I am having to make changes to my vegetable growing areas in order to reduce the time that it takes to manage. I currently have two areas in which I grow vegetables and grains, covering over a quarter of an acre. This has been difficult to maintain whilst at college, and will be much more difficult when I start at university. One of the principles of Permaculture is to “Creatively use and respond to change”, so that’s what I’m doing.
Tag Archives: soil fertility
Studying Soil Science
I’ve found myself getting more and more focussed on Soil Science, and wanting to research and test the effects of some of the ideas and systems that I am working on. Without access to academic papers, journals, expensive text books and laboratory equipment I am unlikely to be able to test my ideas sufficiently, so decided that I needed to go to University to do so. Continue reading
Fungal Compost
Making a more fungal compost has been an aim of mine for some time. One of the ways that I do that is to not make ‘hot’ compost, keep the proportion of high carbon materials high, and to not turn unless it’s needed. However recently I set up a truly fungal mix of ingredients and this post is about how that went. Continue reading
UK Permaculture Convergence 2014
I will be attending the UK Permaculture Convergence 2014, where I will be giving a talk about my work on grain polycultures. The Permaculture Association organises a convergence every two years. The 2012 convergence was the first that I attended, and I spoke about grain growing there too. I have found the two year gap between convergences is really interesting, as it highlights how much has changed in the two year period, a fact that might not have been so marked with an annual event. Those changes will be reflected in the content of my talk.
My 2014 Convergence Workshop
In 2012 my workshop reflected where I was at the time with my Small Scale Grain Growing. Things have changed markedly since then. I have successfully added soybeans and edible lupins to the crops grown, and this year I am growing rice, teff, proso millet, foxtail millet, grain sorghum, grain amaranth, and lentils to see how they perform. Perhaps the best way to illustrate the difference is by the work that I was doing today. Having harvested my wheat, spelt, and rye last week, I was preparing one of those beds for sowing the next crop combination. In this case a second flint corn, to be intercropped with winter wheat, sweet clover, and persian clover. In October the corn will be replaced by broad (fava) beans, and it has been planted at a spacing that will suit the beans. I am looking to use this type of intercropping and follow on cropping to maximise the amount of root exudates produced by the plants, along with the biomass, in order to build soil fertility at the same time as providing food. The adjacent bed is growing grain sorghum, intercropped with grain amaranth, and some white clover and red orach volunteers. I am trying a cowpea interplanting with this combination, to be sown tomorrow, after germinating indoors since Sunday.
To get to these beds I had to walk past a bed with a lentil, soybean, and teff polyculture planting at one end of a bed that included two types of oats, a barley, and a second lentil variety at the other. All very different from the wheat/clover/bean combinations of two years ago.
Workshop Details
My workshop is officially called ‘Designing Grain Polycultures for Food, Fertility, and Fun’ and for the promotional ‘blurb’ I’ve described it as:
Convergence Highlights
Whilst I’d love my workshop to be the highlight of everybody’s UK Permaculture Convergence 2014, the reality is that there are a lot of good things going on over the course of the weekend. What I enjoyed most about the 2012 convergence was the opportunity to meet in person many of the people that I had been communicating with digitally for the previous year. For Diploma apprentices there is an annual Diploma Gathering, held November/Deacember each year, and there are now more regional gatherings being organised, but this is the ‘biggie’, and a real opportunity to start embedding yourself deeper into the wider network. I am fortunate to enough to be on the panel for Jan Martin’s Diploma Accreditation, which will be held at the convergence. For anybody who wants a chance to find out more the diploma, this is a great chance to listen to somebody explain what it was like for them. You can find out more about Jan’s Diploma on her blog, ‘The Snail of Happiness‘.
Good food, good company, bar, workshops, Diploma presentation, Ceilidh, time and space to chat. What isn’t there to like about a weekend away with like-minded people?
International Permaculture Convergence UK 2015
UK Permaculture Convergence 2014 Details
The UK Permaculture Convergence 2014 will beheld at Gilwell Park from the 12th to 14th September. Details and booking information can be found here. The convergence is open to non-members of the Permaculture Association for the first time this year, but the cost for non members is more than the cost of a year’s membership and the price for association members. So it makes sense to join.
Hope to see some of you there
Deano
Rockdust, Glacial Milk, and Plant Nutrition
I’ve been using rockdust as part of my soil balancing strategy, as well as an ingredient in my potting mixes. In addition I’ve been mixing rockdust into my poutry food, adding it to my wormeries, and compost heaps, but over the last couple of weeks I’ve been using the rockdust in a liquid suspension, to water my plants, and as a foliar spray.