Episode 2.87 - Alfalfa Aphids and Self-Pruning Giants

Send us Fan Mail On a misty, humid late-August morning at High Ash Farm, with rain threatening after another dry month of just 17 millimetres, Chris Skinner and Matthew Gudgin stand on the farm’s poorest south-facing sandy field — the one exception still lush and green after the pollen-and-nectar crop was mown for fire safety. Chris digs into the concrete-hard ground to reveal the secret: lucerne (alfalfa) and sainfoin sending wooden tap roots two to two-and-a-half metres down to moisture, wh...