Permaculture - Soil Building Techniques - composting, fertility crops

Ron holding one of the new compost bins.

The black bin has a secure screw-on lid.

Ron cut the bottom out and cut holes in the sides.

It will be placed bottom side down in a small hole in the garden bed. Soil life can enter through the side holes and bottom and we will feed it with kitchen scraps and scoops of soil from the top. 

There are 2 of them - one to fill and one to leave to compost. When the composting has happened we lift the bucket up and move it to another location. The new compost is then chicken-scratched into the soil in-situ.

With permaculture gardening, the area is divided up into zones. The beds nearest the house are in zone 1 - the 'Fluffy Slipper Zone' because one can hop outside in slippers to harvest the most accessible plants. These compost bins are in our Zone 1 - Kitchen Beds where the soil is being kept rich and damp. Continually making compost within the bed helps to keep the soil fertility level up.

Ron came back from a shopping expedition with 2 bags of chitting potatoes. He said they were free to a good home. The sprouts were long and pale so there may not be enough energy left in the potatoes to support new growth. I planted them anyway because it is all good organic matter for soil building and if some do grow into plants it is a bonus. I am thinking of them as soil fertility plants but we may get to harvest a few potatoes as well.

Some of the potatoes had small shoots so I cut them up and planted those too.

Now to wait and see what happens.

 Gardening involves a lot of curiosity tempered by patience.

Backyard Project Update - What happened while we were away

While we were away Sammy and his crew continued to work on the Backyard Project.

They mulched the hugelkultur beds with straw to slow down evaporation from the soil as we enter our dry season.

Sammy cut more rounds from logs and extended the gardener's paths around the perimeter of each hugelkultur bed.

They started construction on another garden room - the fruit hedge. 

This room begins on the south side of the path next to the Gravel Bed Garden.

They made a lasagne bed composed of many layers of different materials. It will be left for the soil organisms to do their work breaking down these materials to make a rich soil. Once the soil has cooled down the trees and shrubs can be planted.

In the Cut Flower Bed, the peonies and irises are at their peak.

The alliums are moving into the seed-head stage which I enjoy as much as the flowering stage. I leave them in the garden until the stems are getting dry then cut them. I bundle up the stems and hang them in the garage to dry further.

In spring time the rate of change in the garden speeds up.

Backyard Project - Mulching and Tree Planting - Beginning of the Guilds

After the green cover crop was turned under the soil was covered with straw as opposed to hay. Hay has seeds which is part of its nutritional value for animal feed but seeds mean lots of unwanted plants for me to pull out. Straw is the stubble left after the crop is cut off. It is quite expensive because here on the island we don't have any large flat areas for growing grains. The straw has to be brought across from the mainland.

Straw makes a wonderful mulch or cover for bare soil while newly sown seeds are thinking about germinating. It stops evaporation of moisture out of the soil and keeps the soil warm creating ideal conditions for those soil organism working on breaking down the newly turned green cover crop.

The key element and the beginning of a plant guild (a collection of plants living symbiotically and in harmony) is the tree. After much reading, list making and pondering we have begun the tree planting. I will detail the guild compositions later but here only to say at this stage the Water Drop hugelkultur bed has a pear tree, and behind it the Feather hugelkultur bed has a cherry tree.

The Leaf hugelkultur bed has a medlar tree....

...as does the tip of the Feather. Design-wise I wanted the symmetry of these 2 trees at the entrance to the path to the studio. They repeat the perceived symmetry of the studio windows and porch posts.

I can tell the trees are happy because within a couple of weeks they are producing flowers. My sister said to nip off the flowers in the first year so the tree concentrates on producing lots of roots and leaves. So, yes, sister, I did as you advised and nipped off all the flowers.

In the bed leading away from the studio porch, I planted cuttings from a friend's hydrangea bush. (Thank you, Barbara, for working in the rain with me to share your hydrangea).

The cuttings got a cosy covering of straw mulch and a good watering to help them along. I can already see the magnificent hydrangea hedge they will become.

Backyard Project Update - Green Manure/Fertility Crops

Green manure crops growing on the hugelkultur beds with a log-ends 'gardener's path' in between.

These seeds were planted in the beginning of winter. The birds couldn't believe their luck and feasted before they flew south. The heavy rains washed many of the seeds to the bottoms of the mounds.

The green manure plantings are not doing as well on the hugelkultur beds as those in the Rock Garden beds that were planted in the spring. This picture was taken on the 3rd of April.

The spring sun is heating up the rock masses which transfer the heat to the soil supporting an early start for the spring growth.

This was taken on the April 6th.

The green manure plants are thick and starting to flower. It is time to start digging them into the soil.

These raised beds have been filled with young soil that needs building up before perennials are planted. Spreading cover crop seeds is the best way to add fertility, smoother weeds and hold the soil together. Annual ryegrass and vetch add a large amount of biomass in a short time and when turned under add valuable organic material to the soil. Peas and other legumes support soil organisms that can fix nitrogen out of the air and make it available for other plants. The vetch and pea flowers attract beneficial insects needed for pollinating other plants.

This picture was taken on April 12th. The digging in starts.

An apple tree has been planted in Rock Garden Bed #1. It will anchor the guild of plants in this bed. More on that later.

Rock Garden Bed #4. The green manure crop has been turned under. 

I have wanted to see how a straw bale garden grows. Two straw bales are placed next to the wood chip path in this, one of the sunniest Rock Bed gardens.

Things are humming along in the new garden beds.

Backyard Project: How Long Does it Take to Build a Deer Fence?

The line of the fence is marked out.

Fence post holes are dug into the soil and drilled where there is rock.

Metal posts are cut to length.

The posts are cemented in place in the holes.

Branches and shrubs need to be removed or cut back in places.

The supervisor checks the width of one of the gates in the fence.

Heavy gauge wire mesh is tied to the fence posts.

In the steeper areas, it is more of a challenge to get the wire in place. Skirts are tied to the bottom where there are dips in the ground.

Cross bracing is added at the corners.

The supervisor checks one of 4 gates in the fence.

A temporary fence between the house and the studio is erected. After the new conservatory has been built and it is linked to the studio with a more decorative cedar fence the temporary fence will have done its job and be taken down.

The last job was to Bambi-proof the fence. I went around the whole perimeter inside and out and stacked all of the rocks and stones I could find along the bottom of the fence where there were small gaps. We are coming up to Bambi season. I didn't want a baby deer to squeeze under the fence then the mother to go crazy trying to rescue her offspring. I want to avoid someone getting hurt or something getting damaged.

Ron and I also strung heavy fishing line from tree to tree, about knee height over well-trodden deer paths. The idea is to deflect the deer from their established routes before they get to the fence. They walk into the line and feel it at their knees. Not being able to see what it is that they feel they turn back and take a different path. It is going to be interesting to see how long it takes for the deer to establish new grazing paths in the areas we have not fenced.

How long does it take to build a deer fence?

It depends on the terrain and how long the fence is.

This deer fence took the team a month to construct.

Fencing Donnington Food Forest

The dear deer are wondering what is happening. 

They are creatures of habit and their foraging paths are being disrupted. They are confused.

The Nordic Fencing team is doing an excellent job.

Cutting pipe to length.

The fence needs to be 8 feet high to keep these agile jumping deer outside.

An impressive array of specialised shovels, diggers, and other tools is carried on the back of the truck.

The back of the truck tray has an ingenious concrete making set up.

They are able to make a small batch of concrete, tip it into a wheelbarrow or bucket then carry it to the fence post hole for filling. This method results in minimal disturbance of the forest underground. We really appreciate the care they are all taking.

This looks like a graffiti artists kit but it is what a fencer uses to mark post locations.

The fencing project continues and we see the progress being made each day. It is getting closer to the day when I will be able to plant something and wake up in the morning to find it is still there.

Backyard Project and Work in the Studio

Ron and Nordic Fencing team leader, Mat, plan the location of the deer fence along the south boundary.

Nathan is digging trenches for irrigation pipes.

The main pipe will be located under the path going around the pergola and arbor. If there is ever a problem with the pipe it can be dug up without disturbing any garden beds.

Meanwhile, I am collecting leaf skeletons from under the tulip trees.

The damp conditions are ideal for the soft parts of the leaf to rot away leaving the leaf skeleton in tact.

After washing and laying the leaves out to dry...

...I am sewing them onto an embroidered afternoon tea cloth that spent a year or so outside wrapped around a tree trunk. I have been adding leaves to this cloth for the past couple of years. The repair of the decayed cloth with darned leaves speaks of how leaves fall to nourish and repair the soil, the skin of the earth. I will keep adding to the cloth for another season or so to demonstrate how soil building is a long term continual process.

The work is called, 'Earth Repair.'

The hyacinths are blooming in the studio bed. There is such a lovely smell as I come and go from the Green Shed.

Now that the winter rains have eased we can continue with the Backyard Project tasks

Back Yard Project: Fences and Mulches

It was an exciting day when the Nordic Fencing team arrived to begin building the deer fence. Over the 6 years we have lived here the deer population has exploded. The deer eat every new shoot that comes out of the ground preventing all plant succession happening in the forest. I had given up buying plants because it was like laying out a buffet for them. They are particularly hungry in the spring and eat everything, the whole plant, not just a nibble like they used to.

We took our time making the decision about a deer fence because we didn't like the idea of being fenced in.

The design of the fence incorporates the buildings - my studio and the house acting as barriers to the deer entering the fenced area. We have placed the fence so it can't be seen (much) from the house.

This is Mike doing the hard job of digging holes for the posts.

He uses a manual digger, but not this one because it is Matt's, and so named.

The fencing team is very good about the minimal disturbance of the forest vegetation and understand we are fencing to protect the forest.

Meanwhile, the green manure crop is sprouting and covering the bare soil in the rock garden beds.

We got a delivery of straw bails to use as a mulch to cover the soil after the green manure crop is dug into the soil. We don't want hay because that introduces grass seeds to the garden beds. In the forest ecosystem, we are working to eliminate bacteria supported grasses and encouraging fungal dominant soils.