Urban gardening blog about my experience growing my own food organically in small spaces with nature as my guide.
Wool Mulch
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On the weekend, I planted out some of my pea plants for the season, a couple varieties. 'Meteor' is a dwarf variety I'm trying for the first time this year. The other is an early sugar snap variety called 'Sugar Ann'. I grew it last year. They were crisp and delicious straight off the plant. So good, I'm not sure a single one made it as far as the kitchen door, but I'm digressing before I even start.
As I planted out these seedlings, I though it might be nice to give you a bit of a flavour of one way I protect the precious soil around my plants. I use wool. When I say wool, I mean raw sheep's fleece.
Now, you might be wondering, how does one obtain raw sheep fleeces without owning livestock? Well, In the UK, and particularly here in Devon, there are sheep dotting the hillsides all over the place.
I tend to contact local farmers directly by email. The UK Fleece Directory is a priceless resource. I love the fact this website has a section that breaks down the list by Region making it easy to stay local. I, personally, favour the Dartmoor farmers, because I like supporting their way of life which sustains Dartmoor's stunning moorland habitat.
Additionally, Dartmoor sheep are farmed for lamb rather than wool, so the wool is not high quality. As such, I can often get a lot of it for a good price when I collect the fleeces in person. Always a good excuse to explore new places and meet amazing, passionate people. Such a precious thing.
You might be wondering why I choose wool rather than something more common like woodchips. My answer is three fold.
Number one, wool is so versatile. I use it in pots just as much, if not more, than in the main garden.
Secondly, it is reusable. I used it last year, collected most back up in the autumn, and I am now laying it out again. Totally impractical with woodchips.
Thirdly, wool adds to the soil serious quantities of beautiful slow release nitrogen fertilizer. Sheep's wool contains a whopping 10-11% nitrogen. The wool does not even need to decompost to help the plants grow. One study found that crop yields of basil and swiss chard were 1.6 to 5 times greater in potting soil amended with raw fleece. What more can I say but, Wow!
What a natural resource. Just a joy to use from every angle. Happy gardening!
I've always liked those little gantt chart style sowing calendars you see every so often. You know the ones I'm talking about, those little calendars that show you when to sow and harvest your vegetables, if everything goes according to plan of course. I always look at these calendars and think, gosh this has such potential... But, this one is too difficult to read, that one is missing the vegetables I like, and these ones I'm never going to have in my allotment shed or garage or greenhouse when I need them. Yet despite all that, they still have such potential, if only... Well, this month I took the plunge. Taking inspiration from all the others, I built my own. I published it here: Vegetable Growing Calendar freely available to all. I'll let it speak for itself. Before leaving you to explore, I should mention that over the winter you will notice the list of varieties in there grow. This project has encouraged me to slowly begin working my way through my massively di
In the last month, our City Council offered us a different allotment plot, one less windswept and possessing a thriving Allotment Association. Hurray! The timing of this couldn't be better from the point of view of observing the pressures the ground faces from Devon's wet winter weather. The shallow sloping plot possesses a thin layer of heavy clay soil over what appears to be shillet. Bad for drainage, it must be said. After rain, the site becomes a quagmire of mud with pools of standing water. Not ideal, but equally not insurmountable. The plot design must mitigate waterlogging while catering for the periods of dry summer weather we occasionally, yes occasionally, get too. This clearly requires careful consideration. After contemplating this question over several nights of fitful sleep, this is the plan I'm actioning. A photo of my progress to date describes it nicely. As you can see, it's a lot of graft, but hopefully worth it. The approach consists of building up a
I'm working a new allotment plot this season and, as I normally do, I planted broad beans. I watched the little seedlings grow, but my glee quickly turned to concern when I noticed a curious problem develop. All the young leaves acquired these little notches along their edges. Below, you can see what I mean, like little peck marks, but they seemed too uniform and neat for pigeon damage... I felt puzzled. So, as I do, I commenced some research and RHS quickly offered the answer: pea and bean weevils ( Sitona lineatus). The leaf damage is caused by adult weevils. They overwinter in field margins and then fly in spring seeking out legumes, preferably beans and peas, on which to feed. Once fed, they lay their eggs in the soil around these same plants. Their larvae then feed on the plant's nitrogen fixing root nodules (housing rhizobia ). To quench your curiosity, you can see clusters of rhizobia filled root nodules growing on the broad bean roots below. My natural next question wa
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