Dyfi Valley Organic
Growing course
Questions page
|
|
Dyfi Valley Organic
Growing course
|
|
|
|
Site Map | The Dyfi Valley | Map | Join us | Glossary | Useful links | Contact us | Have your say | Search | News | Events |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Become a member of ecodyfi by joining our team of talented and voluntary development workers and catalysts. Help conserve our environment and improve our quality of life |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the growing section |
Whatever queries you have in relation to the course materials & growing in general, please email these directly to David Thorpe. You should title your email 'organic garden question'.
These appear below where others on the course can see them.
Once a week Ian the tutor takes these questions from the web page gets his practical students to answer them and sends the answers back to you to go up in this web site.
Back to: Lesson materials | Intro page | Weekly activities
Please can you tell me what is the purpose of covering the planted broad beans with fleece? Also,
the brambles - to deter birds and cats? (Siân Saunders)
Read the answer >>
How do you recommend stopping weeds from growing on the pathways between rows and round the edge
of the plot? (Nicola Ruck)
Read the answer >>
We suffer from mice at Ynys Las. So we tried a couple of barrier methods to deter them from digging
up and eating the broad bean seeds.
Fleece was one method. It seems to have worked on a couple of plots. On these, there has been no
mice damage and more rapid germination.
Other students covered the beans with prickly bramble stems. This too has been effective at deterring
mice.
One student made a temporary cloche out of polythene. The mice seemed to enjoy the temporary conservatory
and ate her seeds!
The brambles have also been effective at preventing birds from pulling up onion sets.
Nicola asked a good question which caused a good discussion among the course members. Here are a set of answers which we hope may be of some help.
Permanent pathways
We all initially assumed that the pathways around the plot were going to be fairly permanent features. In which case, one low cost effective solution would be to cover the weedy pathways with empty plastic bags (e.g. old fertiliser sacks.). Pebbles and stones could be laid on top of these bags for both drainage and appearance. Other course members suggested a layer of bark chippings instead of the pebbles and stone.
There are commercially available, more expensive, porous plastic membranes that could be used to suppress the weeds as an alternative to the plastic bags.
If appearance is not important then strips of old carpet can be laid on the pathways. Be careful, we think poorly laid rubber backed carpet might create a slug habitat.
Nicola, you might want to put a boundary between the plot and the path. There are plenty of different examples of different plot boundaries on display at The Centre for Alternative Technology (C.A.T.). These include untreated timber, broken slates, wine bottles etc.
Why bother?
We did discuss whether there might be an advantage in leaving the weeds. Many organic growers are deliberately planting weedy strips both alongside and across sections of their fields. The weeds are providing over wintering habitats for useful slug and aphid predatory species. E.g. ground beetles, ladybirds etc. These strips are called 'beetle banks.' (A search on 'beetle banks' on the internet will provide further information.) An example of this approach is the organic gardens at C.A.T. (not on the visitor circuit), that supply food for the restaurant, where the weeds are tolerated and the pathways and plots merge.
Of course, you could argue that the weeds could provide a habitat for the slugs too!
Our answers are not perfect.
Temporary pathways
It was suggested that there may be another way at looking at the problem.
It may be useful to see the paths as a temporary feature and part of your rotation.
For example, once every four or five years you might want to grow a large area of a single crop. E.g. potatoes. It might be easier to grow these on a large single plot. In subsequent years as crops were rotated these large plot might need to be sub divided into smaller plots, similar to those we're using at Ynys Las.
The large plot can be subdivided by temporary paths made out of organic material that is slow to decompose. You could put down a layer of cardboard to suppress weeds and then cover this with sticks, twigs, brassica stems, grass cuttings, inverted bits of turf, etc. The pathway becomes a fertile strip of decomposing organic material that can be dug in when the area is next needed for the large single crop.
Lazy option
As a group at Ynys Las we've settled for the lazy option. There are so many of us trampling back and forth on the paths that we're squashing the weeds... as long as the course lasts.
