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You are here: Home / season / autumn / April / ten takeaways from visiting the Edible Backyard

ten takeaways from visiting the Edible Backyard

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I was privileged to visit Kath Irvine’s open day at the Edible Backyard near Levin. She talks a lot of gardening sense, based on her experience and experiments. She demonstrates the wisdom of her words through a productive and beautiful garden. Here’s what I learned (or re-learned) that I’m going to do as a result.

  1. Plant for a constant supply of winter greens as the ‘backbone’ of the edible garden – silverbeet, parsley, celery, leeks and kale are productive and versatile
  2. If you haven’t sown brassicas in January / February, you’ll need to buy plants in late March / early April
  3. Use pots (and bigger pots) if you haven’t got space (yet) to plant out winter crops
  4. Use your broad fork to aerate your soil (I bought mine from the US many years ago but a beautifully crafted Forksta from the Crafty Gatherer as Kath recommends is more wieldy)
  5. Start a leaf mould pile (now’s the time) to make seed raising mix (1/3 sand, 1/3 leaf mould, 1/3 compost by volume)
  6. Plant salad around the edges of the brassica beds – easy access and captures nutrient run-off.
  7. Make a wool fadge compost heap (pile up compost ingredients in a 1 metre cube and cover with a wool fadge to keep it tidy / moist while it decomposes in situ). Somewhere between the compost technique Kay Baxter at Koanga uses and how I use compost bins.
  8. Use gypsum (calcium sulfate dihydrate) to add calcium, not dolomite (which adds magnesium as well and raises pH). I’m still working out the details on this one.
  9. Wood ash from non treated wood is a great addition to your broad beans. Burn bones from kitchen waste in your wood burner if you don’t have a pig.
  10. Use herbs for beauty and biomass (growing your soil) such as tansy, chamomile, dandelion, lemon balm, them, sage and oregano. Woody, wild and drought tolerant.

Related posts:

fresh potato salad
seeking compost perfection
Growing kale
When do I spread my compost? Probably now.
« When do I spread my compost? Probably now.
green soup »
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Meet Rachel

I'm an enthusiastic gardener who loves eating things I've grown. Initally I grew and sold boxes of homegrown produce. When I couldn't satisfy the demand, I started teaching my customers how to grow their own. I teach, write, sew and cook. I'm also catching up on learning to play piano. More...

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