OK, it's not a brilliant drawing, I concede. Let me explain.
I doubt if any of us have a garden or allotment which is perfect in every respect. We all have to work round limitations of one kind or another - soil, aspect, shading, wind, temperature, builders' rubble. Your gardening limitation is the biological equivalent of the slowest ship in a convoy. What is slowing you down? For me, I know it's not the soil - deep, free-draining in the raised beds, reasonable PH. But give me a longer a season and another 5° on average temperature and I'm sure I could double the yield I'm expecting.
Some things we have to accept; others we can squeeze a little.
Things I Have To Accept No. 1 Daylight hours on 22 December (shortest day) amount to 6 hours 40 minutes
Things I Have To Accept No. 2 My plot is on a north-facing slope.
Things I Have To Accept No. 3 Average annual temperature 7.9 °C (46 °F).
What this means is that the long winters, amplified for me by the hill to the south shielding an already low sun, causes the soil to warm very, very slowly in spring, late frosts can wipe out early plantings and even when summer does come higher temperatures are elusive. What I have to do is find ways to extend the season by using all the tricks that I can to squeeze a little here, a little here...
Small Increment No. 1: level the soil So back to my 'graphical representation'. What is happening here is that by making the soil in the raised beds level, rather than following the natural slope, I've increased the angle that the sun hits the soil from 20° to 30°. Joy Larkcom, in her inspiring Grow Your Own Vegetables quotes research that suggests that a 5° gain in slope is equivalent to moving 30 miles to the south. On that basis, my raised beds at least, if not my rhubarb languishing on my un-levelled border, have moved to Dundee with their 10° gain. (Perhaps by creating 10° south-facing slopes in the raised beds they could be in Edinburgh.)
More Small Increments to follow. Dundee is only the first stop!
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteLiving in a completely flat county, I'd never considered growing on a slope!
Interesting stuff, will be good to see how you get on.
Jono.
Ho Jono
ReplyDeleteThanks. Nice to hear from you. I like your blog a lot. Good luck.
Ian
You're veg are further south than mine in Montrose!WE have free draining sandy soil which is a plus in some respects especially if haome made compost is added. We did have laege trees over the back fence which sent roots into our veg plot robbed our soil of water and nutrients, shaded our border and dropped hundreds of seeds onto the veg patch. All these things were not really a problem but they have cut most of the trees down. For me that is a problem.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, Ian.
I might be a bit fanciful in re-locating my raised bed to Dundee but it makes the point I think just how various environmental factors affect our very specific micro climates. I know from a previous garden how extensive root systems from large trees can be. You are right, you lose out twice, one from the shading and once from he theft of your nutrients. I saw your post about the loss of the trees. Mixed feelings I imagine. Maybe the replacements can be planted slightly further away!
ReplyDelete