It has been a while since I blogged but it's never too late to start. While I have been away, I learned more about the soil and methods to preserve it. I wrote a book! It is called Gardening my way! Heres the link. I highly recommend it as a start-up guide to your garden adventure. Gardening My Way!: A Beginners Guide to What I Know - And What You Need to Know: Zimmerman, Brian: 9798324566845: Amazon.com: Books It is a simple guide to my years gardening and farming. There will be an expanded version with interviews and pictures of all our practices. But let's get through the summer and fall first.
The reason for the book is my strong belief that we all need to preserve what we have. The more I see what is happening in the natural world, in our food system and in the environment the more I believe we all need to prepare and help where we can. I am concerned about the latest recalls of cucumbers and meat. The climate is changing and the way we grow food needs to change also. We need to work together to grow and use our own local foods. That means creating a small garden and using greenmarkets or farmstands to get our food. I do not want to get preachy, but the time is now to make some changes. I started gardening the conventional way but the more I learned the more I realized we need to change. That is why no-till is my preferred method now.
The experiment in no-till gardening continues. It is a great way to garden that will save time, energy, money, natural resources and create something beautiful. It is simple and easy. It can be completed by a few different methods. There is the lasagna method where you layer the soil with a base of cardboard, then compost, straw and more compost. You let the cardboard degrade and plant directly into the compost layer. I use the old-fashioned plant a cover crop, kill it, and create rows within it to plant. I used cereal rye and hairy vetch. In the planting rows I'll put compost to sweeten the deal. You can also start now! Till your garden, plant a good summer cover crop such as buckwheat, crush it to stop the growth and plant into that. Then in the fall start your no-till with additional cover crops. Always soil test! Add your recommended additions and start your garden in the spring. So cool!
We all need to learn together. To get outside in our busy hectic is a pleasure. It can relieve your stress, give you vitamin D and give you the exercise you have been missing. Cannot say enough about it. Now that we are back to blogging you'll see a consistent stream of them. See you soon! Write me with any questions you might have. Peace
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