Embracing Mixed Crops: Polyculture Eliminates theNeed for Weeding and Pest Control in Home Gardens
Neglecting the common gardening practices and embracing nature's ways, growing vegetables with no mulch, netting, slug pellets, or hoeing seems like an impossible dream transformed into reality. A dream of developing a beautiful wilderness filled with food and harmonious coexistence of flora and fauna.
Imagine finding hedgehogs burrowing under cabbages or snakes sunbathing on hay-free mulched beds, surrounded by a symphony of insects and birds from dawn to dusk. This is the essence of natural farming, mimicking nature and fostering complex polycultures.
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Experimenting with natural farming at Birch Farm has been the journey to realize this dream. For the past five years, it has been supplying fresh produce for the kitchens at the Farmers Arms pub and other projects for the Collective at Woolsery in Devon.
Natural farming consists of understanding and replicating nature, as nothing grows in isolation. Embracing polycultures—a method of growing numerous plants together in one bed—is essential. In this approach, a vegetable garden teems with life, from ample toads, newts, and predatory insects, to an array of flower types such as Asteraceae and Apiaceae, and aromatic herbs.
Some of my favorite combinations include kale, chard, beetroot, lettuce, rocket, peas, and fennel. A basic setup for us consists of long-term, secondary, and intermediate stages. Long-term crops like brassicas and parsnips last nine months or more, while secondary crops, like beetroot and turnips, last around three months. Our intermediates are quick-growing crops such as lettuce and rocket.
Height plays an essential role in polycultures, too, as we alternate tall and short plants. For example, a long-term row could consist of a rotation of kale and chard, with the chard beneath the canopy of kale when it matures. Breaking up monocultures is crucial whenever possible.
You can plant four rows of long-term crops in your 1.2m-wide beds, and secondary crops in the rows between. The enjoyable part comes when planting intermediates between the other main crops, such as lettuce interspersed among kale and chard. By the time kale requires more space, the lettuce harvest has concluded, and before too much shade develops, the secondary crop of beetroot will be ready. Ultimately, the beds become a riot of kales, chards, and herbs through winter.
Initially, I gazed upon a blank field that once was a dairy pasture with no sounds of birds or life. I knew that natural farming was about letting go. What I hadn't anticipated was the time it would take for nature to heal after years of ploughing and fertilizing.
The first few years saw an apocalyptic number of slugs, as we had no predators to combat them. I knew, though, that if we interfered with pellets or removed their habitat, we would also be removing the predators. Now we have negligible damage from slugs, and can grow all our crops adjacent to grass banks or log piles.
Even planting three agroforestry rows within our veg gives slugs and beetles habitat and breeding space. Slugs are crucial to the overall health of the ecosystem as decomposers and a food source. We've only found them to be a problem when the system is unbalanced.
The role of weeds is paramount, as they are key to the farm's fertility. Many of our polycultures include ten to 15 different weeds, providing diverse rooting depths and acting as our main soil improvers. Weeds are controlled for the first six weeks via systematic sickling or harvesting, giving vegetables a head start to compete with weeds. After that, we allow weeds to grow as part of the polyculture. The benefit of sickling is it preserves all root systems, so we never hoe or pull out our weeds.
All plants begin life being sown into soil blocks, avoiding the need for masses of plastic trays. We use a potting mix composed on the farm, incorporating worm compost and loam harvested from our paths. The loam is vital, as it familiarizes our seedlings with the farm soil. Organic gardening is often about subduing nature, but fearing weeds, 'pests', and the need for efficiency has led us to bury nature in mulch, often resulting in sterile and monoculture systems.
Our methods at Birch Farm have shown it's possible to grow all our favorite vegetables with minimal input and sympathetic gardening, but most importantly in a way that constructs an ecosystem that self-regulates, and builds fertility through agroforestry, perennials, and root diversity.
- This natural farming approach, with no mulch, netting, slug pellets, or hoeing, transforms an impossible dream into a reality, creating a wilderness filled with food and harmonious coexistence of flora and fauna.
- Embracing polycultures, a method of growing numerous plants together, is essential in natural farming, fostering complex ecosystems teeming with life.
- Kale, chard, beetroot, lettuce, rocket, peas, and fennel are some favorite combinations in polyculture vegetable gardens, providing a symphony of life from ample toads, newts, and predatory insects, to various flower types and aromatic herbs.
- Height plays an essential role in polycultures, as tall and short plants are alternated, such as kale and chard, with the chard growing beneath the canopy of kale when it matures.
- Zero-waste strategies for green spaces are crucial in natural farming, as planting three agroforestry rows within vegetable gardens provides habitat and breeding space for slugs and beetles, key decomposers and a food source in the overall ecosystem.
- Weeds are essential to the farm's fertility, as they form polycultures, providing diverse rooting depths, and acting as the main soil improvers.
- At Birch Farm, organic gardening is about minimizing inputs, growing favorite vegetables sympathetically, and constructing an ecosystem that self-regulates, building fertility through agroforestry, perennials, and root diversity.
