Intercropping is one of the good thing you could do to lour pest problems and preserve the soil in your garden orfood forest .
God is said to be a God of order … so if that ’s the caseful … why does nature look like a rambling spate of vines , scraggly shumac , tumbling - down oaks and a profusion of annual weeds ?
plausibly because the order is a lot more complex than we actualize . Generally , human beings like geometric contour and straight line . We care to see all our corn in neat rows and our grape on tight lines . And when it get along to harvesting and planting , there is an ease to this organisation .
A productive mess . Cassava , honeyed white potato vine , figs and weeds .
In Florida , however , some of those full-strength rows more nearly resemble a death borderland across the desert than a good food source . We ’re always water the athirst sand , pick off locusts or aphid and praying things will subsist long enough to raise .
When you add more specie , however , things modify . You ’re no longer counting on one matter to produce heavily enough to rationalise its existence . You ’re also not trust that patch of ground to be the Perfect Lil ’ Environment ( TM ) for whatever you ’re craving . rather , you ’re making a mixture of plants – and often their interactions permit a swell harvest time across that patch than would be potential alone . The benefits of putting marigold in your garden has been flesh out at length – we ’ve all heard that they rebuff pests . In reality , they do n’t seem to make much difference – yet the more industrial plant you put together , the more pests seem to be put off by the profuseness .
A productive mess. Cassava, sweet potatoes, figs and weeds.
It ’s like adopt the sideboard at a Golden Corral out of its geometrical organization and scattering it here and there around the ecesis . The mashed potatoes are in a truck outdoors , the chicken - electrocute steak are beneath a tabular array and the chili is already steaming away in a toilet ( saving you the problem of go on it through your digestive tract . ) Now the lardy patrons are give a gruelling time finding a repast .
It ’s all there … somewhere … it ’s just tough to identify .
OMIGOONESS … This guy ’s a PLANT HOARDER !
A productive mess. Cassava, sweet potatoes, figs and weeds.
Herbs and veg mix well . The patch of garden up above has a smorgasbord of lettuce , spinach , sage , catnip , mint , Anethum graveolens , onions , beans , white potato vine , brussels sprouts , peas , lentils and ail … and a few opportunist weeds . ( It ’s also the background pic for this situation . ) These plants together are doing much more than they could alone .
What Intercropping Will Help You Do
1 . Confuse pests
2 . Build the dirt
3 . Harvest a wider variety
A productive mess. Cassava, sweet potatoes, figs and weeds.
4 . Conserve space
5 . freak out out neatniks
6 . Keep moisture in the soil
7 . Ensure you glean something
The lentils , beans and peas in this patch are fixing nitrogen in the soil . I use Lens culinaris as a cool - weather condition priming coat cover and soil - constructor . I do n’t recover the lentils particularly worthy of harvesting , but they ’re easy - to - grow , keep the earth covered from the sunshine , and as they mature and other plant grow between them , they make a good mulch . They ’re a “ nurse crop ” that live up to a variety of function . Plus , you’re able to buy a bag of dried lentils from the market shop for a $ 1 or so , soak them overnight , and wing them across your garden with a little territory - turning and you get a wad of green going quickly . The same is true of beans , green peas , and chick pea .
Here ’s a stroke of a newly - graft pepper plant in a bed of now - mulched lentil plant life :
OMIGOONESS… This guy’s a PLANT HOARDER!
Intercropping peppers , Brassica and lentils
Does n’t it await well-chosen ? forget the roots of your leguminous ( bean and pea family ) nurse crop in the ground when you hack them . I take a machete and hack down a section , then drink down in my trust transplant . The roots beneath the ground feed in N as they decay , and the tops of the plant act as mulch , sheltering the soil from evaporation .
I ’ll write more about intercropping in the future – the possibilities are as endless as your ebullience . There ’s a lot of fun in feel carrots in the peas and basil in the potatoes and parsley in the Indian corn . Trust me . It ’s awe-inspiring .
Compost Everythingand feed your soil like never before !
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Intercropping peppers, brassicas and lentils
Compost Everythingand feed your soil like never before!
