LInk to growing guide for first time users [...]
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One of the principles of permaculture is stacking – three dimensional planting. So this means that are going to use fruit trees as the basis of our design., In between the trees, we plan to plant fruit bushes in between the fruit trees – ultimately they want to be sited at the drip line of the fruit tree canopy and below that we will plant a range of perennial vegetable and mulch crops – chard, comfrey, sweet potatoes etc. [...] So I’ve decided to go in a snake about 4 -5 meters wide which will start from the fence at the bottom of the lower pool, come up to the Mulberry and sweep round through the plum to go back to the boundary just up from the slope to the exising birch and then go up the boundary and round, inside the fallen willow to the shed. I’ll put a half standard Blenheim Orange tree there so that there will be three large trees in that area with lower bush trees between there and the other birch to allow evening Sun in to reach the house. [...] A quick overview of why plants can benefit from a cold snap. It’s kind of like a board game where the aim is to accumulate degree days. So one degree day is one day spent below a given temperature which varies from plant to plant. 1 day at 6 degrees below is worth 3 days at 2 degrees below. When the critical number is reached then the plants will move onto the next phase in the cycle. This tends to be a feature of long day plants. [...] 
We’ve decided build a forest garden area between our house and the open field. Putting in the rainwater reservoirs f involved removing a row of Apple Trees. So the plan is to replace these and try and build a stacked tract of ground that has fruit trees embedded in fruit bushes with a ground cover of comfrey, sweet potatoes, legumes and some leaf vegetables. [...] 
This looks like an early spring. Watch out for bugs, non vernalised and confused plants but enjoy the daffs snowdrops etc as they get underway early [...] Some interesting advice from Monty Don on the Christmas Gardener’s World this week covering putting the garden to bed and getting fruit trees and rhubarb in. [...] Now the leaves are off the trees, it’s time to take hardwood cuttings It’s an easy and reliable method for propagating deciduous trees, shrubs and climbers. The “season” lasts from now until late winter. [...] The most interesting presentation of the lot was one on the 3 stages of GM from Professor Sir David Baulcombe. I’ve tended to be a GM sceptic as it has appeared that the amount of spraying hasn’t gone down on the round-up ready strand, yields haven’t gone up, farmers have become more dependent and the companies that produce these products have created a monoculture with the IP owned by them which is bad for food security on both counts. However the Professor’s extremely interesting talk identified 3 stages of GM and provided light instead of the usual heat [...] Those of you who follow Gardener’s World may remember that Monty Don was warning you about these last week. If you don’t nobble them now they’ll keep on chomping away at your plants and their roots all through the winter so that by the spring they’ll be feeling sorry for themselves. [...] |
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