Blankety Beds

Paul’s favourite nibble might not suit all tummies!

My mate Paul came over from Nottingham for a visit this week. He and the family spent time in the wilds of County Cork but as usual had the irrepressible urge to come and visit the wonderful Inishowen, maybe they came to see us, I’m not sure.  They didn’t stay with us this time as they came over with their dogs, one of which, an Airdale terrier loves to fight – and is very good at it. So we thought it best for our own dogs if they were kept apart. They opted for a campsite on the border near Bridgend.

Paul is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to self reliance and loves the companion planting methods of veggie growing. This wide mixture of planting wild flowers and numerous types of vegetables together has kept his own veggie patch totally weed free.  His latest raised bed idea hugelkultur (pronounced hoogleculture.

Hugelkultur

Hugelkultur is more or less making raised garden beds and then filling them with rotten or fresh wood. This makes for raised garden beds loaded with organic material, nutrients and air pockets for the roots of what you plant. As the years pass, the deep soil of the raised garden bed becomes incredibly rich and loaded with soil life. As the wood shrinks, it makes more tiny air pockets which can accommodate roots and soil, so the hugelkultur becomes sort of self tilling. The first few years, the composting process will slightly warm the soil giving a slightly longer growing season, similar to a normal bed. The woody matter helps to keep nutrient excess from passing into the ground water - and then re-feeding that to the garden plants later instead of being leeched away.  By holding so much water, hugelkultur could be part of a system for growing garden crops in the desert with no irrigation. I ask Paul what other considerations are there for the beds.

“There are a few types of wood that don’t really work well”.  Paul tells me.   “Cedar, because of the natural pesticides and herbicides (which we need in good soil) and walnut, which takes forever to rot down and conifers are a bit too acidic really, but if you have a bit in there it’s be fine I’m sure.  

Most other woods are fine. Really good types would be: alders, apple, poplar, willow (dry) and birch.” 

Paul highlights the importance or well rotted wood. “Really well rotten wood is better than fresh wood, but it really doesn’t matter. Freshly cut old wood could be impregnated with fungus. I used shitake mushrooms on mine.” He tells me.

“Another thing to keep in mind is that wood is high in carbon and will consume nitrogen to do the compost thing. This could lock up the nitrogen and take it away from your veggies. But well rotted wood doesn't do this so much. If the wood is far enough along, it may have already taken in loads of nitrogen which will really benefit the plants”.  Paul concludes “The beauty of this idea is that the beds improve yearly as the wood rots. Watering could be a thing of the past too as the rotting wood acts as a sponge holding the water in dry weather.”

I think it’s a great idea and will be implementing one in my patch next year, goodness knows we have enough wet, rotting wood around Inishowen to be going on with!

Broad Beans

As Paul was wandering around the garden telling me about his rotting wood, he was happily munching away on some young and tender, raw broad beans. I was a bit concerned about this as I thought these were poisonous uncooked. “Yes they have been known to kill, but that’s really rare, there are some enzymes which could cause an allergic reaction.” He tells me. “If you build up slowly then the only side effect could be flatulence if you eat too many, he says with a grin.” I’m pleased that I am not sharing the tent with him.

Along with the broad beans we have loads of things maturing in the garden at the moment, peas, mange tout, runner beans and sweetcorn are all ready for picking on a daily basis. If only we had a longer season! I would love to eat fresh product like these all year. I’ll be experimenting in the tunnel and try and lengthen the growing season. If Sainsbury’s can increase their yield time of strawberries from 8 weeks to 8 months then there’s a slight hope for me. 

Talking of fruit, we have bowls full of currents, strawberries (it’s been a good year) gooseberries and raspberries courtesy of Julie’s mothers garden. Creating a fruit patch in the garden is top of my list of priorities for next year so maybe Paul could eat those as we walk around the garden instead.