Permaculture

My Permaculture Garden experiment begins on my allotment which I share with my husband.
This is a no-dig system of gardening in which you grow your own fertilizer to feed your plants.

You make layers in any space that you want to grow your vegetables by adding comfrey leaves, spent coffee grounds, compost, newspaper and hay or straw.

Steps 1 and 2

Put a fork into the area and move if back and forth to loosen the ground.
Gather comfrey leaves and scatter over the surface.

Steps 3 and 4

Sprinkle over the used coffee grounds.
Cover with compost

Steps 5 and 6

Water each layer.
Soak some newspapers in water and lay on top of the compost making sure you leave no gaps and tuck it in around the edges so there is no space for weeds to come through.

Steps 7 and 8

Water the surface of the paper.
Cover the newspaper with hay or straw. Water that well.

Step 9.

With a sharp trowel poke a whole through all the layers and carefully peal back the newspaper. Add a handful of compost and plant your seedlings into the whole.
Fold the newspaper around the seedling and move the hay back around the plant. Finally water them in. I was planting onions and will add more vegetables to this bed as my plants become ready to plant.

The final results.

Green Manure

Below are the field beans that are the green manure which grow all through the winter. They keep weeds at bay and can be dug in at spring time. They contain a lot of nitrogen which is great for the soil.