Amarosia Organic Garden

The onions that we started in soil blocks in March are now all transplanted into the field; over 1500 bunches (3-5 planted into the same soil block and spaced 6 inches to 1 foot apart) in total. They were transplanted into furrows with an inch of compost in the bottom to provide them with lots of fertility.

This year we are growing

• ‘Candy’; a large Spanish onion
• Tropeana Lunga; a rare heritage onion, prized in the Mediterranean,
• Purplette; red mini salad onions
• Gold Coin; a cipollini onion, similar in flavour to a shallot

For the leeks we have

• Varna; an early summer leek
• Tadorna; a hardy winter leek, some of which survived this winter and have been relocated this spring so we may have a few extra early leeks this year.

It certainly feels good to have managed to plant all the alliums over a month earlier than we did last year. Now we need to mulch them and leave them to do their thing.

In nature it is really rare to see exposed soil, except in instances where there is erosion or something is not in balance. The floor of the forest is covered with a protective mulch of leaves, branches etc which slowly decompose adding nutrients back to the soil which feeds the trees.

Animals (in this case, deer) also play their part, eating tree bark, leaves etc and then returning their fertility  in small concentrated packages!

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Christine McLean of the Times and Transcript included us in her latest article on Heritage Gardening. To see another photo of my yellow boots and red jacket (I’ll have to wear them to the market or people won’t know who I am!) click here

I should edit the story slightly by saying that in the UK it isn’t illegal to save heritage seeds (as stated in the article) but it is illegal to SELL heritage seeds, unless they are on the official list of seed varieties. This law was brought in to protect farmers from unscrupulous seed dealers selling poor quality seed. However, it has meant that any seed varieties not listed have disappeared into obscurity.  However, heritage seed savers can get around this by joining Heritage Seed associations and then their membership fee entitles them to 10 free types of heritage seeds.

I have seeded buckwheat as a spring green manure, the idea being that it is fast growing so provided that it germinates promptly it should outgrow and smother any weeds. It also opens up the soil and makes Calcium, Phosphate and Potassium more available to anything planted after it.

This is the residue left behind by a mixture of oats and crimson clover planted last July. It smothered out the  weeds nicely when it was growing and then winterkilled leaving the ground covered with a thin mulch that I can either till in, or plant right through.

Here is the residue left behind by oats planted in September. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of soil cover but their roots also add organic matter, plus there are very few weeds visible so they did a good job of smothering them in the fall.

As a comparison, here is a bed that I did not have time to seed to oats in the fall. Not quite so tidy!

Here the fall rye (seeded Sept 15th) is still green and growing. It will outcompete any weeds this spring, help to soak up excess moisture in the soil and when mature it will add lots of organic matter when we cut it for straw.

This area has top soil removed some years ago and is now being regenerated using a mix of grasses and clovers. We keep it mowed so that it keeps pumping out more leafy materials, slowly building up a layer of organic material above the soil surface.

The raccoons seem to have patrolled every inch of the property leaving their distinctive paw prints behind.

We are keeping the doorways of the greenhouses firmly sealed at night. There is nothing in there for them to eat, but plenty for them to play with.

I finished broadcasting the buckwheat early this morning amidst a chorus of birds and spotted a couple of worms mating near the edge of a bed. They seem to have to come to the surface to do so. I suppose they can’t squeeze the two of them into the same worm hole! Fingers crossed for lots and lots of baby worms!

The rhubarb has survived a winter under a 4ft snow bank; I can’t imagine what I would have to do to kill it (!) and is emerging now. It always makes me think of sci-fi movies with its alien like appearance.

The garlic is making its way through the thick cover of straw very nicely with no extra help, which is lucky because we have 7, 200ft rows which would take some fluffing.

I started sneezing a few days ago which told me that catkin season had arrived, and sure enough the catkins are shedding pollen all along the hedgerow.

Sooner or later there are going to be so many new things popping up that I won’t be able to keep track, but in the mean time here are the latest arrivals

Crocuses

Egyptian onions

Daffodils

 We also saw several Killdeer, a swallow, a hairy woodpecker tearing the bark off an old apple tree, plus an Osprey swooping overhead. Biodiversity at its best:-)

Tired, arms and back ache, need to sleep.

After a frosty start the day turned out to be beautiful and perfect for working outside getting things ready for the growing season.

First we seeded 2,500 broccoli and cabbages,

Then I transplanted chives, lavendar and thyme into new locations in the perennials beds and weeded out strawberries that had decided to relocate to adjacent beds,

Then we put one of the roll up sides on the big greenhouse

and finally I hand broadcast buckwheat as a cover crop over 1 acre of the main vegetable field. This should keep the weeds in check while we wait for the soil to dry up enough that we can create the raised beds.

Karima was of course her usual helpful self!

In the perennials beds we use the follow mulches;

leaves which are great for soil conditioning but have a tendency to mat and prevent bulbs etc coming through from below.

seaweed which is weed free and forms beautiful clean layers that plants can get through but supresses weeds, however, it is heavy and time consuming to collect enough from the beach because it shrinks dramatically when it dries out!

Straw, which in this case is full of wheat seeds, but thats better than herbicides! We use this on the garlic to stop it from frost heaving and being killed over the winter. In the spring we have to shake it loose to allow the garlic to come up through it.

Fall Rye as a living mulch to smother weeds and suppress mustards with its allelopathic properties before planting a fall crop. It generates large quantities of straw which can be mowed and the following crop planted right through it.

Well, my jaw certainly hurts! I spent the day meeting people at the Wellness Expo and talking about the benefits of eating local organic food as opposed to the organics you find in the supermarket with the benefits being freshness, flavour, nutrition and value for money!

There was a great crowd and people were really supportive so the day went by really quickly and I’m looking forward to tomorrow:-)

I shared a booth with a very nice lady who is a herbalist and makes her own natural salves and lotions (her company is called the Natural Path and she sells her products at the Moncton Market), plus the Holistic Dietitian, othewise known as Rebecca Bilodeau, was on the other side promoting her seminars on different aspects of nutrition and healthy eating.

While I was away the tomatoes in the greenhouse all germinated so now it is full to overflowing. Dave has been politely asked to build me some shelves asap!