My garden is starting to look pretty good and as the weather warms up and more importantly the soil, some plants are growing well - others not so well.
I recently attended a syntropic course and was blown away by the possibilities for this kind of farming. I can especially see how it would be great in a broad acre sense or for market gardens, but I'll talk more on that another time. We'll be putting our own small plot in soon (hopefully with help from a friend) so I'll share what we do then and will talk more about syntropics later on too.
This post is more of an update on my garden and includes a few ideas I took away from the course. One of the main takeaways, was that it's okay to take a plant out if it's impacting on another plant and it's the other plant that you have a preference for. Plants especially don't like senescence, so if theres a senescent plant, it may stunt the growth of a nearby plant.
I went through my veggie garden and mulched/weeded with a knife. This is an amazingly quick and easy way to do it. I usually pull weeds out, but they always come back and it also leaves bare ground. Soil does not like to be left bare! The weeds may come back with this method too, but I'll do the same again and eventually there will be a heavy load of mulch that they can't get through as easily (which is another principle of syntropic ag, actually the most important thing is mulch and the second is mulch and the third is mulch!)
No fancy knife, just a regular serrated edge kitchen knife does the job.
Senescence is when a plant is starting to die or go to seed - basically ending it's lifecycle. I have always had the attitude that if a plants wants to grow, I'll leave it and if it goes to seed, well I'll leave it then too. Do I need 20 pak choy or 10 lettuces going to seed, or will one of each do? Yes one of each is all I need to leave! And instead of pulling out and composting (which means pulling and then walking to the compost bin), I just used my knife and left it in the garden. So liberating!!
Pak choy before mulching, even though the flowers are pretty and attracting bees, we don't need all of them. And they were affecting the growth of the nearby plants.
Pak choy after mulching. Much better to see the ground covered than bare.
I have great big continental parsley plants which I only ever use a bit of, so I cut them right back and mulched them, same with the lettuces that haven't gone to seed yet, but were starting to taste bitter. I have plenty of new ones coming on that will only go to seed if I don't eat them, now that the weather is warming up!
Parsley gets a hair cut.
My three sisters are just beginning. I've trialled a couple of different methods.
Using seedlings - I planted some zucchini's at one end, then alternate rows of corn and dwarf beans.
Seedling trial - 3 sisters
A trombochini seedling in the middle (as I'm guessing that it will creep along like a pumpkin, although I have no idea as I've never grown them) Then I planted a climbing bean seed and a corn seed together- maybe a few cm apart at most.
Bean and corn seedlings just coming out of the ground.
We'll see how they go and if you follow me on instagram (@healthyfarminghealthyfood) I'll post updates there.
Also in the garden and currently being eaten - perennial spinach and normal spinach (which look the same). I have a couple of varieties of kale - one lot I planted too close and they haven't been doing very well, so I actually pulled some out (thanks to my new syntropic knowledge, that it's okay to take plants out if that will benefit another plant!) I didn't mulch these, I took them to the kitchen.
Garlic is nearly ready to harvest. I've been eating the small ones as I've run out of last season garlic.
Out of the many varieties of brassicas that I planted, only the savoy cabbages (apart from the kale) look like they may actually grow properly. Some of this is because birds keep eating them - they especially like the purple varieties! I haven't cut the others out yet, I'm waiting until I have the time to turn them into some form of kraut.
I'm starting to get enough spring onions growing but will still plant more. I have a fair bit of celery which I just cut stems and use as needed. It doesn't get a chance to grow very big, but cutting it small will hopefully mean that it'll last a couple of years. One lot of eggplant are flowering and fruiting and the other lot are abit slow. Both these are from last season. I lost one plant which I think was due to the excessive wet rather than the cold.
Potatoes - we have planted another couple of patches and they're all starting to come up. Apparently we can grow them a couple of times a year. I know last year I planted some over summer and they did alright. I did okay with the last lot just harvested - 20kg's out of 5kg's planted.
I've got lots of new seedlings planted and if I can keep the birds from eating them I'll be a happy lady - cucumbers, zucchinis, mizuna, lettuce, pak choy, beetroot. Also lots of different patches of carrots.
Seeds planted in pots - asparagus - they are very cute when they start as seeds, basil, capsicum, chillies (I hope I get some to come up!), star fruit, melons, pumpkin and cucumbers.
Now I just need to get some more mulch into the hill area above my my main garden bed and below the fruit trees, where I plan to plant pumpkin, melons and cucumbers that will be ready to plant out next month. Also root planting time coming up soon, so the plan is to plant more carrots, beetroot, kipfler potatoes and radishes. I've also started some sweet potato cuttings, and will have a go at planting some arrowroot seeds.
What's happening in your gardens?
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