BD gardening experience
Posted: 23 Mar 2023, 21:39
How biodynamics has changed the way I garden
By Charles Mitchell
THE END OF SUMMER and the start of autumn are a good time to reflect on the garden, what worked and plan for the future. Not that sowing stops; by the end of September I will have sown broad bean ‘Aquadulce’ which is good to overwinter. I have done this for many years, but am still amazed at how they survive frost, snow and cold temperatures remarkably unscathed. It means that we get a crop a few weeks earlier than a spring sowing. In the spring I sow another variety ‘Witkiem’ in any gaps that have occurred over winter, plus a few extra rows. I always sow in rows, I have tried more scattered sowing, but rows work for me as I inter- crop some with vegetables. Two of those are onions and garlic. Despite the failure of the garlic this year due to disease, I will try again in a raised bed as far away as possible from this year’s and will then interplant the onions and garlic with rows of carrot seeds in the spring. I was told many years ago that this kept away carrot fly, and it works for me.
By Charles Mitchell
THE END OF SUMMER and the start of autumn are a good time to reflect on the garden, what worked and plan for the future. Not that sowing stops; by the end of September I will have sown broad bean ‘Aquadulce’ which is good to overwinter. I have done this for many years, but am still amazed at how they survive frost, snow and cold temperatures remarkably unscathed. It means that we get a crop a few weeks earlier than a spring sowing. In the spring I sow another variety ‘Witkiem’ in any gaps that have occurred over winter, plus a few extra rows. I always sow in rows, I have tried more scattered sowing, but rows work for me as I inter- crop some with vegetables. Two of those are onions and garlic. Despite the failure of the garlic this year due to disease, I will try again in a raised bed as far away as possible from this year’s and will then interplant the onions and garlic with rows of carrot seeds in the spring. I was told many years ago that this kept away carrot fly, and it works for me.