Greenscape to save time and money Zanesville Times Recorder Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Compost On Every Corner RiverWired Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Switchgrass May Mean Better Soil ScienceDaily Take a look at an interesting article we found.
December 26, 2008
If you don't understand it at first, make fun of it. Seems to be the general rule of history.
A fate that befell a few things, like gravity, the Origin of the Species and the temerity of thinking a rocket ship can land on the moon. And then history discovers, somewhat sheepishly, that there may have been something to those strange unexplainable ideas after all.
Which brings us to Rudolf Steiner.
For the uninitiated, Steiner was a turn-of-the-century philosopher and spiritualist best known for founding anthroposophy, a school of philosophy that believed, among other notions, in angels, reincarnation and karma.
So you can understand why venturing into "real" science with his theory of biodynamic agriculture was mainly dismissed as the work of a “crackpot.”
Biodynamics, in Steiner's view, delicately balances the holistic development and interrelationship of soil, plants, and animals as a closed, self-nourishing system and has a modest goal of healing the earth.
His lecture series on the subject, documented in "What is Biodynamics?" might have hurt more than it helped. With phrases like "womb of our Mother Earth" and "It is our mission to reshape her to become a spirit-filled work of art."
Steiner thought healthy farming was part of biological and spiritual network. The emerging reliance on chemical pesticides and soil additives — particularly the unholy trinity of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium — disturbed those systems and produced weak, nutritionally deficient plants. His prescription was to let nature do the work of maintaining healthy soil, by enriching the ground with a broad spectrum of plant and animal waste —compost.
Then, Steiner being Steiner suggested such exotic composts as cow intestines with camomile and another one with red deer bladders. I'm sure he was on the right tracts, but such quirks made it easy for the emerging agrichemical industry to mock his ideas, which were largely ignored by the few farmers who heard of them.
But a handful of biodynamic converts held on and started to amass a body of research supporting Steiner's principles. They found more and more farmers willing to question conventional wisdom, as Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird's' "Secrets of the Soil" explains.
Contemporary food guru Michael Pollan echoes many of Steiner's arguments in his best-selling "In Defense of Food." A successful conversion to biodynamics is also chronicled in the documentary "The Real Dirt on Farmer John."
More often than not progress in just about any field relies on a few supposed nutcases willing to question orthodoxy. Without them, we'd still be afraid of falling off the edge of the earth and offending dragons.
And even if you don't know a trowel from a weeder, you might appreciate this fact: in a taste test matching 10 pairs of biodynamic and conventionally-made wine, nine of the biodynamic wines were judged superior to their counterparts.
If you do garden, or farm — even if you don't have any innards handy—you can do quite nicely with a compost of your own making.
Who knows? You might come up with a concoction that would have made Steiner envious. And this is a forum your ideas will bear fruit.
Maybe even a vegetable or two.
Dynamic Composting Tips and Tricks Garden Growth Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Does Your Organic Garden Soil Look Like This? 1stop Organic Gardening Take a look at an interesting article we found.
Two wise ways to save groundwater, soil fertility The Daily Star Take a look at an interesting article we found.
still thinking about today...
Who's your favorite visionary?
5% 14% 23% 23% 9% 27%
Many humans don't seem to understand a few basics: (1) we are part of nature, not aside from it; (2) just like weeds out of control, our unconstrained reproduction has created an unstable situation; (3) most 'systems' in nature are unstable (which explains why 99.99 percent of all species have 'gone extinct'); (4) the planet is NOT 'at risk' -- it has been here for billions of years and will be here for billions more; (5) the human race (like all other species) is an 'endangered species'; (6) the human brain is designed for short term thinking (hours, months or years) and not for long-term thinking (decades, centuries, or eons); (7) we are 'problem solving machines' and assume all problems have solutions (our default setting).
What are we to make of "the holistic development and interrelationship of soil, plants, and animals as a closed, self-nourishing system and has a modest goal of healing the earth."? Aren't humans part of the closed, self-nourishing system called planet Earth? And the last time I checked, nitrogen, phosphorus, and pottasium (all on the periodic table of elements) are all natural (along with arsenic, selenium, and uranium, just to mention a few). No supernatural elements on the periodic table, folks!
Should I care if humans give plants too much of a given element, or in the wrong proportions? (Agricultural science and agricultural extension offices wage an unending war on ignorance, specifically the idea that 'more is better'.) The problem isn't in our use of chemicals. The problem is that humans are 'short-term thinkers', don't follow instructions, and act irrationally. (Explain to me why we worry about pesticides but not the militarization of bio-tech to generate incurable pathogens...) (And explain why we prattle on about pesticides when the biggest 'pesticides' -- nuclear weapons -- are cheerfully accepted as 'part of the human environment'....)
It seems unkind to mention that no matter how well folks eat, the human record so far is that every person ever born has died within 125 years or so. And it was less than 15 years ago when millions died in the Congo, and were basically ignored by the rest of their 'human brothers'.
The human race has bigger problems than pesticides, herbicides and artificial fertilizers. And the problem is that humans are badly designed to live in the artificial (but natural) civilization they have built for themselves.
Oh, a plug: try playing 'Spore' for awhile. It's fun and educational (especially when you get to the intergallactic level!)
Gee, what a somber posting I just did :-/ . My 'takeaway' is not to live in despair or gloom (though some think that's where I'm at...). It is enjoy this brief life as the precious gift none of us have earned and which none of us can ever fully appreciate. (Cancer survivors, combat veterans, and so on will understand that simply waking up is a great way to start a day!)
It is a surprise... almost a shock to look now at the place where we grew up and see how small was our world.
The entire city lot, even without the barn, amounts to not much and the area devoted to the garden cannot have been more than twelve by twenty feet.
The "pit"- we didn't know from composting- had been a burning enclosure down the block until it was taken down and reassembled in our yard. It consisted of split, interlocking, concrete ring sections that were stacked to create what looked like a squat silo with random open spaces on its sides the largest of those at the bottom.
Fallen leaves and woody stems from the cut back peonies were, at the time, burned in the gutter. Some of you are lucky enough to know or remember that wonderful autumn smell.
Almost everything else that grew was tossed into the pit as well as, coffee grounds; egg shells, fish heads and guts, and the piles of cores and peels from canning not to mention manure from the milkman's horse and that; mostly gathered by opportunistic early risers whose shovels were never put away.
A hoe resembling a fireplace tool was used to extract the rich, moist, black product from the one foot openings on either side of the pit bottom onto a limestone apron stopping the moment anything-leaf or stem was still recognizable. Then, it was carried by the shovelful to the garden nearby to be worked into the "Soil."
When that plot of earth was worked up in the spring, a small boy's arm could be plunged in almost straight down without much effort. Boards, saved for the purpose, were needed to stand on while planting rows.
If there were a super abundance of one thing, say, when a ton of beets was processed for canning, only a layer of the tough tops and cut ends found its way into the pit. The rest went into an old well.
Though we picked up a lot of dog waste, I can't recall what was done with it except to say that none of it found its way into the pit.
We grew; onions, leaf lettuce; carrots; radishes- both red and the hot icicle variety; wax beans; wonderful tomatoes and beets.
Apart from the sun ripened tomatoes which practically fell into our palms to be eaten where we stood, my favorite home garden experience was when the over-sown beets were thinned early on: a basket of the dime-sized, easily extracted little gems was taken in, washed and prepared; root-end, greens and all in a small amount of water.
The tender beets and greens were served in their own beautiful liquor with salt, pepper and butter and though I am sure that they were but one element in a meal with several, I could not as I sit here of a cold winter morning in a house filled with snoozing loved ones, tell you what any of those might have been- for money.
One of my earliest (and fondest) memories is planting marigolds and zinnia with my Mom, and then string beans! It was so cool when the little 'loop' poked out of the earth, followed a day or two later by the cotelydons -- fat little guys. I was about four....
And then (back before they were 'treated') sticking four tootpicks into half of a sweet potato, putting the potato into a Mason jar full of water -- and waiting. I had the purple vines and green leaves twining around and about my bed as they sent their tendrils here and there. My bedroom was a great place for growing sweet potato vines!
We're thinking about plowing up the back yard to plant a garden this year.
Can anyone recommend a good reference book for how to prepare the soil, etc, etc.?
My parents had an enormous garden for years....I got a section to plant whatever I wanted. It was magic watching the sprouts burst forth. But alas, lack of time and other unimportant things have gotten between me and mother earth. It's time to restore the connection.
My sweetie and I are about to make the jump. I've got some money in my pocket burning a hole about the size of 200 acres on Cape Breton. I know, I know, how about a more remote place... I want to get there while I'm still young-ish, plant orchards, grow food, raise some animals, and sail everywhere. I want my kids to grow up on 80 acres of fields and meadows and 120+ acres of forest. They can have horses. They can help me build a stone-walled "man cave" of a house inside the forested land, deep in the cool shadows of the old growth conifers (I'll post a photo of the Isles Man Cave here in a minute).
Peterman, you dastard! I'll send you post cards from Cape Breton so you can see what the Eye has wrought.
I'm fortunate to live in an area where organic cotton is grown. The waste product after the cotton goes to the gin, called cotton trash, makes a wonderful compost, especially when combined with the manure from my horses. I get a few truckloads of cotton trash delivered every year, and it gets incorporated into my vegetable and flower gardens the following year. My 126 acres is totally chemical-free, yet I get some of the nicest fruits, vegetables and flowers in the area.
It's no surprise that farmers who rely on chemicals for fertilizer, weed control, anti-fungals, etc. have some of the highest incidence of cancers. Even things that are easily available to consumers present what should be an unacceptable level of risk. A popular weed control spray and some pesticides are basically the nerve gas Sarin, for example. I've yet to see manure or compost linked as cancer triggers in any studies, so I'm happy to stick with those.
Shandonista, it might not hurt to get a Ph balance kit from a local garden store. Knowing if your soil is more alkaline or acidic will help you know what types of plants will do well and how to amend your soil if you want plants that wouldn't normally produce well in your kind of soil.
For my flowers the #1 best fertilizer I've found is produced at a local meat packing plant. They compost what they can't package and ship and it is amazing for all types of plants. I do keep plenty of watered coffee grounds on my Hydrangeas...keeps them blue in my alkaline soil and keeps them blooming constantly. The local coffee roasting/brewing house is half a block away from my office, if I bring a 5 gallon bucket, they will fill it up with grounds for free, love it.
My mother always had a gallon bucket next to the sink in our home. Anything plant or animal based went into the bucket. Chemical or metal based items went in the trash and all paper products were burned in the fire places (the ash stored in buckets and used as ice melt in the winter). At the end of every day we had to carry out the bucket and dump it in the wooden frame in the garden to be composted. As kids we thought it was slightly crazy and more than a little bit gross. Now as adults in the 21st century we realise the value of composting and that my parents have known all along what the cool "green" crowd is now telling everyone.
Posted a video of my gift to my husband. Its pretty hard to keep a teething, 8-week old puppy a secret, but we managed to suprise him. She is now asleep on my lap while I'm checking out road conditions on the internet.
http://nachista.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-eve.html
Aaaaahhhhhhhhhh........ just a soft, contented, heavy sighhhhhhh for now.
Be very well everyone.
Jonathan, Best of luck to you on your grand adventure. It sounds like a dream come true. Maybe some day I'll be driving distance from you.
Be well
Compost... reminds me of septic fields (so green! so organic!)
As a small kid I was convinced my mom was psychic... 'Have you been playing down by the septic tank?' 'Noooooo....' 'Yes you HAVE!'
How did she know I was lying? How did she know?
Incidentally, in case you haven't figured it out... the reason Japanese and Indians take their shoes off before they enter the house: (1) They were farming civilizations until recently. (2) They used 'organic human fertilizer' to make their crops grow strong and healthy... Now, there are certain things you do NOT want to track into the house...
Related custom: Eating with one's right hand ONLY (in Arabic societies). Similar etiology!
Even though Steiner was a bit of a fruitcake he did have a few good ideas. He had so many that the law of averages had to kick in. Myself, I can't grow anything. Had a ficus a few years ago that was referred to as the Ficus stick. But thanks for making a difficult subject comprehensible.
I think Carlin had the best take on this "heal the earth" business. His bit on styrofoam.
Thanks for the ag agent tip. I totally forgot about our Clemson Univ extension agents. They used to test soil for free. I hope they are still using my tax dollars for this wise purpose.
I hope you all have a terrific day after. Yet another family do to attend and then glorious sleep. I wonder if the food fest we've enjoyed this season has something to do with the economy. I haven't eaten or cooked this much in years.
I was miserable from all the food! Today I'm full of stiletto attitude. Dudes beware.
This topic reminded me of the many times, in Ireland, when we'd be cutting across the fields to the Mourne Mountains, and the farmers would have their spreaders out spraying the manure slurry on their holdings. Irish farmers are generally too poor and/or frugal for the expensive chemical fertilizers, and tend to be 'green' from necessity. But omg, the SMELL! We ran up the mountains to the Silent Valley dam to escape. When we came down it was off to Brennan's for a poke (this is a marvelous vanilla ice cream cone with a wee chocolate Flake stuck in it-scrummy!). Fields were created on the Mourne hillsides with big JCBs (backhoes) pulling the rocks out of the ground and piling them up all round to ditch the fields. A ditch is a fence in Ireland. Seawrack was brought up to improve the soil. An arduous, backbreaking process, but the taties were floury and wondrous, and cows who grazed there gave the best milk in the world. The dairy products in Ireland take a back seat to none, and the fresh vegetables available locally, along with the fish we'd dander to the harbour to buy fresh off the boats, made memorable meals for us every one. I can feel the harbour breeze blowing my hair into knots this minute, and the wild waves crashing into the seawall, the men sitting and repairing their nets among the lobster pots-Norman Rockwell would've been in his glory, so he would...
Sharing my mind's eye with you-happy New Year to all.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Valley_Reservoir
http://www.yell.com/listings/DoFindListings/717132/Brennans-Petrol-Station/Petrol-Stations
I forgot this one. I spent many grand times in the country round Newcastle. The Brandy Pad, Maggie's Lep (that's how it's pronounced locally-not a typo), and the Bogey Hill were important landmarks and touchpoints for the girls as we navigated our domain. Probably wayyy more than you'll ever want to know...
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Newcastle,-County-Down
Interesting pair of photos on your 'Silent_Valley_Reservoir link, Olivia: full up and drought!
My grandmother always had this triangler shaped tray & in one corner it had holes in it, it ALWAYS sat in her sink. As a child I nver understood what she used it for. Well it was for the Pit, the same type as the one Stoney described. EVERYTHING went into tha tlittle tray & was carried outside by Grandpa.
Now that G-ma is gone my mother has the tray at our cottage up north. We have continued on the tradition of havng a pit & using it to help the plants up north. I happen to be more interested in it than in years past, as a co-worker brought me back some Tulip Bulbs from Amsterdam this fall & I have planted them in my "Secret Garden" up there.
Nachista ~ Too Cute, what have you named her? Sir Boyscout sure looked surprised & happy to have her.
I love today's poll Question although only 7% have voted for Madame Curie. I wonder why, if not for her research using Uranium & Radioology One has to wonder where Cancer Research may or may not be in todays' world of medical science. Would we be behind? would we possibly be ahead? does it not matter?
Nitrogen traditionally was "mined' from guano, i.e. batshite, which also contains phosphorous. Having spent much of the afternoon outstanding in someone else's field ( with a shotgun in my hand) I can't claim to have read what Mr. Steiner would advocate in the place of "Man of war" as fertilizer. Tiny fish?
I offer you these illustrative and possibly instructive stories:
1) Harry Truman is supposed to have remarked in front of his daughter and guests that the White House lawn was in need of some manure. His daughter asked her mother "Can't you make him say 'fertilizer' instead of 'manure' "? It sounds so unrefined."
Bess replied "My dear, you don't know how long it took me to get him to say 'manure' ."
2) A boy went to off to the state Ag college and graduated. Afterwards he returned home and announced his plans to become a chicken farmer. He ordered a gross of chicks, went down to the bus station to pick them up and went out back and dutifully planted each one, after which they dutifully died. He ordered another 144 and this time carefully planted each one with its head sticking up out of the ground, but these, too, died soon thereafter.
He wrote to the Extension service, explaning what he had done and asking for their advice. He didn't have to wait long before a letter came, thanking him for his inquiry and offering this simple instruction:
PLEASE SEND SOIL SAMPLE.
Shandonista,
Lasagna Gardening - by Patricia Lanza, a friend of mine, goes to my church -
The book: http://www.amazon.com/Lasagna-Gardening-Layering-Bountiful-Gardens/dp/0875969623/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1230339955&sr=1-1
Here is a good website:
http://ourgardengang.tripod.com/lasagna_gardening.htm
May I also recommend a great website full of backyard garden information?
http://www.kitchengardeners.org/
I grew up on a full working farm, we went so far as to make our own soap, and the only thing we didn't grow was wheat to make flour. The grandchildren took turns grinding corn in a hand crank grinder to make corn meal to take to the mill to trade for flour. My family was/is just plain country, in the mountains of North Carolina. Vegetables of all kinds, acre of green beans, corn and potatoes, cherry trees, apple orchard, grape vineyard, strawberry patch (sneaking in to Granny's -yes we called her Granny - strawberry patch got me the worst spanking, almost as bad as the whole church episode.) We raised our own beef, pork, chicken...you get the idea. I have a greenhouse now along with my garden, we raise two pigs this year, have chickens, no beef yet. I can not imagine a day without playing in the dirt! When I lived in Europe I was very grateful to my German landlord for letting me garden in the small yard out side my basement apartment.
The Lasagna garden works for containers too...
Burpee Seed and Gurney seed have compact container plant seeds. I like to grow container plants in the greenhouse and in the garden just because of the high yield, might as well get a big bang for your buck. Besides these two companies have dependable seeds- nothing worse than planting then every forth or fifth making a poor plant. My personal favorite tomato: Better Boys - nice flavor, meat to seed ratio, does not have that acid flavor...
May I also add: organic is the only way to go! Compost, compost, compost (it does not smell like people think, raw veggie scraps only.) If you have a lot of leaves -and can in your area- burn them and put the ashes in the garden area, burn them in the garden area if you can. Ashes from your fireplace - if you have them. The Garden Primer is a very good book to get too, but a bit wordy.
As nachista said, check your pH balance, contact your local cooperative extension - you can also go online for most local coops and download MOUNTAINS of information.
rings--
Madame Curie was my choice. Yeah, 'cause she's a woman, and yeah, 'cause she was Polish. But she was amazing - two, I think, Nobel Prizes, her daughter won one, also. Such a shame that the early radiation pioneers had to sacrifice their lives for their science. Roentgen, many others, too.
My hubby is old enough to remember when kids got their shoe sizes determined by fluoroscope. No cancer of the toes yet!
I'd like to see Peterman talk about the theory of hormesis....that is, that all life forms not only need a certain amount of radiation to live but also that a little extra may stimulate our systems a bit. We evolved being bombarded by it; there are some studies which show that the total loack of ionizing radiation is detrimental to development. IF our immune systems need bacterial/viral/allergic challenges, perhaps the same is true of our DNA repair mechanisms.
As sure as I was weaned too early, the tall and far distant hill in that Silent Valley picture has a nipple on top.
Our cup damn well runneth over. There are so stinking many choices to be made regarding Cape Breton. Anybody wanna go with me? My sweety has to stay home with the Wee Heathens, but I have to go put some boots in the mud and get some decent intel on the options on the Cape. All comers.
Jonathan-Would love to explore Cape Breton *wistfully*. You're just right about Binion. Slieve Binion (slieve is Irish for mountain) looks like a breast to everyone, not just you, dear. Sorry to hear you were taken off the tit too soon. That's always traumatic...
Cynthia-I'll make a note. Better Boys, when I plant my 'maters this Spring. Thanks! I always grow tomatoes, peppers, radishes, herbs, maybe some carrots. I'm expanding my garden spot, so who knows what I'll get up to?
Doc-No such thing as a drought up there. It rains almost every day, like in Hawaii. The joke is, if you can see Slieve Donard (the tallest mtn), it's going to rain. If you can't see it, it IS raining. The rain is lovely and soft, nothing like a nuisance. People just shrug it off, it'll be gone shortly and the sun will come out. The weather there is wonderful, conducive to long walks on the beach, and lashings of tea and toasted wheaten farls with strawberry jam and clotted cream. If you go, pop into the Cookie Jar for a dozen mixed scones and a sliced square wheaten. You won't be sorry.
Jonathan, I'll be there with you in spirit.
Rings, Sir Boyscout has named her Annabelle, but is already calling her Annie for short. Molly is still in the adjustment phase, we considered name the puppy Lopey, short for interloper, because that's how Molly is viewing her. *sigh* Its going to be a long adjustment, neither of the dogs are letting us sleep much.