In the old days, before the power of fossil energy was used in planting and cropping, the farmers used companion techniques (like the three sister planting) in order to maximise the space they had for their crops, even if that meant a loss of time.
When the fossil energy started to be used in farming, during the industrial revolution, the farmers could afford to have bigger plots as they hace the machinery to work on them faster. To plant in those big plots had a requirement, there had to be enough space for the wheels of the tractors to go in. That meant loss of space but the machinery saved a lot of time.
There is a very interesting documentary about the impact of fossil fuel in farming
Una Granja para el Futuro from Horatiux on Vimeo.
Manure (farmyard manure, compost, plant manure)
Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil.
There are three main classes of manures used in soil management:
Animal manures
Most animal manure is feces. Common forms of animal manure include farmyard manure (FYM) or farm slurry (liquid manure). FYM also contains plant material (often straw), which has been used as bedding for animals and has absorbed the feces and urine. Agricultural manure in liquid form, known as slurry, is produced by more intensive livestock rearing systems where concrete or slats are used, instead of straw bedding. Manure from different animals has different qualities and requires different application rates when used as fertilizer. For example horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, chickens,turkeys, rabbits, humans (sewage), and guano from seabirds and bats all have different properties. For instance, sheep manure is high in nitrogen and potash, while pig manure is relatively low in both. Horses mainly eat grass and a few weeds so horse manure can contain grass and weed seeds, as horses do not digest seeds the way that cattle do. Chicken litter, coming from a bird, is very concentrated in nitrogen and protein and is prized for both properties.
Animal manures may be adulterated or contaminated with other animal products, such as wool (shoddy and other hair), feathers, blood, and bone. Livestock feed can be mixed with the manure due to spillage. For example, chickens are often fed meat and bone meal, an animal product, which can end up becoming mixed with chicken litter.
Compost
Compost is the decomposed remnants of organic materials – usually of plant origin, but often including some animal dung or bedding.
Plant manures
Green manures are crops grown for the express purpose of plowing them in, thus increasing fertility through the incorporation of nutrients and organic matter into the soil. Leguminous plants such as clover are often used for this, as they fix nitrogen using Rhizobia bacteria in specialized nodes in the root structure.
Other types of plant matter used as manure include the contents of the rumens of slaughtered ruminants, spent hops (left over from brewing beer) and seaweed.
Crop rotation
If we have a garden of a certain size we would be able to establish a crop rotation system that will help to fight the pests and to improve the use of nutrients by different groups of plants.
If we have enough space to organize 5 beds, we will establish a 4 year rotation.
If we have enough space to organize 5 beds, we will establish a 4 year rotation.
- Legumes: They are good nitrogen fixes. They do not like fresh lime
- Brassicas: They are heave nitrogen user. They do not like lime
- Alliums: They have shallow roots. If they grow in the same area for more than two years the fungi white-rot will appear and ruin the crop
- Root/tubers: They are heavy fresh manure users (high potasium and sodium). They have deep roots (potatoes, tomatoes... never plant potatoes and tomatoes together as they will spread a disease from on to the other)
- Permanent crops (crops that will not rotate every year)
In our rotation plan we have to consider rotating also between the indoor and outdoor crops.
- Artichoke
- Rhubarb
- Aspharagus
- Strawberries
- Currants
- Apple...
Flowering plants
They are divided into 250 groups. In each of the groups there are plants that are edible and some that are poisonous. Each group has similar flowers. Each of the groups would also have specific diseases that is why the crop rotation is needed, so diseases do not get used to the plants of that group.
The most important families are:
The most important families are:
- Brassicas (they have buds; cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, Brussel sprouts...)
- Legumes-Fabaceae or Leguminosae (they have a pod that contains seeds; alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts...)
- Apiaceae (carrot family, root crops; angelica, anise, arracacha, asafoetida, caraway, carrot, celery, Centella asiatica, chervil, cicely, coriander/cilantro, cumin, dill..)
- Curcurbit-Cucurbitaceae (cucumber family; cucumber, pumpkins, luffas, and watermelons...)
- Solanum (Most parts of the plants, especially the green parts and unripe fruit, are poisonous to humans (although not necessarily to other animals), but many species in the genus bear some edible parts, such as fruits, leaves, or tubers. Several species are cultivated, including three globally important food crops:
- Tomato, S. lycopersicum (they do not grow tubers ant the tomatoes are edible)
- Potato, S. tuberosum (the tomatoe/berries that grow in the potato plant are poisonous)
- Eggplant, S. melongena (the tomatoes (aubergines i.e.) are edible)
- Rosaceae (rose family, the seeds look quite similar in all of them; apples, apricots, plums, cherries, peaches, pears,raspberries, strawberries, rose...)
- Polygonaceae (leaves are somehow triangular, the seeds are pyramidal; rhubarb, buckwheat, sorrels, ...)
- Asteraceae - Thistle (aster means star in greek, its name its related to the inflorescence star form; daisies, fleabane, chrysanthemums, dahlias, zinnias, globe artichoke, sowthistle, hawkweed, dandelion...)
- Amaryllidaceae - Allium (bulbous flowering plant; onion, garlic, leeks, tulips, lily, ....)
- Poaceae/Gramineae (grass family; wheat, ryegrass, oats, bamboos, thatch, ...)
- Rubiaceae (coffee family; coffee, quinine, ...)
Groups of plants
| Moss & Liquens | Ferns | Conifers | Flowering plants |
| Non woody. First plants to colonize Earth. An area where there are moss & lichens it is a clean area. The least moss and liquens there are, the most polluted its the area. |
They reproduce by spores. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem (making them vascular plants). They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants. Ferns reproduce via spores and have neither seeds nor flowers. |
Plants that produce cones. They tolerate cold thanks to the resine. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being trees with just a few being shrubs. |
They propagate by flowers. They evolved when insects appeared. They were the last group to appear in Earth. |
Oaks
Oaks have spirally arranged leaves, with lobed margins in many species; some have serrated leaves or entire leaves with smooth margins. Many deciduous species are marcescent, not dropping dead leaves until spring. The flowers are catkins, produced in spring. The fruit is a nut called an acorn, borne in a cup-like structure known as a cupule; each acorn contains one seed (rarely two or three) and takes 6–18 months to mature, depending on species.
In Ireland the most common oaks are:
 |
| Sessile - Quercus Petraea |
 |
| Peduncular Oak (Irish) - Quercus robus |
The oaks are one of the most valuable biodiversity plants. They can support over 300 species of wild life (insects and birds mainly).
Pines can also support a handful.
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