Polyculture Project - Market Garden Study - Update 5

We said goodbye to Charlotte who has returned to Norway to make a start on her upcoming project. Thank you Charlotte, for all of your help, it was a pleasure to have you here:) We're pleased to welcome Natasha from New Zealand to the team.

The Market Garden Polycultures
We are growing 3 annual polycultures this year. Ares includes a perennial support crop, but the main crops are annuals. Here are the plant lists for the polycultures.

click here to see the table: http://balkanecologyproject.blogspot.bg/2016/06/polyculture-project-market-garden-study.html

Zeno Epictetus Ares
Common Name
Cultivar Family Common Name
Cultivar Family Common Name
Cultivar Family
African Marigold Asteraceae Courgette Zucchini
Izobilna Cucurbitaceae Parsley Apiaceae
Pot Marigold Asteraceae Courgette Zucchini
Black Beauty Cucurbitaceae Dill Apiaceae
Courgette Zucchini
Black Beauty Cucurbitaceae Dwarf Yellow Bean
Rocquencourt Fabaceae Red Onion Amaryllidaceae
Squash Waltham Butternuts Cucurbitaceae Dwarf Borlotto Bean
Lingua Fuoco Nano Fabaceae White Onion Amaryllidaceae
Summer Squash
Yellow Bush Scallop Cucurbitaceae Aubergine
Black Beauty Solanaceae Dwarf Yellow Bean
Rocquencourt Fabaceae
Courgette
Izobilna Cucurbitaceae Carrots
Autumn King Apiaceae Dwarf Borlotto Bean
Lingua Fuoco Nano Fabaceae
French Climbing Bean
Cobra Beans Fabaceae Carrots
Rainbow Mix Apiaceae Kohlrabi
Delicacy Purple Brassicaceae
French Climbing Bean
Hristo's Beans Fabaceae Kale - Borecole
'Siberian' Brassicaceae Paulownia tomentosa Paulowniaceae
Tomato
Citrina Solanaceae Kale - Borecole
'Scarlet' Brassicaceae
Tomato
Black Krim Solanaceae Swiss Chard
Rainbow Mix Amaranthaceae
Tomato
Ukrainian Purple Solanaceae Beetroot
Rainbow Mix Amaranthaceae
Tomato
Marglobe Solanaceae Beetroot
Saved seed Amaranthaceae
Tomato
Tigerella Solanaceae Parsnip
White Gem Apiaceae
Tomato
Anna Russian Solanaceae Kohlrabi - Delicacy Purple Brassicaceae
Sweet Genovese Basil Lamiaceae Chilli Pepper
Saved Solanaceae

This week we planted out the support species- Calendula officinalis and Tagetes erecta into Zeno. Both of these plants are reliable self seeding annuals.

As long as you don't mulch where last season's plants were, you can expect many seedlings to emerge in the spring and can use these to stock the beds. Three or four plants can produce 100's of strong seedlings.

A patch of self seeded Calendula officinalis

It's been more of the same cool and wet weather over the last few weeks. Parsnips, carrots, chard, dwarf beans and kale in Epictetus have all responded well to the cooler weather, but many of the warm weather crops such as squash, peppers and aubergines are struggling. Hopefully, they should take off with warmer temperatures forecast.

Siberian Kale - ready for the first of many harvests
Grasses
With no clear break in the weather so far, hay making is still on hold and we've had plenty of time to try and identify a range of grasses we have growing on the site. Thanks to Ute for identifying the following grass species from the garden:

Cock's Foot (Dactylis glomerata)
Meadow Brome (Bromus commutatus)
Great Brome (Bromus diandrus)
False Oat grass (Arrhenatherum elatius)
Wall Barley (Hordeum murinum)
Bent or Bentgrass (Agrostis sp.)
Probably also both Poa trivialis and Poa annua

Photos by UteVillavicencio
Forest Garden
Cherries - It's been a poor year for cherries with what little fruit that set quickly spoiled by heavy rainfall. We still managed to pick at least 20 kg from some very reliable trees in the back garden and have some late ripening cultivars yet to harvest from the orchard. On the bright side, it looks like we're in a for a bumper plum harvest.

Fireblight - For the first time I can remember one of our "semi-wild" pear trees is hosting Erwinia amylovora - Fireblight, a pathogenic bacteria.

Natasha cut out all of the infected branches and we removed them from the site for winter kindling. With more wet and stormy weather forecast for June, the bacteria are likely to spread. It's interesting to see how the windward face of the tree carries the majority of the infected branches.

Natasha pruning out the infected branches

Below is some more information on the disease cycle of Fire blight.