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Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design
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formally known as the compost system.......

23/3/2014

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I knew towards the end of last growing season that 3 of the 'units' in my composting system would need replacing. I initaly constructed them 5- 6 years ago and the bottom of the pallets were disintegrating...in addition the fence behind the pallets (the edge of the edible garden, keeping chickens and grazing animals out), was also starting to fall apart.
PictureCompost system in the height of summer...using pallets like this is a great way to use an onsite resource. Pallet dimensions also create the perfect size for the place of composting with the farm system as a whole.

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Having 4-5 compost 'units' in use at one go means that within the system I have designed, each unit gets at least 2 years for the organic material to break down, (without any intervention), producing some really beautiful compost at the finish.
My initial idea was to build new units in the same location, after doing some work to repair the fencing. However when I observed the bigger picture more closely, I realised that the 2-3 years old) compost in the units was surplus to requirements this year and that by leaving the compost and pallets next to the fence in place I could create some more stability to the fragile fence, hopefully giving it a couple more years of life! 


I decided to create an additional growing area on the compost site, using the pallets and some forestry 'waste' tree tubs as the edges of the beds. This meant that I obtained an instant yield (new raised bed to grow more plants in my edible garden), at the same time as reducing the human effort of moving the compost/broken pallets to another area.  
PictureThe transformation in progress

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....with Floss Dog' s help of course.......(thanks FD)
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Finished raised bed, all ready for planting! (now covered in black waste silage wrap, to keep warm/protected for a few more weeks before some shade tolerant plants are ready to plant out
The new bed created will be in shade for most of each day so I plan to grow shade tolerant plants as part of my bed rotation system in there. (probably some oriental greens,parsley, nasturtium and broad beans along the edges this year). I've already started creating 3 new composting units (with recycled pallets) at the other side of the fence, which will hopefully provide even more strength to the boundary as well as being more accessible from my forest garden.
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Edible Garden 2014

16/3/2014

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visioning and planning!
As the daylight hours lengthen and the Earth starts to rapidly wake up for another year, I’ve been visioning and planning about this years edible garden design. Its been such an unusually mild winter, I keep having to remind myself that its only late February, and there is often snow on the ground at this time of year here, and indeed things could get much colder for the next few weeks, its not unusual for us to have snow in the lead up to lambing time in April. 

My hotbed system in the polytunnel means that I can get many of the annual edible plants going a few weeks earlier than without their fab heat producing help, but this extra heat only lasts for a few weeks, so timing it with the risk of the last frost is pretty crucial for many young plants.

This year I’m going to trial different seed growing mediums, commercially sold ‘seed compost’ and home made sand/molehill soil/leafmold mix. I’ve still got an abundance of seeds left over from last year, (a mix of self saved from the garden and gifted from others' and bought from the fantastic Tamar Organic and Real Seeds online catalogues), so apart from parsnip seeds (which do best if acquired each year) and some early seed potatoes, I’m pretty much all ready to get growing.

So, I’ve spent the last few days getting out my favourite edible gardening books and making a fab plan for the years growing…of course (as ever) the plan will evolve and change throughout the next few month, as some species germinate and grow well, others don’t do as great as expected and the weather does what ever it wants to! By growing lots of different varieties in succession through out the coming months,  I’ll hopefully increase the resilience to challenging conditions (weather, pests, timing etc). 



Happy growing everyone x


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