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Vegan organic horticulture is
a method of growing plants without the use of chemical fertilizers,
sprays etc and without using any animal products (except those
obtained from humans). It is a system of caring for the soil
in a sustainable way to ensure it retains its fertility for future
generations. It is a method of growing plants that works in harmony
with nature, encouraging a wide diversity of plant and animal
life to share the land with us.
This article is a brief guide
to the basic principles of vegan organics. A list of suggested
reading is given at the end should you want to find more specific
information.
The Basic Principles:
Wherever possible, do not dig
the soil.
There are many reasons for this:
There are many creatures and
organisms living in the soil, helping to create drainage and
build up fertility. Digging the soil will kill many of these
creatures and break up the natural drainage they have created.
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By digging the soil you will
encourage much more rapid breakdown of organic matter. Thus,
if you wish to maintain the soil fertility, you will become locked
into a vicious circle of having to obtain more organic matter
to feed the soil whilst putting in lots of effort through your
digging in order to destroy that organic matter.
Digging the soil exposes it to
erosion from rain and wind. It also increases the leaching of
nitrogen and other water-soluble nutrients from the soil. |
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Digging soil will bring weed
seeds to the surface where they will quickly germinate and grow.
Thus digging actually increases the need to weed.
Rather than being healthy exercise,
digging is actually a great strain in the back and often leads
to damage.
So, what are the alternatives?
Mulching
If your soil is fairly weed-free,
it is possible to simply apply an annual mulch, preferably in
late winter or early spring, of some organic matter such as compost.
Apply this about 5cm deep all over the ground. If your soil is
lacking in humus then you will find that this dressing of organic
matter will rapidly be drawn into the soil in the course of the
year.
Apply another mulch each succeeding year, to make a total depth
of about 5cm. As the fertility of the soil is built up, you will
notice that less mulch material is required because more is left
over from the previous dressing. This method of gardening does
require large initial inputs of organic matter - see item 2 below
for details of obtaining this.
Mulching weed-infested sites.
Most organic gardeners, when
confronted by a heavily weed-infested site, will reach immediately
for the fork or spade and spend many hours laboriously digging
out as many weeds as they can. Not only is this exceedingly hard
work, but it is often far less than successful. Many of the weeds,
such as couch grass or thistles, will soon regrow with renewed
vigor if even small parts of the roots are left in the ground.
There will also usually be an explosion of germination from literally
millions of seeds that have been given ideal germination conditions.
The newly-dug ground will very soon be covered in weeds again.
The alternative, once more, is to mulch. But this time there
must be some barrier placed below the mulch to prevent all the
weeds from growing through. We have found that cardboard boxes
are an ideal barrier to use. They are usually freely available
in quantity from local shops etc, will form an excellent barrier
for a year or so, in which time most of the persistent weeds
will have died, and then will rot down nicely to add their own
organic matter to the fertility of the soil.
Other materials that can also be used include newspapers (but
try to avoid too many with color printing and do not use color
supplements on land where you intend to grow food) and carpets
(but only those made of natural materials such as hessian - avoid
foam-backed carpets). It is very important to ensure that you
apply a sufficient thickness of barrier mulch, otherwise the
more vital weeds such as thistles and docks will push their way
through it. A carpet that is not too worn is usually sufficient,
cardboard boxes folded flat but not opened out are generally
enough, and newspapers about 15 sheets thick are generally enough.
Make sure that the edges of boxes, paper or whatever overlap
by at least 8cm, otherwise the weeds will soon find their way
to the surface.
Late winter is the ideal time to mulch weed-infested beds, though
it can be done at any time of the year so long as the soil is
not dry (as well as helping to retain moisture in the soil, a
mulch can also prevent moisture from reaching the soil, so a
mulched dry soil will remain dry until there has been sufficient
rain to soak the mulch and then penetrate into the soil). It
is possible to plant into this mulched bed within three months
of mulching. You simply use a trowel to make a hole into the
cardboard and then plant into this hole. You may find that some
weeds will start to grow out of this planting hole, but these
are easily controlled by hand weeding. By using this method,
it is actually possible to produce a semi-mature bed from weed-infested
land by the middle of the first summer. |
