Imagine
Having Your Best Garden Yet,
Seven Simple Ideas
By Bill Bradshaw
For
My Grandmother, My Kids and My Big Sister.
And also Professor Potato.
Introduction.
Gardening is fun, or at least it should be. Doing things in the garden that offer a reward in eighty, or one hundred days might seem like a long way away.
If you are not inspired to wait that long. Start with something like a flat of Pumpkin or Sunflower Sprouts. Your can have delicious and nutritious Sprouts for your sandwich or salad in just a week to ten days from now.
Always soak your seeds before you plant them. They will sprout much faster and have more even sprouting and growth. Add a Tiny pinch of hardwood ash, Azomite or Real Salt to your soak water. This will alkalinize the seeds and your water. It adds important trace minerals to your sprouts, and makes them more flavorful and you much healthier. Soak for about eight hours, then rinse well every eight hours or until you see them crack and start to make a tiny root. Plant in a shallow flat or tray, cover lightly and keep moist.
One of my other favorites is Lentil Sprouts. They are nutritious and a great addition to meals. Easy and quick to sprout, and can be grown in a sprouting tray, or a jar.
They are a great addition for salads and sandwiches.
Table of Contents
Seven Simple Ideas
1. Triple mix
2. Compost
3. Animal Manure
4. Teas. Manure teas or Compost tea.
5. Mycorrhizal fungi, and other good bacteria.
6. Pest Control
7. Timing
8. Minerals and other Extra tips. Bonus Ideas.
The first time I ever grew a garden was in the early sixties. Before I was in grade school, it was one plant. I was walking down the sidewalk in the neighborhood where I lived. I found a Blue Corn seed. I picked it up and went home. I ask my folks “What is this?”. I knew what corn was, but not that kind. I planted it and watered, in some bare soil. It got as tall as the side of the house, about eleven or twelve feet tall. I was hooked.
When I was young, the small streams and arroyos between Albuquerque and Santa Fe would run much of the year. There were small trees near the edge of the highways on the way to Santa Fe. It rained many afternoons, even if it was only for just a few minutes.
As I got older, around High School or early College years, the water in most of those little streams and arroyos had disappeared. The cows and sheep were mostly gone, and much of the desert grass as well.
I could tell there was something changing in the desert southwest, even back then.
In two thousand four, I was back in New Mexico working. When driving north to Santa Fe or going towards the Four Corners area, the old Pinion forests were starting to die off, even more in some areas. By two thousand eight, more than half the Pinion and many of the Western Red Juniper, which are very drought tolerant were also starting to die off.
Many of the forest fires back then would burn out, or not get very giant, and usually the fire crews could get them in control in a few day. If they kept going it would take ten days or even a couple of weeks to get to ten or fifteen thousand acres. They were never measured in hundreds of thousands of acres, or hundreds of square miles.
There are so many new problems from the on going climate destabilization, but there is some up side to this also. The extra heat can make some plants or trees grow or ripen slower. More CO2 in the air can make plants grow faster. It can also cause some plants to be less nutritious. You can make up for some of this with freshness and having nutrient rich soil, or by having food that is not being transported half way across the continent, or half way around the world. The longer it is stored, the more the nutrition goes down. On average, the produce from grocery stores have lost about thirty percent of their nutrition by the time you get it home. Local and fresher is just better from many angles.
Staying healthy is now more important than any time in recent history. The Corona disaster and changing climate have made the whole situation so much more complicated. Then there is the food chain becoming more unstable and unreliable. Lack of trace minerals and other nutrients in commercially farmed foods can cause many health problems, as can herbicides, fungicides, etc.
Quality nutritious food is more important than ever. How much more important is your health at this time in our history, and with our current disasters?
It might sound like a big promise this idea, to have your best garden yet. It is really quite simple. Even if you just start with the first idea and add one in each month, or season of the year, it will make a big difference. Soon it will be your best garden yet.
Benefits of Growing your own Garden.
There are many benefits to Growing your own garden, and are almost to numerous to count. These are just a few.
You get fresh air and sunshine, and Gardening is good exercise.
Your food is more nutritious, and will make you feel better.
Local, so has much less carbon footprint than from an average of 1500 miles away.
Fresher, it’s hard to get sweet corn that is better than just picked, right when you started heating the water to cook it.
The perfect homegrown tomato to put on your Burger, or Falafel, or some super fresh parsley for your homemade Hummus.
Salad, made with spring greens or fall greens, that are so fresh, so sweet and so full of flavor. You might get that from a farmers market or CSA. You don’t get that from a store.
You can be sure that there are no toxins or GMO contamination in your food.
Organic and Regenerative agriculture will make you healthier and help heal the planet. Its better for you, its better for your family, and its better for your pets and the planet. It is a whole different ball park than commercial chemically grown food.
A note about this short book. Each part starts with a short story about where or who I got the idea or information I use in the garden. This is in Italic font.
The next part is the information about use of the actual ideas in the garden, and in a regular font.
Seven Simple Ideas for having your Best Garden Yet.
Triple Mix.
I worked at a Museum and Crystal Mine in Arkansas for a while. The owner was too busy to take care of his garden most of the time. I did the garden, mowed the lawns and took care of a lot of the landscaping. He had studied Agriculture in college, this was his idea. Triple mix was his way to get the plants to take off soon, so that there would be strong early growth and a good crop. You can have excellent early production in your garden with this simple idea. Very useful in acid soils.
Wood Ash is an old tradition in gardening and farming. Wood Ash, Bone Meal and Blood Meal have been used for a long time in agriculture. This is a great simple way to give your plants an early boost. Get some quality organic nutrition, right where it is most useful for fast early production of healthy roots, leaves, and flowers.
I taught it to a fair bit of people around here, when I was working at a greenhouse that was part of a local food pantry. I got tired of repeating it or writing it down for people, so here it is. I am not sure how many people kept using it, but this idea is a consistent winner. Use its every time.
1. Triple Mix. 8-1-1.
How to make Triple mix.
There are three components of triple mix.
Use a bucket or container about twice as big as you need, so there is plenty of room to mix it well without spilling.
Put the eight parts of wood ash, one part of Blood meal and one part Bone meal in a bucket with the ash. Put the ash in first, then the blood and bone meal on top. Mix well. This is because ash is lighter, so it will be easier to mix if ash is put in on the bottom first. Use a bucket or container with a good lid, as this mix will tend to soak moisture out of the air if you live in an area where it is very humid.
The blood meal adds Nitrogen, the bone meal provides phosphorous, calcium and some other minerals. The wood ash provides potassium, and some very good trace minerals.
Nitrogen. To promote nice green leaves, and a sign of good photosynthesis and strong growth. This is very important to early growth.
Bone meal. Provides phosphorous for strong roots and good flowers.
Hardwood ash. Provides potassium which promotes strong vigorous growth, and a little calcium, phosphorous and some trace minerals.
If you do not have wood ash, be very careful when using potash for your potassium, it is very concentrated and can be very problematic and cause PH problems. Spread very lightly and even in garden if you think you need some, or follow instructions on package. Use much less Ash, or almost eliminate Ash if you are putting on acid loving plants. Remember less more often is better than too much all at once.
Use about a tablespoon of triple mix for small plants, Up to about a quarter cup for larger plants like a tomato or big bell peppers, or squash and pumpkin. Mix well into the soil in hole, when planting. Put regular soil around roots of transplant so roots have to grow out to the soil with triple mix. This gets the nutrition right where it will do most good for early growth.
For row crop plants from seed, Cole crops and greens like Lettuce, Arugula or Spinach, Carrots or Beets, use about a quarter to a half cup for a six to eight foot row. Mix well into soil before planting seeds. Always water well right after planting or transplanting, to avoid shock. Keep the soil moisture even while your seeds are sprouting and getting established. A general rule for planting depth is two or three times as deep as the width of the seed. For very small seeds in sandy soil you might like to have a little extra depth since sand dries out easily. Sandy soil is also easier for the seed to push up through. Heavy clay not so much.
Chemical vs. Natural types of agriculture
In commercial agriculture fertilizer, the measure of N-P-K is three numbers. They represent Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium.
In Organic or natural methods of agriculture like Biodynamic gardening or Permaculture, there are a lot more. There are Minerals, trace elements, humus, carbon, natural fungus and bacteria that break down the nutrition or help take it to the plants. There are Earth Worms that open the soil and help it breath, Nematodes and other insects move around and loosen the soil.
Even if you are growing in containers, or just doing a potted garden on your porch with commercial potting soil, triple mix can make a big difference. Add about a half cup to fifteen or twenty quarts of regular potting soil when starting most bedding plants for your garden. The addition to your soil of these three ingredients will help insure early healthy growth, and big yield from your plants, and will help even more if you already have really good rich organic soil for your starts.
If you do not have hardwood ash, ash from pine or other soft woods will work, but these are not quite as nutritious for your plants as hardwood ash.
If there are a lot of worms in your soil, it might be good to move the big ones out of the way, before putting triple mix in the trench or hole you are planting in. The ash in the triple mix could burn them, like lye will burn your hand.
If your soil is already rich in organic matter and alive with fungus, bacteria and worms, it is often good to not dig the whole bed or garden, but just enough to get the seeds or plants in the soil. To much of this can destroy the networks of fungus and bacteria, the worm tunnels, and destroy the open loose structure in the soil.
Imagine if you were going to take your whole house and turn it upside down. It would take a lot to fix it up. If you were going to redo or refurbish one room at a time. That would be much easier to deal with. All the other things that live in your soil will be much happier if not disturbed to much. They will help your garden grow much sooner if only disturbed a little bit. Just enough to add some nutrients and compost when planting, and leave some nice loose soil for the roots of your new plants to get established.
Compost
My dad made the first compost bin we ever had when we moved to a new house. It was just a Redwood square with chicken wire on it to stop the leaves, grass clippings and weeds from blowing away. We would just throw all the left over leaves, weeds and grass clippings in it and let it sit. It would take months or years to break down in New Mexico, since it was so dry.
When I was young My Mom would get Milk at a small dairy in the North Valley of Albuquerque, when we drove through that part of town. It had a drive up window, to pick up fresh whole raw milk. Really good whole raw milk in a big glass gallon jug. The kind with several inches of rich yellow cream floating on top. Sometimes we would get to make Butter from the cream. We would put the cream in a glass jar. My sisters and I would take turns shaking it until the butter separated. Real fresh homemade Butter on some fresh bread. Oh yummy. It was a bit of work, but very well worth it.
The first time I made a hot compost, I got cow manure from that dairy in the North Valley. It was run by an old farmer that really cared about his cows. It was put out of business by one of the mega dairy companies. I never liked or drank much milk after that place went out of business. That old dairy farmer took a vacation for the first time in decades. That mega dairy company, had a law passed that outlawed raw milk in the city while he was out of town.
2. Compost
There are many ways to make compost. Compost is broken down, and concentrated organic matter. It helps your soil absorb and hold more moisture. It will also feed bacteria, fungus and encourage earthworms and lots of little bugs that open up the soil so it can breath. It is full of great stable slow release nutrition and will make your plants very happy.
There are three main ingredients that make a good compost. Carbon, Nitrogen and Water. Approximately one third of each ingredient by weight.
First is Carbon. This can be dry leaves, grass clippings and spent garden plants or even dead weeds. Always save your leaves, they have lots of trace minerals and carbon.
Second is Nitrogen. Kitchen scraps or coffee grounds are a good source. Animal manures, like chicken, horse, cow or sheep are good. Green matter like grass clippings or green leaves, also have Nitrogen and are a good source. Bean or Pea vines while still green are excellent.
Third is Water.
Chicken litter is excellent for compost, it is very high in Nitrogen, and all three of the primary nutrients, N-P-K, and contains most of the important trace minerals. Chickens are usually feed some form of calcium like oyster shell, so that they have good shells on the eggs. It takes less to get great nutrition in your compost. It really is excellent if you like doing a hot composting system.
I like to use a wire cage made from 2 inch by 4 inch fencing wire for making kitchen scrap compost, or a hot compost. You can use Bricks or pallets to keep compost contained until it is finished and ready to use, or just make a big pile.
If you have lots of leaves, set up a wire cage for storing leaves and dry plants until you are ready to use them. If you are patient or not in a hurry just pile your ingredients on in layers, and get some from the bottom when it time to use some.
Add about ten or twenty percent compost to your potting mix for containers. If your compost is not very rich you can add more. Too much very rich compost, especially if very high in Nitrogen or Potassium can be a bit of a problem. Too much Nitrogen will cause rampant growth and less flowers, or cause flowers to drop. Too much potassium can cause the PH to go very high and cause the reverse problem, very slow growth, not vigorous growth.
If you have a little extra compost in the spring or fall, put some on your lawn. It will help your lawn be healthier, grow much better and be more resistant to hot and cold weather. You will also have more grass clippings to add to the compost pile later, if you use a grass catcher. Putting just ten pounds of compost on your lawn can help capture one hundred pounds of carbon from the air over a period of several years.
Layered compost.
An easy way of composting is just layering your ingredients one on top of the other. Carbon and nitrogen containing material, and water enough if needed, to make it nice and evenly moist without getting waterlogged. Comfrey leaves or Stinging Nettles are also an excellent addition to compost. It is fast growing, high in nutrition and promotes good bacteria.
Garden Compost.
Just pile or spread all your compost ingredients in the garden and let them sit there until you are ready to dig it into the soil, or there is enough to make it worth while to dig in.
Hot Composting.
Hot Compost. This is my favorite way to make compost. In the summer there is more green stuffs around, in the winter more dry stuff. As long as you have the proportions in the mix close, it should work well.
Take your ingredients and mix or layer them together as you make your compost pile. The smaller and cut up your ingredients are, the better. It will make more surface area for the Thermophilic bacteria to work. Maybe mist them with a light mist or spray of water as you are piling them up, so they have a good even moisture content. A good gauge for water content in composting, is to be about as wet as a squeezed out kitchen sponge.
It takes about a square yard (3 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft) of ingredients to get a compost to heat up on its own. But if you don’t have quite enough ingredients to make a full size pile, take a tea pot or two of hot water and pore it down in the center of the compost. It will make the bacteria happy and start to multiply. In a hot compost there are natural heat loving Thermophilic bacteria that turn on and speed up the composting process.
Air flow is very important to a hot compost, kind of like when you are trying to start a fire. If you like, have a big piece of wood or 2 by 4 in the center, while you build your pile. Then when you are done building the pile, pull it out. This open space will allow air into the pile and act as a draft. If you are in a really dry area, or your ingredients are not chopped real small this is probably not as necessary.
Thermophilic bacteria use lots of oxygen when it heats up. If the pile gets too wet if might slow, or bog down from lack of air flow. If there is a big rain coming, cover the pile with something like a tarp or cardboard to shed at least some of the water, if it is not under a covered area.
You can have finished compost in as little as fourteen days with this process. After it heats up, just fork it over after a few days, and put the outside of the pile to the inside of the pile, and the inside to the outside. Then you can do it again just about the time it starts to cool down a little, if needed.
One really good thing about a hot compost is if it gets hot enough, it will cook most weed seeds or pathogens in your pile. So if your worried about weed seeds this works well.
Three or four pallets wired or screwed together make a very good size for hot compost.
If your Garden is a new one on compacted clay or deep sand you may have to actually dig it in well to really get good results.
There are many kinds of reasons and ways to use compost. To improve soil that is depleted or soil that has little or no nutrition to speak of. To improve good soil to use for planting something like sweet potatoes, or regular potatoes that use a lot of nutrition. To improve soil for something that has special needs like strawberries or blueberries. For inoculating and activating the soil with good bacteria and earthworms. Compost can be used for mulching, or to just give a little blessing to the lawn or your favorite flower bed. Even a small amount of compost used when planting new seeds will help to keep the new seedlings healthy and happy.
The big variety of good bacteria do not just appear from nowhere. Just like earthworms carry many types of bacteria in there digestive system, many of the varied fungus and bacteria come from the large amount of different dead and decomposing organic material that they eat. Adding just a shovel full of material from the local forest, or under your favorite tree or flower bed to the compost pile can make a huge difference in the variety of live helpers in your compost.
Some people do Vermin compost, which is a system of composting with earthworms. Some people do vermin compost for all their kitchen scraps and coffee grounds. It is an excellent way to grow a lot of worms for fishing. If your place does not have room for a compost, or you’re in an apartment, this is a good way to make some very useful food for your plants. Just use a plastic bin for your kitchen scraps and get some good big earthworms to live in it until they start to multiply. There are lots of good fungus, bacteria and nutrition in worm castings. Even a small amount of almost any compost can turn on the beneficial life cycles with millions of bacteria in the soil. There are scientists who have shown how this can be taken to whole new levels of usefulness even in small amounts.
Animal manures, Green Manure
Chicken poo
I had a friend that liked to grow pot. He found some composted chicken manure from Utah in like a two cubic foot bag at the local nursery. It was really strong and clean, finely pulverized. He told me that it was really good stuff. So I tested some out, and it was excellent like he said.
There were some chicken houses south of town in the Valley. So early one of the springs after that, I got some. They would load a tractor scoop in a truck for twenty bucks. It would give you about a yard of manure. It was pretty dry so it did not weigh a lot. It was more than I really needed, but that was the size of the scoop on the tractor. So I used about half for a hot compost, and put the rest on the lawns and flower beds.
It made a nice big compost with all the left over dry leaves, plants and weeds from the year before. A couple mornings after I made it into a compost pile, it had heated up nicely. That morning my girlfriend Cathy came running back into the kitchen saying “Your compost is on fire”. I walked out to the back porch and looked across the yard. It was making a nice big cloud of steam in the cool morning air. It cooked real well for a few days. Then it rained for like, almost four days. It bogged down and I had to move it to a spot that was less wet and partly protected from the weather to get it to finish.
One day the next winter my friend came over to the house. He told me “Your lawn is the only one still green in the neighborhood”. I had not noticed. I was just used to it staying green all winter. So later when I went out, I looked up and down the street and all the other lawns in the neighborhood were brown.
3. Animal manure.
Animal manures are useful in many ways. The easiest is just put it on the ground and spread around on the surface of the garden and let it mellow until you are ready to plant. Spread on your lawn or around plants that need some nutrition. Do not get fresh manure right against active plants in your garden, if its very fresh leave a little space around stem or trunk. Strong fresh manure can burn an active plant especially poultry manure. Chicken is quite hot and can burn a plant if put directly on a plant, and more so when very fresh. Be very careful where it is applied. Dry manure is not usually so much of a problem. Horse, cow, goat, sheep, rabbit etc, are not real strong and are all good, but it takes quite a bit more. Rabbit is very weak so it takes a lot, but full of good bacteria and enzymes, and will promote lots of happy earthworms.
It is also a good idea to use two or more kinds of animal manure. Animals eat varied diets, and so have different nutrients and bacteria in their manure. Some eat bugs and seeds, others grass or leaves. As a result there are different trace elements and amounts of major nutrients in the manure, as well as varied types of good bacteria.
Green Manure is an excellent way to add lots of carbon and organic matter to your soil. Winter Rye, Cereal Rye or Clovers are excellent to add lots of nutrition and organic material to depleted soil. This is very good in places that have too much clay or deep sandy soils that doesn’t hold much water. Some places have soil with too high of a clay content that is muddy and mucky when wet, or hard as a rock when dry.
If you think your soil is short on nutrition, cut or mow down the green manure when it gets big but while still green. It has more nitrogen while still green. Dig under or leave on the top of soil to decompose and protect the ground. Green manures will promote more biological activity and feed the life in the soil.
If you could use more organic matter and carbon in the soil use something that gets bigger like annual winter rye. Let it get mature all the way. Then mow, chop or bend down down to protect the soil and decompose. Large plants like melons and winter squash, or tall plants like sunflowers will be happy here as a quick follow up crop as it decomposes.
Clovers and other Legumes like peas or beans are an excellent way to promote nitrogen fixing bacteria in the soil. Rhizobia bacteria live in a symbiotic relationship on the roots of the plants. The bacteria fixes nitrogen from the air and feed the plants and the soil. Many of the clovers are available pre-coated with a coating of these bacterial inoculations these days. You can usually find these at a good price from your local farm and feed store. There are specific types for many other type of bean and pea seed on line at a good price.
Manure tea, Compost tea and Green teas.
I had a friend that studied Environmental Science in Arizona. One summer when he was back in New Mexico he gave me a book to read called “Secrets of the Soil’. It was full of information about all kinds of stuff like Azomite, minerals, living soils, Biodynamic gardening and more. Much of the info was over my head. It took years before I really got an understanding of much of that information.
I used to go up to the Great Northwest in the spring. I would sell balloons at parades or flee Markets on the weekends. During the week I often worked on berry or tree farms in the area. The Farms almost all did the chemical style of agriculture. Oregon and Washington were always beautiful and green back then. Always cool and moist in the spring.
In the early 80s I got an invitation to a conference at Whidbey Island. It is in the Straits of Juan De Fuca area of Puget Sound. I have no idea how they got my address, but I was going up to that part of the country anyway that spring.
There was an Aussie named Bill Mollison there. He was the founder of the Permaculture style of agriculture. He said that he had learned much from the Aboriginal People of Tasmania.
He talked about the interrelationships of plants and nature, and how we interact with our environment. We all went for a nature walk one afternoon of the conference. He talked about designing orchards to channel the prevailing winds in the summer. He explained some of the interaction of animals and plants in integrated farms.
That introduced me to a new way of looking at agriculture. One of the things Bill said is “One of the most important things you can do in learning Permaculture, is learn to be observant.” Everything has multiple uses and purposes. Then Bill said “If you can’t find at least three uses for anything, you are probably not looking very hard.”
4. Teas.
Manure or Compost tea. Green teas.
Later in the season when everything is growing and well established, but maybe could use a boost. Maybe the tomato plants are full of lots of tomatoes, but just not ripening very fast any more. Maybe your Eggplants are just slowing down, or not quite up to speed yet, or your cucumbers have too many fruits on them and you do not want them to bog down, but keep producing.
Just take a large plastic bucket or container, and put in a few shovels of good compost or manure and fill with good water. Let it sit for about a day or so. This will give plenty of time for the nutrients to get into the water, and for bacteria to start to multiply. Now just spread around the root zone of your plants. You should see good improvements in just a few days. You can even use the left over stuff in the bucket on the bed to keep feeding nutrients to the soil and mulch around your plants, or just throw it back in the compost.
If you have some seedlings that are started in sterile commercial potting soil. Some compost tea is an excellent way to get some bio-active nutrition and live bacteria in the soil and on the roots before planting. Water seedlings with some of this compost tea before you transplant to make sure they are primed with good bacteria and nutrition, ready to take off in their new home in the garden. Worm castings are also excellent to add to your starter tea. Even just a tablespoon or two of earthworm castings can have millions or billions of good bacteria and fungi for your bedding plants.
Biodynamic teas. Comfrey tea or Stinging Nettle are a couple of the classic teas used in the Biodynamic systems of growing. These are powerhouse plants often used in many systems of natural healing, and will also give a real boost to your favorite plants. Many people who use Permaculture systems use these two plants as well, in the compost or the garden.
Put several pounds of Nettle leaf or Comfrey leaves and stems in your plastic bucket and fill with water. Let the mix sit for two or three days, until the leaves start to break down well. Stir well and spread around under your plants. You can also dilute for use for house plants or landscape and ground covers. It is good to water teas into the soil well, a little bit after use. There should be benefits you can see in just a few days.
Veganic teas. These are just like above but from other types of plants. Even lawn clippings or weeds will work, but most are not as high in nutrient values as Comfrey or Nettles.
Fish emulsion. This is another excellent way to give your plants a boost and add some readily available food for your plants. There is also an excellent mix of trace minerals and other growth factors in fish emulsion. Just use according to the instruction rates on the label.
One of the easy ways to put fish emulsion on a large bed is to use a Miracle Grow type garden sprayer. Just figure out how much fish emulsion it would take for the number of square feet of your bed, put it in your sprayer with water and hook it up to your garden hose, and spray.
Mycorrhizal fungi, and other good bacteria.
I read about the Biodynamic systems in the 80s in the “Secrets of the Soils” book. It seamed like Hocus Pousc at the time. I kept an open mind and learned a lot from other people. I read lots of Organic Gardening and other stuff. My Grandmother had lots of copies of old Organic gardening and Prevention magazine. I read as many of those as I had time to. One most important idea was, soil is alive.
In the Early 2000s I was working for the Green Party and met a guy from Germany. He sold stuff at the Farmers market in town. He was using the Biodynamic systems. I asked him some questions about it. I did not really know enough about that to ask informed questions. I still did not really understand much, but it sounded interesting, and he had more information than I got from that book “Secrets of the Soils”.
When it got later in the year he asked me if I would like to get a copy of the Biodynamic Calendar when he ordered one himself that year. It took me a while to really understand it, but it is definitely worth using. Especially for the calendar. I lucked out, since it was the 50th edition of the Biodynamic Calendar. It had very excellent explanations of how the system was developed.
5. Mycorrhizal fungi, and other good bacteria.
The Mycorrhizal fungi live in the soil, and on or near the roots of plants. They help break down and bring the plant nutrients and trace minerals and help stabilize carbon in the soil. In exchange they get carbohydrates or other sugars and elements back from the plants. There are several types of natural or organic fertilizers that have this beneficial Mycorrhizal fungi and bacteria in their mix. Read the package label for list of ingredients to be sure it is what you are looking for. If you use Probiotics in your diet, you will understand why to use Mycorrhizal Fungi and other bacteria for your garden.
These make a really big difference if you're just starting to build up the nutrition in your garden soil. They help your plants grow better and make your food more nutritious. Often the minerals like phosphorous or calcium are present in the soil, but not in an available form for your plants to use. These fungi and bacteria thrive in soil full of organic matter and make nutrients more available. They store many of these elements in their cells, and are slowly released back into the soil as they die and decompose.
There is a brand called Espoma. There are several kinds of this brand. For Tomatoes, or all purpose for Gardens, and for Acid loving plants like Azalea or Pines. Fox Farm and some of the other West Coast companies make certified all organic formulations of these.
Ferti*lome brand has an excellent organic all purpose plant food called Natural Guard. It has a mix of good beneficial Mycorrhizal fungi and bacteria. These are natural or OMRI certified for organic uses. There are also several others brands that are not certified available.
One good thing you can do ahead of planting time is to take some of this kind of fertilizer with Mycorrhizal fungi, and mix some or sprinkle on your compost. This will give the good bacteria a little time to grow and multiply in your compost, before you move it to your garden beds or pots. Spread some on the garden beds when you are ready to plant. Even if you do not have enough compost to cover the area, spread a little of this bio-active fertilizer on the beds.
Soil is a complex living system, and important to nutrient uptake and cycling. It is home to billions of bacteria, fungi, protozoa, worms, nematodes, and others, all eating, living and dying together beneath your soil. As they decompose, they release nutrition back into your garden nice and slow. It is often better to not dig your whole garden up just to put more nutrients or fertilizer in, as it will disrupt the network of fungus and bacteria. Just layer more on top, and cover with more leaves, mulch, straw or grass clippings to help control weeds and cool the soil. The Earthworms and other life will carry the nutrition down to the root zone.
Mycorrhizal fungi also help balance or buffer the soil. So that even if your PH is a little off in the garden, your plants will still grow well, and be more resistant to dry soil, or hot winds. Of course it is always better to not let soil get too dry, and to keep the worms and bacteria happy. Too wet for too long can also be a problem, as it can cause root rot or leach away nutrients or drown earthworms.
Pest Control.
Las Cruses.
My Family used to have a catering company back in the last Century. We often did many fairs and festivals each summer. One year late in the summer, while We were at the Southern New Mexico State Fair in Las Cruses, some of the ladies took several of the young children to see the Livestock barns. That was where the local kids from the F.F.A. (Future Farmers of America) had their displays and the competitions that morning.
My daughter was with them. She was about five at that time. She came back with a baby duck. She said “It was only fifty cents”. He was one of those Pekin Ducks. The white ones that get really big and fat. The kind that get made into the Chinese dish, Peking Duck. She named him Las Cruses.
Needless to say, it didn't take long for him to get very big. He got some bird food at first, for a few weeks. Then we just gave him sunflower seeds. The sunflower seeds were really cheep back then. He was pretty spoiled. He lived in the backyard, and got all the good stuff that got thrown out in the compost. He ate lots of earthworms and bugs from the compost, and helped stir and mix it. He also ate lots of Tomato Hornworms and some of the tomatoes that were down low.
He was a best friend of my two boys that grew up with him. He lived for about ten years. My boys got to do bug patrol, and feed him some of the insects. He got lots of Tomato worms and Squash Bugs. Las Cruses got to where he loved to eat squash bugs. The stinky kind. I could tell when there were some around. Las Cruses would put his beak up in the air like he was sniffing, and then go over to the squash plants and eat squash bugs. I had some squash that lived and produced all summer and into the fall. Those were some of the best squash crops I ever had. A healthy giant Zucchini or Yellow Squash plant will grow a sixteen inch to two foot squash in two or three days and still be totally tender when it is fully mature.
There were a lot of grape varieties on the fence between the yard and the gardens in the back. Las Cruses would help prune the Grapes. Las Cruses would eat the leaves and bugs from the branches that hung down far enough to get at.
We never used commercial toxic poisons in the garden. Its a good idea to keep them out of everything that is alive. Yourself, your plants and your pets.
6. Pest Controls
Diatomaceous Earth is a microscopic fossilized sea shell. It is used as a pesticide for almost any insect that is an exoskeleton (has a hard outer shell) type insect.
It has a silica shell that when ground up acts like a crushed glass. When it is sprayed on garden pests it will get on the joints of the insect and cut at the joints. It will dehydrate and die. If you can get very good coverage, you can get very good pest control. Spraying is easier to get it into hard to get at places.
It does not stay in suspension in water very well, so shake often and use quickly if you can. If you have a garden sprayer with a big nozzle use it, or use one that you can unscrew and take the nozzle off and use your finger or thumb over the end of the tube to direct the spray. If you can, spray when air is still, and late afternoon, to help avoid killing very many beneficials or pollinators.
If you use it dry, or spray it, wear a mask or respirator. Do not breath it. It could cause silicosis. Diatomaceous is available at most local Farm and Feed stores by the trade name Permaguard for a reasonable price.
B.T. Bacillus Thuringiensis is a bacteria that is effective for all types of caterpillars or worms that come from butterflies or moths. It is still very effective on almost all types.
Caterpillars or worms eat the bacteria, that produce proteins in their stomach and paralyze the digestive system. They stop eating and die with a bad case of indigestion and a full stomach.
B.T. Bacillus Thuringiensis is nontoxic to beneficial insects like earth worms, bees, ladybugs etc. It is not toxic to people, animals or birds, and is safe to use in organic gardens, and can be found in organic OMRI certified or non organic formulations. In Powder it is called Dipel, or in liquid called Thuracide.
Sometimes I will use the powder form in the sprayer to get longer lasting effects during a long rainy spell. Especially on grapes or tomatoes, when they are almost getting ready to produce the main part of the crop, if there are problems with worms.
There are a few types of worms that are starting to show up with some resistance to this type of Bacillus Thuringiensis. The bio-tech industry started putting the genes that produce the toxin from B.T. bacteria into some of the widely planted field crops like corn and soybeans. As a result some worms are becoming resistant. If you run across some of these resistant worms be sure to kill them by hand or some other way, so they do not reproduce.
Neem Oil. Neem oil is extracted from a tropical tree seed. This is pretty heavy duty insecticide for a natural product. It is also a very good fungicide, and is a very good multi use product. It is also used in many natural products like cosmetics, toothpaste and others. It can be found in Organic Certified and non organic formulations for the garden.
It is also good for many other insects problems. Try not to use Neem close to harvest. Always check instructions.
Neem kills many insects like Aphids, Mealybugs, Mites, Flea Beatles, Thrips and Whiteflies or Woolly Aphids, and many Insects that chew the leaves on your plants.
Sesame oil. A clarified sesame oil extract, sold under the trade name of Organocide is good for aphids and a fairly large number of other garden pests. Not toxic and will not harm the beneficial insects if you do not get it directly on them. Oils are excellent for use on insects that have developed resistance to other types of pest control. Like Neem, it is good for some other plant problems. This is an OMRI certified fungicide, miticide and insecticide.
Oils are most effective against the soft-bodied arthropods. There are Dormant oils formulations for scale or eggs of overwintering insects on fruit trees or vines. Always use according to directions or check online if you are unsure. The old saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” applies in many different ways in gardening.
One very good tactic to use for some insects is just to remove them physically. Aphids are present in almost any environment and are often spread around by small ants. Just spray them with a strong spray of water. This works very well on a hot summer day, because it gives the aphids a cold, if you have cold water coming from the hose to your sprayer or nozzle. Make the spray strong enough to knock off the aphids or insects but not damage leaves of the plants.
Controlling squash bugs is also very good to do by hand. Pick off squash bug eggs that are usually laid on the under side of leaves. Also pick off all stages of squash bugs. They often cause discoloration and damage to leaves, so look under leaves that are discolored. If there are too many, just wrap the leaf up around them, and take it off the plant, then smash or stomp on it. If you like some extra protection when the squash bugs are really bad, spray some Diatomaceous Earth.
If you do not like the smell of the squash bugs, wear garden gloves or some thin disposable gloves you can just throw away. These have become a bad problem in the southern states since winters do not usually get very cold anymore.
Timing is also a very good way to deter the pest in your garden. Plant your squash inside a little early and move outside before the squash bugs come in from the wild, or plant later when they have already found another place to live.
Squash vine borers come out about the end of June or early July. Plant an early summer squash crop to mature before then, and another after this time or do your winter squash late July or sooner if in a cool northern climate. Squash vine borers will also be killed by BT, just spray around the trunk of your squash plants just before and around the time your area reaches 1000 degree days.
Plant varieties that are more resistant to pests and disease. Buy or encourage some Praying Mantis, Ladybugs, or lacewings to live in your garden.
These days you can also get an upcoming insect alert app for your smart phone. These will usually tell you ahead of time about some new pests coming to, or hatching out in your area.
One really good way to prevent many of the insect problems is to use a foliage tea spray like Nettles or Comfrey. This will strengthen the plant and help them fight off almost any pests.
7.Timing.
There are lots of planting calendars and almanacs. With the climate changing, timing is becoming even more important than ever before. This is very important if you are in an area with more extreme high temperatures, or extreme rains from climate change. In many areas it is now possible to have fresh greens all fall, winter and spring. This might be a little more problematic in areas that have wide temperature swings, since some of the plants do not harden off properly.
The Biodynamic calendar. It has four classifications for plant days; Root, Leaf, Flower and Fruit. Planting or working and weeding a plant on a particular day can be used to enhance the part of the plant listed on the calendar. This calendar, is simple to use if you do not know the system. A free online Bio-dynamic calendar for your phone or computer. Not quite as specific as the original, but still very good and so convenient. Book mark it in your phone.
The original Maria Thune Biodynamic Calendar is very good, and can be purchased online, or ask your local book store if they have it, or will carry it. It is very well worth the price if you would like to have a much better understanding of the Bio-dynamic systems. There is a lot of information online, and online Biodynamic groups. Also consider permaculture for long term planning of your perennials.
Talk to your local Feed and Farm store. Many give away calendars or a version of farmers almanac. Also auto parts stores, the local pharmacy, etc give away calendars each year. Ask them to get the ones that have all the moon cycles, astrological signs and fishing days listed for each month.
Minerals and other Extra tips.
Bonus Ideas.
Just like people must have a broad spectrum of minerals to be healthy and make enzymes and hormones in the body, so do plants. These same minerals and others, feed the fungus and bacteria that feed your plants.
Epsom Salts is Magnesium Sulfate. Magnesium is a building block molecule for chlorophyll, and very important to the strong growth in a healthy green plant. If you live in the West or Southwest, your soil is probably quite alkaline and fairly high PH. Epsom Salt will also help bring down the PH of your soil. You could also add a small amount of Epsom salts to your triple mix if you live in the west where soils are more alkaline, or use a good bit less in the east.
Epsom salts are pretty heavy duty, so start with a small amount. I like to use a hand or miracle grow type sprayer to spread it evenly diluted under your plants. Two or three heaping tablespoons for about five or six hundred square feet. Water in well when done applying.
Like almost all plant nutrients, less more often, is better than too much all at once. Practice the Golden Mean. Not to much and not to little, just the right amount. You can always add more later if you think it is necessary. Organics are more forgiving if oversupplied, because they tend to break down more slowly than chemical types of fertilizer. Too much of some nutrients can cause big problems or disease.
Azomite. Azomite is an ancient volcanic ocean deposit from the time when the Permian Ocean covered much of the west. The minerals deposited and concentrated into one of the best broad spectrum balanced mineral supplements available. The minerals in Azomite are mostly colloidal and very easily and well absorbed by plants and animals. It is a Montmorillonite deposit, there are others on the continent that are also used for agriculture.
Do you have problems with mineral deficiency. Azomite has all the traces. One of these mineral deficiency's is Blossom End Rot on tomatoes and is usually a lack of calcium. You get a big brown blotch on a tomato that you think is going to be perfect. There are over seventy minerals in Azomite. A little goes a long way. This is one of my favorite, and I give it to my gardens and animals.
Azomite makes your fruits and vegetables taste much better. Plants grown with this are more disease resistant and healthier. They are also more nutritious and store longer and better.
If you live in an open area away from town or have chickens, or put Azomite on hay or other crops, you might have to protect your plants from critters with fencing or netting. They will love the flavor much more, but so will you.
There is also something called Greensand from a deposit in New Jersey. If you are close to the east coast, this is a good mineral supplement for your plants. Greensand has a very good reputation. Shipping is a consideration for both of the above mineral supplements but well worth using.
Granite or crusher fines. This is the fine small stuff left over from the sand and gravel plant, and is a good way to get trace minerals into your garden. They take a while to break down and become available to the plants. A few months up to a year or two if you have good bio-active soil. It will take a lot more than Azomite or Greensand. The up side is they will keep putting out minerals for a long while, and is usually quite inexpensive compared to Azomite or Greensand.
Watering
Watering. If you have a way to catch rain water from your roof, rainwater from a thunder storm has lots of free nitrogen in it. Give this to your garden and potted plants, they will love it.
You might have to water a bit more than before the climate started to get warmer, but water really is a great plant growth accelerator, and one of the delimiting factors in gardening. If you live in the west where it is really dry and hot, an early morning and early evening watering might be good. A really good wet/dry cycle is an excellent way to get your big plants to develop deep roots early in the season.
Raised Beds
Raised Beds. In places where you have heavy clay soil, or where your garden is in a low lying area, the raised bed is a great benefit. The soil warms faster in the spring. If you have lots of rain in the spring, or live where there is a summer Monsoon season, raised beds can help prevent root rot. It is also easier to work with less bending over. If possible always keep beds covered with mulch, or with a living green manure if your beds are dormant in the fall or winter. Even if it is just turnip or a small Clover, Fenugreek, or Vetch. Winter Field Beans, or Fava Beans which are fairly cold hardy if you are not to far north.
Raised beds are also great for no dig methods of gardening. Just keep adding more compost and then more mulch on top of the bed after every harvest. The mulch feeds the soil, suppresses weeds and keeps the soil cool in the summer, warmer in the winter, and helps prevent erosion.
No Till. Here is one of the No Till F.B. groups.
Some no till people just mix a bunch of different edible greens seed, and maybe onion with cover crop seed all together for a fall or early spring crop. Just pick or thin out for baby salad greens and eat; until the spacing is just right for them to mature.
Companion planting. Many plants will do better with other plants that are compatible. Many plants have different kinds of pests that like them, and others that pests do not. Intermixing plants from different families or growth habits can be beneficial to both when planted together properly. It is a little complicated but worth study if you are limited on space or looking to maximize production.
If you live in an area with a harsh climate. You can also just use one crop to protect or act as a nurse crop until others get established or mature.
A very simple and quick example is the Radish, Lettuce, Carrot Mix. Three rows right next to each other. The final spacing is to have the carrot at just the right distance to mature. The radish grows very quickly and marks rows early. The lettuce takes a little longer and helps protect the carrot when very small and getting established. The lettuce will be ready to start eating in a few weeks, or a month. It will protect the little carrots until they have some good size tops.
Check out “Square Foot Gardening” on the internet, or see if you can find the classic version of the original Rodale Press book “Square Foot Gardening”. Excellent for a small city garden.
Check out the book from Masanobu Fukuoka. The One Straw Revolution. and, A Natural Method of Gardening. Professor Fukuoka started a revolution in methods of reclaiming desert lands and restoring health to overused and abused farm lands world wide.
List of some suppliers. Peaceful Valley is a great supplier if you are in the west, or ordering light weight stuff. If you live up north Johnny’s Select Seeds is very good source for early maturing varieties. And one of my favorites Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. www.rareseeds.com
Remember, If you poison your garden you poison yourself.
If you pick up one end of the stick, you pick up the other.
Chemical fertilizers and Pesticides can kill the life in your soil, avoid them if you at all can.
Real organic. Bob Quinn interview.
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Afterword
When I was young there was a local dairy, a local slaughter house and local chicken houses. The “Green” revolution was just starting to get cranked up.
There were not a lot of chronic diseases. There was not a lot of obesity. There were lots of locally produced products at the grocery stores. Eat locally, grow locally, shop locally. You will feel better in many ways.
Bill Bradshaw UNM, 1974-1979 (Art and Philosophy).
Artist,
Writer, Teacher.
Gardener
Animal Lover
Student of Science and Life
Consultant to Organic Agriculture
Progressive Political Consultant
The Best Way To Judge Something is by the Results
It’s easier to work with nature, than to work against nature
Natural and Organic methods make better tasting food.
Healthy plants grow more nutritious foods.
More nutritious food makes healthy happy people.
These are a few of the Best Ideas I have Found
To Have Your Best Garden Yet.
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