DD and anyone else who may have been offended by my early morning ramblings, please accept my sincere apologies. It was not my intention to poke fun or criticise other allotmenteer’s ways of doing things, but just a reflection on this time of year and what makes us so very different and then again, so very similar in our hopes for better quality and more abundant harvests. Some dig and others strew, but what makes us different brings us together – we all do it “our way”.
Vietta clark
Look at the interesting opinions that have emerged for us to read and cogitate on.
They certainly are interesting and some have made me think about my own approach to allotmenteering; particularly Zazen999, who says:
Zazen999
I don't have empty beds at any time of year. What's that all about? Why waste beds on green manures when you can have leeks, garlic, beetroot, onions, PSB, swede, caulis, calabrese, broadies, lettuce.........?
It’s a good point. I also have runner beans, swedes, turnips, beetroot, parsnips, leeks, lettuce, rocket and many others, including a late courgette, which may actually bear fruit before the first frost, so I don’t have a lot of ground I could dig over even if I wanted to. Empty beds are sown with green manure to bring up the fertility of the soil rather than just to keep it occupied, so not a waste of a bed as the brassicae that follow will benefit from the added nitrogen and minerals brought up from deeper down.
Autumn sowings of Broad Beans will give an early harvest while building nitrogen in the beds for later crops. However if we keep crops coming in this way, we must remember to sow feeder crops such as legumes and green manures and to strew compost on our beds to prevent starving the soil over time.
Grannie Annie
… what do I do with the piles of chicken poops I get every time I clean out my coops and my overf ull compost heap! Still takes a lot of digging.
Although I garden veganically where manures from the meat market and horse industries are concerned, I will use the manures from our rabbit at home and chicken manure from neighbouring gardeners as in the main, these animals are treated well. These are welcome additions to my compost heap as high nitrogen and compost activators.
Each year, I strew the entire contents of the compost bin on the beds that will accommodate my potatoes and squashes. In this way on a four-year rotation, I feed each bed heavily every four years and along with green manuring when possible, I find this maintains and increases the heart of the soil without using large amounts of animal manure. In my opinion there is nothing in animal manure which cannot be found in a wide diversity of vegetation, from kitchen scraps to lawn mowings, leaves, straw and many others. Animal manures are usually just vegetation which has passed through the guts of a herbivore. Composting takes longer but comes out just as well; just my opinion.
Crh75
.. I thought green manures were best for lighter sandy soil, do people agree with that?
To break up clay soils I have used buckwheat and also alfalfa, though you do need to keep the crop going for longer for the roots to grow deep and thick enough to break up clay soil. My approach would be to dig (yes dig) deeply initially to break up any soil pan and then use a lasagne approach, building the organic layers one autumn ready to plant into the next spring. This approach would have a weed free, fertile bed very quickly without having to dig again.
SG6
Does Vegan gardening incorporate organic?
There are probably as many different views on veganic gardening as there are vegan gardeners. Some dye-hards would say I am not a veganic gardener because I will use rabbit and poultry droppings. My view is the animals I collect from are well treated and not butchered so I feel that rests well with me.
I think all veganic gardeners will be organic in their approach however. I would like to be proved wrong if I am wrong though!
Thank you for a lively debate and once again – apologies if I have offended anyone. Zippy by name, sometimes Zippy by nature.
DD – I promise in future not to post so early in the morning but to let my ideas season a bit before posting!