No-dig vegetable garden
At Wytch Wood Camping we practice the ancient art of companion planting or the ‘Three Sisters’ method of planting.
This technique, useful for modern gardeners (like us!) who want to utilise the three-sisters method, allows us to reduce our impact on the environment while producing healthy, pesticide-free produce.
Using ‘three sisters planting’, all of the sister plants can be grown on their own, but planting crops together offers benefits to the plants as well as the ongoing fertility of the soil they are grown in.
Each vegetable draws on a different key nutrient to maintain growth, avoiding competition, and helping each plant thrive.
The method behind companion planting is to use different plants mixed together to confuse pest insects and keep them from the crop.
For example, by planting onions next to carrots in the Wytch Wood veggie patch, the onions mask the smell of the carrots, helping to keep the dreaded carrot root fly away from the crop. Marigolds are another great example of the companion planting we use. Their strong smell helps to keep aphids away from plants such as tomatoes and runner beans.
Companion planting is not restricted to pest control though, and some pairings bring other benefits – peas and beans all fix nitrogen into the soil, helping leafy crops like cabbages perform at their best.
At Wytch Wood, we use the three sisters planting technique as much as possible to ensure any pest control is natural and to keep the soil fertile.
