Don't Delay The Autumn Tidy Up

Autumn Tidy Up in the Vegetable Garden

Mr C is not a man for buying presents or celebrating any sort of event. So I was more than delighted to receive the unique wedding present of a trio of lavender Muscovy Ducks. Unusual - yes I know!

That was eight years ago and Mr Muscovy is still with us, although his original wives flew the nest, literally , after a few years, leaving Mr Muscovy looking increasingly glum in the company of a few game hens. I needed a good excuse to buy him a mate or two, and what better reason than to consign them to clear up the vegetable garden in preparation for winter. I came across an advert for nine Muscovy ducks - an adult pair and their seven offspring - brilliant! they were such a good bargain that I even got the purchase sanctioned and collected by Mr. C. Mr. Muscovy was so excited that he did a funny little dance at finally seeing some of his own species again.

They are now about to begin their task.

The vegetable garden has not been a roaring success this year - too much rain, too many humungous slugs and not enough time. This year I completely embraced polyculture principles and did not tend the vegetables too much, just weeding and dropping when I had time. So it grew and grew - well he weeds did anyway and the slugs destroyed everything just about. They ate the asparagus as it was just emerging, the beetroot were gnawed to death, tender poppy seedlings all gone. I managed to harvest some tomatoes, rhubarb, and some sorry-looking runner beans (I don't know why they were so depressed this year), a few strangely shaped carrots and some celery. The autumn raspberries, closely followed by the figs were the stars as usual.

Now it's time to clear up though and do all of the important jobs to prepare for the winter

• Clean up any dead or decaying plants

• Harvest any remaining vegetables

• Remove weeds

• Turn over the soil to aerate it

• Add compost or mulch to enrich the soil

  
  

  

  
  

All well and good I thought! I had bought a strimmer in the summer which proved to be a little weak for my type of gardening, but useful all the same for giving some semblance of order and a very cathartic experience when strimming down nettles whilst drowning out the chorus of 'you need to get the roots out '........ yes I know!

But I'm still short of time..... I surveyed the tough grass, the nettles and various other undesirables and......the great idea emerges....DUCKS...I need DUCKS. They will make short shrift of this and hopefully scoop up all of those slugs as well.

So here the experiment starts........I'll let you know how I get on.

Norfolk Polyculture - The History

Where it all began

INTRODUCTION – NORFOLK POLYCULTURE (incorporating Norfolk Walnuts)

The Quest for Sustainable Living.

Let me take you back to the grisly days of the Covid Pandemic; those extremely atypical conditions in April and May 2020 when no-one knew really what was going on, what to do and how to react. We decided to try to become as self-sufficient as we could, to grow more, conserve more, make more and save more. In the back of our minds we wondered whether this was Armageddon. We connected with the amazing Balkan Ecology Project and signed on to their online Regenerative Landscape Design Course and our approach to our land was transformed.

Our property is in the Fenlands of Norfolk, East Anglia, England. The Fens are a large area of wetlands, bogs and marshes that have taken the last 500 years (the Celts, Romans, Saxons, Vikings, Normans also contributed) to master the drainage and claim the fertile land. The area is criss-crossed with dykes, drains, relief channels, fresh water and tidal rivers. The land in most areas has shrunk by up to 6 m with some vast areas that were peat bogs reduced partly due to dehydration of the subterranean peat layer deposited during the last ice age, but mainly because of the exposed peat rich top layer blowing away. The land is as much six metres lower than it once was and is now several metres below sea level and the drains and rivers into which the drained water is pumped.

We took over the family property in 2016. For two generations it had been a commercial tree nursery and before that it was used for orchards, soft fruit production and small-holdings. By the Millennium the land had become sick, tired and disease-ridden with verticillium wilt, with only four acres still viable under the pertaining multi-monoculture practice.

Clearly something pretty drastic needed to be done to regenerate and secure the land for ourselves and for future generations and to make a living. So, we re-evaluated everything, sold off unproductive land and introduced new crops and practices.

Biodiversity Enhancing

We began working on improving the biodiversity in earnest within the confines of operating a viable commercial business in a tough market. We introduced more species and moved away from planting several blocks of monocultures. We introduced amenity and coppicing areas which have reverted to a more natural environment, as well as managed areas with plants suitable for pollinators. We also planted companion crops and ground cover.

Clean and Safe

The use of chemical sprays and fertilisers is considerably reduced, but not absolutely to zero when establishing the young trees. We use natural fertilisation, muck, compost and nettle fertiliser as much as we can, and weed and hoe rather than spray in the new, non-commercial areas.

Pleasurable Working Environment

This is our life, we have adapted the production to satisfy our short-term needs and longer-term

aspirations, a key point is that we can manage (just about) on our own.

Soil Building

This is a challenge, but we are actively working on improving this by the addition of different crops and plants and letting some areas revert and increasing diversity.

Landscape Congruity

This is improving, with the amenity and coppicing areas. The look of the fields will change substantially over time as newly-planted orchard areas mature. We live in an area of commercial agriculture along with many horse owners with paddocks, so our acreage is like a green lung.

Economic Viability

This is essential and again a challenge, but by investment and diversification and changing our marketing and sales avenues we are improving the viability of the business. Our most important aspiration is leaving a legacy for future generations.

Diversification

Our main new venture has been the introduction of walnuts. We have spent several years experimenting with different walnuts and grafting and budding techniques with improving success. This is a higher value and more versatile crop. Yielding timber as an investment crop, nuts as fruit, and material for tree production.

DETAILS OF OUR POLYCULTURE

SITE CONDITIONS

Hardiness Zone: - USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 6 through 9.

Climate: temperate maritime characterized by cool winters and warm summers

Aspect: level with very slight gradient from S to N (no more than 2 m)

Irrigation: only for seedlings, from collected rainwater by hand

Wind: generally South Westerly

Late Frost: Early May

Early Frost Early September

AREAS

1.DYKE-SIDE

The only area that has not been cultivated is the side of the dykes, we have looked at this area to identify the natural succession and species. The area is cut annually, and then shows a succession of grasses, herbs and trees:

Wild plum – Prunus domestica

Dog wood – Cornus sanguinea

Horseradish – Armoracia rusticana

Cow parsley – Anthriscus sylvestris

Nettle – Urtica dioica

Norfolk Reed – Phragmites australis

Common Comfrey – Symphytum officianale

Poppy – Papaver rhoeas

Grasses - Festuca, Holcus lanatus

Blackberry - Rubus fruticosus

EASTERN THREE ACRES

The worst affected area is on the eastern side as it is nutrient deficient and diseased and this was planted with three varieties of timber walnut in 2018, as a ‘legacy crop’. These will be harvested for high quality timber in 25-30 years - or inherited and diapered as a tax-efficient legacy. We inter-planted the walnuts with Elaeagnus and Alder as Nitrogen fixers. The land was heavily mulched before planting. The walnuts have thrived, but the Elaeagnus initially struggled and on testing we found that this was due to magnesium deficiency. Part of this area (NE) is being used for coppicing of birch and hornbeam. Once the walnut trees established, we sowed a clover grass mix to the area. Our own compost is applied to the trees in the spring.

In between the wider spaced rows of NG38 timber walnuts we produce various fruiting walnuts by grafting seedlings until the timber walnut trees get too big and shade them out. The area has also been grassed with a clover mix.

Around the outside of the timber walnut plantation are grafted fruiting walnuts in varieties, for nut production (eating and oil).

MIDDLE TWO ACRES

This now comprises one acre of walnut orchard spaced at 6m x 7m rows that will be spaced later. This runs parallel N to S of the hybrid block.

To the west there is a N to S acre of orchard and tree/fruit production also with rare birch (Himalayan) circles and 8 bee gardens planted with flowering perennials and annuals to attract pollinators. We also keep two hives.

The apples and crab apples are harvested for eating and juicing.

We grow a reasonably large variety of fruit which are grafted and sold as I year old trees direct to the public online, in contrast to our previous market (low price achieved to two wholesale customers). Total trees sold per annum (including fruit, woodland species, ornamental garden trees and walnuts is around 5000).

WEST ACRE

West of the orchards is one acre of hybrid timber walnuts and coppicing. This is an old hornbeam/birch bed and is being left as a wildlife area. It has been managed to have two canopies - coppice and mature trees. We have stock fence this area as a reserve to protect and encourage birds and other wildlife.

To the far west running N to S is the most fertile acre which is to be used for nursery tree production and propagation of fruit, walnut and ornamental trees.

NORTH AREA

Running East to West is the Acer field. These are relatively difficult to propagate, budding Maple is a skilled task. There are four rows on each end (7mx 7m) with the remaining in the centre to be planted with walnuts for fruiting/oil.

A pond is to be constructed in the NE corner by widening and deepening the original dyke and this will aid summer irrigation.

OTHER ACTIVITIES

Once we had established and executed our planting plan from 2016 onwards and amended and adapted this in order to embrace the polyculture techniques from 2020, we began to experiment with other activities and products. These will be future subjects for blogs and investigations.

1. Drying of flowers and herbs - Poppies, Lavender, Nigella, Artichoke, Thistles

2. Seed production – perennials and vegetables

3. Fruits and Vegetable growing - potatoes, sweetcorn, beans, asparagus, artichokes, leeks, tomatoes, salad crops, herbs, raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, mulberries, rhubarb, goji

4. Composting and Vermiculture (worms)

5. Container planting

6. Growing from seed - Lemons, Pomegranate, Oak- and the use of recyclable tubes

7. Livestock -everything plays a part in the Polyculture -chickens, cats (vermin control)

8. Pheasant rewilding project

9. Water - importance, recycling, catching

10. Processing - juicing, jams, honey,

11. All about Sourdough

12. Bees

13. Worms

14. Walnuts for investment