Brambles, weeds, and earth paths: this is permaculture
Carrots and French beans sowed in the top NW corner were a complete failure thanks to the birds. The lesson there: nets. But that's another story. I went to work on that corner, trimming the hedgerow, mostly bramble in that stretch. A sucker had grown a few feet into the bed, and it was perfect for filling a gap. Brambles in the hedge have caused head-shaking and a sharp intake of breath from a gardening relative. I get why, but the point is, it's worth the extra work: digging up suckers, pushing back the canes into the hedgerow, tying them to the fence... All the fruit, the nesting for birds and goodness knows what other wildlife, and a barrier impenetrable to humans.
I pulled weeds from the hedgerow, not being too fussy as it IS a hedgerow, not a prissy garden hedge, and needs must look after itself. I also dug up the ill-advised skinny brick path. The weeds I threw onto the bed, not even hoeing it, though I dug out the docks and comfrey. Where the brick path was, is now just earth, somewhat trodden, but not exactly compacted. This is where I fall out with Charles Dowding, who suggests (Dowding, 2013, p17) raised beds and "permanent... pathways".
Ground's not going to get badly compacted if it's walked on by a solitary gardener 2 or 2 times a week. And if one HAD to do a lot of work on a particular stretch, in the wet, say, (unlikely, but for argument's sake), then, work completed and wet weather over, that would be one of the few occasions when a bit of digging would be ok to loosen the soil. But I can't imagine that happening in the general run of things. And Dowding rows back, (2013, p29) "weed free paths with some compost on, even when regularly walked over, develop and retain a sound structure." Ha!
The rain intervened before I could finish that corner: I'm going to bung on a load of WFB seeds, not even hoeing or anything, and then a couple of inches of oomska as mulch. I've got a LOT of WFB seeds: about 1200, actually.
This corner: where the now waist high hedgerow grows was once a waist high mound of earth, (topped by nettles and thistles reaching far above my head); and where I trod the path I'm discoursing about, was once an overgrown ditch. And it was here, this weekend, I had some kind of epiphany: not bothering to dig up annual weeds, just covering them with pulled up weeds, preparatory to sowing with a cover crop and oomska, walking on the earth that is, and isn't a path, this is permaculture.
Dowding, C. (2013). Organic gardening. Totnes, Devon: Green.
I pulled weeds from the hedgerow, not being too fussy as it IS a hedgerow, not a prissy garden hedge, and needs must look after itself. I also dug up the ill-advised skinny brick path. The weeds I threw onto the bed, not even hoeing it, though I dug out the docks and comfrey. Where the brick path was, is now just earth, somewhat trodden, but not exactly compacted. This is where I fall out with Charles Dowding, who suggests (Dowding, 2013, p17) raised beds and "permanent... pathways".
Ground's not going to get badly compacted if it's walked on by a solitary gardener 2 or 2 times a week. And if one HAD to do a lot of work on a particular stretch, in the wet, say, (unlikely, but for argument's sake), then, work completed and wet weather over, that would be one of the few occasions when a bit of digging would be ok to loosen the soil. But I can't imagine that happening in the general run of things. And Dowding rows back, (2013, p29) "weed free paths with some compost on, even when regularly walked over, develop and retain a sound structure." Ha!
The rain intervened before I could finish that corner: I'm going to bung on a load of WFB seeds, not even hoeing or anything, and then a couple of inches of oomska as mulch. I've got a LOT of WFB seeds: about 1200, actually.
This corner: where the now waist high hedgerow grows was once a waist high mound of earth, (topped by nettles and thistles reaching far above my head); and where I trod the path I'm discoursing about, was once an overgrown ditch. And it was here, this weekend, I had some kind of epiphany: not bothering to dig up annual weeds, just covering them with pulled up weeds, preparatory to sowing with a cover crop and oomska, walking on the earth that is, and isn't a path, this is permaculture.
Dowding, C. (2013). Organic gardening. Totnes, Devon: Green.
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