Healthy soil and sustainable growing

[herb farmer <tradingpost@lobo.net>]

Well, your experience is helpful there. You know the ups & downs of diatomaceous earth with slugs which I don't have. And in a drier climate my mulch lasts all season. I've been using alfalfa hay which is easy to manage between plants after they sprout, & adds deep minerals etc to the soil. Most of all it shields shallow roots from quick baking in the sun.
paul

On 7/4/2015 1:57 PM, John D'hondt wrote:

55983AAA.3080408@eircom.net" type="cite"> We have a deep well here Paul. 64 meters deep in fact but we could see water in the pipe at just over 3 meters deep when we had to replace our pump recently. The problem is that mains power is essential to drive the pump and that is not completely reliable here. No electricity - no water which is a very uncomfortable feeling when you are used to gravity water (with a lake and plentiful little streams all around) everywhere you want it.
And diatomaceous earth is very good if it did not rain regularly. It would cost a fortune though if we had to use it everywhere it is needed and having to replace it at least once a week. The problem here is that we need to mulch to get the soil some organic matter and fertile and the soil is not used to getting anything. Eventually a layer of mulch will get incorporated in the soil in  a matter of weeks. The first time it can take months and in the mean time the mulch is a good hiding place for slugs.
We use a biodynamic nosode to keep slugs away from our crops and that works really well if it were not that they are so plentiful. It takes a few years to get things right in our experience. Once you have a good organic soil slugs are no longer a problem.
John

On 04/07/15 01:20, herb farmer wrote:

559726C4.60809@lobo.net" type="cite">
Sounds like work to me. I can't even imagine such a high water table. We can't dig wells here so we have local drillers with simple technology. We had to replace the pump recently & found the well was only 120 ft deep, too shallow for most of this area. Old pump was definitely wet when they pulled it, 15 years old. Served us for 10 years. Cost $1600 job.
Diatomaceous earth kills slugs.

On 7/3/2015 1:08 PM, John D'hondt wrote:

5596DDB1.8000303@eircom.net" type="cite"> We are completely of one mind on that Paul.
But I was thinking of a possible/ planned re-location.
I have done that myself a few times and recently at the beginning of this year. Even if it is only about 25 miles away from the old place it is  rough new start with many of the same problems we saw before such as infertile soil and millions of slugs and many completely new problems such as much drier conditions, about 1/3 of the rain, and no surface water to be seen for a mile around.
To make the old place fertile took more than 6 years. We can probably do it in the new place in half the time but it is still an enormous effort.
I am digging a well by hand at the moment. I expect to hit ground water at a bit over 3 meters deep and I got to about 2 meters now. And I have hit the "blue till" consisting of clay and gravel with big stones (40-60 kilos so far) embedded in it. It looks like concrete and is about as hard but quite permeable. It holds no water. Deeper down I expect stones of half a ton or more.
When you work like that you need a bit of good luck, which is what I am wishing for you.
John

On 03/07/15 01:26, herb farmer wrote:

5595D6A6.9090005@lobo.net" type="cite">
Still I have a cause, John, to see service as the highest calling, the effort to encourage the millions who can grow food at home to live on or pass on to others locally. We're not exactly out to save the world - not that it wants to be saved - just to stand with the many who see its potential for good.

I see a brutal but beautiful truth:  life has no meaning except the meaning we give it by what we live for.

paul

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