Climate change observation

I was reading earlier (here) interesting and challenging observations about the potential impact of climate change at olliesplace.  That set me to thinking how we, the little people, caring for our few square feet of the planet might have a role to play. That translated into rather a long comment on their blog (apologies to olliesplace for my ramblings). I thought I'd copy my comment here:

Learning and adaptation in the face of climate change seem to be crucial. The effects on agriculture, horticulture and all aspects of life will be, it seems, profound and at the same time difficult to predict as to their nature and timing.

I wonder if all of us involved in care of the land, on any scale, might have a further part to play in this. 

Is it possible (Maybe through IPCC, or perhaps more locally at first) to agree a common, small basket of indicators of change, readily understood and observable by gardeners, farmers, naturalists and similar for recording, submission  and analysis, either in a responsible government department, meteorological agency or university. This would allow very detailed mapping of change, it's extent and nature, for the purpose, not of finding yet further evidence for global warming (though it may do that) but specifically to allow detailed understanding of the impact and speed of change.

There is an assumption that climate change is gradual. Yet evidence exists (Greenland ice core studies for example) that it can "flip" in very short time spans.

Such changes need to be observable, understood and capable of being acted upon by all of us on the land. 

Knowing of change helps planning in cropping and animal care. We know already that carrying on as before is not an option, changed growing conditions, different pest problems demand flexible approaches.

Just a thought, maybe it's already being done, and I've missed it?

Beans, learning from mistakes

When our daughter took on an allotment with her partner, we did warn her to be prepared for some disappointments, from the weather, or deer, or pigeons - not everything we plant ends up on the plate.

I just had a reminder too that things don't always go well, and it's my fault.

Because the all the window sills were full I put some trays of beans (french and runner) in a greenhouse, which has just enough heat to protect from frost (and it was down to -1.2 Celsius air temperature here last night). There they have sat for a couple of weeks doing hardly anything. Out of 4 trays only 3 seedlings have appeared and the seed parts, as they emerge, look brown in parts, I think they have just been lying there too cold and in danger of rotting.

So now I have put two in a warm propagator and two on a by then vacant window sill. So, fingers crossed! 

Rain, did I say Rain?

It is pouring down this morning, lashing against the windows and, of course, watering the garden, so I shouldn't complain.

We seem to have had quite a pleasant sunny Spring, just like the last two years which then flowed into (sometimes literally) a wet summer. So what to expect this year? Well, who knows, I don't. But we did hear in France last year that the farmers there expect a wet and cooler summer in years with an extra full moon, which the last two years had and ..... this one doesn't. 

I also saw this on BB's nature notes which seems to put the trees in step with the French farmers. 

Time will tell!

Weather

We have wind and rain forecast (there was some rain overnight, but not as much as I would have liked for the vegetable beds, hoping for more later - but not midday, as it is our friends' daughter's wedding near Dorchester and it will be so much more pleasant for them without umbrellas!

The wind set me to thinking and so I have updated the topical advice on the right.

Dare I say this?

I transplanted Tenderstem Broccoli on Tuesday and Pacifica Broccoli today, with underplanting of various lettuce, all netted over now.

Then today weeded, yes weeded, the rascals are popping up everywere in all the beds. Amongst the red onion sets I found 8 salad leaf plants self-seeded from a previous season, I checked, they seem to be Mustard Greens 'Red Giant', so I dug them up and planted them in the tomato greenhouse amongst some other salad leaf plants. Then I netted the onions too.

Saw the first shoot of asparagus and carefully weeded that bed too.

So I've netted where I can, I have trays I'm waiting for seedlings, all beds planted as much as I can, lots of tidying done.

Dare I say I am up to date - yes I know, tomorrow will probably reveal something I forgot.

Garden Swallow

Catching the sun

Garden Swallows

Here are a couple of the swallows over the garden yesterday afternoon

Swallows and (not Amazons) Blackbirds

On the same day that I saw shoots from my early potatoes - guess what? Yes, swallows swooping and chattering over the garden and the farm next door.

Mind you, in the midst of spring fever the blackbirds blotted their copybook by helping themselves to two rows of parsnip seedlings - or some tasty treat in the soil around the seedlings. I was trying an experiment this year; because parsnip seeds are so slow to germinate, I had sown them into toilet rolls and then, after germination planted them out still in the rolls. I wonder if the birds liked the cardboard? (See more information in an earlier post below).

So, I've just sown some more (direct into the soil and under a net), there's always something to catch up with isn't there.

I have to tell everyone

I went out to see how cold it was this morning and guess what - my first two potato shoots have appeared overnight - they are Anya.

Welcome to the world Anya!

Compost and soil

After swapping comments with Compostwoman, a few lines on compost, and soil generally, seem in order.

I did a talk at our Horticultural Society a couple of momths ago, entitled "Why Organic" - quite a proportion was on soil; for it's like the character from Beyond Our Ken, or was it Round The Horn, used to say: "The answer lies in the soil."

So much of what we do as organic gardeners is devoted to helping improve the quality of the soil isn't it? Depending on geology, geography and historical use of that ground, we all start with varying types and qualities of soil, from pure sand (the part of Wirral where I grew up) to pure clay (in part of my Dorset garden now). The chap who once lived in our house, before the lady we bought from, looked after a neighbour's garden when we first moved here, so I had long chats with him over the hedge and I was delighted to learn that my veggie plot had once been home to a couple of pigs - they're great for turning over the soil and manuring it.

What is needed to improve the soil? I'd say time and crop rotation. It has taken me 6 or 7 years to have a good soil.

Crop rotation is always advised to prevent the build-up of diseases isn't it, and it is also the basis for continual soil improvement.  I use a 4 year rotation: 

1. Potatoes, which have lots of manure and compost added to the soil; followed by: 

2. Peas, beans, onions, shallots and garlic which all like the moisture retention of the left-over organic material added for the potatoes (and they get mulch round them too), and in the case of peas and beans (if you leave the plants and especially roots in the ground to rot back in) fix nitrogen in the soil, ready for the next hungry crops in the cycle: 

3. Brassicas which get loads of compost added ready for them, so by the time the last in the cycle arrive, the soil won't be as fertile. The last is: 

4. Roots and if there is too much soil fertility they fork like mad - great for the funny vegetable in the Summer Show, but a pain in the kitchen! They like low fertility compost and a mulch. Then it's back to 1. potatoes again and so on ...

On top of that if there is bare soil and there is time for it to grow plant green manure and if there's not cover with a mulch (garden compost, leaf mould, chopped straw).

Even a very small plot can follow a rotation, so if you are starting with just a couple of beds (you can mark each into half - there's your 4 for rotation) you don't have to miss out on the marvel of soil improvement.

At just about every stage there is plenty of organic material to be broken down in the soil and keep the worms happy, and if they are happy so is the soil.