Organic Food Gardening

Cultivating a Suburban Foodshed

2008-08-25T05:43:25Z

Yet another excellent production from Peak Moment Television. This film makes some really good points about the resources used to create and maintain ornamental gardens and lawns. This guy even grows food on his roof.

A 'Superfood' contains arsenic!

2008-08-25T05:02:08Z

With the ever increasing promotion of so called 'superfoods' it is alarming to find that one of them contains worrying levels of arsenic. According to a report in New Scientist, 22 Aug 2008, levels of naturally occurring arsenic are above the so called safe limits in rice bran. China has down rated its recommended safe level of arsenic but other countries have not followed its lead.

Using water in the veg garden

2008-08-24T06:50:33Z

Some people are predicting that water is the next big environmental issue. We are using far too much and changing rainfall patterns are set to make things worse. So, as gardeners, how do we use water?

There seems to be two main responses to the needs of plants: the first is 'leave it to nature' i.e. if it rains they will get water if not they will shrivel up and die. The second response is to water as soon as it stops raining for a couple of days. Often this involves getting out a hose pipe and sloshing water around. The net effect is a lot of wet foliage and dry soil. In between those extremes the plants might get what they need and produce a good harvest.

Water is as crucial as fertliser. If you want a good harvest then it is essential to provide enough water. The big problem is knowing how much is enough as different crops need differing amounts of water at different stages of growth. Experience is the best teacher here.

Another important aspect is how you water. Standing above your plants with a spray from a hose does little. The old custom of watering the foliage in the evening can do more harm than good because the leaves stay cool and wet overnight which encourages fungus. Water is needed on the soil, not on the leaves and is required at any time of the day that the plant needs it.

It goes without saying that using rain water is far better than tap water except on newly emerging seedlings in the greenhouse. Rainwater can promote 'damping off' which is a fungal disease that causes young seedlings to fall over in their thousands.

As organic gardeners we need to think about water use, learn what plants need and use water carefully to increase yields.

Water

2008-08-24T06:43:45Z

Growing vegetables on a large scale can mean using huge amounts of water. So does processing the harvest ready for supermarket shelves.

An article in The Guardian recently highlighted the vast quantities of water used in processing. It seems absolutely crazy to me that the demand for squeaky clean produce is pushing the world to water shortages. Years back veg always came with some soil still attached, that was the norm. But then we bought them loose, by the pound or one at a time. Now everything has to be so very clean in comes plastic bags but at a price.

It really is about time we weaned ourselves off this 'perfect produce' addiction and went back to more sensible ways of producing fruit and veg.

Technical problems

2008-08-21T06:12:27Z

The blog is experiencing some technical problems after a software upgrade. We are working on getting things back and hope to restore normal service ASAP.

Update 23 Aug, 1715. Most problems fixed now except that the forum is not working as it appears not to be supported by the new version of the software.

"the rotten truth about fruit" Ch 5 news.

2008-08-19T18:24:40Z

There was a good piece on Channel five news tonight about pesticide residues and the decrease in minerals in fruit. It's good to see these issues being raised on peak time national news. I am waiting for the government to wheel out some tame scientist to tell us it's all perfectly safe and there is nothing at all to worry about! See the Ch 5 blog piece here.

Buy local

2008-08-17T14:01:02Z

Buying locally produced food is an excellent idea. I have said before that there are problems in the UK as the infrastructure has been dismantled over the years as production and consumption are dominated by a very few large supermarkets. It is still possible to get local food but it's not easy.

The buy local campaign has also become a bit of a cause for many environmental groups. Again, I don't have a problem with this but if it just means using a locally run shop to buy the same imports that would have been supplied by a national chain then nothing is gained. It should mean buying locally produced products from local outlets.

My point is that we need to be careful that buy local is not just another marketing ploy. Groups need to be very explicit as to what 'local' means. I would 'local' products should have been produced within 50 miles of where they are sold. If that could be achieved on a large scale then it would be a very positive outcome in terms of energy use, CO₂ production.

Potaoes again

2008-08-15T08:59:06Z

I have often heard it said that potatoes 'clean the ground'. I have never been sure exactly what that means or how it happens. A few years back I was talking to a well known organic gardener who commented that the gardener did all the work by digging a trench, planting the tubers, earthing them up as they grew and then digging them out. The ground gets dug over twice in one season! Personally, I always use trowel to dig out a small hole and then drop a tuber in it.

The other thing that bothers me about the often heard advice on allotments re planting a crop of potatoes on new, rough ground is that they do MUCH better on good soil. They are heavy feeders and need a lot of water so don't do that well on rough, dry, infertile land. So, if you want to really get things going treat your spuds with care, plant in good fertile soil, give them a chance to perform and they will reward you well.

If you want to break up soil, and mine nutrients from deep down, then grow a green manure such as grazing rye.

Prince Charles and GM

2008-08-15T07:23:35Z

There has been a lot of reaction to the comments made by Prince Charles about the mad dash for GM crops. What he said was absolutely right; GM food has no place whatsoever in the modern diet, is not the answer to the food crisis and is the biggest environmental disaster of all time.

Contrary to what the well healed biotech companies say there is a lot of evidence to show there are many problems with growing GM crops. Recently they have played a very cynical PR game by suggesting GM will 'feed the world'. Even a very superficial look at the evidence shows that is absolute rot.

If you want to see a list of research references, including some by the biotech companies that disprove what they are now saying, then click here.

Potato harvest

2008-08-14T06:49:30Z

The potatoes were lifted yesterday. They were planted on April 24th so had just about 16 weeks in the ground. There were signs of blight on the tops so it was decided to lift them now rather than leave them for another 3-4 weeks.

The yield was every good. One complete 4ft x 15ft (1.2m x 4.58m) bed yielded 90lbs (41kg) of good looking spuds. We had already started taking a few roots from the other bed but I estimate the total yield is around 170lbs (77kg) which is a little under the usual weight.

It is always good to watch the potatoes coming out of the ground. Four months ago a single small seed tuber was planted and it multiplied into a mass of good sized potatoes. It still seems like one of nature's miracles.

A few years back I decided that the only variety worth growing on our site was Sarpo Mira as it has the best blight resistance. It has certainly proved its worth over the years and gives a reliable heavy crop.

I have often been asked why bother to grow veg as it is so cheap ( or was!) in the supermarkets. Doing a simple 'cost benefit analysis' is interesting to say the least. We paid £12.50 fro 40 seed potatoes (20 per bed) which yielded a harvest of 170lbs (77kg.) The current price for organic new potatoes at Waitrose is £1.33/kg. So, we have ~£100 worth of potatoes from an expenditure of £12.50 which is around a 8 times increase on the investment. That seems worth it!

The amount of work involved in growing them was minimal. They we planted individually in a hole dug with a trowel. The soil was earthed up once around the growing plants. Some effort was involved in the harvest but again it was not exactly excessive. There were no other inputs apart from a wheel barrow of muck on each bed last autumn which was free. That's it. I wish I could get that sort of return on savings; especially in four months!

'Grow your own' hits organic veg sales

2008-08-11T05:54:15Z

There is no doubt that many more people have started growing their own fruit and veg
as a way of reducing household bills. An unexpected side effect of this has been a
reduction in sales of organic produce particularly from box schemes.

"Guy Watson, founder of Riverford Organic, based in Devon, and one of the largest
delivery schemes, said: "It is a bitter irony for us but after so many years of talking
about the virtues of growing your own and British produce, people are doing it and it
is resulting in a fall in trade.

"We normally see a 20 per cent drop in sales in summer which lasts from July to
September but now that period is being extended to from June until November.
"People are still coming to us but it is for more exotic things they cannot produce
themselves and that means bigger imports. We have gone from being 85 per cent
British to 78 per cent." [The Independent 04 Aug 2008] Read more...

This is indeed a sad outcome of the current economic downturn but is also an
environmental success. The more food that is home grown the bigger reduction in
transport and other impacts. The only negative is the increase in imports of exotic
produce as people refuse to let go of the demand for year round supply of everything.
Lets hope that eating seasonally will be the next change.

Rooftop Food Garden - YWCA Vancouver, BC, Canada

2008-08-09T06:08:12Z

Have you ever looked around a large city and wondered how the huge area of flat roof space could be used? No? Well next time look up and imagine food growing right in the heart of a city. It can be done as this piece from City Farmer shows.

This is a fantastic project; it shows just what is possible with a little imagination but it also makes me despair. It could easily happen in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Sheffield, Glasgow, Edinburgh and many other towns and cities in the UK.

I would just love to see a demo roof garden that grows significant amounts of food. Maybe a large hospital or inner city school might like to give it a try?

What is 'conventional' farming/gardening/growing?

2008-08-08T06:00:00Z

Whenever there is a debate about ways of producing food organic farming/growing/gardening is pitted against the 'conventional' from of the same. I have done just that for years but recently using 'conventional' to describe non-organic methods has started to irritate.

There is nothing 'conventional' about non-organic practices. Neither have they been around for that long so really do not deserve the importance of being labelled as such. Large scale, chemical farming is a product of post WWII expansion. Most modern pesticides were developed during and after that period. Artificial fertilisers are a little older but their wide spread use also dates back to the same time. So why call this conventional when it clearly is not?

The other question is why be so concerned about a word? My answer is because it implies solidity, a permanence for something that, in human terms, is so very new. Agrochemicals are a very recent, and some say a disastrous innovation.

So, what do we call it if it is not 'conventional'?

Beans and nitrogen fixation

2008-08-06T19:21:26Z

It's that time of year when the garden is just past its best. Yesterday half of the broad bean crop was harvested and the plants removed which got me thinking about legumes and nitrogen fixation. The usual advice is to cut off the tops of peas and beans and leave the roots to rot in the ground and release their stored nitrogen into the soil.

I found an article published by New Mexico State University that explains the whole process very well. Legumes can have a symbiotic relationship with a common soil bacterium, Rhizobium, which enables the plant to derive nitrogen from the air. I say 'can have' because it relies on the right type of bacteria being present in the soil.

Rhizobium nodules on the broad beans
If the correct strain is there plants will supply the bacteria with the nutrients it needs and in return the bacteria provides the plant with nitrogen. You can see if this is happening by looking for the nodules on the roots. If they are a pinkish colour then they are working. Beans are not good nitrogen fixers and utilise most, if not all, of the nitrogen as it is produced.

The only way to ensure that nitrogen is passed onto other plants is to incorporate the whole crop into the soil. As plants rot down, any unused nitrogen will be released into the soil.

Whole crop incorporation is fine with nitrogen fixing green manures but not with 1.3m high broad bean plants. So, I just pulled them up and put them in the compost bin. Another myth busted!

Going organic: Harvest home (all you do is hire the farmer)

2008-08-01T06:11:54Z

This is from The Independent

Green entrepreneurs are helping America's backyards produce vegetables. Leonard Doyle reports

Anne Vollen jokes that when she began running her own business from her San Francisco home, "the backyard was soon more neglected than my husband and children".

But then a man called Trevor Paque bicycled into her life and everything changed. He turned the overgrown tangle of bind-weed into a productive organic garden. Trevor or his partner now shows up once a week to plant, weed and maintain it for a modest fee. He harvests what's grown and discreetly places a basket of home-grown fruit and vegetables on her back porch, before closing the gate behind him. Read more...

In many ways this is a good idea but it bothers me. It is a great way of utilising neglected land but it does not encourage people to recognise the problems. If you pay somebody to garden for you then you might get a rosy glow knowing that your land is growing food but it does little to re-engage you with the process of food production.

It is also typical of a culture that sees a problem and then throws money at it. I know that some are spending considerable amounts to have their gardens redesigned as 'edible landscapes'. It is great work for garden designers but just another example of consumer culture.

My advice is to work less, get out into the garden and feel the soil in your hands, plant the seeds, see them grow and then eat the results. Re-engage with the process of growing food, be aware of the world that we live in and then maybe, just maybe things will begin to change.