Black Alder and Companion Planting
I’ve posted before about my black alder trees. I’m really pleased with them, and I thought it was time for an update. They are now almost 2 years old, and I think I’m just really starting to see some of the benefits.
They are nitrogen fixing trees, meaning they put nitrogen into the ground as they grow. Many gardeners plant beans or peas for this reason, but the difference with a nitrogen fixing tree is it is perennial so it keeps growing and it’s also large and deep rooted, so it fixes a lot of nitrogen deep into the ground. Black alders are also a native species for me, which is an important reason why I choose it and like it. Now that I know what I’m looking for, I see them in a lot of wild places.
It’s a tree, which means if you let it grow it will get huge. I don’t do that. As well as getting big, it doesn’t mind being severely cut back. Whenever I think it’s getting on the large side or it’s in the way, I just whack off as much as I want and it cheerfully grows back. About the size you see in this picture is what I generally find best, a slightly overgrown stump.
By cutting it back, it also helps it release it’s nitrogen into the ground. By cutting leaves and branches off the top, it causes some of it’s roots to die and rot, and so release nitrogen. Also, by cutting the tree back around the time it’s trying to produce seeds, it prevents it from putting resources into producing seeds and so consuming some of the nitrogen it already fixed. It also keeps it from producing too many weeds.
By now a number of these trees are becoming well established, and they are making a noticeable difference to their surroundings. At the beginning they caused a bit of a weed problem, because they were fixing nitrogen close to the surface. As they became established, they fix nitrogen much deeper, meaning there was no immediate weed problem and the overall improvement in soil health of the area meant fewer weeds in general. I would say however the benefits of the trees are not seen much beyond a meter or 2 from the tree itself.
One of the things I decided to experiment with was companion planting my garlic with some black alder trees. I had little choice in fact, because the trees were established were it was time to rotate the garlic crop too. Rather than removing the trees, I decided to see how it went.
Normally garlic, and alliums in general, are considered companion ‘enemies’ to nitrogen fixing plants. They tend to stunt one another’s growth. What I found was quite the opposite. I couldn’t really say if the alder’s growth was stunted, as they grow pretty fast regardless, but the garlic planted near the trees developed quite large and healthy bulbs. I guess because the roots of the alder are so deep, there’s little or no conflict between the plants.
I’m so happy with the alders in fact, this winter I’m going to try to buy some more. I found them before on a local EBay equivalent for €1 per tree, and I’m going to see if I can find the same thing again. I guess I have 20 or so trees, and I would like to double that number. In particular, I would like to plant new trees in poorer parts of my garden, and perhaps remove some of the larger trees that are getting a little in the way by now and aren’t needed any more.
If you want to try something similar in your garden, I suggest looking for a native species that fixes nitrogen. There are quite a number of possibilities. By getting a native species, you know the plant will grow and thrive but at the same time not naturalize and turn into an invasive weed. In some climates, the black alder is considered invasive.
Mystery Garlic
I’ve been exchanging emails with Barrett, a reader and fellow garlic grower, and he’s come across an interesting garlic and is wondering if any of you out there have any more information about it for him.
Here are some excerpts (with permission) from his emails:
Thanks for offering to help. I appreciate the difficulty in trying
to determine a garlic variety in this way. On my own, I could possibly hope to narrow to Rocambole vs. Purple Stripe classification. I’m hoping to be able, with your help, to possibly narrow further. I’ve also read the Volk paper, so I understand those classifications are not perfect. A short list of possibilities is probably the best I can hope for. Ideally, I might be able to learn more about the actual origins of this particular cultivar.I ordered the the garlic, called “H&A” by the seller (Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds) and the description only listed as “rare hardneck”. I contacted Baker Creek for more information, but the grower Merlyn Neidens had passed away, so no further inquiries could be made.
So that is the history. The bulbs I received were medium to extra large. This was my first year harvest, so I only got medium to large bulbs. The bulbs I planted had silvery white wrappers, which tan to brown clove wrappers (to the best of my recall). At the time, I guessed it was a rocambole variety.
After growing however, I’m more inclined to believe PS, possibly marbled subgroup (see photos). The scapes typically did a 270 degree curl, though a couple had the rocambole style double loop. The bulbs had characteristic purple stripes initially. One bulb that I peeled fresh seemed to develop more purple coloration as it cured in my kitchen. The other bulbs when cured tended more toward silvery to white outer wrappers with some purple showing through.
The clove wrapper on many cloves is incomplete/split, as seen in the open bulb photo. The bulbils are still maturing, but look largish and few (approx 15-20 at a guess) from what I’ve read, this indicates a leaning toward rocambole again, but doesn’t rule out PS. There is only a single layer of cloves, 8-10 per bulb, but that doesn’t really help much.
Photo link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/bgreyt/Garlic?authkey=Gv1sRgCKia0MeP2punKg&feat=directlink
I suggested to him that it seemed like it may be a creole type, mostly because of it’s color and clove shape, and I also found a reference to it on the Internet with this link:
http://rpagarlic.blogspot.com/2008/07/2008-garlic-crop-is-harvested.html
This was his reply:
So, I have an update on tracking down H&A origins. Turns out the link you found was the source for Merlyn. So I can trace mine to them. They say they got it from a place called Dakota Garlic, which appears to be defunct. I’m trying to get in touch with the former owner to see if he can tell me where he got it (and so on).
So, does anyone have any more information or ideas about this garlic?
Garlic Harvest 2010 Begins!
I started today harvesting my first few garlics. The Asiatic Turban and Creole types always need to be harvested a little earlier that the others, so I started with these. Even though there are several different varieties of garlic in the picture, they all look pretty similar, with the characteristic reddish skin of the Turban types.
They look really good this year. They also smell wonderful! The Turbans are among the most aromatic varieties, and among my favorites. The only drawback is they do tend to fall apart in the ground if you harvest them too late and they are a little more susceptible to garlic rust.
Garden Pictures July 2010
It’s time to do a little catching up with blog posts with some pictures from my garden. The weather has been unbearably hot over the last week or two, and the garden’s been neglected for the sake of avoiding the hot sun. Please forgive any weeds that may be visible…
Garlic rust is back. I haven’t been paying close attention, but I think my plants have had it about a week now. In about two weeks I’m going to begin harvesting, so it doesn’t matter any more. The garlic will be fine. Like I’ve posted about before, I sprayed dilute milk on the plants over the last few weeks, and I’m under the impression it help a lot delaying the rust and reducing it’s impact.
Sorry, it’s a little hard to see the forest for the trees in this picture, but this is one of my two corn patches. This is Golden Bantum sweet corn, in plot number 17, and the plants are now about 5 ft tall with tassels on top. I got these seeds from Bingenheimer Saatgut in Germany, and this is a locally (Germany) acclimated version of this variety.
Above is my other corn patch. This is Strawberry Popcorn. This is a Dutch Heirloom corn. It may be heirloom other places too, but there was a time it was widely grown here. Together with the Golden Bantum sweet corn, I’m growing this in search of corn varieties suited for my local climate.
I’m growing popcorn this year in part because I was inspired by Kathy at Skippy’s Garden, who had a good experience with popcorn last year. Modern popcorn has had so much of it’s flavor bred out of it, then often packaged in microwavable bags. Most of us (including me) don’t really know what popcorn really tastes like any more. By growing it yourself, you get a chance to experience the flavor like it’s supposed to be.
Does anyone notice a strawberry theme creeping in here?
I’m really impressed with these white alpine strawberries Alan Bishop bred and sent me, and I think I keep getting more impressed by the day! This is the second year, which is normally more productive than the first, but wow, these plants are really productive. Normally alpine strawberries stop producing in the heat of the summer, but we’ve just had a really hot stretch of weather (30C/85F), and these strawberries have just kept going. I’ve been short on water, and they have been in a dry raised bed, but they haven’t minded.
These strawberries are particularly nice, because the birds can’t find them as they aren’t red, and birds are normally a big problem in this way in my garden.
Finally, Strawberry Spinach…
Never mind the weeds! Almost everything you see here that’s green in a weed, I just didn’t have a chance to remove them before taking this picture. Strawberry Spinach is an old weed relative that at one time was widely grown in parts of Europe. It has leaves that are a spinach substitute, and tasteless red berries that look like strawberries. The plants have no relation to strawberries.
It’s my first time growing it, and it kind of got lost in the weeds, and I think I planted it a bit close because the plants never got very large and healthy. In fact the leaves are now too brown to eat, so I don’t even know how they taste. The red berries are great to look at however!
Late Scapes
My garlic scapes are really late this year!
This is one of the first and it’s only emerged in the last few days. We had a cold spring, and I used more straw mulch than usual this year. Otherwise I haven’t been doing anything unusual.
No sign of garlic rust yet either! The weather has been unusually cold, then very dry, so perhaps that’s working in my favor this year.
