Chop and drop and planting for spring - Gardening with Brendan

There’s a lot of research nowadays that points to the numerous benefits to causing as little disturbance as possible to the soil, and indeed building it up from above ground to improve the health of the soil underneath.

Research seems to be suggesting, and it stands to reason, that the healthier the soil, the better the food and the other produce that comes from it. Many experts state that healthy, crumbly, dark nutrient-rich soil will produce superb vegetables, fruit, grain and seed that are far better for human health and for the animals that graze on it. In fact there is a bit of a revolution going on in terms of education and changing how people grow and farm and it is all stemming from just how vital protecting and building the soil is to everything from healthy humans and improving the food chain to flood resistance and carbon capture.

This time last year I knew nothing about soil other than the fact that my own garden was largely yellow clay and that yellow clay was not exactly great for growing things in. About 15 years ago I did manually dig out part of the garden and started adding over time compost and scraps but never really planted much in it and eventually let it go back to grass and left it to go a little wild. I was surprised this year when I tilled that same patch and started planting in it how different the same soil’s texture was. It was rich, dark, loose and much easier to work with.

Since then I’ve been doing a fair bit of research and been to a few talks and tours and learning from other experienced people across the world. And it turns out that when it comes to improving soil you can do a lot less work for more reward. One example of this is the chop and drop method of dealing with plants, particularly annual plants, as they die off over autumn. Ideally, you always want to leave the roots in the ground and if you can leave the plants above it to rot as well that is always best. But I have to clear the decaying foliage in order to deal with the grass clumps which have suddenly revealed themselves now that the carpet of flowers has died off. Weeding grass is so boring, which is why I put it off all year. I regret that now though.

But back to the plants I did want in the ground. Leaving their roots in the earth ensures that the little organisms that live in the soil can continue to be fed via the rotting root system, which also helps to create tunnels for air and water to reach down into the soil. Both air and water are vital to good soil structure. The roots also help build nitrates. Plants with big tap roots or extensive root systems are particularly good for this. Pulling out deep rooted plants, conversely, can, it seems, cause a lot of damage to the fragile eco-systems and the beneficial organisms under the ground. A bit of surface weeding shouldn’t do too much damage, but deep digs down into the soil, like I did with a rotovator earlier in the year, probably is not the best idea.

While it is important to leave roots in the ground it is also important to keep living plants going above it over winter. Bare soil, a lot of experts now concur, causes a lot of damage to the soil. Increasingly, the use of fast growing, robust and cold tolerant cover crop seed mixes are being deployed for this very reason. These include oats, rye, mustard, barley, red clover and vetch. And then when spring comes around the cover crops are just chopped before they go to seed and dropped onto the soil to rot and feed it, with their roots left in the ground as the other annual plants are planted or biennial and perennial plants start to pop up through the soil.

Which brings me back to what I am doing this week, the chop and drop. Having almost finished the grass removal, I’m planting numerous biennial and perennial plants grown from seed over the summer months into the ground to overwinter. These include Columbine, Rosemary, Canterbury bells, Hollyhockand Wallflowers, and I have more young Honesty plants and Sweet William in the greenhouse which will join their bigger cousins in the ground over the coming weeks. I’ve also a lot of young annuals and I plan to throw these in too to see how they get on over winter. These include pheasant’s eye – a red wild flower species that has become endangered in Ireland, miniature blue cornflowers, pale blue nigella (love in a mist), and I’ve a lot of baby’s breath too though I suspect they wouldn’t survive a frost. I’m hoping that all those should provide more than enough ground cover for the soil over winter while the new roots will help draw the energy and resources it stores from the winter sun, air and rain down underground. And a splash of colour early in the spring. The old annuals I’ve chopped at the roots I’m chopping up into chunks and scattering as a mulch in around the young plants to help protect them, and to decompose and feed and fertilise, the soil and to help suppress weeds.

So there’s no real need to let your garden go dormant and dour over winter. In fact it’s far better for that garden if you don’t.