I have been busy toiling away this morning in the hot sun. Not an ideal time to plant things, but there were so many young plants in pots that needed to be planted out, particularly now it is getting hot. They dry out very rapidly in pots, whereas the polyculture plot holds the moisture and offers a certain amount of dappled shade.
Altnough it was quite hard work (mainly because of the hot sun) I did not have to do any of the normal gardening tasks – weeding, hoeing etc. It’s just not necessary in the polycultures! As explained elsewhere https://annisveggies.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/not-working-hard-in-the-garden/ I do from time to time cut back or remove vegetation (planned or unplanned) as needed, but this is a minimal amount of work.
What I have planted out so far today includes – 9 star perennial broccoli, walking stick kale, red Russian kale, Chinese kale, purple sprouting, wild cabbage. Most but not all are known to be perennials. Space is, as ever, tight and some plants have had to be tucked into unconventional places – flowerbeds / under trees / behind the ponds to see what becomes of them.
The garden is also busy – yesterday we picked the first fruits of the year – wild strawberries. They are well ahead of a pot of cultivated strawberries and will continue to produce until the autumn. Blackcurrants, jostaberrries, gooseberries and chokeberries are all ripening nicely.
Pictured below is one of the polyculture patches (taken yesterday) and featuring Jerusalem artichoke (front left foreground), oca (left of centre), chicory rocketing skywards, skirret (right of chicory) with gooseberry, apple and raspberries in the background towards the fence. Below that is a lovely flower that appeared this morning atop the scorzonera.
Now I’m off outside again, it’s a bit cooler, and there are yet more baby plants to pot up into larger pots.
gardens of delight 