Archive for July, 2007
July 30th, 2007 at 09:28pm
Under Green Housekeeping
Attack that yucky junk stuck in your refrigerator and on your stove top without attacking the environment.
The potatoes boil over. The juice spills. Life gets busy and you forget to clean up on the spot. A week later, you realize that there is yucky junk baked all around the stove top burners or congealed on the refrigerator shelves. TV would tell you to get out an aerosol can or a bottle of corrosive chemicals.
Don’t do it!
Instead, reach for the salt.
The Green Refrigerator
One of the worst things we get stuck in our own refrigerator is maple syrup. No matter how careful we are, little drops of it run down the bottle, eventually forming an almost rock-hard pool. The following remedy will work for puddles of dried juice, salad dressing, liquid vitamins, or just about any substance that spills and hardens.
Shake a good little pile of salt onto the puddle. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Soak your sponge or scrubbie in very hot water, and use elbow grease to start scrubbing the puddle away. As you will see, the salt ‘magically’ begins to absorb and break up the puddle so that it can be sloughed off easily.
Plain old salt also really gets the bottoms of your vegetable drawers spotless using this same easy, green procedure.
Bad smelling refrigerator? Provided it’s not something going on with the mechanics of your appliance, stale smells in the fridge can easily be absorbed with the following trick:
Cut an orange in half. Scrape out the pulp. Fill the orange half with a couple of tablespoons of salt. Set in the refrigerator. Within a few days, the refrigerator should smell much better inside.
The Green Stove
In general, the stove burners can be harder to clean than refrigerator messes. However, try the same salt soak process described above. If this doesn’t work, try doing the same thing but using baking soda instead of salt. Be sure to use Bob’s Red Mill baking soda - not Arm & Hammer. Arm & Hammer tests on animals. Read more about this subject.
If all else fails, think back to your childhood, when you found it so funny to pour vinegar into baking soda. Put baking soda in the burner trough. Drizzle with vinegar (white, red, apple cider, balsamic, or any kind will do). When it foams up, get scrubbing. We’ve yet to meet an unhappy burner that didn’t respond with joy to this zippy treatment.
Why green cleaning is better
The majority of common, popular household cleaning products marketed to Americans contain seriously dangerous chemicals and toxins. You don’t want to breathe this stuff, pour it into the water supply, or have it anywhere around cooking and food storage surfaces. In other words, you do not want substances like:
- Bleach
- Ammonia
- Petroleum products
- Formaldehyde
- Perfumes
…in your mouth!
Our pioneer ancestors prided themselves on keeping spotlessly clean houses, and they did it all with natural products. You can, too. It’s easier, cheaper, and safer for you and your planet.
By admin
July 28th, 2007 at 11:31pm
Under Green Body
Does Your Hair Look Blah?
Tired Of Dull, Lifeless Tresses?
Chances are, it’s that fancy hair conditioner that you are spending $14 a bottle for that has left your hair looking like Spanish moss rather than your crowning glory. Read the label of your current brand. Do you even know what most of the things are on that scary long list? I’m betting you don’t. Do you really want to pour unknown substances onto your scalp which is covered with pores that absorb everything that touches them? Of course not. That is, after all, the part of your skin that covers and protects your brain…a rather important organ!
The Truth Is…
The ingredients in your current hair conditioner may not only be not so great for your hair, they may be actual toxic poison. Here’s a short list of the bad guys, found in countless popular hair conditioners:
DEA, MEA & TEA
Causes kidney and liver cancer…what more need I say?
Formaldehyde
You may remember it from science lab in school. Formaldehyde is a preservative that quickly penetrates the skin and is incredibly carcinogenic (cancer causing). It also causes syndromes of the immune system such as Chronic Fatique Syndrome.
Isopropyl alcohol
A petroleum byproduct (as in car oil!) that is used in antifreeze and furniture polish.
Polyethylene glycol
Yet another petroleum byproduct. Used in oven cleaner (I’m not kidding!). Causes premature aging of the skin.
Propylene glycol
A synthetic petrochemical (car oil, again!). When factory workers deal with this stuff, they have to wear masks, gloves and goggles, but your hair conditioner company wants you to rub it right into your scalp. It’s known to the FDA to cause damage to your brain, kidneys and liver but the FDA continues to look the other way so that cosmetic corporations can keep using this great stuff in your hair conditioner.
Sodium lauryl sulphate (SLS)
Also known as Sodium laureth sulphate or SLES - actually makes your cells mutate. It damages and causes mutation of the brain, heart, liver and kidneys and, according to the American College of Toxicology, can cause mutations of children’s eyes. This product is so hard to avoid, but make every effort to do so.
Tea Tree Oil and Lavender
In themselves, natural substances derived from a plants. However, recent studies have found that Tea Tree Oil and Lavender Oil mimics the female hormone estrogen and overexposure to this for women and girls can have serious reproductive health side effects. Men and boys should also avoid Tea Tree Oil because of the estrogen which unbalances correct male hormones and can lead to disturbing, unwanted side effects.
There are numerous other toxic and carcinogenic ingredients in popular hair conditioners. The above is just a sample.
But if these substances are toxic, why do companies use them?
The answer is that these substances are cheap for manufacturers to buy. Many of them are the byproducts left over from the manufacture of a completely different product. For example, Fluoride is a byproduct that is scrubbed off the smokestacks of Phosphate factories in Florida. No one had any use for it until some genius decided it could be sold to toothpaste manufacturers as a marketable ingredient. As the story goes, Fluoride, once considered a useless toxic waste, was then billed to the public as a wonderful tooth-saving miracle. Don’t take my word for this. Research it for yourself. This is how a huge number of the ingredients wind up in cosmetics.
But that’s so wrong, isn’t it?
Yes. But remember…corporations, for the most part, care about making money…not about you.
But I want to look nice. Won’t my hair be hideous if I don’t buy Hair Conditioner?
The short answer here is no. Cats have beautiful silky, shiny hair and none of them use conditioner. The human body was designed to grow hair on it and no special treatment is required to maintain the hair in a physically healthy state.
The long answer, and the one I hope you’ll really like, is that I have a simple green hair tip that will make your hair shinier and nicer, without you absorbing toxic chemicals into your head or poisoning the water you drink! Yay!
The fact of the matter is, bad water and dirty air does take its toll on our hair and skin. Whether we live in the country or the city, our external selves are accosted by many irritants. If, in addition to this, you are pouring petro-chemicals and toxins onto your head, it’s little wonder you think of your hair as being some sick, unhappy entity that needs urgent, daily care.
THROW OUT YOUR COMMERCIAL CONDITIONER
GO TO THE STORE AND BUY A BOTTLE OF ORGANIC OLIVE OIL
What follows is the BEST GREEN HAIR CONDITIONER RECIPE EVER
Once a month, treat your hair to an all-natural, planet-friendly, human-friendly warm olive oil treatment that will make your hair super soft, super shiny and bouncing with life again.
Step 1) Depending upon the length of your hair, pour 2-5 Tablespoons of olive oil into a small glass.
Step 2) Fill a bowl with 2 inches of hot water.
Step 3) Set the bottom of the glass in the water and briskly stir the olive oil with a spoon until it becomes nice and warm to the touch.
Step 4) Wrap your shoulders in a towel and liberally work the olive oil all through your hair with your fingers.
Step 5) Sweep the towel up over your hair to cover it. Relax for five minutes…read a book, give your husband a kiss, look out the window at the birds.
Step 6) Take a shower and wash your hair twice to get out all of the olive oil. Let dry naturally…do NOT use a hair dryer.
Your hair will look nice the first day, but it’s the second day that you are likely to really notice how much fuller and livelier your hair has become. To me, it feels like my hair has suddenly sprung to new life.
Organic olives are full of good oils that moisturize both hair and skin. In fact, one of the benefits of this monthly treatment is softer hands!
You mean only use this green olive oil conditioner ONCE a month?
That’s what works for me. The media would have you believe that you must constantly be doing something to your hair, your skin, your toenails. It’s a nice lie that helps them make money. It doesn’t help you. Honestly, obsessing about your external appearance makes you vain and unhappy in the long run. Once a month seems like a good balance to me. It allows me to do something nice for myself, but doesn’t take up valuable time I could be spending doing something for somebody else.
But does this green hair conditioner really work?
I’ve had numerous strangers stop me on the street and in the supermarket to compliment me on my hair or ask what products I use. I’m not trying to sell you anything here, so you can take my word on that. People often look kind of taken aback when I don’t reel off the name off some famous brand. My hair is chestnut colored with a natural ripple in it, and it comes down about 8 inches below my hips. I try not to be vain, but I’m proud of it, and I firmly believe folks take notice of it because it has been let to grow long and luxurious naturally…without chemicals, dyes or other weird additives. The opinions of people I don’t know have never meant much to me, but when my husband likens my hair to a shimmering cascade, I certainly do feel pleased.
In the past, nearly all women had long, natural hair. It’s only post-war humans who have come to look upon hair as some sort of problem or terrible issue that must constantly be grappled with. Give yourself a break from this needless, media-induced worry. Give your hair a break from the chemicals. Try my green olive oil hair conditioner for a happier you and a happier planet.
By admin
July 28th, 2007 at 09:38pm
Under Organic Gardening
Organic tomatoes that are fresh from the vine are some of the most delicious crops you can grow in your home garden.
With all of the varieties of tomatoes - from beefsteak to cherry to the wide assortment of heirloom tomatoes - there are many options to consider when growing these vegetables in your organic garden. This is one crop that you can grow throughout the summer and into fall, and the difference between your own and tomatoes commerically grown in a greenhouse is easy to taste.
You can, in fact, grow your own tomatoes in a small greenhouse if you have one. Grown correctly in this environment, your tomato production can begin early in the season and extend well past the time when tomatoes are normally available to grow outside. The problem with most commerically-grown, conventional tomatoes is that they are picked when still green and are ripened in an artifical manner. If you can grow your own tomatoes in a greenhouse to enjoy when they are fully ripe, then by all means do so. But here, we’re going to focus on the average home gardener, growing tomatoes outside in summer during the height of the tomato growing season. First, some basic facts about caring for this favorite vegetable.
Tomatoes like it to be hot
Whether you are starting from seed or transplanting tomato starts, be sure that the area you are growing your plants in receives full sunlight. This means that the tomato plot of your organic garden must get at least six hours of sunlight in one day.
Tomatoes need a good amount of water
In order to grow tomatoes with the most flavor, the plants must receive enough water and receive it consistently. It is helpful to add a mulch around your plants after they are about a month old. A drip system will help you maintain a constant, controlled amount of moisture, but if you water by hand, make sure to water only at ground level, avoiding the leaves. Also, water in the morning or afternoon and stay away from evening or night time watering.
Give ‘em plenty of space
In order to best fight disease, your tomato plants need a good amount of space between one another in order to maintain the best air circulation. If the plants are packed too closely together, there isn’t enough room for good air to keep moving through and your tomatoes will be vulnerable to fungus and disease. 1 1/2′ between plants is, at best, the minimum distance you should plant. A more ideal range would be 2′ - 2 1/2′ between your plants. It can be a matter of space with the small organic gardener. If you don’t have a lot of room for growing your different crops, then you may have to plant tomatoes closer together. But you may consider simply planting less tomatoes and getting a more quality crop, rather than having more plants closer together and going for quantity.
Make sure they have a good, solid root structure
When grown in a greenhouse, some tomato seedlings can become a bit straggled. If you have the beginnings of a long plant with comparitively shorter stems, transplant them to your garden with the entire stem underground horizontally instead of vertical. To new growers, this tactic may seem strange, but the neat thing here is that the plant will then grow roots all along the length of the stem and send new stems up. You then have a larger, stronger plant growing up from a more stable root structure. Obviously, more space needs to be taken into consideration when you transplant a seedling in this manner.
Don’t spray!
It may be an obvious piece of advice when talking about organic gardening, but for some newer gardeners, the temptation to use a little pesticide on your plants when you see tomato-eating caterpillars making their way along the stems may just be too great to ignore. Don’t do it! For the larger insects like caterpillars, just remove the little guys by hand. For smaller bugs like whitefly, we’ve found the best organic tactic is to take a little garlic and rub it all along the leaves and stems of any infected plants. The smaller bugs won’t like the garlic and will stay away from it, leaving your tomato plant alone.
Tomatoes and potatoes don’t mix
When setting up your organic garden plots, it’s a good idea to remember that you should keep related species of plants as far away from one another possible in your crop rotation. Tomatoes are in the same family, Solanaceae, as potatoes. Once you’ve finished with your potato harvest, don’t plant your tomatoes in the bed that your potatoes were just in. There should ideally be a few years of rotation with other crops through your garden before tomatoes should occupy the same space. For small gardeners who don’t have a lot of crops in their rotation, it’s probably best not to grow both tomatoes or potatoes. If you do wish to grow these two crops as your only crops, then the wisest course of action would probably be to simply not do a crop rotation and let each type of crop stay in their own plots for several years. If you have a big enough piece of land, you can then move your garden to a different place while the original land goes fallow for a few years.
Now that we’ve covered some basics, let’s take a look at some favorite varieties of tomatoes, so that you can get some inspiration about which kinds you may like to try growing yourself.
Beefsteak Tomatoes
These large varieties of tomatoes can be bigger than your hand, and are a favorite among many for both their large size and delicious flavor. You will have a longer waiting period from seed to harvest, but for many people, the quality of these tomatoes makes it worth the wait.
Roma Tomatoes
These longer, cylindrical-shaped tomatoes don’t generally have the same juiciness as their larger cousins. As such, many people grow roma tomatoes in order to make sauces with them and to use them in canning. If you’re planning to grow a lot of tomatoes in order to make tomato sauce for canning or freezing over the winter, then this variety of fruit may be the one for you.
Cherry Tomatoes
Small, sweet, and easy to grow, cherry tomatoes are a favorite of the patio gardener. These plants grow swiftly and produce a good harvest of fruit when cared for properly. They can be tossed in with a green salad or cut into halves and cooked up with a vegetable pasta. They also make a terrific snack just on their own.
By admin
July 28th, 2007 at 08:40pm
Under Organic Gardening
Make your organic garden sustainable by using good crop rotation.
“In a word, crop rotation means variety, and variety gives stability to biological systems.” - Eliot Coleman, The New Organic Grower
One of the most shortsighted things that modern agriculture has done to our landscape is the development of the monoculture crop. For thousands of years of agriculture practices among human civilization, small and even moderately large cultures have successfully grown and harvested their own crops for generations using sustainable practices such as crop rotation.
What we mean by sustainable agriculture is a system by which we do not deplete the land of essential nutrients through our growing of crops, a pattern that forces many farmers to supplement the soil with harmful fertilizers. Amending the soil continually in this manner (instead of using good organic soil preparation practices) means that time and resources are wasted when they wouldn’t have to be with proper sustainable agricultural practices that would naturally keep the land productive and fertile for generations. As we will see in our more in-depth discussion of crop rotation below, rotating your crops will lead to better pest management and improved soil conditions and soil structure. Crop rotation is simply a good step towards keeping your own organic vegetable garden indefinitely productive and capable of producing the best crops, year-round.
With any monoculture crop like wine grapes, the same piece of land is used endlessly for years on end with the same crop grown over and over again. This leads to more pest problems, as a permanent source of food for certain insects will make their population increase. In modern agriculture, this will inevitably lead to an increase in harmful pesticides that are put into the environment to try to combat these problems. Monoculture also leads to the depletion of the soil nutrients, as the same crop needs the same elements present in the soil year after year. As we have discussed above, without those nutrients returning to the soil, new elements need to be added each growing season in the form of artificially-produced fertilizers. These fertilizers will be used up with the growing of that crop for one season, and then more money will have to be pumped into obtaining more to make the soil able to handle next year’s crop.
We have lost sight of the basics of agriculture. If we could step back in time to heavily agrarian cultures present in Central America or even in Europe many centuries ago, we would find societies that were entirely dependent on growing their own crops able to do so without our modern techniques of fertilizers and pesticides. How did they do this so successfully? First, they didn’t have the means to transport perishable foods like vegetables over long distances in cool, refrigerated vehicles as we do today. Second, they didn’t need to. Communities were completely self-sufficient instead of being as specialized and divided as our society is today. Back then, squash, corn, and beans were grown on the same piece of land and used the natural, inherent qualities of the crop to give nutrients back to the soil. Today, we are quite accustomed to getting our tomatoes from Canada, our apples from New Zealand, and our potatoes from the Midwest. Modern transportation has made this possible. But the incredible costs associated with transportation makes this a more expensive way to obtain vegetables that simply aren’t as fresh and have the potential to be exposed to dangerous bacteria along the transportation route if they are not contained in the appropriate manner.
Crop Rotation is a system in which you can grow all of your organic vegetables in your own garden and naturally return the nutrients to the soil for each successive year. Basically, it works like this. Since different crops require different nutrients from the soil, growing one in one plot the first year and then moving it to another plot the second year allows it to grow in fresh soil that it hasn’t been depleted during the previous year. The crop taking its place is, in turn, exposed to new nutrients and can grow well in new soil. After the harvest, when the remainder of these plants are tilled into the ground in readiness for your soil preparation for the following season and green manures are allowed to grow as a cover crop, nitrogen and other trace elements from the crops are returned to the earth for use by the next crop to occupy its space. For those with large pieces of land, crop rotation can be even more effective if you use one part of your land for your garden. After growing crops on that piece of land for a few years, allow it to go fallow or grow a cover crop on it for a few years while you relocate your garden to another part of your property. Once the soil has had time to build itself back up, move your garden back to the original spot and repeat the process with your other field.
So, let’s jump right in to our discussion of crop rotation as it will pertain to your own organic garden. By getting into the habit of good crop rotation, you will absolutely see an improvement in your harvest. Let’s take a look at some factors that benefit your crop as a result of a planned and effective crop rotation:
Control of Pests and Disease:
Moving your crops around means that the bugs (both insects and harmful microbes) won’t be able to find a consistent source for what they need to prosper. Change the location of your crops from season to season, and those bugs won’t be able to get comfortable and settle in to your free food supply.
Increase of Elements in the Soil:
The natural processes of the life of a plant include seed, growth, and death. In a world without farmers managing crops, these plants would grow and then die without the intervention of a human removing them from the earth. As the plant dies, it returns to the soil and decomposes. This process releases essential nutrients like nitrogen back into the earth, which will become the food for the next generation of plants. Till your crops back into the ground after harvest and get that cycle going of returning those precious nutrients back into your soil. This will also put other essential elements such as phosphorus and potassium into your gardening plots, and these are absolutely necessary for productive vegetable growth.
Release of Carbon Dioxide:
Plants respire in the opposite manner of humans and animals, creating a beautiful balance of life on this planet. While we breathe oxygen and excrete carbon dioxide, plants do just the opposite. They take in carbon dioxide and excrete oxygen, that elemental gas we all need for our survival. By turning plants back into the ground and tilling the soil, soil microbiology production is increased. This means that you help the ability of the beneficial microbes already present in the soil to grow and produce necessary carbon dioxide by giving them a rich supply of food - the decomposing crop remains from the previous planting.
Improved Soil Structure:
Different crops grow their roots at different depths. Some are shallow-rooted, and others, like carrots or parsnips, are themselves the root and dig very deep into the soil. This allows for soil and the nutrients that it harbors further down to be brought up closer to the surface. Deep rooted plants absorb nutrients further down in the soil, leaving the soil closer to the surface available for the succeeding crop. And nutrients that are brought to the topsoil by deep rooting vegetables are made available to more shallow rooted plants when they decompose.
A few final ideas and suggestions for your crop rotation
Now that we’ve learned about the benefits of crop rotation, the only thing left to do is to try it for yourself. There are no strict rules about which vegetables should go where in your rotation. Just make sure to be rotating your crops around in order to maintain good, nutrient-rich soil so that your organic garden can be as sustainable as can be. You may not even find it necessary to rotate your crops each successive season. Doing it every two or three years may make the best schedule for you. The most important thing about growing your own organic garden is to test ideas for yourself until you come up with what works best for you. Having said that, there are a few rules of thumb that experienced gardeners use when setting up a rotation. They include the following:
Plant carrots after squash or potatoes
Squash and potatoes are what farmers call “cleaning crops” because the way they are grown leads to a natural reduction in weeds. A farmer can easily cultivate weeds on a squash plot before the vines begin to really grow well. Once they do, they keep down any remaining weeds naturally because of the size of vines and leaves. Potatoes are hilled for harvest, a process that turns the soil over and prevents any weed seedlings from taking root. Having grown one or two of these vegetables in a plot, it is all ready for the following season when root vegetables can be grown there. Plants like carrots are notoriously difficult to keep weed free and can have a hard time competing with them. However, if the plot has been made clear of weeds before hand, growing your root vegetables becomes considerably easier.
Plant your tomatoes away from your potatoes
Tomatoes and potatoes are two members of the same family, Solanaceae. Whenever possible, it is best not to grow vegetables that are closely related to one another in the same plot or near one another. It is good practice to plant potatoes in a plot that is the furthest in your rotation away from tomatoes. For instance, if you have 8 plots or beds for vegetables, plant your tomatoes in plot 1 and your potatoes in plot 5. Then, you will have several years of other crops combined with green manures to rebuild the soil and prepare it for the related crop. Read further about how to grow organic tomatoes.
Corn is the best crop to follow cabbage or broccoli
Cabbage and broccoli, two members of the Cruciferae family, take a lot of nutrients out of the soil and can be detrimental to any following crop in the same plot. However, farmers have noticed that corn is the crop least affected by this trend. If you have corn as a part of your crop rotation, you will have the best luck with your other vegetables if you dedicate the plot that will be growing it to cabbages and broccoli the preceding year.
These are some simple suggestions and guidelines that should help you get started with a really effective crop rotation. Again, you will need to find the best way of doing a rotation that ideally suits your own garden. You may find that all of the above ideas will make your vegetables better and better each year. Then again, you may find that other alternatives help you in your particular circumstance. Just keep in mind that organic gardening, while beneficial in many ways to your family and to the environment, should also be fun. Experiment with your own ways of growing plants. You may discover a trend in small farming that hasn’t been explored yet and could be beneficial to other organic growers.
By admin
July 28th, 2007 at 08:39pm
Under Organic Gardening
Get your soil in the best condition for growing organic vegetables with these simple steps.
When a farmer is growing organic vegetables, there are two different schools of thought on how best to prepare the optimum conditions plants need for growing. Our first choice is to feed the plant directly, and this has its benefits. However, in order to truly maintain a sustainable piece of land for agriculture, we need to learn how to feed the soil.
What are we feeding the soil and plants?
Like animals, plants need not only water, but food to survive. While animals take in more complex forms of food in the forms of plants or other animals, vegetables need food in the form of minerals and essential elements that are present in fertile ground. As with the care of all living things, a farmer needs to supply both his plants and animals with the proper nutrition in order for them to be healthy and productive. And while not all soil is in prime condition for growing plants, it can be with some work and patience. By correctly preparing the soil, along with good farming practices like crop rotation and using green manures, you can grow first rate vegetables. Let’s take a look at what is involved with both the feed the plant and feed the soil methods, and see which process will be most beneficial to both you as the grower and to the environment in which we live.
What do plants need to survive?
No matter what route you follow to grow your crops, you need to start with the basics about what your vegetables will need to grow. Soil provides stability for the plant as a place for it to grow a root structure with which to absorb water and other nutrients from the ground. But your soil will be useless unless it has an adequate amount of elements like nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Other much needed elements include zinc, cobalt, and boron. Without a good supply of these elements in the ground in the form of minerals, the plant will starve to death, wilt, and die. There is nothing more frustrating or helpless feeling than putting in the work of planting vegetables, watching them start to grow, and then seeing them start to discolor and fail, often before reaching a point where they can put out any fruit. Before the planting begins, it is important to start with the empty canvas - your land or vegetable bed - and see how we can improve and prepare it for the vegetables that are to grow there.
The Four Most Important Needs for your Soil
The main amendments that any soil needs to be productive can be broken down into these four categories. Whether you are starting with poor, gravelly dirt or a rich loam, these ingredients should be added to the soil to a greater or lesser degree in order to improve the land and to prepare it for a future cycle of sustainability and high productivity.
Lime
Some form of ground limestone should be applied to your garden soil in order to maintain the pH level at a range between 6 and 7. Too high or too low of a pH level in your soil and your plants won’t grow well. It’s a good idea to have your soil tested before you begin to work the land so that you will have some idea of the pH level. Make sure that the lime you add to your soil contains the necessary elements magnesium and calcium, as these are much needed for optimum plant growth.
Humus
No vegetable garden soil would be complete without a generous supply of composted organic matter, or humus. Many farmers use compost made from animal manures, but this isn’t necessary. You can get a terrific compost pile going made up of any organic matter you can find that is a part of your household and your garden. Straw is a good base to begin with. Along with that, make sure to add all of your vegetable peelings from your kitchen, the raked up fall leaves from your lawn, any remains of last year’s garden, and so forth. Your compost heap will grow over time, so just make sure to keep it covered and give it moisture to keep it a productive source of organic matter.
Your compost shouldn’t be wet, but it should be damp to keep it from drying out. The boost of energy that compost provides a vegetable garden in the form of nitrogen and other necessary elements is invaluable.
Phosphate
This ingredient will give your soil the necessary supply of phosphorus to keep your vegetables growing strong. Phosphate is available in different forms from your local gardening supplier, and should be applied in good amounts in 1 year out of every 4. Between 1 and 2 tons of phosphate per acre should be tilled into your land, depending on the quality of soil you are working with. Obviously, the more phosphorus-poor soil you have, the more phosphate should be added. Whatever type of phosphate compound you decide on (either colloidal or hard rock phosphate), just make sure that you use it. Apply it on a regular schedule of every four years, no matter whether you are growing vegetables on a small farm of 5 acres, or in your small backyard garden plot.
Marl
This rock powder is what contains the potassium that your garden soil needs. Marl should also be available from your local garden supply store, and it should be applied every 4 years just like phosphate, and in the same amounts. Potassium and phosphorus go hand in hand in soil preparation, and both are equally important in the process of enriching your soil.
Amending the Soil? What about Sustainability?
We’ve discussed the importance of creating a ecological system of sustainability in your organic garden. This means that the natural processes of growing plants should allow them to rely on the annual cycles of nutrients returning to the earth in order to let them be successful year after year. So why are we talking about adding all of these amendments to the soil in the forms of rock powders and organic matter? Isn’t that about bringing in additions from a source outside your garden or farm?
It is important to realize that we are using the above practices to establish a system that will itself become sustainable. By improving the soil, you are setting up a place for your vegetables to grow that will (hopefully) become such a rich and productive piece of land that you won’t need to amend it over time. This is the key difference between feeding the soil and feeding the plant, which we mentioned at the beginning of this article. Now that we have the fundamentals down about what nutrients your vegetables will need, let’s discuss these two approaches in more detail.
Feeding the Plants
Many growers prefer to feed their plants a wide variety of compounds that contain necessary amounts of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus to allow them to produce for a single season. These compounds are usually in the forms of powders or liquids and are applied directly to the dirt around the plant. Many are water-soluble, meaning that water is then added to make the elements available to the plant. This works for many people, especially those gardening in planters, and can yield a crop during the growing season. However, the disadvantages to this system are both labor-intensive and economic. When you buy fertilizers for your plants every year, you are incurring a cost that needs to be invested annually. Industrially-produced fertilizers are expensive and are seen by many as necessary in our modern world. But take a moment to reflect on the history of agriculture and the natural processes of ecology. While growing plots of vegetables in orderly lines is not a natural occurrence, the processes that are already in existence within the chemistry and biology of the soil certainly are. We have gotten used to fertilizers because we think we need them. Do we really? Haven’t humans been growing vegetables for generations without them, and growing them quite successfully? Isn’t there a better way to farm?
Feeding the Soil
There is a better way, and that way involves paying attention to the natural processes of the earth. All too often, human beings have gotten it into their heads that they can do things better than nature. The problem with this attitude is that nature always catches up and there are repercussions for us in the end. Genetically modifying plants to make them immune to disease or pests may initially help big agriculture produce mass food for the public, but the cost of that lies in the new health crises related to the consumption of food that has been altered on a genetic level. We may have found a temporary solution to famine, but at the cost of harming ourselves? Famine may last for a year or ten years. Changing the genetics of food is permanent. The results of GMOs are plants that can’t produce seed, or ones that actually require supplementing them with insecticides and herbicides that are themselves detrimental to our survival. We can never be “smarter” than nature and never will be, and the results of trying to be will result in our own destruction.
Feeding the soil represents a way of rejecting these ideas and practices in modern agriculture. If we can recognize that the soil is already prepared to do what it is meant to do, then we realize the absurdity of trying to improve upon it. Adding elements and minerals to the soil means adding natural ingredients which are naturally there in rich soil, allowing for the biological and chemical processes that are inherent in the system to occur as they want to. It doesn’t mean artificially boosting the soil with man-made fertilizers which won’t sustain your garden. Getting our phosphates, potassium, and nitrogen from sources as close to the forms that they exist in nature (rock powders, decaying organic material in our compost, green manures) are the best ways to improve our growing conditions while remaining in tune with the cyclical processes of earth’s ecosystems. The practice of amending the soil with the above four necessary ingredients will, over time, create a sustainable ecosystem within the confines of your garden, be it ten acres or ten yards. You will help sustain not only your own garden, but the environment as a whole by limiting our reliance on outside sources of minerals, and completely eliminating our use of artificial fertilizers.
Take the soil back into your own hands. You have the power to change the earth for the better by starting in your own backyard. Start with the basics by starting with the soil.
By admin
July 28th, 2007 at 04:31pm
Under Organic Gardening
Find out how using green manures in your organic vegetable garden can reduce or eliminate any need for alternative fertilizers.
We’ve all heard of animal manures as a soil amendment for vegetable gardening. Farmers have been using manure for centuries in their soil preparation as a way to add beneficial elements like nitrogen, potassium, and calcium back into the soil to be used as essential food for their vegetable crops. However, by incorporating a system of green manures into your garden, you can provide your land with an green alternative to using animal products.
What is a green manure?
Green manures are crops that are grown by farmers on their vegetable plots or beds which aren’t meant for harvesting or consumption. They are simply grown in order to be tilled into the soil to add their nitrogen and other elements back into the earth to make the piece of land more productive. While many traditional farmers grow these plants as feed for their animals, they don’t need to be used as such. They can go directly back into your soil to make it more fertile. These crops include plants such as alfalfa, clover, rye, vetch, soybeans, and oats. Green manures can be grown in a couple of different ways. Let’s take a look at the benefits of green manures, as well as a couple of different methods for incorporating a green manure into the crop rotation of your organic vegetable garden.
The Benefits of Green Manures
First, let’s take a look at why we would want to bother with growing plants in our garden that we’re not going to harvest. We can always add fertilizers and other amendments to the soil, so why bother? Keep in mind that we are practicing these methods of farming in order to create a sustainable garden. If we can give the soil everything that it needs to be good, rich earth, we can grow better vegetables that are healthier for you with methods that are better for the environment. Industrial manufactured fertilizers are expensive and can be full of detrimental or even toxic substances. You don’t know where this stuff is coming from and you certainly don’t want to put it into your soil. Your land is your own, so be proud and aware of what you’re putting into it, just as you should be aware of the food that you are taking into your own body. The economics are simply better, too. Seed is quite cheap in comparison to buying outside fertilizer. The costs for supplying an adequate amount of fertilizer to even one acre of land are substantial, whereas the price of seeds needed to cover the same area is much less expensive. Here is a breakdown of some of the benefits of growing green manures:
Protects your Soil from Erosion:
Plants constantly growing in the ground keep the ground stable. The root systems of plants give integrity to the soil, strengthening it and binding it together. Soil that is left barren can be adversely affected by rain, sun, and wind.
Adds Nitrogen back into your Soil:
Cover crops, especially legumes like soybeans, add beneficial nitrogen back into the soil. The three big elements that you need to be aware of that plants need to grow well and to produce food are nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. While adding supplementary sources of other elements to your soil often come from outside your garden, a free source of nitrogen from established plants is a sensible practice.
Bring Nutrients from Deeper Soil to the Topsoil:
Your deep-root vegetables like carrots are naturally adept at bringing elements from further down in the soil closer to the surface for future, shallower-rooted crops to benefit from. They do this by digging deep with a substantial root structure. Green manure crops do the same thing. Plants like clover have a very deep root structure and can bring these elements up from the deep places where they will be needed by your other crops.
Protects against Weeds:
Weed control is one of the biggest factors that an organic vegetable gardener needs to be aware of. Once weeds get started, they can become difficult to manage and be incredibly invasive to your crops. They compete for space, and can overwhelm or kill your food crops. The best way to go about getting rid of weeds is not giving them the space to let them germinate in the first place. With a cover crop taking up your available soil space, there is less room for weeds to grow.
Now that we are familiar with some of the major benefits of growing a green manure, let’s look into the different ways that the organic farmer can go about this.
Growing a Cover Crop
For many farmers, their garden is divided into two different schedules for the entire year - the season for growing their crop, and the season for growing their cover crop. When the harvest is finished, the cover crop is sown into the soil and grows until ready to be tilled under for the next season of food crops. For instance, once you’ve finished harvesting your crop of tomatoes in September or October, a crop of oats can occupy the same plot for a few months until being tilled into the soil for your planting of peas or beans in the spring. The remains of the tomato plants from the previous season coupled with that burst of fresh nitrogen from the oats makes the soil rich and ready for your legume crop.
Undersow your Green Manure
You can also grow your green manure crops alongside your food crops at the same time. Why would you want to grow both kinds of crops at once? Wouldn’t the green manure crops crowd out or leave the food crops at a disadvantage, or vice versa? The answers to these questions revolve around timing your planting, and if done correctly, this method can be even more beneficial than simply growing a cover crop after you harvest the food crop.
For example, if you plant clover next to and a few weeks after your squash plants, the squash has had adequate time to grow and secure it’s place on the land before the smaller crops come up. Once you’ve harvested your squash a few months later, the clover is firmly established in the bed, efficiently protecting the soil and improving the soil structure. There is no empty field that has to then be sown with the green manure only to wait for weeks before the crop gets going, leaving the plot susceptible to erosion and other soil damage. The cover crop is already there once you harvest. It can then continue to grow for months before you till it and plant your next crop. This method of undersowing your green manures is not only a good idea, it may simply be necessary in colder climates where the planting of cover crops like soybeans or vetch simply isn’t possible after harvesting vegetables in late fall.
How to Sow your Green Manure Crop
Sowing your green manures is a strong and effective way to manage your organic garden, and taking the time to plant these cover crops properly and with as much attention to detail as your food crops will yield the best results. This isn’t simply about scattering some seeds that will come up alongside your crops for harvest. Sowing green manures correctly and effectively means taking the time to consider some essential factors:
Sow Into a Weed-Free Bed:
If there are scattered weeds throughout the plot of land you’re going to be gardening in, you present a big problem for the plants you are hoping to grow there. Established weeds will suppress the smaller crops, overcrowding them and killing them. This is true for your green manure crops as well. Plant your seeds in clean, rich soil that is free of competing weeds.
Plant Your Green Manure Seeds with as Much Attention as Your Food Crops:
You may find that the most efficient way to plant cover crop seeds is to use the same kind of drill that you would use to plant root vegetables like carrots. Your green manure seeds need to be planted in a specific way, between your plantings of your food crops, in order to be the most effective.
Different Food Crops Require Different Green Manure Spacing:
Not all of your crops for harvest are the same size. From melons to peas, squash to tomatoes, potatoes to carrots, different crops require different soil nutrients and different amounts of space between the plants. This will have a direct effect on how much of the green manure crop you can plant between them. Between rows of corn, for example, five rows of a crop like vetch or soybeans can grow. Between carrots (which are planted closer together than corn), you’ll have room to grow only one row of clover. Crops that require more space like tomatoes should give you a good amount of room to grow as much as 20 rows of oats.
What Green Manures should I grow?
This all depends on what crops you are going to be growing. As shown in our discussion on crop rotation, there are some guidelines that you can follow, but you may wish to experiment for yourself and decide which system works best for you. You are in charge of your own garden, and your job is to discover how to make it the most effective piece of land that it can be for growing quality organic vegetables. However, here are some suggestions to get you started on specific crops and the undersown green manures that work well when grown the season before you plant them:
Tomatoes - Vetch is a suitable crop preceding your tomatoes.
Corn - Clover is a good choice for the plot that will next host your corn plants.
Potatoes - Soybeans have been found to be one of the best preceding crops for potatoes, as they help reduce the possibility of many potato diseases.
Squash - Try planting rye before your next crop of squash.
Peas - Peas respond well to having oats planted and tilled before their turn in the crop rotation.
We’re all learning better ways to become more self-sufficient, and green manures are a great start for getting your organic garden to better sustain itself. The benefits to improving your soil from the use of green manures are well tested and shown to yield better quality crops that have a better chance of surviving. And as with many green improvements to our lives, it has been ultimately shown to be a most cost-effective and natural solution to enhancing the way we live and grow.
By admin