I'm just wondering if the asparagus is going to enjoy this set-up? I find it is prone to slug damage. I've dug up all my crowns in preparation for moving next year and am envisaging trying to give it something more like a shingle beach to grow in. However, I do know of one plant which has been happily growing in a neighbour's rose bed for years! Also, at the time you are wanting to find and harvest spears will the other things around it make it more difficult to find?
Hi Hester, At the moment I grow asparagus in the polytunnel. This means that I get fewer problems with slugs as it is drier in there. Saying that however, the tunnel has been without it's cover for the last two seasons and I've not had much problem with slugs on the asparagus...I do wonder whether I can keep it vigorous enough outside though, the plants do seem to be doing less well year on year - hopefully the cover will be back on soon. I'm hoping it is just a question of having slightly warmer positions and good, well drained soil outside. I'll probably grow from seed rather than splash out for crowns, but will need to baby the seedlings to get them good and strong. I like asparagus and would a) like to have more of it and b) like to have enough to possibly sell or preserve too.
As regards finding the spears to harvest, I'm sort of expecting the asparagus to be one of the earlier plants to start growing.The diagram makes everything look very crowded, but this is a 2 dimensional representation of a three four (!) dimensional puzzle. Hopefully I can have enough straggly leaves to fall over and mulch and feed the asparagus, without providing too much root competition or obscuring the crowns at harvest. Milk vetch is one that Martin Crawford recommends - lots of top growth and Nitrogen fixing roots. I have that in the polytunnel, where it thrives, so again it might find it a bit too cool outside. I also have zigzag clover growing natively here, which has a similar growing habit albeit less tall which I think may be a good groundcover on these beds too.
Just before Christmas my husband pollarded the spruce trees at the front of the house - they were getting too tall for comfort of mind. They have already been pollarded once, and the branches regrew as leaders pretty well. We were hoping that one would make a nice Christmas tree, but ended up using a small Douglas fir from the tree field in the end. The larger bits of spruce were logged for firewood, and I have a big pile of greenery to dispose of.
Pile of spruce branches
I started by clipping off the green bits and using them to mulch the blueberry bushes in my chinampa.
mulching blueberries in chinampa
The woody bits I have been putting into some of my new Aronia mini-hugels. I need all the scrappy wood I can get my hands on. Larger bits are firewood of course, so I have to decide which twigs will make good kindling.
Having mulched the chinampa bushes, I decided to move all the rest of the spruce down to the blueberry patch in the tree field, since the green tips can be clipped direct and the mini hugels are closer to move the rest to.
moving spruce brash down to blueberry patch
So I have been taking the wheelbarrow full of spruce down the hill emptying it and then taking it full of firewood from the woodshelters back up the hill. We have almost burnt the last of the previous year's coppice wood, so there is room in the woodshed to restock.
bringing up the firewood
This shelter is being refilled with some willow cut from the river bank - it was dragging in the river, so we felt it needed trimming back to save it being ripped out in floods. I'm a bit sad to cut old growth wood back, but being willow it will quickly regrow.
The woodshed is nicely refilling again.
woodshed filling with pollarded spruce, coppiced alder and birch
The subject of shelter belts came up recently (and it is certainly topical here in this season!) so I thought I'd expand a bit on how I designed mine and how they have performed. I mainly used Patrick Whitefield's suggestions from his Earth Care Manual to design the scheme.
shelterbelt schematic
Basically it is alternating quick growing, slower growing and shrubby trees over three rows. I used a mixture of trees for each type - both evergreen and deciduous. It is pretty easy to tell where the windbreaks are in the treefield by the variety of trees there. The coppice trees are planted in blocks of the same variety, whereas the windbreaks never have two trees the same side by side. Overall I have been pretty happy with how they have worked out. Some of the trees did less well, but the losses were few, and I backfilled with spare trees in subsequent years. One thing I did do was put in a few extra spruce trees. Although they have a poor reputation, due to monoculture plantations, they do form a very effective windbreak relatively quickly in my experience. They can spread a little wide and shade out smaller trees a bit, so need to be positioned a bit carefully. I may indeed have been a bit prolific with planting my seedlings rescued from plantation pathways and have to relocate a few of them.
The prevailing wind is from the South West, so the shelter belts were oriented North West to South East. As my plot is oriented almost East to West this means that there are triangles exposed to the wind at the windward edge of the plot in between the windbreaks. I am contemplating planting a hedgerow and/or spruce along the Southern boundary. Partly for additional wind protection and partly as a future deer deterrent. The reason I didn't do this before was I was concerned about wind concentration along the boundary, which I gather can be a problem when the windbreak is at an angle to the wind. However I am getting slow tree establishment along this boundary, so I've decided to take the risk!
This last week we have had some fairly strong winds, gusting up to 60mph and I can really appreciate how well the shelterbelt in the middle of the field is performing. It runs just above a trackway that loops across the field, and below that the trees are a bit sparse (now my experimental polycultures and Natural farming areas) so just there it feels fairly exposed to light, yet the windbreak just above is making a real difference and it hardly felt windy at all there. This is where I am digging the Shell Garden, and in fact it feels less windy there than in the blueberry patch. I’m therefore thinking that instead of planting my new tea Camellia plants (when they are big enough) in the blueberry patch I will plant them here instead. They need to be sheltered being evergreen, otherwise the wind will blow their leaves off over the winter.
shell-garden-and-shelterbelt.jpg
Shell garden under construction and the adjacent Shelterbelt
This is the time of year for coppicing. We walk round the tree field a couple of times most days to give the dogs a run out and get some exercise, so before Christmas I am sizing up the trees and choosing which areas may be suitable to cut this year. So far I have not done a second cut on any area, although it may be only a year or two until my first harvested trees are ready to cut again. Rather than cut a lot in one area, I tend to cut up to about 8 in each patch, and have identified four areas this year which I think are ready to cut.
The first thing to do is to trim off the side branches within reach. Some of these will be firewood in their own right, some will make pea sticks or kindling and others are just brash. This year I am wanting a fair amount of twiggy stuff to go into my mini hugels for my Aronia beds.
making a mess
This year I used a bushmans saw for much of the initial pruning. I seem to have mislaid my folding pruning saw which gets closer into smaller gaps. The bushmans is probably a bit quicker as it cuts in both directions, but is bulkier.
starting to cut - sorting out the branches
I started cutting the main trunks one afternoon this week. My husband was needing his batteries, so I only had two, which was enough to cut down 6 trees, including some more side branches which were more difficult to access. Having got them down, the trunks need the rest of the side branches stripping off. Then it is a matter of trimming off the twiggy bits from the more useful trunks. I'm selecting longer thin branches to use as pea sticks, and cutting the smaller bits into shapes that will compact more easily in the mini hugel.
all tidied up
My husband complains about me cutting the trees every year. I gather it is a question of cosmetics. He knows the trees grow back, but likes the look of a proper tree. When the trunks grow back they are multistemmed, so although they grow tall very quickly, they never again look 'like a tree'.
I am taking out a few of the spruce trees too this year. In some areas I interplanted spruce with other trees with the intention that the spruce would provide extra shelter whilst the trees were establishing, and would be removed when required. Although they have been superb as shelter trees and have grown beautifully once established, they are starting to crowd some of the deciduous trees now. I've started to take off the lower branches of some spruce that are overshadowing some hazel trees, and also some Alder toward the top of the South side of the field. They are doing a good job of sheltering the field, so I don't want to take out more than I have too, but I'm going to remove about 6 or so at the edge of the patch and see if it helps. The trunks will make useful posts now to replace or reinforce some of the rather nondurable posts that were used when we had the deer fence put in about 12 years ago; several already rotted at the base.
One thing that occurs to me just at present is that finally I am starting to see more of the grass shaded out in the areas that I am coppicing. I am wondering whether an area cleared like this might be a candidate for a GAMCOD area. Certainly it would save lots of digging, however I anticipate that the state of the soil compaction would still be pretty poor and too much for most annual crops. I might have a go and just scatter in some Swede and other seeds here and see how they do this year. The brassica don't seem to need much soil preparation (they don't mind a bacterial dominated soil) beans would be OK with low fertility too. It might make an interesting take on the concept, although not quite what Paul is intending I suspect. I also try and put currant cuttings in the cleared patches, although it is getting a bit late in the season for that now.
Spring is such an exciting season. I love it when things start growing again, and we normally get a few weeks relatively dry so it is a good time to try and get outdoor jobs done. Not working in the rain makes everything easier.
Spring flowers on hump
The shell garden is to me an exciting part of the tree field. Sheltered and with pretty good soil, I feel I can make this area a productive and attractive area with just a little planting direction.
I was happy to split some of the rhubarb at the lodge gardens. It is a particularly sweet one, so needs far less sugar to make it into a palatable pudding. The stems are thick and red too. I've managed to make two new plants out of the roots and planted them adjacent to the central walnut tree. Hopefully they will grow into a nice clump there. I planted a different rhubarb next to one of the little Korean pines which will be at the end of one of the outer arcs.
planting rhubarb under walnut tree
The second arc, which will be the longest unbroken one, is nearly finished. I started on the inner one too and am hoping to get my new aronia planted here pretty soon. I'm going to try and layer the branches so as to propagate these new bushes which should be good fruiting varities.
shell garden min hugel taking shape
Further down the hill I've also been working some more on my lower mini hugel area. I started digging these ages ago, and got distracted by the Gamcod project... Much of the turf in this area is full of bluebells. When I dug and stacked the turf originally the bulbs were dormant, but since then they have all started sprouting. The turf blocks were pretty well stitched to the base turf underneath making moving them now a bit tedious. I actually wanted to try and get rid of the bulbs - they are beautiful understory plants when in bloom and have a pleasant scent on a rare windless day, but are inedible, so not the best for a food growing area. I did separate out quite a lot of the bulbs to relocate but it was pretty slow going, so I got less thorough as time went on. Lots more work to go, but the top bed of the three has a fair amount of soil on it now.
lower mini hugel area
Earlier in the month I planted my exciting new trees for the year. Just a few in memorial of friends and relatives that have passed away recently. So I have two new walnuts, Lara and Jupiter, and 5 Gingko biloba trees, three female and 2 male.
Gingko Biloba
Walnut Jupiter
The walnuts I have already planted have grown pretty well, and I'm hopeful for the Gingko too.
As if this isn't enough to be getting one with, I'm also continuing with planting and progagating trees inside the boundary fencing to start creating a hedge. The hawthorn planted last year have survived nicely, and we've stuck in a load of willow whips at the bottom boundary. Some holly seedlings which just got stuck into one hole last year have now been spread out on the North boundary.
Summer is such a lush time here. This year has been a bit cool, but the trees don't seem to mind and the growth can be quite dramatic, like this rowan which has more than doubled in height this year. It got accidentally mown down in spring last year but has more than made up for it now.
The ginkgo and walnuts I planted have settled in well. The gingko foliage is a little yellow and it may be they don't quite like the acid soil and are finding it a bit tough going. They did have some mycorhyza added when planted, so hopefully like the Korean pine, they will improve next year. They certainly seem to be putting on growth though. This photo is from the end of May:
Briony's trees
The walnuts have taken me a bit by surprise and all had female flowers on! Even the new one's this year. Only one of the originals had male flowers, but it gives me some hope that I may get nuts set in time.
The flowers in the field make me happy! There is such diversity and very few I actually planted. This orchid appeared when we evicted the sheep and this year it had 4 flower spikes!
Vetch and other small flowers surround this young black currant. This is bush vetch, vicia sepium. I like to munch on the young shoots which taste like pea shoots although a little hairy.
Different flowers have formed drifts in areas, like this swathe of melancholy thistle which Della is trotting through, down near the river.
Now heading into late summer, there is a feel of harvest in the field with grass seed heads dominating the undergrowth. Just now is raspberry season - I have more berries than I have time to pick which is great! These ones pictured are supposed to be primocane - fruiting on this season's canes in autumn. This is too late for them to ripen here; they set in November and never have any flavour, although the birds still eat them! I never prune them however, and they fruit again on the same canes quite early in the summer season. I've got a couple of varieties which I think I will propagate in a few more places in the field - I think a bit more shelter will benefit them.
autumn raspberries fruiting in summer
On another soft fruit theme, the blueberries are looking good, just one or two starting to show some colour. The bushes are starting to become more mature and have a nice show of berries, let's see how many I manage to get! I'm quite pleased with these alpine strawberries I planted on one of the new mini hugels. They are non-running, but form a good clump with exquisite tasting berries. These seem to do better for me than modern strawberry varieties. I'm wondering if I could possibly plant enough to actually get more than a few strawberries. But they also seem to almost hold their own as a ground cover - a little mulching with the grass and buttercups and they are really looking good. I suspect that they may be a bit short lived however, so I will have to think of something else to follow...
alpine strawberry ground cover
I'm delinquent in getting my firewood cut and away. Much of it is still lying near the wood shelters. I have done some of it, but there is always so much more exciting things to do. I also need to make a new shelter - I'm happy to say that I don't think the one's I have will be enough this year.
Wood shelter and wood on main trackway
The most exciting thing that is happening this month is one of my walnuts actually seems to have set a couple of nuts!!! I keep checking them every time I go past and of course it is far too early really to get excited, but I just can't help it. These might be the first walnuts ever grown on Skye. I think this was Broadview and it did have male catkins for the first time as well as the female flowers. I remember trying to wipe the pollen onto some of the flowers, but I'm not sure if it was those that set. It is supposed to be a partially self fertile variety. Given it hasn't been an excellent year weatherwise - not rubbish, but a little cooler perhaps for much of the summer than normal - this bodes well for the future.
first walnuts on Skye?
On a less positive note one of my other walnut trees looks like it is dying. It started off the year alright, but then lost all its leaves. There is one small green shoot, but I'm not holding out much hope. I assume it is the same probably fungal disease that has killed several other previously healthy trees of different varieties; I lost a cherry plum and a sweet chestnut over winter. Hopefully the trees that are left will be more resistant.
I've started collecting some of the wild flower seeds as they dry - pignut and yellow ratttle so far. It looks like the bluebells are starting to ripen, so I'll collect some of those too. As well as offering here on Permies, I send them to the HPS seed list, which means I get a choice of more seeds.
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