Tag Archives: perennial

Swales In Lincolnshire

Back in August I hosted a get together of friends that I made on my Permaculture Design Course. We have been meeting regularly, taking it in turns to host it, and using it as an opportunity to throw a lot of bodies into a task that would have taken the host ages to finish. Despite it always appearing as if most people are just chatting, it always amazes me how much we get done. After most of them had left on the Sunday, those of us remaining used a Bunyip (water level) to mark out three lines of bamboo poles on contour, so that I could construct some swales.

Swales are the opposite of drainage ditches, dug level, along the contour of a slope. Instead of taking water away quickly, the swales capture water, and allow it to percolate down into the soil, where it is available to plants. Reducing runoff and evaporation. One of the potential effects of climate change is an increase in rainfall during our Winter, with less during the Summer, with the Summer rain falling in larger downbursts. Here in Lincolnshire we have pretty dry Summers, and I wanted to make sure that the  trees that I’m planting will have enough water to sustain them, which will then help to sustain me.

I hired a mini digger for a weekend, and dug three swales, and have since transplanted some of the perennials from my vegetable beds onto them. This is OK, but after I dug them, I had another read of some of the books in my Permaculture library, and I should have propagated the plants for the swale bank before digging it. Oh well, nobody gets it right all of the time.

This is a picture of one of the swales. Because the bank is on the South side (downhill), and the sun angle is so low, there is shadow in the bottom. If you follow it along, you can see that the swale continues on the other side of the fence, and into the trees.

swale

One of the swales

 

In the centre of one of the swales I dug a six foot deep hole, with the hope that it would become a pond. We are on a thick clay subsoil, so I was quite optimistic that it would work. One of my Permaculture mates, Leon,  did some dowsing, and one of the potential water sites was next to this swale so I dug down, and found no water. However, I did bust through an old clay field drain, which will feed water into the whole. (In fact it already has, and there is three foot of water in the ‘pond’ now).

 

I still have to plant up the swale banks, and will probably sow a mixture of annual/perennial bee plants on them, until I decide what to finish them with. I also have to add organic matter into the bottom of the swales, to encourage worms to create more holes, otherwise water will just sit on the clay, and become breeding grounds for mosquitos. I may also add some wood ash, or lime, which should speed up the process. Rather than wheel lots of stuff up into the field, I’m going to mow the grass uphill of the swale with my scythe, and drop the cut grass into the bottom. That way I do two jobs at the same time.

 

Another Swale

Another Swale

The second picture shows another swale, which has Welsh Onions, Chives, mallow, Poached Egg plants, and Wild Rocket planted on the bank.

Having completed the job, I was also struck by how easy it would be to deepen the swales into an aquaculture system. the long narrow shape of the ponds created would maximise the effect of edge, one of the principles of Permaculture. As most of the food for a system like this comes in from the land, the increased edge would make the thing more productive. Whilst I don’t eat meat, or fish, others do, and it would allow me to grow some edible aquatic plants too.

Increasing the water surface would also allow me to increase the Winter light levels for some plants, using reflected sunlight, perhaps with a backdrop of stone/rock, although that would mean hauling it up into the field. The downside of all of this water is that it will probably lead to an increase in dragonflies, and they eat bees:-( Still, maybe if I have enough fish, they will keep the dragonfly larvae under control. As I spend more time near the water, I think about more ways to expand the ‘waterscape’, hopefully to increase the sustainability of the Smallholding.

Here is a picture of my pond. To give you an idea of scale, the top of the chicken hutch in the background is about head height. The swale extends beyond the pond, but is not connected to it yet. I’m waiting to decide whether I need to bridge the swale there, leave it as it is, or join them up and walk around. The water level is continuing to rise. I added some shallow ditches leading forward and back from the pond, to increase the amount of edge, and shallow water, and these are starting to fill. There is a pond in the next field, and we used to get lots of frogs, and toads in the field, so I’m hoping that the numbers will increase, especially as I’m planning to move the chickens out in the Spring.

My Pond

My small pond

 

 

 

 

My pond again

Pond from the North

The second image of the pond is taken from the North (uphill) bank, and shows the shallow arms of the pond filling up with water. To the left (East) the other part of the swale runs into the pond. I’m guessing that in the Winter and Spring, this will provide a long stretch of shallow water linked to the pond.

If you want to see an amazing system of water capture, storage, and use, I can recommend the DVD ‘permakultur’ by Sepp Holzer. Although it is in German, with subtitles, it shows what can be done with a bit of forethought.

Take care

Deano

Smallholding Spring Salads

This year is the first year that we have been eating our own salad all through the Winter on our Smallholding. Some of that was deliberate, and some occurred by chance, but it’s something that any gardener can do.

The thought of growing Winter Salad hadn’t really occurred to me until late last year. Up until then, I had grown root vegetables for storing, and Brassicas to harvest fresh. This was supplemented by frozen vegetables,and chutney,  so there wasn’t really a need. I was then recommended a book about Winter Salad growing by a friend who lives in France. The book was Four Season Harvest, by Eliot Coleman. It’s a good book, well worth reading. Unfortunately I didn’t get the book until late September, by which time, most of the Winter Salads should have already been putting on growth. The problem is that in the UK the light levels are pretty low over Winter, so even if you can provide protection from the weather, growth is still limited by lack of light. I planted salad anyway, and it put on some growth until November and then slowed down.

To fill in the gap, I sprouted seeds. This became essential as I decided to eat predominately raw (live) food in early January, probably the worst time of year to start. I found most of the sprouts a bit bitter, but wheat sprouts, eaten young, are fantastic. Lentils are good too.

Whilst growth of the salad crops was slow, it did go on, and it became possible to harvest a leaf or two from individual plants to make up a meal. Mibuna was particularly good, especially planted directly into soil in the greenhouse (unheated). There were also a fair amount of wild leaves to pick, especially where sheltered in our hedgerows.

One benefit of the late planting is that now we have lots of salad growing well, far ahead of the stuff that has been planted this year. Some of it is planted in the greenhouse, where the rising temperatures are causing the Mibuna to flower. This will be closely followed by the Wild Rocket (Aragula?). The same plants, now outside in pots, are still putting on lots of leaf growth. I only discovered last year that Wild Rocket is a Perennial, so I left some in the beds, and despite dying back, they’re putting on growth now, allbeit hindered by slugs. With Rocket so expensive to buy, I intend to keep on adding it to the beds. Less work and tastier than lettuce. Another plant really earning its keep is Welsh Onion. It is a perennial bunching onion, and it has stood all Winter long. It can be split and spread around, and it spreads by setting seed. Another plant that I will grow more of. It can be a bit strong to eat raw, unless you like a strong taste, but it is very sweet when fried. The strong flavour may only be during Winter, as I don’t recall it being so strong before.

My plan for next year is to do a combination of early Winter sowing, to allow me to harvest full grown salad plants throughout the Winter, followed by a later sowing, to give me an early Smallholding Spring Salad crop.

Thinking Outside of the Box

Planting for bees, but with a Permaculture twist.

Hi all

There is quite a lot of information about which plants are useful to bees, and most of them are very similar, almost as if they all copy from each other. In this article, I hope to approach the subject from a different perspective, using Permaculture.

Permaculture

Perhaps I should explain a bit about Permaculture. First given a name in the 1970’s, Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is a design system, used primarily to produce sustainable food growing systems. It takes as its inspiration, natural ecosystems, such as forests, which produce vast amounts of growth, without the need for humans to add fertiliser, or use pesticides. In fact forests grow fertility, as opposed to conventional agriculture, which destroys it. Permaculture systems therefore tend to focus on perennial plants, and include trees and shrubs.

There are lots of Permaculture video clips on Youtube. Here’s one to watch  if you’re interested.

The Bees

Most of the information about keeping bees healthy concentrates on what goes on inside the hive (the first box), and little is written about the other, external factors, that influence bee health. Nowadays, Cities and towns tend to produce better forage than rural areas, especially those areas where arable farming predominates. Urban gardens contain many different plants, flowering throughout the year, and the urban environment tends to be slightly warmer, and more sheltered than out in the country. For us country folk, the forage available to our bees has dropped dramatically. There are few hedges and trees, and the hedges are ‘scalped’ by flail mowers before they are mature enough to produce flowers. There are few wildflowers in the fields, having been destroyed by herbicides. When the Oilseed Rape stops flowering, there is little for the bees to feed on. The forage that they find has been sprayed with harmful chemicals, and the nutritional value of the nectar, depends on the health of the plant, which in turn depends on the health of the soil in which the plant is grown. If any of you watched the BBC program ‘A Farm for the Future’ you may doubt the health of our agricultural soils.

The two critical times for honeybees are either side of Winter. During late Summer, the bees are trying to store honey to see them through the Winter, and in Spring, they are desperate for nectar and pollen, to feed young bees and build up the strength of the colony.

The Design Concept

In view of the earlier paragraphs I am going to concentrate on plants that provide bee forage at the beginning and end of the beekeeeping year, but the Permaculture twist is that I will stick to Edible Plants.

Early Season

Trees and Shrubs. All of the following are useful to bees, edible, and are small enough for the average garden, or can be kept small enough. Hazelnut (Corylus avellana), Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas), Myrobalan Plum (Prunus cerasifera), Flowering quince (Chaenomeles japonica or speciosa), the Mahonias (Mahonia aquifolium, japonica, and nervosa). Stretching the edibility a little, Violet Willow ( Salix daphnoides) is a fantastic bee plant, and the inner bark, rhizome tips, young shoots and catkins are all supposed to be edible.

Late Season

Trees and Shrubs. trees which flower late in the season, and are edible are few and far between. Small leaved Lime (Tillia cordata) flowers in July, but is too big for the average garden, as is Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa). See later in the article for more out of the box ideas. The Strawberry tree (Arbutus unedo) flowers very late in the season, but the fruits are reputed to be tasteless.  Thorny eleagnus (Eleagnus pungens) flowers late, produces edible fruit, and fixes nitrogen. Rosebay Willowherb produces an excellent honey, and the leaves stems and roots are all edible when young. Sadly most (other) people class it as a weed. the Golden Rain tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) is usually grown as an ornamental, but it’s leaves and seeds (roasted) are edible. Autumn fruiting raspberries are a really good source of nectar, and will continue to produce flowers right up until the first frost.

Smaller plants. Plenty to choose from here. Perennial onions (Allium tuberosum, and fistulosum) flower all Summer, as does chicory (Cichorium intybus). The Common Dahlia (Dahlia pinnata) has edible tubers. The Mallow family (Malva) flower all summer long, look great, bees love them, and they’re all edible. Same goes for the mints (Mentha). The fruit of the Passionflower(Passiflora caerulea) is edible. Fennel flowers until late, and almost all of the plant is edible, with that lovely aniseed flavour.

Space, space, and more space.

Even with a large garden, there is never enough space to get enough plants in to make a significant difference to your bees, but there are ways to expand your forage. In order of social acceptability these include, be nice to your neighbours, speak nicely to the council, and guerilla gardening. This is the second box to think outside of.

If you are an experienced  gardener, it’s quite easy to sow extra seeds, or to take cuttings from trees and shrubs. Why not give them away to your neighbours. You don’t have to tell them the plants are for your bees, just smile and offer them. Most people will take a freebie, and if you produce enough, your bee forage area will expand massively. You will also get a few credits with your neighbours, which might be useful if one of your swarms takes up residence in their living room.

My Parish Council has the option of taking free trees from the County Council to plant around the village. The stumbling block is always getting somebody to water them whilst they establish. be that person. Volunteer, and at the same time go through the list of available trees, picking the ones that are of most use. You can do a similar thing if your village/town/city enters the ‘best kept ****’ competition. it’s amazing how grateful people will be for you to help plant hundreds of bee friendly plants around the place.

Guerilla gardening is probably not for the faint hearted. It’s a bit like planting stuff for the best kept village, but without permission, and normally at night. I guess that you’re more likely to escape unnoticed in urban areas, as in a village, everybody knows who grows what. Here’s a clip about guerilla gardening.

In this article I have ignored annual and biennial plants, and concentrated on edible perennials. if this interests you, I would recommend ‘ Bee Plants’ by Martin Crawford, of the Agroforestry Research trust (ISBN 1-874275-22-x). Available from

http://www.agroforestry.co.uk/ The site also includes plants and seeds for sale. martin appeared in ‘A Farm for the Future’.

The Plants for a Future Database includes details of many unusual plants  http://www.pfaf.org/index.php

http://www.green-shopping.co.uk/ The Green shopping catalogue lists many of the ART books, and many others on interesting subjects.

Take Care

Deano