tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992787439074403830.post6312351407755707318..comments2024-01-13T19:43:05.161+00:00Comments on Allotment Garden: Trenching the pea bed. Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992787439074403830.post-56288372972239393582016-03-16T09:18:40.362+00:002016-03-16T09:18:40.362+00:00Thanks for the comment Barbee especially about my ...Thanks for the comment Barbee especially about my photographs. The photographs are not very beautiful but they show what I have done in the past. I am always worried about advising people with different soil and in different climates about how to garden. There are far too many pundits that will meddle where they have little or no experience. An adoption of techniques developed in the British maritime climate has been exported throughout the world with nothing but very bad results. <br />However, completing a permaculture course has taught me one big lesson. Adding organic matter improves the soil immensely whatever the climate or soil type. Adding woody material and brushwood to the subsoil and composted organic matter to the top of the soil increases depth both from the top and the bottom. Mixing in farmyard manures by digging also helps to increase the depth. <br />In a British climate, with a soil like yours Barbee, I would not dig – as in the way that the Victorian British gardeners did. I would raise the soil as you are doing with bought in soils. But this gives you an opportunity to use woody material as a base to build on. So a brush wood base over native soil with new soil, compost and manure heaped over it and then planted with vegetables with a thick mulch of woody chippings would turn around a clay soil like this fairly quickly. <br />There is a definite limit to the number of times that you should add wood to the soil. One aim of putting this amount of woody material into the subsoil is to raise the top soil above the general level. This allows water to pass through the subsoil and the top soil remains relatively dry. If I have achieved this then there is less incentive to continue adding this kind of material. I would definitely only return to doing this Hugelkultur after three or four years. Digging down this year, has demonstrated that large pieces of wood do not rot down within two years. <br />While adding organic matter to the soil is an unending process, I think that adding it in the form of thick branches and trunks is not one that I would contemplate doing very often. I did it this year because I took down three small trees in my flower garden. If you have a lot of woody material that will not rot down very quickly, I would bury it rather than burn it and loose nutrients from the growing area. <br /> I am not too worried about nitrogen immobilisation because I have added a lot of farmyard manure and I am growing peas on this bed. Peas are legumes and can tap into atmospheric nitrogen through bacteria in their root nodules. So just as long as the woody material is as low in the subsoil as I can reasonably make it then I don’t think that it will have a deleterious effect on the growing area. <br />I would definitely not dispose of any crop residues off your property. I would compost it regardless of the woodiness. It is remarkable just how much material a vegetable garden produces that can be used on the compost heap. And it always amazes me how good a compost even woody material produces. <br />Anthony Cuthberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02875794858885289856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5992787439074403830.post-86436071614714674182016-03-16T02:31:37.073+00:002016-03-16T02:31:37.073+00:00I really like this article. (Can't get enough ...I really like this article. (Can't get enough of your photos-thanks) This is the method you have earlier described as your own version of hugleculture and I have been trying something similar. Assuming my soil is far worse than yours, how often would you say you trench the same spot? It looks like 2 years is too frequent-would you go for 3? or maybe 4?<br />I have former pasture (small acreage) composed of a thick clay gumbo soil that when wet: is gooey and when dry: is mason quality brick. Being a new property, I'm forced to buy bagged soil, compost and mulch. As I try to bring my own up to snuff...using the above described technique, I wonder how long it might take-or if maybe it is an unending process. :)<br />Thanks again, GREAT BLOG. Love it. (Esp. all the photos.) Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02940249317734758487noreply@blogger.com