Polyculture

I want to explain the polyculture beds I was talking about in my last post.   You may have heard of companion planting before.  This is a method of planting two or more species together to get more yield.  Often the plants provide beneficial functions to one another.  A classic example of this is called the Three Sisters.  Its a traditional Native American planting of corn, beans, and squash.  The corn stalk provides a trellis for the beans to climb, the beans fix nitrogen, and the squash  keeps the soil cool and might keep some predators out.   I was reading somewhere that there is additional biological symbiosis happening as well.  Plus the three sister provide a satisfying and nutritious meal.  I've created a three sisters garden, which seems to be doing great so far.  

My three sisters mound as of June 10:

The other thing to remember about companion planting is the reduced space.  I was watching a YouTube video with Will Bonsall recently in which he explained that as long as if your production of each companion (of a two companion planting) is at least 51% of what it would be planted alone, that you're then increasing production.  If you get just over half the yield of each, then you're getting more in total on a given plot of land.  Often one crop is either increased, or at least not decreased, while the other produces say 75% of what it would alone.  In that case you're getting 175% out of that plot.  

Polyculture is similar to this, but not exactly the same.  First let me explain what I did, then I'll explain some of the ideas behind it.  I fairly closely followed the Ianto's Advanced Polyculture instructions in Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway.  Essentially I densely sowed a whole bunch of greens and radishes to act as an edible ground cover.  Included were a few different mustard greens, red radishes, daikon, horseradish, arugula, lettuces, onions, carrots.  A week later I added fava beans.  

Things sprouted pretty quickly, but were a little slow to grow at first.  I was also tweaking my irrigation system at the beginning.   I have some soaker hoses, but I have the garden system hooked up to a well pump in the basement that doesn't quite give the pressure that municipal water does. So I've poked some holes in the hoses and created more of a sprinkler hose system.  It's great to be using that well water instead of municipal water to wash the car and water the garden when needed.  

As I acquired starter plants of cabbages, cauliflower, kale, etc, I added them in spaces that were left over from my messy sowing job (or places where things just didn't sprout well).  Just last week I stuck some cowpeas and bush green beans in there too.  

Some of the ideas behind polyculture sowing are: 

Imitation of nature - plants don't grow in perfect little evenly spaced, sun-drenched rows in the forest.   They're either very close to one another in healthy competition, or are shaded out by trees.  Planting densely leaves little space for weeds to grow.  Like companion planting, we're getting a lot more yield in the sum of our crops, even though the yield of one particular plant species is probably a little less.  

Many different species are growing right next to one another in the forest.  This confuses pests - the opposite of an "all one kind of bug can eat" monoculture.   

Succession:  Red radishes might shoot up fast and shade out some other young plants. But as I pick them and eat them (I always harvest the whole plant in this method), the other species can then grow.  Also, in the holes of my harvesting, I put larger starter plants that will need more room.  Similar to a way succession works in a grassland becoming a forest.  I'm just helping it happen within one season. 

I'm not sure how much the symbiotic relationships are happening in a polyculture planting.  I'm sure there are some, but only long time observation along with sharing information will tell.  Probably there are many benefits, but probably some hindrances as well.  

This all makes sense to me.  But it is quite contrary to the "normal" row gardening that I'm accustomed to.  I had to wonder if it was going to work.   

So, the results of my first time trying a polyculture planting...  After a period of uncertain growth rates, things really took off.  Suddenly June rolled around and there is way more ofedible ground cover than we can eat!  We're having big salads every day and it doesn't seem like we're even making a dent.   I'll actually probably plant less next year - either less densely or less area.  

Plants are growing strong and tall despite their close proximity to one another.  A few species - broccoli rabe among them I think -  are flowering pretty quickly - a long stem, small leaves, and flowers.  I'm guessing that's happening because of the dense planting, but I've been able to catch them before they get bitter.  I usually pick the leaves and the flower to eat, and leave the stem on the surface of the bed.  I've found that the slugs eat these decaying stems before going to the living plants.   Other than that, I can't really say that things seem stunted because of being crowded.  As I un-crowd an area by picking the whole plants I'm going to eat, the remaining plants get their chance to grow up a bit.  

One interesting aspect of this, is that I can't tell what is what.  I go out there to pick a salad and I don't really know what I've got until I find out bite by bite.  It's kind of a fun adventure that way.  "Ooh! I got some Horseradish in that bite.  Wasabilicious!"  Of course I'm learning what is what by nibbling in the garden and then learning the look of the specific plants.  Since things aren't laid out in rows, it's almost like I'm foraging, except that I know everything is something delicious.  Sometimes when I'm out hunting slugs in the evening I'll come across a big red radish.  It becomes a fun challenge to see if I can relocate that radish just before lunch time the next day - often I can't! 

My polyculture beds as of June 10.  

A salad made from our edible ground cover.  Yummy surprises!

Overall I'm quite pleased with this polyculture planting, other than there being too much to eat.  Not a bad problem to have though.   It will be exciting to see the gradual transition to larger plants - brassicas, and bush beans, etc.