There are many movements afoot that are working towards creating a regenerative future. Good opportunities arise to learn more about what people are up to when there are gatherings that bring the diverse strategies of regenerative endeavors together. With so many fronts to focus on to bring us into a more sustainable today it’s hard to keep up on what’s going on sometimes. You can read books, search the Internet and take classes to learn more about becoming a part of the movement to create a more sustainable culture. But how do you sift through all the information to find out what works best? A great way to get more connected is to attend an event that showcases sustainable living. I don’t know about you but I like to learn about things in person and first hand. That’s why this fall there are some gatherings that I will be attending that bring some of these strategies into the same arena.
Sierra Green Day is coming to Murphys, CA on September 21st. It is meant to bring together people that are interested in participating in a sustainable community. This year they finally moved the venue to a place that seems to fit the vibe of the purpose. Murphys park and the Native Sons Hall is a great place to commune with people of all ages. There will be two tracks of educational workshops. One that fits in seamlessly with the mission of a “green” event is the self-reliance and local resilience track. The other is a bit of a stretch with employment and business development track. I see the former as a integral part in a so called green event. However, the business track seems a little bit out of line with the purpose of such an event, perhaps I’m biased a bit and think the whole thing should revolve around self reliance and local resilience. I’m just not sure that all employment and business are “green” and the list of workshops doesn’t really line up with so called “green” living. I look forward to seeing how some of the presenters tie their presentation into green living. I see the importance of such an event in our community so I will be presenting two workshops here this year. The first one I’ll be giving is about how to incorporate permaculture principles into your lifestyle. The second one will be how to make seedballs. If you don’t know what seedballs are I suggest you come to my workshop and Sierra Green Day.
Coming up on October 18th-20th is the 24th annual Bioneers conference. This year the theme is ‘turning vision into action’. Held at the Marin center in San Rafael, CA, it is the premier gathering for people that are dedicated to creating a regenerative culture. Here is their mission “The overarching mission of Bioneers is the advancement of holistic education pertaining to global social, cultural and environmental issues. Bioneers identifies progressive yet nature-honoring solutions to rising challenges of instability, inequality, and unsustainable growth…”. The conference is a space for many people to gather around these issues. Being the premier conference of its type on the planet it showcases leading-edge innovators and their solutions for restoring people and planet. The conference attracts many like-minded individuals and offers a great place for networking. The workshops and plenary talks are inspirational to say the least. I like the way they organize the workshops and plenary talks, their categories include women’s leadership, restorative food systems, youth leadership and an indigenous forum. These are the voices we need to listen to more. I think they have done a great job of giving voice to these issues. I have been to this conference for the last 3 years and I come away feeling inspired and connected every time. I feel at home when I go there, soaking up as much new material that I can and networking with friends and colleagues. One of my favorite parts of Bioneers is the seed exchange. Several local seed companies donate seeds, as well as one of my favorite sources for seed, Tesuque pueblo from New Mexico.
Go check out one or both of these events. Join with others that feel the need to make sustainable changes. Take some of the knowledge you may learn and help spread it around the globe.
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Chop and Drop some of your Crops!
Building soil fertility may be difficult to do without spending quite a bit of money on all kinds of amendments. However, there are several easy ways to build soil without purchasing amendments. If you look at nature, forests, prairies and the like have been slowly building soil for millennia. With a little insight from how soil is built naturally we can speed up the process. If you go to any forest or prairie you can see that the debris that is created by the ecosystem is deposited on the ground and is eventually broken down in to soil by fungi, microorganisms, herbivores, and others. If we take this design strategy into our own system we can design the system to have several different soil building species mixed in with our edible (or useful) perennials. If you have animals in your system you can utilize the fodder from your crops for making nutrient rich manure from your animals. But with or without animals in your system you can speed up soil building processes quite rapidly.
One thing I enjoy doing is chopping and dropping certain plants to mulch and build the soil locally. You can chop and drop plants of all different growing patterns and sizes. The basic concept comes from planting plants that you intend for this purpose and depositing clippings nearby where they were planted. This mimics the natural processes of growth, dieback and deposition of debris on the ground. However we can increase the amount of debris that can turn into soil by choosing species that either dynamically accumulate nutrients or fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. One of the great workhorses is comfrey. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows about 3 feet high and about the same in width. Once it gets this big it is ready to be chopped and dropped. I like to leave a few of the smaller shoots so they grow back quicker. You can do this at least 3 times in a summer. When you mulch the ground with materials like comfrey leaves you can protect the soil from drying out, create more habitats for microorganisms, fungi and other soil creatures, such as earthworms. It can also act as a weed barrier. If your not wanting to mulch a certain area or it’s already mulched well enough, you can utilize your chop and drop materials to make a nutrient rich tea to feed your garden with. Simply add your comfrey to a bucket and cover it with water. Wait about a week, stir it up and dilute this mixture about 1 to 10 and use this homemade fertilizer to boost plant growth.
There are plenty of annuals and perennials that can be utilized similarly to comfrey. At Love Creek Permaculture we harvest the greens from lambsquarters in spring and early summer, but when they bolt (flower) we like to cut the plant at the base and use the tops for mulching. Leaving the roots in the soil will add to the organic matter in the soil, and increase soil fertility. We even utilize the chop and drop method with several different tree species. Deer brush is a common medium to tall shrub that fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere. Cutting branches from these trees can give us materials to chip up or we can just leave them to decompose on the ground nearby. It is important to note that when you cut a branch from a tree, there are corresponding roots in the ground that die back. These dead roots also add organic matter to the soil and increase the soil fertility. Alder trees are also quick growing nitrogen fixers that can be coppiced and a continual supply of branches can be utilized for making woodchips, BBQs, and hugelkultur beds.
The ultimate food forest is designed to have several chop and drop species mixed in with crops that you utilize for food, fuel, medicine, and fodder. Some quick growing tree species can be planted to build soil as your slower maturing fruit and nut trees develop. Over time the quick growing species are chopped and dropped about once a year and eventually can be removed entirely to make room for your maturing trees. But all the while you are also using other dynamic accumulators such as comfrey to add chop and drop materials to the soil within your food forest.
This type of soil stewardship can be fun and is rather quite easy once you get the hang of it. Choosing the species can be more difficult because there isn’t much information on this subject outside of the permaculture community. However comfrey is a great species to start with and is easily found at your local nurseries. From your own observations of how plants grow you can find some chop and drop species that are already in existence on your land. Try it out and see what happens.
One thing I enjoy doing is chopping and dropping certain plants to mulch and build the soil locally. You can chop and drop plants of all different growing patterns and sizes. The basic concept comes from planting plants that you intend for this purpose and depositing clippings nearby where they were planted. This mimics the natural processes of growth, dieback and deposition of debris on the ground. However we can increase the amount of debris that can turn into soil by choosing species that either dynamically accumulate nutrients or fix nitrogen from the atmosphere. One of the great workhorses is comfrey. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows about 3 feet high and about the same in width. Once it gets this big it is ready to be chopped and dropped. I like to leave a few of the smaller shoots so they grow back quicker. You can do this at least 3 times in a summer. When you mulch the ground with materials like comfrey leaves you can protect the soil from drying out, create more habitats for microorganisms, fungi and other soil creatures, such as earthworms. It can also act as a weed barrier. If your not wanting to mulch a certain area or it’s already mulched well enough, you can utilize your chop and drop materials to make a nutrient rich tea to feed your garden with. Simply add your comfrey to a bucket and cover it with water. Wait about a week, stir it up and dilute this mixture about 1 to 10 and use this homemade fertilizer to boost plant growth.
There are plenty of annuals and perennials that can be utilized similarly to comfrey. At Love Creek Permaculture we harvest the greens from lambsquarters in spring and early summer, but when they bolt (flower) we like to cut the plant at the base and use the tops for mulching. Leaving the roots in the soil will add to the organic matter in the soil, and increase soil fertility. We even utilize the chop and drop method with several different tree species. Deer brush is a common medium to tall shrub that fixes nitrogen from the atmosphere. Cutting branches from these trees can give us materials to chip up or we can just leave them to decompose on the ground nearby. It is important to note that when you cut a branch from a tree, there are corresponding roots in the ground that die back. These dead roots also add organic matter to the soil and increase the soil fertility. Alder trees are also quick growing nitrogen fixers that can be coppiced and a continual supply of branches can be utilized for making woodchips, BBQs, and hugelkultur beds.
The ultimate food forest is designed to have several chop and drop species mixed in with crops that you utilize for food, fuel, medicine, and fodder. Some quick growing tree species can be planted to build soil as your slower maturing fruit and nut trees develop. Over time the quick growing species are chopped and dropped about once a year and eventually can be removed entirely to make room for your maturing trees. But all the while you are also using other dynamic accumulators such as comfrey to add chop and drop materials to the soil within your food forest.
This type of soil stewardship can be fun and is rather quite easy once you get the hang of it. Choosing the species can be more difficult because there isn’t much information on this subject outside of the permaculture community. However comfrey is a great species to start with and is easily found at your local nurseries. From your own observations of how plants grow you can find some chop and drop species that are already in existence on your land. Try it out and see what happens.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)