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Although rock dust is undoubtably beneficial it would seem to me a bit of a red herring in relation to Granny’s other problems, particularly with perennial weed. I think it is extremely difficult for inexperienced gardeners to get rid of them by your methods and they often give up in despair. I know your methods work and am full of admiration for the wonderful results you get Charles and your fantastic soil- the direct result of your organic methods.
I wish ‘Granny’ all the best with her allotment and her weeds!lucky bluebell.
The older manure will have a higher density of well decayed organic matter and will be brilliant to add organic matter to bluebell’s soil. Wonderful stuff but it will be much lower in nutrients because potash and nitrate will have been leached out. In traditional manure making fresh FYM was covered to prevent loss of nutrients
I think your advice Charles is spot on!It does not seem a good idea to me to let vigorous cucurbits overgrow brassicas in the hope that the brassicas will catch up after being overgrown when the squashes die off-which could well be in late october! I plant my cucurbits where they can overgrow soil vacated after early potatoes, broadbeans or whatever has finished early cropping. Personally I like to leave the remains of such as broad beans in situ to recycle organic matter. For those who are tidy minded the cucurbits cover up their decaying remains.
I have been making my own version of charcoal by merely dowsing the burning embers of my bonfires to get the lovely black stuff. I think it likely that charcoal initially robs the soil of nutrients but I am finding after five years of adding to my veg garden I am getting good results.
I think there is good potential for adding charcoal to compost ingredients- recreating so to speak the ancient middens when terra preta was laid down.
I recently posted a blog on terra pretaI just cannot understand why gardeners wish to use modules, it seems to me they are playing at being commercial growers. What wrong with just pricking out plants in seed trays and potting them up later if necessary or just direct planting young vegetable plants in the ground. There are all kinds of problems with modules such as uniform nutrition and watering, time and damage removing plants from modules etc etc
I believe it to be the heart of the original organic movement as pioneered by Eve Balfour and the Japanese guru Fukuada that to have self sufficiency you should not have to rely on ‘robbing’ a different site of its organic matter and nutrients. A most definite ‘yes’ to any suggestion that you can have successful no dig by just recycling all the organic matter produced on a site.I have described on my own blog,how my allotment became black with organic matter by just recycling what nature produced. Eccentrically over a period of 25 years living in a country village I refused all offers of FYM. (I do regard FYM as wonderful stuff and it is certainly a short cut to converting to no dig-except for all those damned weed seeds it contains.)
I am a no dig gardener who does use glyphosate and when you look it up, the effects do look frightening and there are questions to be answered- as with many other chemicals used in everyday life
Unfortunately most thing you research on the net are presented in a biased way- from all sides of any argument.
Have you researched the environmental effects of plastics? They seem much worse than glyphosateI really hate seeing allotments dug for the autumn, As a no dig gardener for 40 years I really believe in the benefits of keeping plants growing all winter. Surprisingly my latest blog on my own site is about reasons why gardeners dig!
thanks for your nice reply Steph, I am afraid I was a bit strident in my previous remarks, we non-diggers are easily carried away! Apology also to Charles.I have no love for big chemical or big pharma or big banks but we all use them. In all walks of life we use products of the chemical industry, why not in the garden. I have recently done a post on my own blog about why as a no-digger I defend glyphosate and would be pleased to have comments stating all sides of the argument.
Why is it prohibited to just spray the beds with glyphosate? If the weeds are intact (Not chopped about by cultivation) and the root and leaf are as one, a single well timed spray will often be enough. No loss of organic matter (it returns to the ground). Its about time the organic movement got up to date- just as they have done with bonemeal ? and nicotine.
http://www.nodiggardener.co.uk/2012/08/reasons-not-to-dig-4.htmlIt is almost a waste of time putting the spare greenhouse tomatoes on the uncovered veg patch. So what do I do each year-waste my time!
Four years ago I got lucky and had a bumper crop(Brenda is a dab hand at preparing and freezing them for winter sauces etc). Most years you start to get excited and the weather turns wet and in comes the blight!
My strategy if I can call it that, is to let any outdoor tomatoes go mad, the glasshouse varieties grown outside, branch in all directions. I am aiming for as many early trusses as possible. If the weather turns seriously wet (I anxiously watch how wet it is) I pick as many as possible, most are green but will ripen on an indoor dry surface and they go to the freezer. Meanwhile we eat the lovely Sweet Million and Shirley from the greenhouse! I train those in the regular way.
This year I only had three spare plants. Here in York we have gone really dry. Just my luck this might be another good year!I think biochar has wonderful potential in the garden. Apart from having so much going for it to improve fertility it sequesters carbon in the ground. It seems the ideal way for the organic gardener to sensibly use woody waste. The best way for us ordinary gardeners to make charcoal is to pore water over the burning embers of a bonfire. If done carefully you get a lot of charcoal from an average fire.
I would argue that everything grown on the veg garden is a potential green manure and as much none weed vegetation should be grown as possible throughout the year. Rather eccentrically I let things like coriander and rocket seed themselves in the rows. You might be horrified to see my broad bean tops shredded (with my hedge trimmer) on the surface at the present time. If it really does encourage the slugs I am perfectly happy for them to eat their favourite food, decaying vegetation.
http://www.nodiggardener.co.uk/2012/07/why-gardeners-dig-part-1.html -
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