorbed into the soil and can travel vertically via Capillary Action.

Paths/irrigation channels in the garden

Management

In the early Spring when the temperature starts to rise we place a 1m x 3m  bottomless chicken coop, with 8 hens inside, onto one half of a bed. The chickens will stay there for 3 or 4 days and each day we throw them in kitchen scraps, grain, straw and a few shovels of compost. The chickens will relentlessly scratch among the soil and mulch picking off the eggs of slugs and larvae, pupae of various arthropods. This helps to keep pest populations down. They also forage for seeds in the soil and thereby reduce the emergence of undesirable plants in the bed. The chicken's scratching  mixes up the organic matter we throw in daily and the birds contribute a ready supply of droppings as they go.

Chickens at work

After 3 or 4 days we move the chickens onto the next half of the bed and the process repeats. The area the chickens have just moved from is forked over, soaked well (or we wait for a rain) and then mulched with a few buckets full of compost and a 20cm layer of Straw mulch (approx 3/4 of a bale). The mulch provides a good habitat for Toads and Lizards (in the spring, summer and autumn) which are well positioned to pick off any slugs that venture in for the young seedlings.

Common Toad clearing out the slugs before the plants go in

 Once mulched the stakes for tomatoes and beans are put into position. Large reliable germinating seeds such as Beans and squash are sown directly into the beds by pulling back the mulch and sowing into the soil. The other plants (see below) are reared in pots and planted into the beds when approx 15cm tall and when the weather is suitable. Any "weed" plants that grow  around the edge of the beds are cut back before they set seed and used as additional mulch  throughout the year.  "Weeds" that grow within the bed are treated the same way. Note that the "weeds" are not uprooted only cut to ground level. The roots are allowed to decay in the ground or left to regrow until they are again ready to "chop and drop".

Around July the vegetable and herb plants are all well established with little room for "weed" plants to establish. The attention the beds require after July is mainly irrigating and harvesting until October. When the last of the harvest is out of the beds the stakes are removed and the chickens are brought in for another 3 or 4 days to pick through the vegetation. None of the plant material is removed from the bed, what the chickens leave behind is cut into small pieces and applied to the surface as an overwinter mulch.    


Plant Selection

The plant selection differs slightly from bed to bed, all feature Tomatoes, Beans, Basil and Squash.  Below is a representation of one planting scheme that shall be the focus of discussion here

Representation of Annual Vegetable and Herb Guild 

 This guild consists of  11 Tomato plants (a different cultivar is usually planted in each bed) on the edge of the raised bed for easy picking and to be in close proximity to the water when we irrigate. the tomatoes are tied to round wood Hazel and Alder stakes approx 1.5m high and 6cm diamater. The stakes provide perches for a number of bird species such as Red Back Shrike and Spotted Flycatcher that can be observed feeding from insects in flight around the beds as well as grubs and slugs on the bed surface and vegetation. The stakes also serve as snail traps. Snails will retreat up trees after a nights feeding in search for a shady nook to shelter from the coming sun. The snails climb the stakes expecting to find the shade and are easy to spot and remove in the morning.

Snail, just before becoming chicken food
 
In between the tomatoes are planted 11 Basil - Sweet Genovese which are reported to have a happy relationship with tomatoes in the garden as well as the kitchen.
Beans are grown up wigwams forming large clumps of vegetation dripping with beans and flowers that tend to clamber onto the surrounding plants by mid summer. The beans can potentially supply their own nitrogen via an association with Rhizobium bacteria that inhabit the soil. These bacteria extract nitrogen from the atmosphere and deliver some of this nitrogen to the roots of the bean. In exchange the bean provides the bacteria with sugars produced via photosynthesis. At the end of the season the nitrogen taken from the atmosphere by the bacteria and fixed into the tissue of the bean plants is added to the soil when the remains of the plants decompose in situ.

Polyculture crops 

Tagetes erecta/petula -Marigolds are sown throughout the bed, they repel and confuse pests that are attracted to plants by smell and they attract hover flies, the larvae of which feed on aphids. They also provide a beautiful sunset orange to the vegetable beds and the flowers can be used in teas and salads.
Centaurea cyanus - Cornflower was trialed in the guild for the first time this year. The Cornflower attracts Bombus spp. (Bumble Bees) which also pollinate tomatoes and squash, the flowers can  also be used in salads and for tea, specifically an ingredient of Early Grey tea.

Bombus spp. Bumble Bees- Tomato Pollinators
Crawling along the ground and between the plants are the Squash. The broad leaves from these plants shade the roots of the other plants and prohibit the emergence of "weeds".


The plants growing around the edge of the bed are self seeded native plants, around 15 different species. Many of these plants are edible some can fix nitrogen and others accumulate minerals from the subsoil. They also serve as soil stabilizers, provide a buffer between the tender young plants and the slugs and snails, provide habitat and forage for beneficial insects and provide a source of mulch and rabbit food.  We simply chop and drop these plants before they produce seed.

Harvest 

 The 6 beds together will provide us with fresh tomatoes from Mid July - Early October as well as 30 Jars ( approx. 30kgs) of preserved chopped tomatoes and 6 Jars of sun-dried tomatoes.
Basil is also abundant and available fresh from Late April-October, we dry a jar or two and make a few jars of Pesto.



Fresh Beans are available from May-October and we managed to harvest around 4 KG of dry beans this year as well as plenty of fodder for the rabbits and seeds saved for next year. Each bed will provide at least two large Squash.

 The self seeded native plants often consist of edible salad crops during the spring and autumn such as Chenopodium album, Malva neglecta , Chichorium intybus  and Plantago major.

Succession

It is possible to grow a succession of crops in the beds. The cold winters in Bulgaria restrict winter crops that can be grown, however, garlic planted in the Autumn can be harvested young (similar to spring onions) in April.

Garlic in Late Feb, planted in November.

The chickens, obviously, can not be used if you intend to have a yearly succession of  produce within the guild and the quantity of compost added to the beds would need be higher to support the increased production.

If you would like to find out how much food we can harvest from this polyculture and how much time it takes to grow this food you can read the results of an Input/Output study here.

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