Crop Swap Flowers

During lockdown I have been even more aware of all of the plants and learnings I have gathered from Crop Swap. Even though I am missing the amazing people I am reveling in the connections I have in our  community and know as we unlock we will be able to meet again.

Here is a link to the first Crop swap day.

Tansy

Tansy is a constant presence in my garden. If allowed it will grow up to 2 meters all and run riot with beautiful yellow flowers.
I use it for an ever ready source of chop and drop mulch, food for insects, flowers for my table and as it is a perennial it provided growing roots in the soil all year.

Next years potatoes

Last years potatoes where a big experiment. We planted them into sheet mulched straw.

After harvest the potato patch was converted into a diverse cover crop. The seed were coated in a vermicast slurry and broadcast.
Buckwheat, corn, sorgum, sunflowers, oats, wheat, linseed, kale, spinach, fennel, clovers, phacellia, blue lupin, broadbeans.....
Come spring this will be mulched and corn planted into another diverse mix.

This year the potato experiment continues...
We have made a big compost windrow next to the cover crop and as we turn/move the compost we will sow a winter cover crop. At potato harvest time this will be mowed and potatoes planted in to cover crop an finished compost.

Cricket song

These guys sing as they munch on the roots and shoots of your plants.
This is an introduced cricket. It is much bigger than its native cousin.
They love hot dry summers when the ground cracks and plants get stressed.
Stressed plants send out signals to call in the clean up crew.
Crickets can damage already stressed crops badly.

Cooler evenings close the cricket chorus for the year. It is

Changing seasons

Harvest is just about finished and the cover crops are emerging through the mulch.

It is always so satisfying to see the soil covered in diverse crops and to know the soil food web is being fed over winter by the growing plants and mulch from previous plants.

This year I have various clovers, buckwheat, radish, lupins, broad beans, kale, spinnach, oats, rye, peas, linseed, some herbs that were always there and of course weeds that will fill in any leftover space.

Cold wasps

As soon as the weather starts to turn hornets are everywhere. 

Hunting our warm fences or sunny places.

Most of the queens have fattened up on autumn flowers and are hibernating in a nice warm place.

All that is left in the nest are workers with no work to do and the odd male. 

As the weather cools further they will die off. 

There work done for the season.

Memories