To mulch or not to mulch?

To prepare my tomato patch this year, I grew some green manure for a few months and then dug it in (L) and covered with pea straw (R).

When I dug over the patch ready for planting only a couple of months later the soil was like moist, light chocolate cake (L below). I dug over the brassica bed that I had left unmulched and you can see how much drier the soil (R below) is and less rich after the enthusiastic broccoli, rocket and bok choi had finished with it!



Now I have some happy tomatoes (below) growing in the mulched patch and have installed a drip line that runs off a gravity-feed water system (ie low pressure), so I can use some of our tank water up the back of the garden that is higher up the slope. It saves water and I'm a lazy gardener! The whole veggie patch is on slightly downward-sloping land, so the drip line runs perpendicular to the slope and the water drips through very nicely along the whole 15m line. Mind you, I actually need a second line to cover my whole patch, although the potatoes are doing fine without special treatment.

Best laid plans ...

When I put the veggie patch in the corner of my garden, I didn't figure for such a pronounced shadow cast by the fence in the middle of winter when the sun is at its lowest. I could have calculated it (but didn't) and if you are starting a veggie patch, it may be worth observing where the sun falls in your garden for a season to ensure enough sunlight (at least 6 hours on a sunny day) unless it's in the middle of your yard!

Not only does this mean I've had to move some plants around in winter but the other tricky thing is doing crop rotation with four beds when only two are in full sun during autumn/winter!

Crop rotation also means that some beds or areas may lie fallow for a period of time:

... which may be fine if compost or manure is decomposting into the soil, or you can use green manure as below (barley grass, broad beans here on the left) to prepare a bed for the next season planting:

The area on the right is being used for brassicas as the actual brassica bed is in shade this winter!

Originally the bed design was four square beds (numbered 1 to 4) with paths in between and around for access, but as I got keen to plant more and discovered some of the patch was in shade in winter (blue area), I altered the design to add more planting area (red areas) so it's more like a squarish small "keyhole" design (green) that is often used in permaculture gardens:

So plants that might be in the blue areas are moved to the sunny red areas in winter. Makes things a little more complex!