sustainability Archives - The Smallest Smallholding

2018 – Living With Less Plastic

January 1, 2018 by Lucy

In years gone by I would have sat down at my laptop today and made a huge long list of New Year resolutions, most of which I wouldn’t even get close to achieving. I’m an idealist, but in my old age (I turned 35 since last posting) I have come to realise that life is a journey and sometimes it takes a whole to get to where you want to go. Also, as a parent, there’s also this thing called extreme lack of free time.

winter garden

So whilst I could easily list 20 goals for 2018, for this year I’ve decided to keep it simple:

– Work hard to reduce my personal debt
– Start a saving fund for emergencies (so no credit card spends)
– Work on decluttering our house
– Live with less plastic

I was aware that there were a couple of programmes airing on TV fairly recently that highlighted the plight of the oceans due to our addiction to plastic. Whilst I didn’t catch the programmes, I have seen a few related clips and infographics floating around on social media. It’s been enough to inspire me to try and make a change.

The more I’ve thought about it, the more I see how pervasive plastic has become in our lives. Especially the non-recyclable stuff that goes straight in the bin, into landfill, and who knows where after that.

As much as I would love to declare January as a “plastic free month”, in my heart of hearts I know this isn’t possible. So I will start to make a few changes to begin to build momentum:

9 Tips Less Plastic

This is a start, and I hope you’ll join me in living with less plastic 🙂 If it sounds like too much too soon, here are some quick and easy tips to reduce your plastic consumption to get you started.

Filed Under: sustainability

What about… irrigation systems?

July 25, 2017 by Lucy

Lark Ascending rose

Apparently June 2017 was the equal fifth hottest June on record since 1910. From the middle of the month, temperatures soared here in East Anglia. The prolonged sunny, dry spell meant that in order to keep plants and vegetables growing healthily under the duress of the baking sun, watering had to be done sometimes twice a day in the early morning or late evening.

Of course, it’s worth the effort; thirsty, dehydrated plants will not only fail to thrive, but are more vulnerable to diseases and pest attacks. But as I don’t have any automatic watering systems in place, watering up to twice daily took a lot of time. Sure, it was sometimes a chance to take some quiet time for reflection after a busy day, but it was also another job to do on a long list at the end of the day.

The concerted effort to water morning and night has paid off (I’ve been enjoying a good, solid crop of beans, carrots, onions, shallots and garlic so far this summer), but it’s made me ponder just how integral the “simple” task of watering is to a successful yield. In years gone by, I’ve totally failed to keep up with watering during hot, dry spells, and I’ve seen the impact even one or two missed days have on overall plant vitality.

I’ve also worked in the gardens of a modest but beautiful manor house, where water is drawn from a cavernous underground well, and an irrigation system is integral to the upkeep of the gardens, polytunnels and kitchen garden. Their gardens flourish all year round, and watering is restricted to a few containers and pots around the property. They can also go away on holiday, safe in the knowledge that their automatic watering systems will take care of the extensive borders and kitchen gardens. I’m envious. At the moment, I don’t always have the luxury of spending time watering when it’s needed; and here in the sandy-soiled corner of Bedfordshire, a day without watering in high summer can do serious damage to plants.

It was actually quite astonishing to see how quickly my soil turned almost arid, and the plants suffered. Only the established strawberries and marigolds seemed to fair well in the high temperatures; everything else positively wilted and looked jaded after a sun-soaked afternoon.

Whilst mulching has helped to tackle the sandy soil situation, I need to think harder about the watering aspect. It seems that I live in an area that appears to be “boom or bust” when it comes to rainfall. We can have long, dry winters followed by patchy spring showers and crisp, hot summers, but we also experience significant downpours. Thankfully, it never floods. From a sustainability point of view, rainfall capture is important and helpful – that’s placing water butts near any hard surfaces where rain runoff can happen (eg house/shed/greenhouse roofs). But due to time constraints or chronic back problems, I sometimes can’t cart watering cans back and forth all day from around the house to the wider garden. So for me, a long-term solution could be an irrigation system – especially in the polytunnel that I’m hoping to construct by the end of the year.

Some quick, cursive research reveals that deep irrigation systems tend to be the most effective in terms of water use efficiency and plant health. Drip automatic watering systems are also an option, and more suited to milder climes where rapid evaporation isn’t such an issue. For container gardens, automatic kits can save time and water usage for between 20-30 separate containers. Then there are globe spikes for smaller pots that aren’t suited to being hooked up to a system, too. These can look decorative and can often hold a few days’ worth of water before needing to be replenished – great if you’re planning a long weekend away or need a break from daily watering duties!

Of course, I write this just days after a deluge of rain and thunderstorms. But that’s not to say that in a fortnight here in East Anglia we’ll be back to the dry, arid conditions that we experienced in June and the first part of July. In summer, the soil drains and dries so fast that it’s easy to underestimate just how much watering needs to be done if it doesn’t rain for a few consecutive days. You cannot take your eye off the ball, so to speak.

If you’re thinking about an automatic watering systems for your garden, this is a useful link for viable options: https://www.easywatering.co.uk/best-systems-garden

This is a sponsored post.

Filed Under: garden, sustainability

What is Polyculture?

June 29, 2017 by Lucy

polyculture potager

Over the past few years of growing my own fruit, veg and herbs, I’ve learned a lot. I started with books (and still reference them frequently), garnered bits and pieces of information from my mum and other growers, and gleaned snippets of knowledge from gardening programmes. I haven’t seen much about polyculture in the mainstream media though, and it seems a shame.

In Britain, I suspect many of us green-fingered types tend to think of a “good garden” or “successful allotment” as a tidy space, where neatness and order abounds. But that just isn’t me. What I love about nature are the blurred lines between order and chaos. I’ve always felt that my garden should be a glorious collision between art and science. That means looking to the natural world for inspiration and guidance, especially when it comes to my planting schemes. That’s where polyculture comes in.

When you try to inflict absolute order over the underlying chaos, I feel like it becomes a fight with nature. I cannot stand reading posts on allotment or gardening forums about the various ways to kill this pest or spray that weed. I feel that many gardeners are at war with their plots. Really, gardening should be more about balancing and nurturing.

polyculture - gyo

That’s why I’m increasingly moving my thinking over to polyculture and permaculture. Polyculture, in essence, means “the simultaneous cultivation or exploitation of several crops and animals“. In gardening, allotmenteering and in agriculture, we often see planting done in large blocks (monoculture). There is a lot of uniformity, and this can lead to creating an ecosystem that is vulnerable to quick and widespread attack from pests and disease. This means the blocks of crops or animals can require a lot of support with fertilisation/feeding/antibiotics. In agriculture, soil can become arid and depleted because of the continued drain on its minerals.

But in nature, even the smallest patch of wild land is a mish-mash of plants of different varieties, heights and distances. Each plant has a function, growing pattern or yield time that often benefits other plants, such as companion plants or intercropping. Sowing the same crop in different places at different times can extend the harvest period, and keeps groups of plants safer if one group falls foul to a pest or disease.

And polyculture can also extend the growing capacity of one plot throughout the year, keeping both plants and soil healthy and thriving whilst helping to reduce the need for weeding. Yes, less weeding!

Together with a no-dig approach, polyculture has helped me to reduce the time required on the plot maintaining the soil from weeds and trying to tackle hungry pests, like aphids. Essentially, in between a little weeding here and there, my veg plots look happier and much fuller. OK, they might not look particularly orderly or neat, but they are thriving.

The nasturtiums were planted next to my beans, and have proved a total success. Whilst some of my flowers in the borders and the elder was ravaged by blackfly, the little suckers have been attracted to the leaves of the nasturtium and left my peas and beans well alone. The marigolds have not only produced a burst of colour on the plots, but I also think their strong scent has served well as a deterrent against munch-happy bugs too.

There is so much more I can do this year, with plenty of time to sow and plant into my plots. I’m excited to learn more.