6th February 2010

On Saturday morning there was a good turnout for a workshop at Murray Griffiths' place on the use of Dolichos lablab (aka Lablab Bean, Hyacinth Bean or Poor Man's Bean) as a green manure crop and other organic farming techniques.

Murray Griffiths is the man behind Mr. Organics - who supplies organic fruit, vegetables and other oganic goods out of his premises on MacDougall St.

Dolichos is a plant of many uses. It is grown as a green manure due to its fast production of plant matter above ground and its nitrogen fixing abilities below ground. When the plant has reached sufficient size it is mulched and returned to the soil where it quickly breaks down to enrich the soil. Murray Griffiths achieves this in his patch by pulled up the entire plants and mulching then before spreading back over the soil and using a rotary hoe to incorporate it into the soil.

Dolichos is also an excellent food source for cattle and sheep with cattle chewing the plant off to ground level while sheep only remove the leaves, allowing the plant to continue growing.

After the dolichos has broken down in the soil it provides an excellent food source for the next crop to be planted. Murray related a tale of a farmer who planted a dolichos crop before his wheat crop which enabled him to produce triple the yield of his neighbour's crop.

Murray is growing crops such as lettuce, choko, leek, grammar, strawberry and jeruselem artichoke to supplement the produce he purchases from local farmers. Five large water tanks and a bore provide him with all the water requirements as well as an assured supply of chemical-free water for all his needs.

We found this workshop to be very informative and interesting as well as allowing those with enough enthusiasm to get their hands dirty in pulling, mulching and rotary hoeing of some of the dolichos crop.

Many thanks to Murray for his time and insight.