Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[firekeeper@netscape.net]

The intersection of personal "style" (for lack of a better word), with a given block of time, a patch of ground and a gardening system.  With that many variables it is a miracle any particular horticultural "school of thought" has shown great advantage but they have.  The point is to know enough about what works and works for the planet, to be able to find the right growing system for each of us. 

 

No matter how disrespectful the "not the method, it's you" statement may be, it would still resemble me.  I would be a much better gardener if my garden was between my work van and my door instead of the only patch of ground I have control of, not MUCH obstructed by the neighborhood association (because hardly anyone has any use for suburban backyards once the kids are grown and don't need further containment), if I were growing in soil not completely eradicated by the builders, leaving clay topped by construction sand barely hidden by Bermuda grass.  I frequently wish I could devote a lot of time to gardening, but I have a new business to run and am doing this (hammering my head against topics I find rather counter-intuitive) to begin an entire life change. 

 

I loved the idea of Permaculture but have simply started off with square foot because I have limited time, space and attention to devote to my gardening.  From this point I can keep learning and grow into the garden I hope to have.   My ordinary avocations are in activism, but the saying is true about the personal being political.  The way we live our lives and the decisions we follow will be the 1st, often the only and always the most profound acts of our lives. So trying to be a decent person and follow the principals I most regard as necessary to the health of the planet involves plugging away at this until I can manage something more than my perennial herb garden.  Let it be clearly said that my perennial herbs have done just fine on no-till, heh, and nuttin much else either. 

 

<<Second.    Not everyone will have the same success with the same method, and
saying that someone failed and the system didn't, is disrespectful.    Some
methods work for some people, other methods work better for other people.    So
just because No-Till didn't work for someone, is by no means any reason to say
someone failed.>Greg H.  >>