by Treetop » Wed Dec 15, 2010 1:09 am
some very basic pointers for the non gardener with points you wont always hear, this is in no way a complete guide.....
Start collecting organic matter. Manure from a local ranch. Leaves from the sidewalks and your yard. Grass clippings. Tables scraps. Put it in big piles in the back yard, just like your saving PMs. Working a soil into fertility takes a lot of organic matter. you could also grow it, lots of directions to go on that for longer term set ups. TALL perennial grasses, you can harvest compostable material from yearly. Many types of trees and bushes, that have lots of build up of quality material, along with food. that is the first key, having organic matter to build a fertile soil from. along with ensuring you have enough long into the future......
then you have retaining fertility a subject often ignored, as most focus on simply adding new organic matter or synthetic ferts yearly. For this there are many many things, to keep it simple and effective, look into biochar. simple charcoalized wood, and other materials. The charcoal does several things. It gives the soil microbes a place to THRIVE. It retains minerals, and other aspects of fertility as well. it also ends up over time retain the soils carbon content even increasing it slowly. Something nothing else does. along with regulating the water to some degree..... charcoalizing wood if you have the wood, isnt to hard. You then need to "charge" it. soak it for 48 hours in "compost tea" (look it up) or another organic fertilizer, urine if you have nothings else. which is high in nitrogen. If you dont charge the charcoal first, it will instead of doing all the things listed above, will draw fertility out of the soil, until it starts doing as I was saying. It is WELL worth doing this, for the soil of the entire garden. It will last in the soil the rest of your life, and its effects are powerful. Retaining fertility, building carbon, offering a home to biota, regulating water.... theres just nothing like it.
then you need water of course. this topic is a tricky one. to wide to give an easy answer. If your area is real wet, dont worry... If it is dry though, this is a huge topic. It becomes retaining water, as much as anything. Perennial plants, trees and bushes are also great. get started NOW. At least once established, these will if you get the right ones ride through the dry periods. Mulch becomes mandatory. Your leaves, or grasses and such are great for this. also rocks mulches over the organic matter one, they serve different aspects, and together can take my area which retains less then 50 percent of the precipitation or less, to 80-90 percent. So simply saving whats there takes me to essentially having 60-80 percent more water. more work, but if water is scarce it is worth a it more time pushing around the rocks. Keep a constant cover over your garden soil. even in the off season. whether is consists of the mulch or dead plants over winter.... this does many things, to much to list. the most basic is simply retaining the water, and biota in the soil. wind dries a soil out as much as anything, another thing to keep in mind. this is a huge topic, so I cant get to deep into it, but this is often over looked, so i figured something good to expound upon.
Is water an issue and does most of yours come in winter as mine does? well then grow winter grains, rye, wheat, barley... and legumes, i had to scour for them, and got them from seed banks, but i now have winter peas, and lentils.
then there is presprouting seeds. In a wet paper towel or even mosses, or leaves, or even digging down into a wet spot in your compost pile, and keeping them there until the are swelling. Lots of ways to do this. then you could also start the plants early, gives a boost on the season, but you also get the plants going with much lower water needs. then there is also, once your soil is built up, and youve got a mulch and pebbles cover over winter, even if its been dry for a long period, when you pull back the rocks and mulch if your soil on top isnt damp, dig down to where it is, put your swelled, sprouted or small plants there..... Lots of other info out there on this as I said, but the aspects i laid out you wont find as often, and can work in extreme cases. the way elevation even inches alter how a soil retain or collects fallen water is another topic to study, the use o berms is a science by itself...... You can get rather labor intensive, but this can ensure a good crop where otherwise you couldnt do it.
the MOST important.... and most often over looked is LOCALLY adapted seeds. get them now. this part can be tricky depending on where you live. If you live in a place with a rich agricultural history, it will be easy. If like me that doesnt exist, you might have to do some trialing or breeding out of the best candidates.
Breeding plants, certain kinds anyway doesnt have to be hard. Let me try to keep this simple. Two main classes of plants, inbreeders and outbreeders. With outbreeders, like corn, and squash, and melons.... these you could simply get the ones most likely to do well for you, and the first year, save seeds from the best varieties, letting the insects freely cross them together for you. Presuming that the specific fruits you save seed from were pollinated from a differet variety, you will then have a hybrid, it will have traits from both parents. this year, you might want to save some seed from each plant of the various hybrids, the reason being this is the F1 year. If you crossed the same two parent varieties together keeping the same ones the "mother" or "father"(mother being the plant you took the fruit from the father being the pollen donating plant) the next year though when you grow out saved seeds from a hybrid, instead of a repeatable direct mix of both parents, you will see all the variation of the parent lines. at this point save seed from the best plants, each year... simple as that, and in time youll have a locally adapted variety. with inbreeding plants like wheat, or tomatoes, or beans, you would have to purposely pollinate them at specific times. their flowers will pollinate themselves with or without insect or wind pollination.
One good way to do this without the hassle, if you dont have known proven varieties, is to get HYBRIDS that are likely to do well in your area. the first year save seed from many plants, the second start saving seed from the best plants, at this time youll have variation show up, representing the genetics of both parents. this will work with inbreeding or outbreeding plants. Dont listen to the yokels who tell you you cant save seed from a hybrid. you cant save STABLE seed, meaning its not a stabilized variety. this is a GOOD thing, if your in a area with tough conditions, and dont have proven varieties. Because by the simply act of saving seed from the best plants, in time youll have your own stable line, with the traits you need, and be producing food in the meantime of course.
this is a drop in the bucket obviously, but maybe it will get people thinking.
some over looked plants trees and bushes....
siberian pea shrub. this shrub fixes nitrogen. It also grows pretty fast since it fixes nitrogen, and is very drought tolerant once established. It produces 5-10 pounds of EDIBLE seeds a year. they are basically like a bland bean, 36 percent protein makes a great supplement to animal feeds as well, and make a great hedge row to.
honey locusts. the seed pods can be used for sugar production, but not easily, also an animal feed. the also make a serviceable bean replacement. Not as good as the first i listed, but this grows anywhere, and fast. also if you got a patch of 20 of them going, at 10 years old, you can sustainably harvest quality fire wood, from them. so its a good tree to have around and is often over looked.
amaranth. In fertile prepared soil, there are varieties you can get a pound of seed per plant. not terribly versatile of a grain, but very healthy. The leaves are also edible, you can eat some as the plant is growing as well. Not many leafy greens for the summer months. It WILL naturalize in your yard, although wont reach its full glory in unamended soil, its a nice bonus though.
seaberries, goumi, autumn olives, and silverberries these all fix nitrogen, and are fast growers. the fruits on some are tasty other need sweetened, but they are all VERY nutrient dense.
dandelions, purslane, and plantain. Many many other wild edibles, but these ones are all VERY easy to grow, and nutrient dense. purslane is a source of omega 3s as well....