Survival Gardening Diary
April
Maintaining Soil Fertility
Since the earliest days of agriculture soil fertility was maintained through the use of manure from animals. This included what is sometimes called 'humanure', or manure from humans, though this important detail is often omitted from historical accounts of agriculture. Where the nutrients and organic matter removed through the harvesting of crops were not adequately replenished, land became barren leading to food shortages and famine. Many if not all of the earlier human civilisations learnt this the hard way.
Artificial fertilizers are now used to grow the greater part of the world's food, but have also done enormous damage to the land, water supplies and the wider environment. Chemical based agriculture is a completely unsustainable form of food production. However, returning to a purely animal based form of agricultural fertilizer is not so easy either, as farming has become highly specialised. Also, most human manure is now flushed away down the toilet bowl and removed from the nutrient cycle completely.
As global supply chains disintegrate and food supplies become disrupted, maintaining soil fertility will become a crucial task if communities are to feed themselves. The survival gardener will probably already be aware of these issues.
Fortunately, there are a lot of available resources to draw upon. A modern industrialised nation produces some 300-400kg of food waste per household per annum, and a similar amount of paper and cardboard. Almost all of this could be composted. This resource alone should provide sufficient nutrients to maintain a highly productive vegetable garden or small allotment of up to 100m² in size.
An equally important resource is urine. The urine output from an average household would provide a greater quantity of nitrogen than all their compostable vegetable and paper waste combined, an amount of phosphorus roughly equivalent to the yield from composted kitchen and paper wastes , plus a significant quantity of potassium and various trace elements. Nitrogen (H) Phosphorus (P) and Potassium (K) are the three most important plant nutrients.
Contrary to popular perception, urine from healthy people does not carry nasty bacteria or viruses, and can be used directly on a compost heap. Its use as a fertilizer is widely practiced worldwide.
If diluted at a rate of 10-20:1, urine can be applied straight onto the garden. Another way of utilising urine is to use it as a feed for comfrey, which can then be harvested as a green manure for use as a fast acting mulch or liquid feed.
Many other waste materials have the potential to be composted. Even timber wastes, including composite boards, can be composted over time if shredded first and mixed with green material such as vegetable wastes. However, some caution is advised. Although most forms of formaldehyde resins degrade during composting, some contain atrazines and nitro-benzenes and do not readily biodegrade. A report produced jointly by Adas UK and Wrap : Composting Wood or Cardboard Waste with Green Garden or Household Kitchen Waste provides detailed information on good practice. See www.wrap.org.uk
The one material often excluded from debates about soil fertility and composting is human manure aka humanure. If composted correctly, humanure is safe to use and can provide good quantities of carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and calcium. However, owing to the sensitive nature of the raw material, the composting of humanure is a little more elaborate than composting vegetable wastes. The key factors are protection from four legged creatures such as rats or dogs, adequate quantities of buffer material (preferably one relatively high in carbon such as old leaves or partially rotted sawdust) and time to allow all potential pathogens to be rendered harmless. Although not mentioned too much by the suppliers, many food products imported into Europe from Africa and China are grown using humanure. For more on this fascinating subject, read the Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins.
Tree Fruit and Nuts
April is the last month for planting bare rooted trees and shrubs. In many ways it is a good month for planting trees as they begin growing almost immediately and do not suffer from being rocked around all winter as can be the case with late autumn plantings. For more on fruit and nuts, refer to the Diary for December-January and February-March (see below)
Vegetables
The lovely weather around Paddy's day gave way to quite wild and wintry conditions towards the end of March. This may have temporarily suspended some gardening activities. Many crops planted earlier in the season, however, may already be showing their heads above ground. At the Sustainability Institute, February sown peas and broad beans are up, and the survivors of the broad beans sown in October are now in flower. The autumn sown garlic is 200mm high, while the later end-of winter sowing is just poking through.
Most remaining vegetables can now be planted. At the Sustainability Institute space is quite limited and efforts are concentrated almost entirely on high energy value crops: roots, legumes and squashes.
The later sowings of legumes include second or third sowings of peas and broad beans plus, climbing French beans and runner beans. The latter are planted in 2 litre pots at 4 seeds to a pot and started off in a small glasshouse in mid to late April. When the plants start to crowd each other they are repotted into individual pots, and finally planted out towards the end of May when all risk of frost has passed. Climbing French and runner beans seem to like each other's company and can be grown together up a trellis or simple frame. We use bamboo, willow or hazel poles arranged in a circle, which makes an attractive feature in the garden. Both types of climbing beans produce lovely flowers much loved by bees. It is interesting to note that runner beans were first grown as an ornamental flower, not a vegetable.
We also grow a very tall variety of pea - obtainable from the Irish Seed Savers - which is very vigorous and produces purple flowers as well as purple-green pods. It crops extremely heavily and the peas are suitable for drying. In the past when I lived in Antrim, I grew very large quantities of this pea, and dried the crop for use in soups right through the winter and early spring of the following year. In Antrim, I knew the variety as 'Commander' - only in the North could a variety of pea have a paramilitary sounding name - but I believe the Irish Seed Savers call it something else.
Of the squashes and pumpkins, I have tried many varieties over the years and still have no particular favourite. I always choose small fruiting varieties as these invariably are tastier than the exhibition sized Halloween pumpkins. Experience has shown that varieties from very hot climates fare poorly in Ireland, and may not even reach fruiting stage. Modern F1 varieties should be avoided too, as these are the products of the large scale agro-chemical industry and are to blame for the demise of many regional varieties. As mentioned in Issue 2 of Sustainability, over 75 percent of old traditional varieties of food crops have disappeared in the last 100 years. As little as ten huge multinationals control the lion's share of the seed industry. F1 hybrids will not produce viable seed which is another reason for not growing them.
Squashes - and pumpkins which are very similar - should be sown in a greenhouse or cold frame 4 seeds to a pot in 2 litre pots during early April and planted into individual pots once they need the extra room. Usually I repot again into larger pots before planting out into the garden as this means I can wait until all frosts have passed (they continue far later into the Spring than most people realise, even here in Westport close to the Atlantic) and the plants are large enough to resist the most serious of attacks from slugs. Squash plants grow very fast once they get going and like beans are a good choice for initiating the younger members of the family into the mysteries of growing food.
I always sow far more squash seeds than the final number of plants required, to allow for losses along the way and for giving plants to friends. Trailing plants such as the squashes can be trained over unproductive areas of the garden like piles of stones or rubble, providing they are in a sunny position and are planted into good fertile soil. They do particularly well trailing over stones as the stones get warm during sunny days and hasten growth.
Container Growing
This is a valuable part of the repertoire of the survival gardener, especially urban dwellers with limited access to open land. Although purpose designed plants pots - especially the larger ones - can look quite attractive, in reality almost any container that holds soil will do, providing it has holes for draining and has no toxic residues from a previous use. At the delux end of the scale are old timber casks and barrels sawn in half - large enough to grow fruit trees, kiwis or grapes, but also useful for potatoes, squashes, and many other varieties of vegetable. Cut down plastic barrels are nearly as good, if not as aesthetically pleasing. Some great window or balcony boxes can be made from scrap wood. The only limiting factor is human ingenuity.
The most important factor is good drainage. If the container does not have holes in the bottom, use a drill to make some. A hole-saw attachment makes light work of drilling holes. This is a simple attachment costing only about €10 that will fit any drill. They come in a variety of diameters but a 20mm diameter bit suffice for most larger containers. The total area of the drainage holes should be equivalent to about 10 percent of the area of the base of the pot. In order to improve drainage further, small stones or broken crockery can be placed in the bottom of the pot.
The potting medium can be made up of whatever comes to hand. However, most if not all commercial peat-based potting composts are probably produced at the expense of the natural peatlands. An alternative is to collect abandoned milled turf from heaps at old commercial turf workings. To counteract the acidity, mix about one part hydrated lime to twenty five parts milled turf.
Roadside dumps where farmers have previously tipped animal dung or rotten bales of straw can make excellent sources of rich compost. Another good source is mushroom farms, as they are often only too happy to give away spent mushroom compost.
The serious container grower will always be a year or two ahead in potting material, and will have identified a range of useful sources in her or his locality. A battery of compost bins will allow for the collection of various municipal wastes, surreptitiously or otherwise. With waste of unknown parentage - indeed all compost really - rodent and dog proof containers are strongly recommended.
Happy gardening
Andy
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