Fertile alluvial loams of the Upper Danube grows family farm and garden at Hurbanova Ves, Slovakia

Description: a deep young alluvial soil from river deposits on the Danube floodplain in southeast Slovakia.
loamy, rich in nutrients, calcium carbonates, and organic carbon.

Location:  0.5 ha rural family garden in the small village of Hurbanova Ves,  about 30 km E from Bratislava city (capital of Slovakia)

Values for this alluvial soil:
1 Personal/ memories –
– Soil I made my first steps on,
– Soil on which I live
– Soil I take care of
2 ‘Family farming ‘ as a big family’ garden producing food for our own use, with occasional over-production sold at the local market:
– vegetables – garlic (on the picture), onions, maize, carrots, cabbage, parsley, peas, beans, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, lettuce, leak, beet, radish, horseradish, spinach, cucumbers, pumpkins, and many more
– fruits: apples, pears, cherries, black cherries, apricots, plumbs, walnuts, almonds, peaches, strawberries, raspberries, vineyard
– small animals (chicks, du
3 Recreation – back-yard leisure garden

Managements for soil used for family farming:
1 Water needs
– Rainwater
– irrigation from Danube river groundwater collected in well and pumped through sprinklers
2 Short growing season –
– glasshouse lengthen the growing season providing a place for vegetables before- and after-season (plastic one on picture)
3 Tillage
– manual
– small-scale mechanization
4 growing organically –
– fertility – NPK fertilizers applied and seasonal fallow cultivation
– weeds – manual weeding but no herbicides used
– pests– pesticides only through other sources
5 excess growth
– trees/hedgerows trimming 
– grass mowing

Challenges to family farming aimed at “zero-carbon-emission” production and healthy soil 
1 energy inputs
– fertilizers,
– water pumping,
– gasoline for small machines
2 carbon sequestration – balancing the use of the space
– vegetable production,
– lawns,
– hedgerows,
– fruit trees,
– other trees,
– sealed soil
3 decreasing emissions –
– manual soil cultivation,
– using wood for pickling vegetable and fruit over-production,
– more organic fertilization,
– crop residual management is returning residual to the soil or composting it

See more about Hurbanova Ves at this general information page
– or for other issues with bringing water to soils by irrigation see the foot pump powered irrigation on a family farm in Kenya in Kenya M’fango  loam or the underground piping being installed for a commercial  macadamia farm in soil for macadamias Queensland, Australia
–  discussion in LN post

Credits :   Rastislav Skalsky, soil scientist and hobby grower, Bratislava, Slovakia, Europe, gives permission for his photos and information to be used under a (cc) license 2015 .
Editing and page created by Jeanie Clark, enviroed4all®, Warracknabeal, for use in education under a (cc) licence 2015

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page set up 8 Otober2015