We are going to be running some experiments on different gardening/growing techniques this year.
The American has already tilled his plot and activated his straw bales with some chemical concoction (he can't even remember what was in the mix). He was kind enough to build me a raised bed area to keep mine separate.
I also have two straw bales to grow in the organic way as well as a 12"x8" raised bed plot and I'll be taking a 15"x3" strip on the end of his plot too.
My raised plot is going to be split in half to have one no-dig organic plot and one biodynamic plot.
Some cross overs will occur; these exclude seeds across both non-organic and no-dig organic may have seeds which were planted in accordance with Maria Thun's biodynamic rules (root plants on root days for example). Compost, manure and other mulching media in the raised bed will be organic but not biodynamic.
We'll be assessing the success of each growing technique by a few simple criteria:
1 soil health - indicated by the number of worms found in a given amount of soil.
2 crop yield - the weight of the harvest is taken to determine this.
3 loss to pests/occurrence of pests - each time we spot a pest in our plots we need to take note and/or count how much damage has been done for example, 12 lettuce seedlings were decimated in plot A but only 3 in plot B.
We will be posting updates on the set up and progress of each growing style as we go through the season.
The Brit
