I was working as a professional landscaper for over 10 years in Calgary. I worked mostly for residential, ornamental gardens. Although I enjoyed the artistic, creative work, I started growing the interest in more sustainable gardening in later years of my career.
I did some experiment of permaculture methods in the tiny back yard of a city lot for a few years back in Calgary, AB. After I moved in Digby, NS in the fall 2012, I started a larger scale sustainable garden project. I am currently learning more at a local organic farm as an informal apprentice.
I am not sure how my garden is categorized exactly, but it is somewhere among natural farming, sustainable agriculture, ecoagriculture and permaculture.
(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_farming) My long term goal is to combine some ornamental aspects with the food production.
My basic principle is to minimize things from outside and manage the garden with whatever we have nearby. So far I brought in some seaweed from the neighboring beaches but no manure is applied. If you want a fast result of food production, I will recommend manure, but my case is more experimental, especially for a long term result.
Anyway, today I would like to share what’s happening in my 2 years old garden-in-progress.
When I moved to this property, I got really excited. First of all, there is much more space than a 40’x30’ or so tiny backyard. Second of all, there is plenty of organic material in the property from dead branches to leaves to a big pile of old compost. Third, there are beaches nearby with lots of seaweeds. Forth, it’s wet and warm – things decompose and grow 100 times better than Calgary!!!
So I piled up the branches and leaves. In a typical lasagna method you add manure, but I skipped it. However with the hope to get a faster result, I bought hays and applied around 6” thick all over. Not very much but I spread some seaweeds. The property was very wet so I dug some trenches and filled with gravel. The soil dug out of the trench went over the piled organic matter. Then I topped up with old compost about 3” thickness.
The result of the first year was… not so great. Some plants such as potatoes and tomatoes did all right but others, particularly greens such as lettuce, didn’t do well. I quickly learned the name cutworm that killed all my beat sprouts and most of young broccoli plants.
This year I reshaped the beds so it’s like lightly tilled, although it should be the last time for a long time to do the measure digging/tilling to me.
I cut unwanted vegetation (AKA weeds) such as Japanese knotweed, goats weed, dandelion and grass and put it over beds in April and May. I left it there for a few weeks and transplanted broccoli, Bok choi, squash, corn, etc. Transplant method prevented the cutworm problem. The cover helped to keep moisture very well. However, I got a lot of snails and slugs!
My garden mentor says eventually it should be balanced out as their predator ground beetles’ population will be increased. She says the permaculture bed with mulch generally has less slugs because of the ground beetles.
Another thing I noticed was that the vegetables bolted very fast. I learned early bolting happens due to stress – heat, poor soil fertility, lack of water, etc. So it also indicates my soil has not been there yet.
Sustainable gardening won’t happen overnight, even in a few years. I heard in the 5th year a permaculture bed hits the peak. By that time you just have to wait.
Whether it is a child or garden, I guess I just have to have a great patience to raise.