January 2004
pics Olive Harris and
Lisa Montrose
An English way and an American way of installing the deep-trench bed that is fundamental to R J Harris's moon-oriented way of gardening: right working in the walled, kitchen garden of Tresillian Estate, the head gardener uses a Cornish shovel to excavate the required metre-wide, metre-deep trench. He separates sub soil, for disposal elsewhere, from top soil, which is for re-use; below in the vegetable area of Miss Montrose's horse holding in Colorado, USA, a mechanical shovel achieves in minutes what any kind of shovel or spade would demand hours to achieve -- not least
because Miss Montrose's top soil is a mere six inches deep, offering challenges of which most gardeners are unaware, and overlays sub soil which immediately overlays a depth of solid clay that reaches down far below the bottom of a metre-deep trench.
For a larger image, click on picture
For an impression of the harvests obtained via the deep-trench bed, click here
Information of interest to the gardeners, smallholders and water-supply concerns of Colorado, USA, has been issued by Really Useful Books in the United Kingdom to the Colorado news media. It is as follows
ANCIENT ENGLISH METHODS TO BE TRIED IN COLORADO GARDEN TO COMBAT WATER SHORTAGE.
In a bid to combat Colorado's water shortage in the garden -- and to guard against the effects in the garden of future water shortages -- an Elbert County horse rescuer, Miss Montrose, is to manage the garden of her three-acre horse holding as the walled kitchen gardens of the English estates of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries were managed.
The chief physical feature of her new system will be beds installed in deep trenches in the old English style.
Each trench will be three feet wide by 35 feet long. It will be sunk to a depth of three feet in the hardpan and packed clay that underlies the prevailing six-to-eight-inch thickness of Miss Montrose's top soil.
It will be filled with specially-chosen materials based upon those used by the English gardeners of former times.
"Made according to instructions that came into my hands only this year, these are beds that may need very little watering," explained Miss Montrose.
"At least, that is what is reported to be the experience in the England of days gone by.
"But the total approach -- now almost completely out of fashion in England, and to which I shall be committed -- will go beyond special beds.
"It will consist of a highly-organised, four-year crop rotation cycle, deep-trench-bed renewal every four years and compatible planting in the old style. What is even more different is that all of this will be combined with preparation, feeding, sowing, harvesting and plant management according to how the moon's gravitational pull increases or decreases the moisture content of the beds.
"The trick will be to know which moon quarters bring increasing moisture and which do not, and exactly where in the particular quarter to prepare, feed, plant or harvest.
"For myself," she said, "I shall certainly welcome the possibility of less watering by hand and improved crops.
"But there will be an extra advantage.
"I shall be able to formulate a moon-based calendar leaving me in no doubt about what to do in the garden, and when to do it and why -- interpreting the system so that it takes account of Colorado's extremes of climate, of course."
Guiding Miss Montrose in her new way of gardening will be an English manual of which only five copies are at present in the U S A. It is 'R J Harris's Moon Gardening', a book published in September 2002 in England after three years' research into the knowledge and methods of a 62-year-old Cornish head gardener, R J Harris.
Mr Harris manages the 200-acre, 12th-century Tresillian (Cornish for House in the Sun) Estate in Cornwall, England. He is the only professional gardener in England to use the moon-oriented methods of old. His skills have been bequeathed to him by his forefathers, who began to work the Cornish soil when the first Harris landed in Cornwall in the early 1800s from one of the islands lying off England's southern coast.
He is also the last horticulturist of his line. The instructional manual places on record knowledge which, otherwise, would die with him.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1) A hired excavator and front-end loader have just completed the installation in Miss Montrose's Elbert County garden of six of the English deep-trench beds. "She cheated," commented R J Harris, on learning of her prompt and rapid adoption of his method. "Here in Cornwall, these trenches are excavated by hand, not with machinery. We dig them using the kind of pointed shovel with the long, straight handle that our ancestors took with them in their sail boats when they went off to settle in the new world. Later, the Cornish miners took it with them when they went to work in Colorado's mines. It has just about disappeared in England now, displaced by the spade. I am one of the few old-timers left still using it."
2) Miss Montrose's horse holding is a charitable undertaking. It cares for up to five rescued horses during the summer and, usually, one during the winter. The thousands of carrots required to feed the horses will be provided by the newly-installed deep-trench beds. Grown with them will be Miss Montrose's favourite crops: Blue Lake pole beans; Scarlet runner pole beans; Spring peas; Golden and Red beetroots; lettuce and spinach varieties; tomatoes (paste, heirloom and hybrids) for canning as well as for the table; Ichiban eggplant; sweet red peppers; garlic; onions (Stockton Red, Chippolena Barrenta, Walla Walla and Spanish White); leeks; Anaheim Big Jim Chillies; Squash-Lakota; Yellow Crook Neck; Zucchini (Waltham Butternut and Buttercup). Asparagus will continue to be produced as at present, in a conventional bed.
3) Miss Montrose's flower developments are equally important to her. These include hollyhocks, sunflowers and roses. Among the latter are Arctic varieties. Xeriscape plants also feature. These can survive on an inch of water or less per week. An example is Russian Sage. Miss Montrose also grows many old heirloom annual flowers. She does so from seeds purchased from the Seed Saver's Exchange in Iowa. "The Exchange ensures that the wonderful old flower varieties from our forefathers and foremothers from England, Scotland and Europe survive here in Colorado," she commented. Among
Miss Montrose's hopes is that the return to the old-world, traditional methods of gardening will render redundant the soaker hoses and mechanical watering aids that she uses at present.
4) Miss Montrose's garden is 6,400 feet above sea level. It experiences the climate of high arid desert. Its humidity averages 28%, with many days below 20% and few above 40%. "These are the averages of the days that do not endure frost," said Miss Montrose. The winds the garden experiences can reach 65 m p h. They bring wind chill factors below 30 degrees Farenheit. 32 degrees Farenheit is freezing point. Snow has fallen on 20 June despite the growing season being, officially, 6 June to 16 September. Giving an amount of protection and shade to the garden is a wind break of aspen trees, transplanted and regularly increased in number by
Miss Montrose.
5) The total horse-holding property comprises a 1949 farmhouse, pasture for the horses and a cedar barn as well as the garden. Into the south-western side of the barn has been built a 400-square-feet greenhouse. It is a major ally in helping Miss Montrose to extend her garden's growing season.
6) Miss Montrose's family is descended directly from the Duke of Montrose of Scotland. Her ancestors founded the town of Montrose in Colorado. She can be contacted via redarrowranch@aol.com.
7) Colorado's 2001-2003 drought cycle is judged by the State Hydrologists of Colorado to be the worst in 300 years, with 2002 being the worst year. The evidence for this has been found in core samples taken from some of Colorado's oldest trees. The State's norm is more than 300 days of sunshine every year.
8) 'R J Harris's Moon Gardening' is a 256-page, alphabetically-arranged explanation, in simple steps, of how to combine the monthly results of the moon's gravitational pull upon planet earth's water table with the horticultural skills, knowledge and experience of generations of long-gone English gardeners. "So far as I am concerned," said Mr Harris, in Cornwall, "it is a matter of minor importance that moon gardening renders watering largely unnecessary. Its rewards go far beyond that. If reduced or nil watering is of value in far off Colorado's gardens, however, I am pleased."
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