Sometimes it happens that there are large areas of open land in a forest garden, for example, when lift the ground fabric after a few seasons, if you have used pigs for soil preparation or the start of his forest garden plowed and harvad go. Right now we have fairly large areas of bare soil from the digging of ponds in the forest garden. As I wrote earlier, it is not worthwhile to try to establish a örtskikt on larger areas of open ground at once. Instead, it may be worthwhile to use other plants as ground heaters that improve the soil until we are ready to plant into a more permanent örtskikt. Plants that prepares the ground can be especially valuable when the soil is compacted or otherwise degraded.
Purely conceptually, it is wise to combine plants with different properties for the best possible results. We have used a large proportion of nitrogen-fixing plants in our seed mixtures, such as white clover (CLOVER), alfalfa (Medicago sativa) or yellow sötväppling (Melilotus officinalis). In addition, we have tried to use plants with different root systems, so that plants with deep, fine root system (t.ex. alfalfa), and plants with pålrötter that adds organic matter quite far down in the earth when they die down (as cumin (Asrum Carvi) or oljerättika (Raphanus sativus), both of which are two-year). We have also used plants with woody stems that makes it supplied to the coarse organic material to the soil from above (as phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) and buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum)). White clover, we have used as low-growing, revande ground cover among the more tall herbs. Almost all soil preparation plants we used also attractive flowers for beneficial insects and can thus help to build up a good pests balance.
All plants that have been included in our blends are either annuals, biennial or rather short-lived perennials. The idea is that they should be a temporary feature of the forest garden and prepare the ground for the more permanent plant combinations that will slightly later, when the trees and possibly bushes are more established. The table below shows what plants we have used in tilling mixtures:
Swedish name | Botanical name | N-fixerande? | Note |
---|---|---|---|
Either | Caraway | no | Biennial. Good taproot. Edible blast and seeds. |
Buckwheat | Fagopyrum esculentum | no | Good insect plant and fibrous stalks that adds carbon top. |
LOTOS | Lotus corniculatus | and | Good insect plant, but we have found it difficult to get it to thrive. |
Blålusern | Medicago sativa | and | Deep, fine root system. Edible shoots and seeds. |
Yellow melilot | Melilotus officinalis | and | Biennial. Can be invasive. |
Honungsfacelia | Phacelia tanacetifolia | no | One Year. Good insect plant. Has been shown to have poor competitiveness against weeds and should not represent more than a small part of fröblandningen. |
Oljerättika | Raphanus sativus | no | Taproot that enrich the soil very well when it dies down. |
Crimson clover | Clover | and | Usually, one-year. Good insect plant. |
White clover | CLOVER | and | Fairly low growing. Can handle some shade. Good insect plant. |
Subklöver | Trifolium subterraneum | and | One Year, low growing, is meant to keep weeds in chess. |
In all honesty, few blends that have worked one hundred percent good. Fröogräs seems to always be a step ahead and eventually take the grass more and more space. But the soil is improved still enormously in just a few seasons that we see when we plant trees on the land prepared areas. The actual mixture that we have high hopes of looks as follows: 2 parts white clover, 4 parts oljerättika, 4 parts buckwheat, 1 the honungsfacelia, 2 parts subclover, 2 parts caraway, 2 parts alfalfa. I use a measuring cup to measure out the seeds, so the proportions are different from how it would be if one weighed seeds instead. It takes approximately 1 liters seeds on 100 kvm. We have bought all seeds from Olsson's Seed AB, http://www.olssonsfro.se.
If you want to establish more long-lived herbs and shrubs directly from the land preparer, it is important to cover thoroughly with newspapers and mulch around them. Otherwise, they can easily stifled by the fast-growing and competitive land heaters.
Interesting, well with a summary and suggestions for mixing!