#diversifiedfarmingsystem

[megadiversepiedmont]

This is not rocket science. Although we have a drip irrigation system, we work hard to save water however possible. One way to keep moisture in the ground is extensive mulching. We practice sheet mulching by first laying down cardboard before spreading the woodchips. The woodchips used are twelve months composted. Ideally, leaves and manure would be spread underneath the cardboard, but I’ll take what I can get. In the photos, to the left is a row of annual crops: broccoli and kale. To the right is the perennial row, of gojis, chestnuts, and leguminous plants for building soil fertility. 

[megadiversepiedmont]

Beneficial parisitism in the garden

Truly a sign of an organic garden is the tobacco hornworm (also a tomato pest) covered with braconid wasp cocoons. Note: somewhat graphic description to follow. The mother wasp lays her eggs just below the skin of the hornworm, along with a numbing/paralyzing agent so that the worm cannot move or fall off the branch. Once the larvae have hatched, they chew their way out of their host, and pupate, by spinning a tiny oval cocoon attached to the outer skin of the worm.

The above tobacco hornworm with cocoons was on one of my Dr. Walter tomato plants.