Q and A Sessions – Vol.2 – Growing Food – Fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs in a no dig mulched garden

Today’s questions and answers session is all about growing food such as fruits, berries, vegetables and herbs in a mulched no dig garden. The idea is to work with nature to create a healthy soil giving a habitat and food to microbes, fungi, worms, insects and larger animals like birds and hedgehogs. This helps to reduce maintenance to near zero and increases long term fertility exponentially. Most importantly biodiversity can bring balance to your little eco system in the garden and therefore minimize the chances of a pest outbreak like greenfly, aphids and even blight! Today’s questions are listed below with time stamps.

Here are today’s questions that we’ll be discussing:

• 0:35 – Can you do a demonstration of how to harvest Portuguese kale so that you promote the best future growth?
• 8:22 – What perennial vegetables have you found to be most productive?
• 15:24 – Do you plant guilds with your fruit trees? What is a poly-culture?
• 20:55 – Can you recommend some easy and productive vegetables for a new gardener?
• 29:17 – Do you need to rotate where you plant them?
• 31:15 – Do you fertilize or add compost at any other time after planting?
• 34:57  – What is the variety of sweet corn do you grow?
• 38:37 – Most of what you plant seems to start off in your greenhouse – without one is there any other good way to get plants ready for planting out into the mulch garden? Or if I plant directly will it be okay if I just wait until April or May and make do with a smaller harvest?
• 39:52 – When to start oca tubers in pots in tunnel? Can Jerusalem artichokes go in now?
• 42:43 – How would you go about growing food so that you have something to harvest year around?
• 47:08 – Does the amount of wood chippings you apply make for a more acidic soil?

Previous topics:

• Q&A Session 1 – No Dig Mulch Gardening – Almost zero maintenance yet highly productive

Upcoming topics:

• The Plant Nursery – Starting plants – plant propagation, repotting and planting out.
• Medicinal Plants – Traditional household medicines, uses, fresh and dried herbs and flowers, medicinal leaves and berries.
• Homesteading – Cooking, preserving and storing food and medicinal herbs, brewing country wines etc.
• Plants – Perennial plants often with multiple uses – Food, medicinal, handcraft and building materials, firewood, insecteries, wildlife plants, nitrogen fixing plants etc.