Stop weeding your garden!

One of the many reasons I hear people say they can't grow a garden is the time it takes.  We are all busy in our lives and trying to keep up with a garden and all the growth that happens can be a challenge.  However you can change all of that.  The key is mulching... First of I would like to encourage everyone to stop tilling your soil.  Your just killing the fungi, worms, and bacteria that actually make your soil living and fertile.  Using the Back to Eden method of mulching will turn poor soil into great soil over time, and good soil to awesome soil.  One of the big advantages to this method is mulches.  Mulch can be wood chips, straw, grass clippings, hay, coffee grounds, leaves etc.  Using mulches in your garden will retain moisture, feed the soil organisms, create fertility and best yet... No weeds!

Yes, I know is sounds like a sales pitch... If you want to spend money, effort, and time then there is something someone will be glad to sell you.  However in this case it doesn't cost anything.  So I encourage you to stop weeding and start mulching.  You won't believe the results.  Here is a great video from Patrick Dolan explaining the process in his garden.  I know I have mulched in the past, but not nearly as much as I will be this year.  Using the Back to Eden mulches, compost, manure, and other free materials we hope to give our garden an amazing boost this year.

So stop weeding and start enjoying your garden more!

Music to my ears.... McDonalds and Monsanto in trouble?

This is a great story.  Apparently people are waking up to the fact that their food is poison and are not eating at McDonald's.  I read an article the other day stating that if you order McDonald's fries in the UK you are ACTUALLY getting potatoes... no science experiment... Here in the US the list of CRAP in your fries should make you raise an eyebrow.  The list of insane ingredients in our food is beyond baffling.

Here’s just a few of the ingredients you can find in many fast food meals:

- Dimethylpolysiloxane – A chemical known for its use in silicone breast implants, silly putty, and also… chicken nuggets

- Propylene glycol – A laxative chemical and electronic cigarette filler that even e-cigarette companies are beginning to phase out

- Azodicarbonamide – A chemical used in the creation of foamed plastic items like yoga mats

Here is an article explaining the trouble that McDonalds and Monsanto are now facing.  I hope it is true that the reason for these financial problems is due to the fact that people are waking up.  That they care about what they eat.  That they notice people all around them are sick and getting sicker... That cancer rates and heart disease are at crisis levels.  I really do hope this is why people are turning away from these companies and seeking out real food...

McDonalds and Monsanto Loosing money FAST! :-)

Additional sources of free organic matter for your compost and garden

Gardeners for as long as I can remember have loved adding coffee grounds to their gardens, compost, and worm bins.  My grandmother used to keep a worm bin on her enclosed little back porch that she fed coffee grounds to... We used to use those worms as kids to go fishing at the lake behind her house.  I have fond memories of those times, but was stumped why Grannie kept worms on her porch... 

Well fast forward to today and coffee is still a popular topic for gardeners.  It is a little funny since for the most part coffee isn't grown here in the US, but we import and consume so much of it that it is a common household thing and something that people spend a lot of money going out and having a hot cup of Joe at a local coffee shop. 

So the questions are ask a lot about acidity of coffee grounds, the effect of the coffee grounds, the availability of the nutrients in the grounds etc.  So I found quite a few people are actually running tests on the grounds and determining the effects of coffee for gardens.

It turns out that most of the acid in coffee is flushed into the coffee we drink.  So the grounds are pretty much neutral PH of 6.9.  They have nitrogen in them and should be considered a nitrogen in your compost.  There are traces of minerals in the coffee grounds, but generally not enough to be considered a soil supplement, but the fact they are there are beneficial for most soils with phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, and copper.  The nitrogen levels are quite good, but not available to your plants until they are broken down by soil organisms like worms, fungi, and soil bacteria. 

Many households have coffee grounds that they toss out instead of adding to a worm bin or to a compost pile without realizing they are tossing out black gold for your garden.  Now the interesting part is this.  You can call around to local dining places, and coffee shops and ask them about getting their coffee grounds.  I have found that these places are happy to give them to you.  I have a nearby coffee shop just this week that I called and asked if I can get the grounds.  They were a little baffled by the request, but said come on over and they would give me some.  When they handed me a garbage bag with coffee grounds they asked if I wanted any more... I said "I will take all of them you have".  They went and gave me part of another garbage bag full.  I asked if I could come by each day and they said sure, just call and let us know you will be coming by and we will set the coffee grounds aside for you to pick up.  So I will be doing that starting this week.  So free coffee grounds!  And in a large enough volume that I should be able to keep adding the coffee to my compost, my worm bins, and even applied to my garden beds.

It is a win win for gardeners.  Over time the nitrogen will break down and feed your plants.  So it is a great soil amendment.  Now who knows how long coffee will be free and abundant for gardeners.  It really isn't a sustainable resource, but to take something that is going to end up in a landfill and to turn it into food just makes sense while we have it available to us.  So don't hesitate to start saving and using your coffee grounds.  Call around and get some and start to use them in your garden beds. 

Here is the web article on the Starbucks Coffee Test.  This gives you some details on the effects of coffee in your gardens.  It is largely a myth that coffee will make your soil acid for acid loving plants.  The same is also true about Pine needles and pine chips.  It is a myth, the process of composting those materials returns them back to a neutral PH and has no acid effect on soils.  So check out the article.  Also here is a video talking about this same topic.

So consider coffee as soil amendment, compost, and worm food.  It will greatly help your garden. 

Take care and God Bless,
Longsnowsm

Does Comfrey Really Improve Soil?

If you are familiar with Permaculture you will hear many many references to using Comfrey as a companion plant in your plant guilds.  This fast growing plant is impossible to get rid of once it is established so make sure you really really want it in that area your going to plant it.  This deep tap root plant mines for water and minerals.  It grows fast, gets tall, topples over and does it all over again.  You can also chop and drop it as a mulch to get more plant material down on your beds fast.  The plant will regrow.

Well like so many things you hear that your supposed to use something like this, but there is rarely any evidence to back it up.  Mostly rumors, wives tales, and stories and rarely do you get data.  Well someone agreed that there should be some data to back this story about comfrey up so someone tested it.... I think you will enjoy it.

If you want to know more about the uses of comfrey we will talk about tree guilds soon as we will be planting a lot of trees this year.  Comfrey will certainly be in the mix here!

Does Comfrey Really Improve Soil?

Return of old man winter this weekend... Reason to scramble! :-)

In Colorado we have had a surprisingly mild winter so far.  Little to now snow, or precipitation.  Which is bad actually as we have been in a drought for a very very long time here.  So when I saw the weather forcast for about 10 inches of snow this weekend I was like "WHOOOOO HOOOO!", then reality set in that I have been working on my garden beds and I have more beds to lay down manure, rock dust, and wood chips for.... So I ran out the door this morning and put the manure and rockdust down in one of my existing in ground beds.  I will be back out there during my lunch break to lay on the wood chips in a thick bed and then give it a nitrogen feed to get the composting action started in that bed with the wood chips and manure... Maybe give it a quick shot of water to make sure it has something to work with...

Think of Back to Eden garden beds sort of like making compost... If you have never made compost the formula is simple.  Carbon(wood chips, leaves, straw, hay), Nitrogen(coffee grounds, table scraps, manure, urine), water... You don't want it too wet, but you want to get it moist so that the bacteria as soon as it starts to warm up will start feasting on the fabulous meal you have prepared for them!  So in this case what we are after is to have the wood chips hold in that moisture, and to break down into that beautiful nutrient rich soil that plants, fungi, bacteria, worms just crave!    So layer it on your beds... Then keep adding the nitrogen rich materials to accelerate the process.  In the case of new beds we want to speed up the wood chips breakdown as much as we can as fast as we can to get our beds capable of sustaining our plants.

Of course over time we want to just keep layering on our materials and we don't need to rush as the process once it gets going and you have good growing beds you can take your time and it won't require as much materials to keep this going.  Over time the need to keep adding decreases to the point it is every few years you remulch your beds and you just keep adding your local garden waste and composts to the garden.  In other words less work and more gardening fun! 

So hopefully I will have one more bed done today and then have to sit tight this weekend and wait for the return of the mild weather we have had.

In the mean time I have some indoor plants to get started that are cold weather tolerant.  I plan to get the plastic up on the hoops over the raised beds and get some cold weather plants out in the next few weeks depending on when it looks like they are ready to move from the grow trays to the beds.  So lets see what I get planted this weekend and how long before I can get things growing outdoors...  :-)

Take Care, stay warm, God Bless you,
Longsnowsm

Genetically modified Apples(FrankenApple) approved by the USDA

It is stories like this that drive home the point it has never been more important to grow a garden or to know your neighbor or farmer who grows your apples.  These apples that have been approved affect the Granny apples and Golden Delicious apples.   It will take a few years for these trees to start to produce and show up in your stores.  But how will you know?  The ONLY SAVING grace here is that produce does have labels.  Those little sticky things they put on produce with a number.  Now for the most part most of us don't know anything about the number codes or what they mean.  But they do in fact have meaning.

FrankenApple Approved

Here are the basics of what you should know:

1. If there are only four numbers in the PLU, this means that the produce was grown conventionally or “traditionally” with the use of pesticides. The last four letters of the PLU code are simply what kind of vegetable or fruit. An example is that all bananas are labeled with the code of 4011.
2. If there are five numbers in the PLU code, and the number starts with “8″, this tells you that the item is a genetically modified fruit or vegetable. Genetically modified fruits and vegetables trump being organic. So, it is impossible to eat organic produce that are grown from genetically modified seeds. A genetically engineered (GE or GMO) banana would be: 84011
3. If there are five numbers in the PLU code, and the number starts with “9″, this tells you that the produce was grown organically and is not genetically modified. An organic banana would be: 94011

Now I need to point out that the Apple is one of the dirties fruits on the market place.  The chemicals used on Apples today grown conventionally are not safe to eat if you value your health.  Stick to organic apples only.

The approval of the GMO apple is very dangerous to the market place since most people don't know where their food comes from or what is in it.  The ASSUME that it must be safe or they wouldn't be allowed to sell it... Only thing it really means is that you typically won't drop dead while your eating it the first time... That is about all it means.

So unless we force this FrankenApple off of the market it is time to avoid the Granny and Golden Delicious varieties.   I expect the next trick will be to remove the sticker labels from the produce so they don't "scare" the consumer as they figure out anything with an 8 on it should NOT be ATE!

For a quick guide to the cleanest or dirtiest foods on the shelves use the Environmental Working Group's lists.  They have a phone app you can download and reference any time your shopping so that you know if you should buy that item or find an organic variety or just do without.  That is usually what I do.  The cost of organics can be quite high so pick and choose wisely.

Environmental Working Group - Lists of cleanest and dirtiest foods

Great article on Back to Eden Gardening

I found this great article on Back to Eden type gardening.  If you thinking about a garden or are a gardener I encourage you to see what all the fuss is about. 

Touring a Back to Eden Garden