Page 25 - Simply Veg Issue 3 2019

Plum fan
first it has to
get into the
soil. This can
be achieved by
adding organic
matter to the soil,
which as well as
improving soil fertility,
holding water and nutrients
and feeds the many soil fauna which
we need to encourage will add carbon. Most of the organic matter is broken down by bacteria and other soil creatures and becomes humus part of the remains contain the carbon and this is held on the soil.
As well as adding compost, manures,
leaf mould, spent hops and mushroom compost you can grow green manure
which is a very good substitute for them.
As the green manure grows it takes in nutrients and carbon dioxide which it uses to produce tissue. When the plants are dug in or composted the nutrients are recycled and most of the carbon remains in the soil. The growing of green manure reduces the leaching of nutrients from the soil, protects it from erosion and improves the fertility so is well worth growing for those reasons alone.
Using green manure need not get in the way of your cropping as it can be sown after the area has been cleared of crops or occasionally before they are sown an early green manure crop can be grown. Some of the larger crops like sweet corn,
Apple columnar
climbing runner and French beans
and peas can have an intercrop of
green manure sown between them so two crops are taken from one
area. You should give serious consideration to growing green
manure even if only to improve your soil. Composting and Manuring
I have briefly mentioned this above and
will just add a little more. I am gob smacked how many people take their green waste
to the household recycling centre or have it collected by the Council. All of the nutrition in the plant waste is lost from their land
and sent to a municipal composting centre and then used elsewhere. They are losing nutrient and organic matter both valuable resources. You should compost everything except disease infected material or badly pest infected plants. You should not have much of this so this can go into the bin. Any perennial weed roots should be put into an old tin or bucket with water and left to rot before adding to the compost heap (the liquid can be used as a plant food). Try to get as much manure as you can to add to your soil, just be aware of if it has been treated with a herbicide or whether it contains any perennial weed roots.
One form of organic matter that will add carbon to the soil is woodchip, I think this
will become more widely used in the future following work using raminal woodchip by some organic growers. It is important that the woodchip is composted otherwise when applied to the soil it will remove nitrogen initially which can stunt crop or plant growth. To compost it just stack it in a heap for 6
to 12 months, if you want to speed it up a little add some grass cuttngs, or nitrogen fertiliser. Once composted it can be used as a mulch or dug in like compost. Wood chip is slow to decompose so stays in the soil for a long time and adds the carbon to the soil. Tree bark can be used similarly but is more expensive. Try to find a friendly tree surgeon who wants to get rid of his tree waste.
Adding charcoal or biochar will also add carbon to the soil and help to improve it.
Plastic
There has been a lot written in the horticultural press recently about reducing the use of plastic in the garden, mainly as a result of Sir David Attenboroughs Blue Planet programmes. While I think its a good idea
to reduce our use of plastic we need to be careful not to make a panic decision and get rid of all plastic which would be very wasteful and could even add to climate change.
It is important to get the maximum use out of what plastic items we already have before disposing of them. Therefore we should be reusing all our plastic pots, seedtrays and modules as many times as possible. Even the thin modules and seedtrays can be used 3 to 4 times if handled carefully. The thicker pots and trays can be used innumerable times, as can plant labels. It is also possible to make use of recycled yogurt pots, meat trays and margarine tubs to name a few for growing a range of plants.
With careful use most polythenes and fleece can be used three to four time
and sometimes large recycled sheets of polythene are available to use as plant covers. Some paper is compostable as is many cardboards which go to make good organic matter. Large cardboard boxes are useful for short term mulches or reclaiming weedy allotments.
Recycling is a useful method of reducing our use of new resources and also saving money, look at any packaging materials or any other waste and see if there is another use for it before disposing of it. Other simple things we can do which will save us money and reduce the amount of carbon we pump into the atmosphere is to switch off lights
if not required (it’s a pity more businesses did not switch their lights off). Also reduce our water use which is becoming a more valuable commodity especially here in the South East of the U.K.
There are many things we can do both as individuals, the NVS and society as
a whole to reduce the effects of climate change and we need to get serious about it quickly for our grandchildren’s sake; please do something if only a couple of the above. Forward to the future.
Kelvin
When the plants are dug in or composted the nutrients are recycled and most of
the carbon remains in the soil.
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