Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Art Corbit" <art_c@cox.net>]

Hi Paul,

A good riding lawn mower with a grass catcher on it and a large compost pile
are worth their weight in gold. It is really good for the raised bed
gardens.


----- Original Message -----
From: "TradingPostPaul" <tradingpost@riseup.net>
To: <livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, July 29, 2006 2:29 PM
Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Wheat is the new oil


>
> Think that needs to be stressed. You can't make two and two equal five.
> Returning all available organic waste to the soil was the prime directive
> Sir Albert laid out back in the '40s. It was his demonstrations and
> lectures that prompted J.I. Rodale to start pushing organic growing.
>
> We were scouting around the other day looking for sources of soil
> amendments when it dawned on me (or was it the sunrise), we have half an
> acre of green weeds growing on our new place. If I cut all that and
compost
> it before it goes to seed, we'll have more than enough to loosen the clay
> and cover the beds. Also found plenty of native clump grass to dig up and
> add to growing beds. Unless I heard wrong, that's a lot of root mass,
green
> growth on top, and mycorrhizae-formed humus underneath. It's virgin soil,
> grows a lot of rabbit brush and when monsoon comes, a lot of native grass.
> I figure the trick is to avoid working it anymore after placing it in the
> beds, so as to keep it from the air as much as possible. Starting over's
no
> picnic, but the best possible growing soil is the only way I know to the
> best production - and the only way to make it worth doing at all.
>
>
> paul tradingpost@lobo.net
>
> Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes.
> --Henry David Thoreau
>
> *********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********
>
> On 7/29/2006 at 2:50 PM Harvey Ussery wrote:
>
> >claim that we can make lots and lots of biofuels by fermenting these
> >crop wastes--even manures--and extracting out the volatile burnables.
> >And of course we can. But the more we use such "wastes" to run our cars,
> >the less are available to return to the soil as organic matter/humus.
> >We're already returning vastly less OM to agricultural soils than we're
> >taking off--accelerating that trend will only increase the rate at which
> >we are turning some of the best agricultural soils God ever took the
> >time to turn out--into desert.
> >
> >~Harvey
> >--
> >Harvey in northern Va
> >www.themodernhomestead.us
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>
>
>
>
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