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homestead - Re: [Homestead] Re: Garden soil: it's much more than dirt

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  • From: Bill Jones <billj AT harborside.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Re: Garden soil: it's much more than dirt
  • Date: Sat, 05 Mar 2005 15:19:16 -0800

Certainly I've seen some great BD gardens. But the two families I know locally have free sources of animal manure, which they incorporate into their compost, which they use as copiously as you or I. Curiously neither grows much corn, but they all love winter brassicas, so they use a lot of compost on those.

I suggesting that the otherwise sound organic practices they follow would still work even if they left out the magical powdered crystals and the homeopathic quantities of fermented valerian juice and other queer concoctions,

Melody, I think I remember that you're in Utah? In dry places a whole different dynamic holds. You probably won't ever need lime, except maybe as a nutrient, and salt buildup is usually the biggest problem in a garden. I have the same thing in my greenhouse, where it never rains. My nephew grows lettuce in SW AZ, where he has to apply sulfur to lower the pH instead of lime. Unfortunately gardening organically can only help this problem to a point, because inevitably if you keep evaporating the solids out of water that's applied to the garden, a residue will build up. The best recommendation that one could follow may be to garden very intensively in raised beds, so that you can thoroughly rinse the salts out yearly (maybe pile snow in and let it thaw), and even then you may have a ring of salt buildup around the base of the bed.

Today my 3 new calves are out for a walk.

Bill

Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

In a message dated 3/4/2005 6:36:41 PM Eastern Standard Time, billj AT harborside.com writes:



I've been involved with BD people for many years. It's really more a religion than a science. The first hint is that you have to believe in the preparations for them to work for you. When you suggest a scientific explanation, you're treated with amusement and distrust, and reminded that it's really the astrological forces and the transdimensional beings who create the phosphorus for your garden.



Bill, I think what you have to day about dedicated (lunatic fringe) BD'ers is quite so. But there is one thing I would point out, wherever their phosphorus comes from and whatever the actual forces at work in their gardens, have you ever seen such magnificiet results?
James







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