From a compost check in, to our new Squash Paddock... hear Jonny's updates from the River Cottage garden!
This is River Cottage’s second year with RocketGro as our compost supplier, and the fantastic results we found in 2023 have continued into this growing season. We get a huge amount of interest from our guests in which suppliers we use, and I’m always happy to tell RocketGro’s story - supplying renewable energy to thousands of homes and creating local, peat-free, biologically active compost as a by-product.
Over winter, all the beds in our kitchen garden were mulched with Magic Mulch, and the beds beneath are full of life, dark and friable, and great to work with. As we plant out, the fibres of Magic Mulch are incorporated, adding to organic matter in our heavy clay East Devon soil.
RocketGro’s Seed and Cutting mix has once again given us high germination rates with the right amount of drainage without much need to amend with sand or grit. We have also topped up the beds in our polytunnels with RocketGro’s Fruit and Veg mix, which alongside our homemade fermented feeds have got our tomatoes, cucumbers, and basil off to a flying start.
While our various homemade composts and feeds form the backbone of our soil husbandry at River Cottage, partnering with RocketGro has given us the flexibility and volume to expand our no-dig growing areas and continue to increase the biodiversity of micro and macro-organisms in our soil, ultimately leading to the healthy, nutrient dense, organic fruits and vegetables upon which our food philosophy is based.
Introducing, Squash Paddock...
Like any organism of impeccable breeding, our cucurbits require space to live, grow and prepare for their destiny, leading to the conversion of an old livestock area to the south of our Market Garden into the Squash Paddock.
While in previous years, the majority of the market garden has been given over to roving squash vines, but increasing our output of brassicas has necessitated this dedicated new space. Naturally, this gives me the opportunity to experiment and trial all sorts of different products and materials produced on-site or by friends of the River Cottage Garden.
We began with a good close cut of the, admittedly hitherto uncultivated area. Growing in there was a diverse mixture of meadow grasses, thistles, nettles, and docks included. Years ago it would’ve been used as a livestock pen, so that mixture of nitrogen loving and compaction breaking plants was to be expected. Traditional course of action would be to plough, rotavate, or dig over this area to oblivion before attempting to grow vegetables. Cries of war that the evil weeds will return must be wiped from the face of the earth echo throughout the kingdom.
If I’ve learnt anything from one of the foremost philosophers of the twentieth century, Douglas Adams, it is this: Don’t panic. Every undesirable plant will tell you something about the environment in which they are growing. In this case, that there is enough moisture, sunlight and fertility to grow leafy and hungry veg plants, but that it is fairly compacted, which docks and thistles thrive in. Cut them down, cover them up, and weed out whatever comes back, and it doesn’t take long to have a clear bed. It is the repetition and routine that keeps a growing area weed free, no matter how scorched-earth your starting policy.
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