Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming: Companion Planting/ Compatible Relationships

Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming: Companion Planting/ Compatible Relationships:     This is a science of compatible relationships, or as Alan Chadwick called, Relationships and Disrelationships. There are a lot of myths ...

Restoration, Regeneration and Renewal.

   It is autumn here. Leaves are turning colors, Soon heading to the ground to become nutrients for next years growth. This is part of natures nutrient cycling. Cover crops replacing last seasons bounty. It is time to replenish the earth. It is time to build a fall compost pile that will enhance the life of the soil for the next season. The grasses in the field have strewn seeds for next years renewal. The seasonal changes that foster restoration are abundant. This is part of regeneration. The part were one accepts natures role and goes with the flow of these cycles. As the forest goes into it's dormant period it is also time to reflect on what the season has offered in the form of food for our bodies, food for out souls and knowledge that will support our growth. The rhythm of nature moves in different timing.                   

 This year seems to be heading into a paradigm shift of consciousness. Change is constant and there is a continuum, yet sometimes it happens faster and greater than many people are ready for. Living and working around nature makes it easier to deal with it. For those who are living away from nature, it might be more challenging. Finding a place in nature can help one can become more centered. It can be a sanctuary of hope and renewal. In the gardens I have set up for people with special needs I promote the idea that as we heal land it heals us. This is especially important now. With my non profit. Recovery Eco Agriculture Project (REAP), we set up programs that regenerate land. The objective is to offer people tools to become better caretakers of the planet. Connecting people with nature can be very empowering if they want to learn to coexist with nature. Fighting nature does not work and it is not working now. The idea is to offer people tools to do the real work of becoming whole. I am planning more reforestation programs like the one we did earlier this year.     

   There is one theory that if we leave large tracts of land alone trees and forests will regrow. That concept is missing and very important part of the equation. People are destroying the planet and people need to heal it. Besides, we plant native species. Letting it rewild will bring in nonnative invasive species. So we offer people a way to connect with nature as a way to become stewards of it's future. The act of bringing a group together to regenerate a piece of land is very powerful. That is what we do. If you want more information go to; www.recoveryecoag.org  There is also lots of information in my book, Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming, to understand how to regenerate land and grow food. I hope you can be part of this growth. We all have a role to play. 

Companion Planting/ Compatible Relationships

    This is a science of compatible relationships, or as Alan Chadwick called, Relationships and Disrelationships. There are a lot of myths around companion planting and how it works. I would like to share what I do based on four decades of experiences that has been researched in different parts of the world. So this is an introduction that would be an entire workshop that takes a few hours. I utilize five components of compatibility. If I can incorporate more than one then the effects become multidimensional.                                                                                                                                 First lets begin with physical or spatial. This is like putting together a puzzle. I fill up space efficiently so there is little room for weeds. This is how nature works. It creates a living mulch that protects the soil and protects the dynamic place where soil meets the atmosphere. Here are some examples. Use plants that do not compete for space. I plant a bed of leaf vegetables like lettuce, spinach in a staggered pattern. In between those plants I can plant a carrot, radish, turnip and fill the space very efficiently. I can also do this with large leaf crops like cabbage. They need to be planted almost a foot and a half apart in staggered plantings. I can plant fast growing turnips or dikon radish in between that open space. About the time the turnips or radish are mature is about the time the cabbage leaves begin to fill up that space. So this is a succession and two crops in one. Another example is to plant tall plants the serve as a trellis. Pole beans and corn are good for this. Along with winter squash, this is referred to as the three sisters. It is an old Native American example of companion planting. I grow cucumbers on a horizontal trellis. I plant a few sunflowers in between. The cucumbers climb onto to  sunflowers nicely. The sunflowers attract lady bugs that clean aphids off of the cucumbers. A row of beans or peas planted on the west side of a bed can offer some afternoon shade for leafy greens. There are many more examples of doing this creatively.                       The next area is Biological. This involves using plants that will attract beneficial insects. This can also be referred to as organic IMP (Integrated Pest Management). I grow a lot of cut flowers for market and herbs. Many of them are host plants for beneficial insects. Umbelliferae, like Ammi majus, dill, cilantro, fennel, Queen Anne's lace are good for a wide range of wasps, damsel flies, lacewings, etc. The composite flowers like shasta daisy, sunflowers, and other daisies attract lady bugs, pirate bugs, predatory mites and so on. Allysum is wonderful for hover flies. Grasses attract spiders that eat most insects. Golden rod attracts soldier beetles. Yarrow attracts lacewings. One thing I often do is to plant borage around my tomatoes. The borage attracts the braconid wasp. The wasp stings and parasitizes tomato horn worm and plants it's eggs inside the worm.(photo below) This is a very effective way to curb their population. There is an extensive amount of flowers and herbs that provide a biological magnet for beneficial insects. Buckwheat attracts a wasp that gleam squash bugs. There are many examples of how this works.                                                                                                             

                                             

 The next area is Botanical. This involves plant pheromones that deter insects and diseases. Japanese beetles are attracted to delphiniums and larkspur. The beetles consume them and die. This is good around fruit trees. Tansy and mints are good around fruit trees susceptible to ant damage. Wormwood (artimesia) and catnip deter a wide range of insects. I plant garlic chives down in tomato beds. They do well with almost no sun. Many herbs are planted under plants that need to be trellised, like tomato, peppers and eggplant. This is an example of polyculture. Plants that produce essential oils are good to work with.                                                                                                                         The next is Chemical. This involves mostly root exudates. This is were plants give off oils underground that ward off insects and diseases. African black oats and French marigolds will get rid of root knot nematodes. Rosemary root exudates can inhibit many diseases, especially in tomatoes. Mustard oil discourages carrot wire worms. Garlic and many herbs are useful for exuding beneficial root exudates.                                                                                                                                              The last section is nutritional. Legumes, like beans, peas, lupines, clover put nitrogen in the soil. A good rotation would be leaf crops. Dynamic accumulators concentrate nutrients and release them in the soil. Comfrey is excellent source of potassium, calcium, phosphorus, copper and iron. Plants can benefit from planting around it. You can also make a tea from comfrey to put on plants. Dandelion also accumulates potassium, phosphorus, calcium, copper and iron. Stinging nettle and lambs quarters accumulates Calcium, phosphorus, sulfur, iron and sodium. You can also turn these plants into the soil so they release nutrients as they break down.                                                                   This is a highly experimental science. The results vary a lot from location to location and from year to year. There are many factors that determine the out come. like the weather. So it is not a matter of factual science. This is a system that involves diversity and diversity supports balance. There is more information in my book; Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming. 

Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming: How to be a good steward of the land and a good ga...

Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming: How to be a good steward of the land and a good ga...: This blog is an attempt to offer constructive criticism on becoming a better steward of the land. This involves efficient use of space so y...

How to be a good steward of the land and a good gardener.

This blog is an attempt to offer constructive criticism on becoming a better steward of the land. This involves efficient use of space so you can imitate how nature grows plants. This at the heart of Permaculture. Keeping the ground protected helps to enhance the life of the soil. Leaving the land bare is popular amongst farmers. Only humans do this. As the sun bakes the life out of it, the wind sucks the life out of it and the rains washes it away. Utilizing the principles of agroecology and intensive planting helps create balance and protects the fragile life under ground. Viewing the photos below offers ways to manifest life both below and above the ground. The first photo is cabbage planted in a staggered pattern interplanted with radishes and turnips. This is an example of polyculture and succession planting. As the cabbage grows and encompasses the space the turnips and radishes are harvested to allow more room. This is much more productive than the photo besides it using plastic mulch which releases toxins over time. The next photo is very common example of straight rows down the bed. Nothing in nature grows in this type of design. Planting in staggered patterns imitates nature, uses space efficiently and prevents weeds. The photo of beets planted next to it are broadcast which provides a much better yield. Below that photo are broccoli planted in a staggered pattern. This system more than quadruples the yield per given space. The living mulch they create develops a micro environment that supports their growth on many levels. The next photo is a box garden. I know people love box gardens. They are contained. I love transforming, regenerating and healing soil and environments. This is my passion and what I have done for several decades, but it may be too much work if you do not love it. When I see the sides of the box, I also see where it could produce a case of lettuce or a large bag of carrots. That is how I hold my beds together. People are conditioned to be consumers. This is the opposite of producing.. Gardening involves producing something with nature. So instead of buying wood, soil, plants, plastic and the latest invention, I use nature to create abundance. The argument is that the soil might be toxic. If so, have it tested. The soil or so called compost in bags might also have toxic ingredients. In my research I have found this to be true. There is no organic standard for compost. I also enjoy remediating toxic soil with plants through phytoremediation. I want box gardeners to think outside the box. There is a whole beautiful natural world under your feet waiting for you to connect with it. Near the bottom is a plastic tarp used to kill weeds. Weeds are the scar tissue of people's damage to the land. Weeds protect the soil and utilize land efficiently if you do not. In this way they are teachers. They can be very useful. I plant intensively and so only weed once or not at all. The plastic suffocates the soil and kills the beneficial microorganisms. Healthy soil breathes and pulsates like all living organisms. The photo on the bottom is a bed that allows this to happen. Invest in the soil and it will pay you back several fold. The garden creates the gardener as the gardener creates the garden. But you have to be open to the process for this to happen. There is more detail in my book, Radical Regenerative Gardening and Farming. 

A long term response to dealing with Covid 19 virus.

 The Corona 19 virus has disrupted the life of societies around the world like nothing I have seen in my life. The repercussions will have a great impact on the worlds ability to function as it has leading up to this pandemic. I am not an epidemiologist or even a pathologist, but I know something about dealing with diseases in nature. Disease problems are indicators of an imbalance. In dealing with such a problem you must first examine the factors that allow it to become so prevalent. To begin with, it helps to understand how they operate. Viruses are less common than other parasites. Viruses are a lot smaller than bacteria and fungi. They consist of a genetic material, like RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein in a fat coating. If you wash the virus molecules with soap you render it unable to survive. This is why it is important to wash with soap when exposed to it. Unlike bacteria or fungi, it is a total parasite. It cannot replicate or live long without a host. Bacteria and fungi can grow without a host. Viruses cannot. So it needs to be more aggressive to live. Being highly contagious helps with that. Some viruses have been used to disinfect bacteria in labs. So it spreads rapidly yet is very fragile.   There are two factors that favor it's development in human society.
  The first one is finding the right environment. If I grow a large crop of one plant it is more susceptible to whatever pest targets that plant. This is why I stay away from growing a monocrop. I have been in cattle feed lots and large chicken houses where there is a dense population of one species. This is a ripe environment for whatever parasite targets that group. I have seen many situations where people congregate inside subway stations or events or even in downtowns that closely resemble a feed lot or chicken house on a much larger scale. Considering how our cities are designed, I am actually surprised an epidemic of diseases are not more common. The way we design cities is that we pave over nature and fill it up with structures for high density human occupation. Living in South East Asia was incredible to see so many people in such close proximity. A diversity of species favors a balance in nature. This balance supports resilience. This is a rule for growing using agroecology. So if our cities were allowed to invite in more nature like parks and pedestrian beltlines this would help. The way cities are presently designed is not a healthy environment to live in. This is a hard sell to real estate venture capitalists. The disconnect with nature is part of the disfunction of modern society.

  The second factor is the internal environment, that being our bodies. The primary role of diseases in nature is to cull out weakness. This is what plagues and diseases did in ancient history. It kept human population growth controlled. In my work I grow healthy plants because they have mechanisms that ward off diseases. Modern medicine works with allopathic methods that treat symptoms only. Preventative medicine is a word that is thrown around but rarely used in treating health problems. Most people who have died from covid 19 had underlying health conditions or were elderly. That is a troubling thought since I am a senior citizen. Being healthy is not about taking probiotics. It is about eating foods that create abundance in your body. I wonder how much soil I eat while I am munching on carrots during work. I have been growing my own food for 4 or 5 decades. So health is a lifestyle. The changes of this pandemic needs to be a wake up call. Our society and the way it is structured needs a paradigm shift if this is truly a wake up call. This is not something you buy but something you do. Realign your priorities. Develop wealth beyond money. People want this to end and to get back to normal. Yet change is inevitable and constant. This is a good time to restructure how you spend your time to develop a healthy environment that supports diversity and symbiotic relationships with nature. Connecting with the earth connects us with who we are. 

Regenerative Permaculture Reforestation

 Trees represent greatness. They are living antiques in nature. They create sanctuaries that feed our souls. Planting trees is a good way to regenerate unused land. Trees are an important way to restore habitat and balance. They work well in permaculture design. On farm land they create micro climates in the form of wind breaks, shelter belts and catchment areas. Tall trees capture moisture and attract rain. Their roots store nutrients. Leguminous trees fix and release nitrogen. A balanced ecosystem depends on them to thrive in the form of a forested community. Trees are an important and  permanent component in developing regenerative agriculture.
 Tree Planting Program. In early 2020 with my non profit, REAP. I coordinated tree plantings across Georgia. We acquired 20,000 native trees. The trees were distributed in communities where secure land would allow the trees to grow for many years. The concept was to offer people something tangible they could do that would make a positive impact in there immediate area. The trees were made available free of charge. The idea was to offer ideas on how to regenerate land as a way of learning how to become better caretakers of the planet. I had originally did this thirty years ago for the 20th anniversary of Earth Day in 1990. Back then we organized and planted close to 17,000 trees. That program was very successful because of all the enthusiasm around Earth Day in 1990. In 2020 I choose to make it an even 20,000 trees. We worked with foresters, city arborists, the  DNR, county extension agents, environmental non profits, a few church groups. Many colleges got involved and utilized students to plant the trees. The trees were a mix of mostly hardwoods and a few evergreens. We donated a thousand longleaf pines to wildlife biologists that are working on bringing back endangered species in Longleaf pine habitats. In hindsight I wish I would have acquired more longleaf pines to donate to such a worthy cause. The trees were seedlings ranging from 1 foot tall to six foot tall. They are trees for the future, for our grandchildren. When I did this program in 1990, I went into many schools to plant trees with children. I would tell the 4th and 5th graders that they could come back in 30 years with their children and tell them that they planted that tree when they were in the fourth grade. Now that that concept has reached fruition, I thought it was time to do it again. Reforestation and regenerating a forest is done in several phases. First planting the taller trees that will become the upper canopy along with staggered plantings of smaller trees that are the understory. Next introduce native grasses, broadleaf plants, legumes and wildflowers that will cover the floor. Some habitat trees like serviceberry, mulberry, quince, etc, also contribute to habitat restoration. Some of this needs to be replanted as needed to fill in empty spots and for a healthy succession. Once the growth becomes established it would be useful to introduce mushrooms to encourage a healthy mycology in the soil. Most important is to check all erosion. Regenerating a piece of land is incredibly rewarding and helps you connect with the earth in a way that is very fulfilling. Regenerating land is a way of regenerating ourselves and helps us to become whole.