Garden Tour - The 'old' Garden

This was my garden, it is a typical English small, urban 'back garden'. The house was built around 1937 on farmland. At the bottom of the garden is an area of ponds and trees which is designated as a nature reserve. The ponds mean that there are usually a good supply of frogs, toads and newts around, including great crested newts.

The garden was 'Organic' meaning that no artificial pesticides, are used. It also means that the gardening methods work in harmony with the environment.

The land was recovered from a lawn and domestic rubbish tip, which had been undisturbed for 60 years. The soil is clay, heavy in places, but generally manageable. The garden consisted of raised beds 1.1m (4ft) width. There were 3, "Square Foot" beds and one long bed used for vegetable production, a herb bed, a fruit bed and a wild flower area.
Growing in deep beds

The beds followed the 'no-dig' principle in that after an initial double digging they are not walked on and only the top few inches of soil is disturbed. This avoids soil compaction (a problem on heavy clay) and also eliminates annual digging! The soil is kept covered at all times either by crops, green manure or compost topped with black plastic in winter.

Initially there were several beds 4ft wide and of varying lengths from 7ft to 10ft. There were also some long beds and 3, "square foot" beds.

If you want to know more about "square foot" gardening please click on the 'Sq Ft gardens' link.
The greenhouse

The greenhouse was used for plant propagation and as a heated growing space.

At the far end there was an 8ft heated bench split into 2 sections, 1, 6ft long consisting of 3 separate cells and the other a single 2ft cell. The middle 2 cells have a hood fitted that made it possible to control the air temperature as well as provide bottom heat. The heater is controlled by an electronic thermostat that senses soil temperature, it is usually set to 19C.

A climate control system was installed in the greenhouse. It senses humidity and temperature, giving a digital readout of each. The controller was connected to 2 relay modules which operate an extractor fan and a heater. The humidity level was adjustable and is usually set at around 70% RH. The upper temperature level was set to 24C and the lower level 13C. If the temperature, or humidity rose, above their upper limits the extractor fan is switched on to exhaust the air. If the temperature fell below the lower limit the heater was switched on. The controller was 'home made' using electronic parts recovered from scrap equipment which included a washing machine controller card, a FAX machine and a computer monitor supplemented with new components where necessary. The modules were pre-assembled commercial units.

A controlled environment provides the very best growing conditions for seeds and plants. High humidity and cool air are ideal breeding grounds for many fungi including the dreaded botrytis (grey mould) which caused a lot of problems last year. Controlling the greenhouse atmosphere is a good way of eliminating problems before they begin which reduces or eliminates the need for pest and disease control.

 


The controller, fan relay and fan mounted at the 'closed' end of the greenhouse.


The heating relay
Rain Water Compost

Water from the house roof was collected 3, 250ltr (55 gallon) recycled plastic water tanks. It was used for irrigating the garden with mains water used in the greenhouse.

There were 2 compost bins behind the shed: a square plastic "Soil Saver" and a conical "Rotol" All disease free garden refuse and kitchen waste was composted using a high temperature quick compost method. The aim was to make as much compost as possible in the shortest time. The beds wer top dressed with compost in the Autumn as required.

Rotol bin