My previous articles on green manure have covered the why, what, where and when – this final article deals with how to use them to best effect.Processing your green manure so that the ground can be used again begins around 3 – 4 weeks before you want to make use of the plot for another crop or plant, or alternatively when the green manure approaches maturity – whichever comes first.
There are various ways in which to process the green manure:
You may garden using the ‘no dig’ method. If so, you migth feel that grazing rye, even though it is an excellent soil improver, should be avoided. However, you can cut down the rye, spread it with well-rotted manure if required and then plant a crop of ‘no dig’ potatoes on the surface. these can then be covered with a mulch of hay or straw (around 10cm deep) adding more of this as they grow, and topping off with layer of grass mowings before the potato foliage meets across the rows.
If you forget to deal with your green manure in time and it becomes tough and woody, don’t worry. Just cut off the tops and put them on the compost heap, then dig in the roots or cover with a thick mulch.
If you dig in young annual green manures during the summer they will decompose rapidly, leaving you able to plant up the area within a few days of digging in. Tougher plants, like grazing rye, need to be dug in a few weeks in advance of when you need the ground again, especially in spring when decomposition is slower. If you’re aiming to create a fine seed bed after your green manure remember to leave the ground for a longer period than if you are simply planting into the ground. And avoid using green manures where you plan to sow small seeds such as carrots, parsnips and spinach as some green manures have a chemical which inhibits germination.
Phacelia in flower
Source: ‘Green Manures’- Garden Organic Guide. September 2010
Other articles in this series:
Green Gold: 12 plants for soil improvement
Green Gold- 7 reasons to use green manures
Green Gold: Where and when to use Green Manures
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?
A Roof Garden by Hugo Nicolle Design
A roof garden is any garden on the roof of a building. Roof gardens can be of ornamental value – especially in urban locations where no ground level garden is available. They can also play a part in:
A great place to grow vegetables
Cultivating food on the rooftops of buildings is sometimes referred to as rooftop farming, and is usually done using special systems such as hydroponics, aeroponics/air-dynaponics or in containers. These systems can also help to reduce the stress on the roof that would otherwise have to carry a depth of soil over its whole surface. Sometimes as well as using the space on a roof, additional growing areas are added as ‘air bridges’ between buildings.
primarily the bearing capacity of the roof structure – this can be designed to be minimal, so really creating a ‘green roof’ (bearing about 100-300kgs per square metre) or ‘stepable’ (bearing over 300kgs per square metre)
prevention of roots and water penetrating the roof structure
the inclination of the roof (this should not exceed 30°)
the altitude of any attic, etc.
Roof gardens are likely to feature more and more in major cities – 80% of Singapore residents voted for more roof gardens in the City’s future plans. The containers/planters on a roof garden may be designed for a variety of functions and vary greatly in depth to satisfy aesthetic and recreational purposes. These planters can hold a range of ornamental plants: anything from trees, shrubs, vines, or an assortment of flowers. Where aesthetics and recreation are the priority roof gardens may not provide the environmental and energy benefits of a green roof.
A ‘green roof’ made up of various succulent plants
Once again you need to be aware of how much weight your balcony can take, so seek structural engineer or architect advice if you’re unsure. Balconies can be used for both ornamental or food plants, but it’s worth thinking about your layout before you start. To maximise growing space, suspend window boxes along the balcony edges, place soil-warming terracotta planters in the sunniest patches, and put lean-to shelves against the wall to accommodate extra pots. Here’s a video about setting up a balcony garden using permaculture principles.
For those who live in small apartments with little space, ‘square foot gardening’, or (when even less space is available) vertical gardens or ‘living walls’ can be a solution. These use much less space than traditional gardening – square foot gardening is said to use 20% of the space of conventional rows and ten times more produce can be generated from vertical gardens. These also encourage environmentally responsible practices – eliminating tilling, reducing or eliminating pesticides, and weeding, and encouraging the recycling of wastes through composting. Some of the most familiar vertical gardens are called ‘living walls’ – a concept where low growing and small plants are placed into a matrix which is then fixed to a wall. Such designs can be immense in size, covering the entire sides of buildings. They are also increasingly being used inside building spaces, such as foyers and receptions, to create a contemporary and eco-friendly ambiance. There is a trend towards more living walls in people’s homes. This has led to many companies now providing products which create a vertical garden to liven up the side of a house or patio, and platforms of pots which can be planted with herbs and vegetables on a balcony. Some of my own articles feature the use of old pallets for vertical planters and these too can be considered as ‘living walls’ and are a useful addition to conventional ground level gardens as well as homes which lack much outside space.
There are clear advantages to vertical gardens:
creating growing space where normal ground level space is restricted
offering a green outlook to those who want to avoid views of concrete and bricks
creating spaces which are beneficial to both mental and physical health
making it easy to grow food plants such as herbs and salads
RHS- roof gardens and balconies
6 green roofs you can relate to
Balcony Garden and rooftop garden ideas
Green Roof and Green Wall ona Sydney high rise building – David Eugene
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?
from Gardenphotos.com, via Growveg
‘Vegetables are not growing well in my windy garden, but I am reluctant to plant windbreaks of trees or hedges, as they will create shade and take moisture from the soil. What alternatives are there?’
If you want to avoid the costs of installing a fence/trellis with openings to allow the wind to percolate through at an acceptable speed, I think the answer lies in putting in a screen of synthetic wind break material, obtainable from most garden centres or online. The strength and quality of this varies and some is fairly costly, but a 1.5- 1.8 metre high wind break around your plot would give dramatic results. I found a 50 metre x 2 metre roll of knitted net on offer online for around £170 or much the same on Ebay for about £40, and £13 for a 10 metre length. Make sure the posts are anchored firmly in the ground (corner posts may need to be reinforced and they should ideally be bedded in concrete), as the netting takes a tremendous strain in high winds.
On the subject of vegetable or kitchen gardens, is yours laid out for maximum efficiency and growing space?
Traditionally vegetables were grown in large plots, often 6-9 metres wide and as long as the garden allowed. The vegetables were arranged with a lot of wasted space between rows. Today we know that vegetables can be grown far closer together without any adverse effects; indeed, there is a a trend towards abandoning rows and growing vegetables with equal spacing between the plants in each direction, in blocks or patches.
Narrow beds in the Kitchen Garden at Old School Garden
This compactness lends itself to smaller, narrower beds, say 0.9 – 1.5m wide, which can be any length you like. These narrower beds are easier to manage from either side (so avoiding walking on the bed itself and opening up the possibility and benefits of ‘no dig’ cultivation) and the denser planting also helps to crowd out weeds. here at Old School Garden, my kitchen garden ahs been laid out along these lines, though I still have a one large bed which I’ve effectively split into two by creating a ‘boardwalk’ path out of old pallets.
Boardwalk made of old wooden pallets, used to split a large veg bed into two
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?
Heritage Veg- keeping the old varieties going
The HSL aims to conserve and make available vegetable varieties that are not widely accessible. It does this by maintaining a collection of vegetables from the UK and Northern Europe that are not readily available in seed catalogues. Some of these varieties were commercially available once but have now disappeared from catalogues and seed lists. Others have never been offered in catalogues but have been developed by gardeners and passed on through the generations until they were donated to the HSL. There are also some varieties that have a special local significance. Many have a story to tell, and HSL collects not only the seed, but also information on their characteristics, methods of use, origins, and what this can tell us about our gardening and culinary heritage. Just flipping through their current catalogue is a journey into the past with varieties carrying evocative names like:
Navy Bean Edmund – a variety of bean first cultivated to sustain Australian forces during WWII and which is the kind used to create ‘baked beans’.
Long Blood Red– an American Beetroot described by Vilmorin in ‘The Vegetable Garden’ (1885) as an ‘American variety with a long, slender, deeply buried root..good, productive, and well-coloured kind’ – a member of HSL describes it as having ‘the best flavour, wonderful for picking’.
Maltese plum – a variety of tomato donated by someone whose friend acquired the seeds on holiday in Malta! Trusses are borne on leaf spurs, so unlike many other varieties you don’t grow it as a cordon or remove the side shoots. This is a late variety that produces a heavy crop of firm, red plum type tomatoes ideal for stuffing.
Which varieties of Veg do you grow?
The HSL is not a gene bank, so does not preserve the seeds in cold storage, but grow them and make them available to other gardeners so that they remain alive and able to adapt to new conditions. Any new characteristics then have a good chance of being spotted and made use of. The HSL was created in response to the loss of old vegetable varieties that occurred following European legislation designed to counteract the activities of some unscrupulous seed companies. After the commercialisation of seeds in the 19th century the traditional practice of farmers and gardeners exchanging seeds declined. European law says that only seed that is listed on a National List (and ultimately the EU Common Catalogue) can be marketed. To be on the list a variety must go through a series of tests, part of which is about ensuring consistency between generations. The tests both cost money and were impractical for many smaller seed companies, so many varieties started to disappear, especially those that are inherently highly variable.
With the costs incurred in breeding and maintaining a variety, a large, profitable market is needed by commercial seed companies. This means that they often decide against maintaining varieties suitable for ‘niche markets’, e.g. gardeners, in favour of those more acceptable to large-scale growers. The varieties available are therefore more likely to ripen at the same time to make harvesting with machinery easier, tough enough to withstand travel and handling in supermarkets, and familiar in visual characteristics so that they are acceptable to the average shopper. Flavour often takes a back seat.
The HSL runs a membership scheme to help to distribute seeds and counteract the costs of the EU legislation. Members pay an annual fee which goes towards the costs of collecting, growing, storing and distributing the seed. HSL produce articles on seed saving, research and the latest developments on the international seed scene in ‘ The Organic Way’, the Garden Organic members’ magazine. Every winter they also send out a Catalogue covering a portion of the collection- members can choose up to six packets containing a few seeds of different varieties to try out for themselves. HSL is also active in promoting seed exchanges around the country.
The HSL currently looks after 800 varieties of Heritage Veg seeds
Currently HSL looks after over 800 types of seed from open-pollinated varieties (not F1 hybrids), of which around 200 are detailed in their Seed Catalogue. As well as research on the varieties and testing of previously untried varieties that come in from time to time, HSL grow some of the seed used at Garden Organic’s HQ. More seed is grown by Seed Guardians – special members who volunteer their resources to look after and bulk up selected varieties. These are then available for distribution to HSL members.
The collection is still expanding. Every year HSL receive samples of vegetable seed that gardeners have been looking after and keeping alive. They ask a lot of questions about each one to determine its place in our culture and then conduct our trials on it, taking notes and making assessments throughout its growing life to find out as much as possible about it. This gives HSL the opportunity to ensure that it is different to anything else they are looking after, not obviously diseased, has not crossed (and is not a hybrid) and is something gardeners would be interested in growing. If HSL decide it is something they should be keeping they add it to the collection, so there’s always something new coming in. You can find out more about the HSL and download a seed saving guide at their website- see link below.
This is my first exploration of ‘Heritage Veg’ and the inclusion of a small sample of Greek Squash seed will give me a chance to sample an unusual variety for myself – if I can find the room for it in the kitchen garden, that is!
Co-incidentally, last week I was also involved in another aspect of ‘Heritage Seeds’, the opening of a special exhibition at Gressenhall Farm and Workhouse museum, Norfolk. Next to the Museum’s Cherry Tree Cottage Garden (which is designed to be a re-creation of a typical Norfolk cottage garden of the 1930’s), a new space is devoted to displaying various interesting objects from one of Norfolk’s historic seed merchants. R. & A. Taylor, whose Seed Shop in King’s Lynn once provided a wide range of seeds and other ‘horticultural sundries’ to the County’s gardeners.
Over two years of research culminated in the official opening of the new display last week. This captures something of the seed shop as it would have been in the 1930’s and is also home to a significant collection of objects and other material donated to the Museum by the Taylor family in 1982. The present curator, Megan Dennis, and founder curator, Bridget Yates, also wanted the new display to provide a new focus for the museum’s gardening collections. The display was officially opened by James and Bob Taylor, who worked with their father in the family business in Norfolk Street, Kings Lynn. It was a happy day and the new display provides a fascinating range of objects and information for all ages.
I particularly like the material about School Gardening as it used to be carried out in the 1920’s – a solid part of the curriculum, but with a strict gender bias that is true in some households today: the boys grow the vegetables and the girls tend the flowers!
The original Taylor’s Seed Shop in King’s Lynn. Picture: Breckland View 
Chair of Norfolk County Council, Hilary Cox, with the Tatylor Brothers outside the new Seed Shop display . Picture: Breckland View 
Hilary Cox with founder Curator Bridget Yates inside the Seed Shop display. Picture: Breckland View
Sources and further information:
Garden Organic Heritage Seed Library and link to pdf on Seed Saving
The Breckland View– article on the Seed Shop display and background
Gressenhall Farm & Workhouse Museum
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?
The Kitchen Garden in Old School Garden- my attempt to create something productive and also pleasant to look at.
Here’s an example of a productive garden shared between two neighbours.Communal food growing also takes place at larger scales, for whole neighbourhoods in shared beds or in long established ‘allotments’ where each tenant gardens their own plot.
If you’re a keen cook and you have the space, you may want to create a special herb garden like this – or if not just find a sunny spot for a few fragrant favourites!
Links/ further information:
RHS Campaign for School Gardening
Food for Life- school gardening
Space for food growing- free guide
Food growing case studies – pdf
Other posts in the series:
If you’ve enjoyed reading this post and others on this blog, why not comment and join others by signing up for automatic updates via email (see side bar, above right ) or through an RSS feed (see top of page)?
Nigel Boldero aka 'Old School Gardener'
 | Anonymous on PicPost: Carrot, my foot! |
| 18 Surprising Hydran… on Plantax 16: Hydrangea the wate… | |
 | Nigel Boldero on Poppyland: A Victorian romance… |
| Anonymous on Poppyland: A Victorian romance… |
| Anonymous on Plants to die for… |
 | Isabella Childress on PicPost: Forest, but not as we… |
 | Happiness Factor on Is child-friendly planning a l… |
 | zidane on Top Tip: On a Pedestal- make m… |
 | Claire Gillespie on Transforming an indigenous gar… |
| Nigel Boldero on GQT: Pleached hedges |
Nature Connectedness Research Blog by Prof. Miles Richardson
Connecting People with Nature
A daily selection of the best content published on WordPress, collected for you by humans who love to read.
Celebrating gardens, photography and a creative life
Writing, photography and more by Daniel Greenwood
Lydia Rae Bush Poetry
Australian Pub Project, Established 2013
The Journey from Finnish Rintamamiestalo to Arboretum & Gardens
Because even in chaos, there’s always gin and a good story …
RANDOM BITS & MORE TIDBITS
.....and nurturing my soul
Cultural Heritage and the Digital Economy
Sense of place, purpose, rejuvenation and joy
Notes from the Gardeners...
Connecting People to Nature, Empowering People to Live Sustainably
A girl and her garden :)
Old School Garden 