Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => General Forum => Topic started by: mark smyth on January 27, 2007, 08:42:25 PM
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I know this isnt related to alpines or bulbs but it is quite interesting
The potato famine started in 1845 and lasted for six years killing over a million men, women and children in Ireland and caused another million to flee the country. The farmers used 'lazy beds'. They marked long parallel lines in the soil about four feet apart. In between the lines, they piled a mixture of manure and crushed seashells then turned over the surrounding sod onto this. Seed potatoes were inserted in-between the overturned grass and the layer of fertilizer then buried with dirt dug-up along the marked lines. The potato bed was thus raised about a foot off the surrounding ground, with good drainage provided via the newly dug parallel trenches
I was high in the Mourne mountains today doing a bat survey. Someone with me spotted lazy beds on the sides of the mountains. Note how the plots still have their dry stone walls around them
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An interesting bit of archaeology, Mark. Did you find a battery?
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Never mind a battery, Anne, look at the size of that tortoise in the corner of the field!
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Very interesting Mark so thanks for that. And certainly a great tortoise.
It is my own (totally uninformed) opinion that if the Irish farmers of the time had had access to and used, the modern product called (in NZ) Trichopel, there would never have been a potato famine. The registered trade name Trichopel (also Trichodowl for inserting into holes in tree trunks and Trichoflow to water on) is a pelleted form of Trichoderma fungus (note fungus, not fungicide) of which there are some 200 described species in NZ alone. It is used to control many other fungus conditions including botrytis, clematis wilt, sclero... (the one that kills lettuces) and even phytophera species. It grows aggressively and so occupies the space that others would if they could, and so they can't become established. It can also smother the others and in many cases parasitizes. I used to buy about 5 clematis annually as I love the big-flowered hybrids and was always lucky to get a couple going successfully. Since I started to use the Trichopel, I've never lost one. A few pellets in a pot of llium or fritillaria bulbs totally prevents botrytis which plagued me for a while. The Trichoderma needs quite a high humus content though to work best.
Having said all that, I hasten to add that I have absolutely NO commercial interest here, but am just converted to what is, after all, an organic and very successful way to prevent many common garden problems.
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Anne I dont get the reference to the battery
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Battery, Mark, where bats live ::)
And what about that huge tortoise, it's a bosker, did you spot it too?
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it wasnt until I edited the photos that I saw the tortoise.
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I knew about the ancient species of deer that used to roam Ireland, can't remember what it was called,
huge thing eight feet high at the shoulder, or even bigger, somewhere between a red deer and an elk, only BIGGER!! But this discovery of giant tortoises is surely world class news? Who is goingto tell the Galapagos tortoises that they've been knocked off their record breaking pedestal? Not a job I'd fancy.
Just found this reference page:http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/artio/irishelk.html
Megaloceros giganteus or Megaceros =Giant Deer
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Elk!
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/artio/irishelk.html (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/mammal/artio/irishelk.html)
How could I giant live for so long in a tiny field
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He's sitting down in the photo: when he stands up to walk, his legs will be longer than the wee field dykes and he'll just trundle over them, no barrier to him I reckon.
I see I found the same reference as you, Mark and we have been doing synchronised postings!
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Oh deer ::)
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What was the diet before potatoes?
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Venison?
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Walked into that one ;D
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I've been rummaging around and there is some very limited evidence for humans hunting elk. It's more likely they scavenged dead animals particularly after the rut as it's thought giant elk (which are deer) behaved like red deer where the males are often starved by the end of the rut.
They were using stone tools, spears and throwing sticks against a huge animal, if they were hunting live animals they wouldn't have killed it outright, much more likely to wound it and then follow it until loss of blood meant they were able to get close enough to kill it. Bones from southern england show evidence of being smashed to retrieve the bone marrow and it is likely this was done by man, it could have been hyena or other scavengers, it's often very hard to tell from the bones themselves as the marks left by man are almost indistinguishable from other creatues.
Whether it was the impact of hunting which wiped out giant elk and other mega fauna is one of those questions which causes quite heated debate in archaeological circles.
Boils down to the fact if they ate them it was probably pretty rancid, stringy meat, not the nice venison we enjoy!!
Sue
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Today I was doing a survey in the Sperrin Mountains that lie on the west side of Lough Neagh. I saw more lazy beds dating to the famine. Again the are enclosed by fallen down dry stone walls. The beds are in the 3 pale fields and the darker one on the middle left. Bad photo due to me being in the clouds
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Mark, how is this for lazy beds in the 21st Century?
Slighty narrower but still using the same principles to grow 990 different dwarf tulip species and hybrids.
This is one of Janis's friend's (sorry can't remember his name) hobby garden! in Latvia. Pity more of them were not in flower.
Picture courtesy of Sandy. The building in the background is the one of the restraunts Sandy mentions in the journal, note the lack of fences.
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I think these lazy beds are used by gardeners in the US. Yes it would have been good to see the tulips in flower
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So are these beds in Sandy's picture just heaped up soil without edges or do they have some kind of structure to hold the soil in? They look so neat to be unconfined. Is Sandy's pic in the new Journal? I haven't got mine yet.
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Too far back, I mean recently. Potatoes weren't around until at least the 16th century.
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Lesley,
The beds had been made by a machine :) They were like large potato furrows, I think prob like the ones which are used to grow Turnips, lettuce etc in this country. They look like lazy beds but are not permant. I think they are made every year, with the tulips being lifted each summer. We have like Mark proper lazy beds in Scotland which you can see in uncultivated farmland. It is a great way to grow bulbs, Janis also used this method for making his beds - old ideas are sometimes still good. I don't think Sandy has this picture in the journal, but has a really good article about our visit to Latvia. I had a major computer crash and lost my Latvian photos, I hadn't followed my own advise to back up every time I load photos.The journal only came the other day so yours will be there soon, lots of good things in it.
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Thanks Susan, in fact my Journal arrived yesterday (Friday) and I think it is the best ever. That amazing cover sets the scene and everything that follows is absolutely wonderful. I envy you your trip to Latvia. Those corydalis!!! and the juno irises. Oh God!!! So my eternal thanks to those people who wrote and photographed to make up such a stunning issue.