Walled Garden
What do we do to stop animals and pests attacking our plants without using chemicals?
The high walls of the garden keep out the deer and rabbits. Pigeons and crows are some of the birds which can destroy our fruit and vegetables. We prevent this by hanging red plastic bags around the fruit and vegetables and cover some of the soft fruits and delicate plants with netting.
The small pests and diseases live in all soil. We plant the crops in different areas each year. This stops the life cycle of the breeding pests and diseases. We call this Crop Rotation. Rotating crops also prevents the soil becoming starved of the nutrients the plants use.
We sow different plants with each other for example scorzonera with carrots to prevent carrot fly.
What other organic methods do we use?
Compost from our farm is dug into the soil before we plant the seeds and young plants. We have a natural spring next to the garden which is fed into the central pond and pumped through pipes for watering the plants.
Some of the crops are grown from seeds and put straight into the ground like carrots and beetroot, whilst with other crops like cabbages and brocolli seeds are planted in trays in the glasshouses during the winter and then transplanted into the garden during March in order to avoid damaging frosts.
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