Soil biology and no-till farming
An essential part of cultiviating organic bulbs is soil biology. Our principle now is that the soil in which our organic bulbs grow has to be healthy. To achieve this we must not disturb what nature builds.
Different layers of soil each have their own soil life consisting of worms and micro-organisms. By deep ploughing these layers would be turned around. The beneficial soil life of the top layer will go under, and the biology of the underlying layer comes to the top. By turning the soil upside down both habitats get disturbed.
To keep the layers and their biologiy intact, we have to apply no-till pluoghing technique, a method that already finds a growing interest in agriculture. If ploughing is needed, it should be very shallow to keep the soil life undisturbed. A good structure of the soil is not achieved by deep ploughing but it is a result of the natural processes of living organisms in the ground.
Wildflower field margins
Along the borders of most parts of our land we created wildflower field margins..In the summer, when
Nature is part of our business
If there is plenty of life in the ground, there will be plenty of life above the ground too. Because we do not use
Huiberts Organic Flower Bulbs
In February 2013 we started cultivating our flower bulbs in a more sustainable manner.
In previous years we had
Planting under mixed green manure sods
After harvesting our organic bulbs, we carefully till the soil just under the surface. Then we sow the wildflower field margin mix and spread compost over the fields. When the
Mixed green manure
Plants are essential for the soil biology. As soon as possible after harvesting our organic bulbs, we sow a green manure mixture, plants that improve soil fertility.