We are slowly reclaiming parts of the property for garden and veggie/fruit growing. Flowers are done mostly in pots as the moment, until I get around to preparing areas of ground for them to flourish 'au naturel'.
The land has had it tough in the past, ex-dairy farm and so quite intensive 'off-site' inputs into the land and lots of output. We are not looking to get certification but we are aiming at managing our land with a sensitivity to nature's order, so spray-free and reusing material from one part of the property on another. However, in these early days we are having to bring in potting soil and garden mix to have any medium in which to grow the veggies.
Just recently we dismantled 4 compost heaps we had set up when we moved in and had not really tended to - we simply added to them with peelings, cuttings etc. and turned when we remembered (and had time). Well, nature got on with it and we had enough homemade compost, full of worms, to set up four or five no-dig beds for a more concerted veggie growing effort this year (partly spurred on by the fact that the cherubs are less needy and a little more helpful in the garden and in amusing themselves).
We didn't set up borders to the beds this year, I might do that next year with old sleepers. This year we simply reacted to the successively maturing seedlings in the greenhouse! So the first bed was laid out so that I could get the squashes and zucchini in and then it was corn, then tomatoes....
So we simply did newspaper, straw (actually recycled old hay from the property), compost and seedlings. We have weeding to do, but actually the crops have grown so well they are outcompeting the weeds, which I shall pull out to try and reduce seeding. Irrigation is important but the set up does hold on to moisture really well and the plants have survived being left for two days in heat when in the past, plants straight in the ground would have perished on the first day.
This is definitely the way to go for us on this land.
We not only see the benefits in the environment by going spray-free and growing things more naturally, but the more we read about pesticide residues in food the more we believe in the benefits to our own health and especially the health of the cherubs. We aren't perfect, we don't always use organic growing material, we live close to non-organic farms and so drift and leaching will impact on our land. However, we do what we can. We buy organic when possible and we grow spray-free and we hope to reduce any negative impact on the environment and on our bodies, targeting the dirty dozen as we can.
The no-spray strawberries were a hit this year. We didn't have huge crops everyday but a steady trickle that allowed the cherubs to taste their deliciousness almost every day and even provided enough for a couple of pavlova and a jar of jam!
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