Digging & Dreaming

Cuban Countdown

It's only a matter of days now before I head out to Cuba on my horticultural adventure and I feel overwhelmed by absolute fear and absolute excitement in almost equal measure. Although I have done loads and loads of research it's almost as though I have no real perception of what will greet me when I arrive. Of what the country will actually be like. My experiences so far seem to suggest that Cubans are extremely hospitable and helpful people but beyond that I don't know what expectiations I should realistically have of what the island will actually be like when I finally step off the plane next Wednesday. One thing that I am secure about though is my motivation for visiting in the first place - to get a feel for how their organic agriculture system actually looks on the ground, with particular focus on urban agriculture.

The break-up of the USSR in the early 90s signalled the beginning of a time in Cuban history that is referred to as the ‘special period’.  Prior to this Cuban agriculture was highly industrialised and had relied heavily on Soviet oil for farm machinery, fertilisers and pesticides. When the Soviet Union broke up Cuba lost more than 50 percent of its oil imports, much of its food and 85 percent of its trade economy. Transportation systems ground to a halt and people went hungry.

The Cuban response to the crisis included a series of major shifts in the way food was produced. Estimates suggest 50% of Havana’s 2.2 million population is now supplied by urban agriculture, a growing industry in which 140,000 people are currently employed. Lack of access to fertilisers and pesticides has also meant 80% of Cuba’s production is now organic with use of pesticides slashed from 21,000 tonnes per year in the 1980s to the 1000 tonnes it now uses. Use of oxen has also increased in place of petrol fuelled farm vehicles and large state run farms have given way to smaller co-operatives, with 10,000 acres leased rent free by the state.

Even now Cuban food production continues to increase and since Raul Castro took over as president from his brother Fidel in 2008 the state has increased what it pays for crops; decentralised agricultural decision making and distribution; and leased 50% of vacant state lands to 100,000 individuals and private and state co-operative farms. Investment continues in agricultural alternatives to fossil fuelled farming with estimates being made that the production of bio-pesticides saves the Cuban economy $15 million annually.

Amazing stuff huh? I can't wait to see how this will all look in reality and get a feel for how this organic farming revolution that I have heard so much about actually functions on a day to day basis.

 

Getting Set For Winter

Those of you who read this blog regularly will know that I like compost. That I REALLY like compost. However, since I started my permaculture design course this summer I have started to have some new ideas on the most effective way to make compost on my allotment.

Traditionally we have made compost using an array of different bins and receptacles from the typical plastic "daleks" we bought from the council to the lovely wooden compost caddies that my partner in gardening crime created for me. However, this year I have started looking more towards surface composting when ever I can.

Surface composting means that you compost garden waste on the surface of the soil instead of moving it away to compost it somewhere else like a compost bin. Traditional allotment holders may think this looks messy but it is actually beneficial for a variety of different reasons. In summer it means that you are creating a good layer of mulch that will keep valuable moisture where you want and need it in the soil and around your precious plants. In winter this same mulch will protect the surface of the soil from heavy winter frosts which can really damage the soil structure. It will also  act as a layer of insulation over the colder months of the year meaning that the soil will stay warmer and warm up more quickly in spring, thus be ready for planting earlier in the season than it would have been without this natural layer of protection. It's also worth noting that in nature soil never stays uncovered for long - anyone who has gardened for any time will vouch for the fact that bare soil surfaces will soon cover themselves with weeds if left to their own devices! With this knowledge in mind you may also be glad to hear that the natural mulches that surface composting creates will also act as a great weed suppressant - especially if they are allowed to build up to a decent thickness over time.

The other major benefit of surface composting is the amount of time that it saves you in its creation. Instead of moving all your garden waste away to a compost bin just to move it back to the beds it has come from later in the year as compost you will just need to leave it pretty much where it has come from. Good news huh? Of course it's worth noting that rough plants such as brassica stalks or twigs will take a long time to compost so are best moved to a more traditional composting method.

So there you go, the allotment traditionalists may turn their noses up at your new methodologies but I hope that the improved productivity and health of your soil will be enough to convince them that surface composting is definitely the way forward.

Moss Cider

The Moss Cider Project is a brilliant group based in the Moss Side area of Manchester. Founded in 2010, their purpose is to harvest, or scrump, unwanted fruit, from parks and gardens in Moss Side and its surrounding areas, so that it can be mashed and made into cider. Dan Hasler, who founded the project, is a local project manager for the Manchester-based charity, Action for Sustainable Living. He was inspired to get it up and running by the proposed demolition of a local bus depot. Dan was taken by the amount of land that this demolition would leave and how green space could be integrated into its future re-development.

On Saturday 25th September 2010, a group of neighbours and volunteers gathered for their first 'mash-up' of locally 'scrumped' apples. In that first year they made over 40 litres of apple juice, of which 35 litres was turned into cider. Now, in October 2011 the group are looking for apples to be included in their current harvest and I was delighted to discover that they would be happy to take a donation of apples from our plot, even though we are a little outside their normal neighbourhood.

We only have one apple tree on Plot 45 but it is a big one that yields a huge number of apples - many of which go to waste each year. The apples off the tree are cookers which are not ideal for cider making as the resulting cider will be less potent, due to the lower sugar content I suspect. However, Dan and his team are confident that our apples will be of use to them and are going to be popping over later in the week to pick them up. I'll keep you posted how this year's brewing goes for them!

I love this project because it is an amazing example of local food production, demonstrating how to make the best use of every day crops that nearly all of us have access to right on our doorsteps, but which often goes to waste. Have you got any examples of projects like this in your local community that you'd like to share? I'd love to hear about them!

 

The Power of Polyculture

Monoculture is bad news and that's a fact. Take nature as a perfect example... You don't tend to see plants growing on their own in natural settings. Instead you're more likely to find mixtures of plants growing together in groupings that benefit each other, thus providing the best environment for each different species to flourish. However, when you look at agriculture and growing on all scales there rarely seems to be space for this kind of diversity. Plants are grown together in large, single species blocks that leave them more prone to disease and attacks from pests and can also leave the soil prone to depletion in specific nutrients depending on the crop that has been planted there. Even in organic gardening where companion planting is used the focus is placed upon single crops intermingled with beneficial crops rather than the kind of happy and healthy poly-culture that is more common in nature.

This is style of cultivation is key to Permaculture and is perfectly exemplified in the traditional kitchen garden with mixed beds where every plant plays a specific part in maintaining the health and well-being of the garden. I've always been interested in growing in this way but it's only been in this season that I've really been brave enough to experiment with poly-cultures on my plot. As much as anything because my allotment is on a pretty old school site and I didn't want to rock the boat too soon after taking my plot on.

The bed in the picture is one of my favourites on the plot at the moment and is a great example of poly-culture in action. Leeks are dotted around surrounded by carrots, with the oniony scent of the leek acting as a deterrent to carrot root fly. These two crops are intermingled with lettuce, mizuna and beets all of which were planted through casual broadcast of seed meaning they have come up where they feel most comfortable themselves. There are also a couple of Swede which were intended to keep the rabbits occupied and prevent them eating more valuable crops (they LOVE swedes you see) However, much to my surprise, the swedes even seem to have been protected by this way of planting with the bunnies taking a nibble of the odd leaf but not decimating the whole crop like their did last year.

The whole bed is topped with three tomatillo plants that offer light shade with their glorious, arching branches and that seem to appreciate the soft, well cultivated soil that the other crops are also enjoying. So far the signs seem to be good with high yields and healthy plants. And the other added benefit? The bed looks absolutely gorgeous to look at which can never be a bad thing in any garden as far as I'm concerned. It'll be poly-culture all the way on Plat 45 next year, I can tell you!

Pond's Eye View

As part of the Permaculture design course that I started last month I have been doing a lot of reading on the subject. At the moment I'm reading the wonderful Sepp Holzer's Permaculture. Sepp Holzer is an inspirational farmer and grower who lives high on the mountainside of the slopes of Mount Schwarzenberg in Austria on a farm that extends to 45 hectares and which is all between 1100 and 1500 metres above sea level. The book is a great read - it's really accessible and gives a fascinating insight into the way that Sepp has managed to profitably cultivate areas of land in a way that others told him would be impossible. And how's he done this? In short, by developing a process of cultivation that observes and responds to local natural ecological systems in order to get the very best out of the available land in a way that bears no resemblance to the typical mono-cultures that we are more used to seeing in modern agriculture.

A particularly interesting section of the book is about the use and management of water on Sepp's land and the fact that doing this sensitively is crucial to developing a growing environment that works well. This inspired me to have a closer look at the pond that we've got on our allotment. Although this pond's essential function is an aesthetic one rather than anything else it still plays an important part on our plot. It's very much a natural environment, as you can see from the picture, and can pretty much be left to its own devices. All we really need to do to it is to make sure no plants become too much of a bully and remove leaves if an excess fall into the water in autumn and winter. And what benefits do we get back in exchange?

Well, the pond is a haven for newts in particular but is also well used by toads and frogs who love the shady beds of rhubarb and comfrey that are right next to the water. There is also a shallow area at one end that the birds love to drink from and splash around in during the summer months. The water is a great attraction for certain types of insects like dragonflies that flit and flutter around the plot on long hot days and lay their eggs on the reeds and other plants at the waters edge. The waters edge is also a popular place for plants like rushes and irises that thrive there in abundance, alongside the glorious waterlilies that keep the water cool and shaded on sunny days. In fact, all in all, it's amazing how many species thrive around such a small body of water.

And the disadvantages of having a pond? Well, none that I can think of except if you have children, in which case the pond needs to be securely fenced to keep them out of harm's way. And I would personally go for a fenced pond over a netted one any day as it keeps the pond safe but also means that the creatures that benefit from the water still have full access it.