Soil and Growing

Soil

Soil is a major supporting system for life on earth, and if degraded may take centuries to recover. Here at CAT we experiment with ways to enrich the soil without using man made chemicals. Over the past 30 years we have had a great deal of success with different compost mixes, nutrient recovery from human excreta and green manures. We are currently researching the value of biochar as a soil enhancer with the hope that charcoal can perform the integrated task of nutrient source and carbon sequesterer.

Growing

The CAT gardens demonstrate the benefits of organic methods to our environment. The display site informs visitors about techniques which result in healthy vegetables and flowers. The one acre vegetable field allows us to practice what we preach in growing our own salad all year round.

Soil Care

We nourish our soil with our own home made compost and by use of green manures. Green manures are fertility building crops such as clover and field beans which are grown to collect nutrients in their biomass. They are mulched onto or dug into the soil to improve structure and increase fertility. Green manures have great potential to be used more widely in agriculture. This would reduce the amount of nirogen fertilizers used and therefore cut down on our greenhouse gas emissions from their energy-intensive production.

Pest Control

By maintaining a diverse environment we protect our plants against attacks from pests. Pest species are part of the natural environment which have got out of control due to a lack of predators and a ready food supply - our crops. We encourage predatory species by providing habitat and nectar sources. For example we plant flowers of the daisy family among our vegetables to attract the adult hoverflies which lay their eggs nearby. Their larvae then feed on our aphid pests. Our vegetable crops are interplanted with flowers and green manures to confuse the pests which then don't wreak havok as they would in a monoculture.