Welcome to Witch Valley

Welcome to Witch Valley, situated in southern Germany in 

the Markgrafen area of Breisgau

The Witch Valley gardens are 1200m² in total, of this  225m² is the vegetable and berry  garden and about 400m² the orchard, the rest is ornamental, all of which I tend myself. At an altitude ranging from 350 m sloping down to 175m above sea level. The soil is silty loam, the pH 6.6 and we get over 700 l/m² of rain on an average every year. We get 71 days of frost between October and April and an average of 5 1/2 hours per day of sunshine a year.


The climate and soil are perfect for growing apples, pears, plums, green gages, quinces, medlars, cherrys, currants, and grapes both red and white. Zone 7b (Europe) hot summers, cold winters.



Why an Ecological Garden?


Being the one man circus I am, ecological gardening done right, is a lot less labour intensive than conventional gardening. No heavy machinery required, in fact a no-go for the soil. Less weeding, by under planting and smaller spacing results in less water evaporation, and less watering.

Harnessing the lay of the land to water your plants, by utilising surface runoff to your advantage, and creating a soil that retains water using compost, are just some of the aspects of saving time and money. 

Fertilising your plants with what grows in the garden, like stinging nettle tea, or pond sludge instead of spending money on fancy biological feeds like seaweed, which is great if you live by the sea, but crazy if you live 700 km away like I do. Not very ecological transporting the processed stuff to me, is it?

So by now you've got the gist of what an ecological gardening frame of mind is. I'll go into each aspect of how I do things as this blog evolves.


I'd like to state here, I do not  entirely practice permaculture. I don't use raised beds or fuss with garden design. I follow a sustainable approach to my garden, what I take out goes back in and if it's not broken, don't fix it. You don't need to change anything in your garden except your perspective. Ecological gardening is coaxing nature in the right direction, without force. In an ecological garden there are no pests nor weeds only the equilibrium of nature eternally renewing itself.