May was a busy month for the plantation team, who bravely braved downpours and muddy ground to get the 2,300 vegetable, fruit and medicinal plant seedlings planted in time, as well as our first 25 tea bushes for acclimatisation on a plantation that is now officially in organic conversion, following our Ecocert audit… Busy, we tell you!
1 well-watered birthday…
While the first few weeks were marked by tilling the soil (see previous article), the installation of integrated drip irrigation to control water consumption and tarpaulins to limit manual weeding and evaporation, the second half of May was an opportunity to celebrate FBKT’s 5th birthday (we were born in May 2016!), with our hands in the soil!
The 2,300 plants in the company’s organic vegetable and herb garden have now been planted (and are already growing well): strawberries, lettuce, courgettes, tomatoes, verbena, lemon verbena, Moroccan mint, bergamot mint, lemon thyme, sage, rhubarb….
Breton tea bushes in the Loire
We also planted 25 tea bushes, each 3-4 years old, to start our acclimatisation on the Roanne coast. These were given to us by Denis Mazerolle, who has been growing tea bushes in Brittany for over 15 years.
As a reminder, the tea plant is a camelia. So we have 4 different types, which will enable us, in 1 or 2 years’ time, to select the one best suited to our terroir (and our continental climate, which is very different from Brittany’s) in order to launch the actual production plantation.
The campaign and its ups and downs… This week’s anecdote!
We’ve had a surprise visit from 3 roe deer… In order to welcome them in the best possible conditions (and above all because we intend to eat our tomatoes, strawberries and salads this summer…), we’re putting up a 2m20 high electric fence.
Hey, we said we were opening the plantation to the public but not to deer, no but oh!
The FBKT LA PLANTATION project is co-financed by the EUROPEAN UNION as part of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and by the MINISTRY OF AGRICULTURE AND FOOD as part of the FRANCE RELANCE plan:
