I suppose by now that you are hoping I will leave off the rants for a while … and in a while I intend to do so.
What kind of gardener would I be if I was afraid to stir up a little dirt when the time comes?
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February 4, 2010
February 1, 2010
From the “I told you so” department.
I hate GMOs (genetically modified organisms) and their insidious sidekick, chemical farming, with the same passion I reserve for pedophiles, politicians, drug sales reps and big bankers.
January 30, 2010
Or, at least, the uglier parts of it.
If you haven’t given any thought to becoming a Guerilla Gardener or, if you have thought about it but simply haven’t taken action, you really owe it to yourself to see how much beauty one guy with buck teeth has brought to Zurich, Switzerland.
January 29, 2010
Just this month the front cover of Forbes called Monsanto “Seed Heroes”.
(hack, cough, cough) Balderdash.
I may buy a copy just so I can frame that cover as evidence that Forbes has abandoned even the pretext of journalistic integrity and cannot be trusted to be truthful in any matter whatsoever.
The linked video, about the effects of chemical farming in India, is instructive. I know that your time is valuable. I’m asking for 30 minutes of it with the promise that I will not waste even a single minute. Start by viewing the video for the first 26 minutes.
December 18, 2009
As gardeners, we know that we are held ransom to water. Rain, dew, pipe, irrigation, drip, flood, spray, weep … if the water doesn’t reach our gardens somehow – or if there is too much of it or it is timed poorly – our plantings are doomed. If we were counting on that food for our own survival, as much of the world does, things would be bleak indeed.
In many, many places, there is a thick layer of dust and doom spread over the landscape. What water is available is often polluted beyond use, too salty, a vector for horrible diseases or too deep underground to retrieve. Global climate trends have forced people off formerly arable land squarely into the lap of aid agencies. Even if the aid agencies operated in some sort of idealized state – and they do not – living from handout to handout is hardly humankind’s proper state of existence.
Enter, stage left, the incredible synergy of water projects and micro-finance loans.
November 4, 2009
This is going to be interesting … if the flames can get fanned just a little.
If you’ve been following the sea change from chemical to organic production of our foodstuffs, you are probably already familiar with how horrible the early drafts of the “organic” laws were in the US.
Just about anything was fair game.
In a display of politics as usual, the highly esteemed Obama-ramalamadingdong is set to appoint one of the chief architects of that loathsome first draft to a key negotiating position for US agriculture around the world.
Let me put it this way: this guy is to sustainable agriculture what the Nazis were to civil rights.
Those of you who voted for ‘change’ are getting it. If you want to shape that change, you need to get moving.
What I find somewhat ‘odd’ about this whole thing is this: 1) BHO was briefed on this guy and recommended him anyways and 2) normally I would expect the mainstream media to ignore a story like this … but someone on their staff is paying attention to the progressive poisoning of our food supply and, at the editorial level, has stuck their neck out. This is my effort to support that rare instance of editorial guts.
My understanding of the Bible forbids involvement in politics. It does not, however, forbid discussing facts with others who might choose to respond with a letter to their congress critters.
November 1, 2009
I’ve just been reading Soil Science Simplified’ target=_blank>“Soil Science Simplified” by Kohnke & Franzmeier and that reminded me of some insight that I now take for granted, but which was originally one of those ‘blinding flash of light’ moments for me.
On the second page, they point out that “A green plant is made up of about 80% water and 20% dry matter. The largest part of the dry matter is composed of the elements hydrogen, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen which occur in air and water, while the rest consists of a great variety of elements that originate in the soil. In spite of the small amounts of these components, they are absolutely essential and the complete absence of only one of them makes plant growth impossible.”
Buried in that paragraph is a nugget of information that is vital to the organic grower: the essential nature of trace minerals.
Trees, like any other plant, generally take up only the nutrients they can use and they do so in the precise ratios needed for growth. The proof of this is that these ratios DID result in growth.
Tree leaves are abundant now in many locations around the world and they represent an incredible storehouse of those trace minerals brought from deep below ground in an easy to collect and use form. This isn’t rocket science, folks, the trace minerals have already been mixed and proportioned and packaged for you. The brain part is done: now all that is needed is a little grunt work.
Although there are a number of subtle shadings about how to use them, let’s look at just a couple: decomposition in situ and decomposing before incorporation.
Firstly, let’s tackle ‘in situ’. All this means is to mulch the leaves directly into your lawn, to dig them into your garden or to layer them on top of the soil so as to provide a blanket over it. This will use a goodly number of leaves and is a recommended practice. A mulching mower set to a low cutting height is ideal for the task of mulching leaves into the sod, as the grass should in any case be cut short this time of year to avoid fungal diseases over the winter. The less green you see, the fewer sugars to tempt snow mold and other fungi.
The second general manner of using tree leaves is to decompose them somewhere other than the point of final use. You might want to finish off a compost pile begun earlier in the year by turning leaves in to it, mixing them thoroughly as you do to prevent them from forming a water-shedding layer. You might also take a tip from others and, after shredding them somewhat with a mower, stack them against a fence or other structure to allow them to begin decomposing there. To the extent that weather permits, earthworms will gladly turn the bottom layers into something called “leaf mold”, which makes an excellent mulch or soil amendment in the spring. Also, in the spring, you can use the dried top layers as the initial ‘browns’ charge for a fresh compost pile.
Fall is also important because soil amendments applied now … lime, bone meal, sulphur, green sand, compost and so on, will have time to be incorporated into the root zone before spring planting. This allows the moderating influences of chemistry (organic chemistry can be gosh-awful slow) and microbiota to be felt, leaving the soil in a more ‘settled’ state. For instance, adding lime or sulphur will change the soil pH (that’s generally WHY they are added) and that will cause distress for the biota that thrived at one extreme or the other. Having winter to work in allows the other biota favoring the new pH to re-establish themselves. You want your soil fully populated by the time it is warm enough to plant. Applying amendments in the fall assists in that goal.
Now is the time to discard leftover plant parts. If the plant simply died because of the cold, it can be sent to the compost. If it died because of disease, send it straight to the trash hopper. Compost cures a lot of stuff but if you add diseased plant material to a late-fall pile, it may never get hot enough long enough to sterilize the pathogens. In that case, you need to allow the pile at least one, and preferably two, years to sit and mature.
Unless beans, peas or other legumes died from disease, do not pull them up by the roots. Rather, cut them off at the soil surface so as to leave their rhizomes in the ground. A quick flick with a sharp hoe will do the trick as will running over them with the mower if you have planted alfalfa or buckwheat and intend to use the top portions as green manure.
Look for some quotes from Kohnke & Franzmeier’s book in the sidebar. I’m liking what I see.
October 30, 2009
You are probably here because you agree that organic food is a good idea. In that case, you might might be interested in this 5:47 radio link.
You may also be interested in knowing that Ireland is now officially and completely GMO free. Not even so-called ‘trial fields’ (which end up contaminating the surrounding fields as their pollen spreads). This is HUGE victory … to have even ONE government stand up to big-ag instead of cowering before it, as the US, Canadian and British governments have.
Obama betrayed us all in his appointment of a representative of big-ag as our nations ag representative … but what else are we to expect? The guy he appointed is associated with the group that started the “groundswell” letter writing campaign against the Whitehouse organic garden. Obama is too much of a politician, and not enough of a man, to stand up to these folks … but it looks like the Irish are up to the task.
October 9, 2009
@GardenSeed posted a twit a few months ago that warrants a re-visit. What she said was “let’s all help the economy with some small victory gardens. check this out for free seeds & tips http://bit.ly/ebN9j”
Her thinking was, and is, good.
Due to the abundance of raw materials, the slowed growth of weeds and the generally good moisture levels, autumn is an excellent time to begin a garden. Here’s how:
