Dig for Victory - Mark II

Lotus-eater

rhiwfield wrote: »

I see on the news today that the National Trust are to release 1,000 allotments via Landshare. A step in the right direction, but I wish that local councils could grasp the opportunity as well.

I heard on the news yesterday that there are 100,000 people on allotment waiting lists..........

Good for the NT though.

ceridwen

Can anyone post a link for that there tv programme purlease? I dont have a tv and can never figure out my way through these yur tv catch-up websites to get the programme I want.:D

Lotus-eater

Do you mean the Farm for the Future program?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00hs8zp/Natural_World_20082009_A_Farm_for_the_Future/

MY GOD! Missed this last night. Everyone should watch this, take the time today and try. Pass it on to your friends if you think its good.

Primrose

I watched this programme and was very impressed with the bio diversity of the two smallholdings featured. For the small grower it seems a much more natural way of managing your land, particularly by letting all the trees and plants add their own natural fertilisers back into the soil, along with all the various insects and fungi. I was also quite shocked at how regular ploughing destroys the composition and natural wildlife in the soil which adds beneficial effects. Perhaps now I have a valid excuse for not digging my vegetable patch !.

Lotus-eater

Primrose wrote: »

I Perhaps now I have a valid excuse for not digging my vegetable patch !.

I think you do.
I've just watched that bit, only watched half of it before.

A very good argument for not digging. I do think that digging in the garden probably doesn't hurt quite as much as ploughing, although tbh, I'm not really sure why.

Now my raised beds are going, I tend to dig over once a year to remove couch and bindweed roots. It needs doing, but I disturb the soil as little as I can. I hope it doesn't hurt it too much and with lots of organic matter applied, I tend to think the soil must be very alive anyway. This is the reason I won't use stuff like growmore.

ceridwen

Thanks for posting that link LotusEater.

I've just sat and watched the programme. Its very good/very clear and we are lucky to have these pioneers working out how we can move forward. Back beyond them - they are clearly "standing on the shoulders of giants" - as one can see the benefit they have derived from the farsighted people in the previous generation.

I would like to have some answers as to how we will continue to grow cereals - but a lot of the way forward is clear from this programme.

I wanna forest garden - been duly added to the "If I won the lottery" wishlist....

Lotus-eater

Yeah, my "when I win the lottery" smallholding is changing in my mind all the time.
I always wanted to have a wood, now I need extra space for a permaculture area as well.

Yategirl

Thank you SO much for directing me to that programme -- I would have missed it and that would have been "bad"! It was fascinating to actually see how those 2 smallholdings managed their land and food growing with nature. A lot was stuff I agree with and have been talking to people about but to hear important people (and farmers are important!) coming to terms with how they need to change farming to cope with the future was spot on!

I am, like many, working hard to get my garden as productive as possible in order to provide my family with food... now if I could just get an allotment to gain more space so I can grow more.. then it would be the perfect way for us (as in my family) to move forward... have been on the waiting list 5 years now...

rhiwfield

That was a fascinating programme!

It leads us to believe that small, productive holdings are the way forward as they are low energy systems. Which also suggests that the death knell has sounded for high energy systems such as the anglian farms.

What I was hoping to also see was a harvesting system to get produce to market. I'd guess that, at this point, any small scale system produce will be marketed very locally. Not such a bad thing tho

In a mixed system I'd also expect to see pigs fattening in woodland and more "farming" of animals occurring naturally eg rabbits, rooks, squirrels.

nodwah

Just read this in todays grauniad- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/feb/21/gardening-allotments-national-trust

No-one she knows would ever consider growing their own except for a pot a basil on their kitchen windowsill!

How silly of us all!