December 2016 – Hugelkultur

Woodchip paths

Tyswan December 9, 2016 Hugelkultur0 Comments

Water efficiency is improved by the use of hugeled, woodchip paths adjacent to traditional or sunken hugels. My main garden is constructed with paths dug into the ground 30cm (1 foot), and filled with woody material, and finished off with woodchip to ground level. The paths trap water and provide …

Composting poster

Tyswan December 8, 2016 Composting / Resources0 Comments

Having two composting bins makes life a little more difficult when explaining where food scraps go when a visitor or friend comes around. Use this friendly poster to show what does and doesn’t go in your bokashi or worm bins.

DIY Bokashi bin

Tyswan December 8, 2016 Composting / how to / Tips & Tricks0 Comments

Worms can be a little picky about what they eat, so to make sure I compost as much as possible, I put the food scraps the worms won’t eat into a Bokashi bin. Bokashi is an anaerobic (oxygen-free) fermenting composting systems. Specific microorganisms effectively pickle the food scraps. If done …

Starting a worm farm

Tyswan December 8, 2016 Composting0 Comments

I’m very slap dash when it comes to starting a new worm farm. Traditional instructions for starting a worm farm are quite careful and prescriptive. If you’re new to worms (or you’re in an apartment), I’d recommend that you follow the sensible advice on other sites. So here is my …

Worms in your Hugelkultur beds

Tyswan December 8, 2016 Composting0 Comments

Worms are the heavy lifters in any hugel. Because of the nature of hugels, you can’t turn them over like you would traditional beds. Moving fertiliser, aerating and turning over the soil comes down to these little guys, and in my opinion, you can never have enough worms. I love …

Fertiliser ‘bomb’

Tyswan December 5, 2016 Tips & Tricks0 Comments

I’ve started putting this little fertiliser bomb under my seedlings when I plant them out, and they they establish really well, take off very quickly, and are healthy all season. The fertiliser is concentrated to where the plants need it, rather than being scattered through the garden bed or watered …

Bird friendly fruit tree netting

Tyswan December 4, 2016 Tips & Tricks0 Comments

When we take so much care to nurture our fruit trees, it’s natural to want to protect the fruit from wildlife, particularly birds and bats. Tree netting is an obvious and effective way to protect fruit from wildlife, but the wrong type of netting can be deadly. Bird netting with …

Cheap and easy bio-degradable seedling pots

Tyswan December 3, 2016 how to / Tips & Tricks0 Comments

These newspaper propagation pots make seed raising easy and prevent transplant shock by not disturbing the plant’s fragile root system. These newspaper pots: are organic and biodegradable can be planted directly into the soil What you’ll need: 3 sheets of newspaper per pot potting mix fertiliser pellets seed raising mix …

First year highlights

Tyswan December 1, 2016 Hugelkultur0 Comments