About the Legume family
Members of the Legume family – peas, beans, and all their cousins – are superstar soil-builders. In partnership with certain beneficial bacteria, legumes can capture nitrogen from the atmosphere and lock it into the soil where other plants can access…
“Fertilizer” versus fertility
The term “fertilizer” is undeniably a marketing person’s invention. Looking to the roots of the word, “fertilizer” should be that which actively creates fertility. But once we understand that the true sources of soil fertility are a rich abundance of…
Bermuda grass containment in a frost-free area
Be prepared to dig, and redig. Dig out every little tiny bit, every single white stolon. In the months and years that follow, each time you see a Bermuda sprout, dig it out, including the white stolon. When you pull…
The Bad and the Ugly: Bermuda grass
Many garden books promote methods such as the “Lasagna method” where you layer materials such as cardboard, black plastic, compost, mulch, etc., onto grass and create a garden. In Southern California we must evaluate such recommendations carefully: Does the person…
Soil workhorses
daikon radish (can break up clay), a favorite of Fukuoka burdock, similarly deep and powerful root chicory, burnet, lamb’s quarters, dock – described as “deep rooted” by John Jeavons (J2) beets, comfrey – accumulate potassium (J2) clover – accumulates nitrogen…
More compost
Premade plastic bins are great for newbies and for those who demand a slick visual appearance in the garden. But ours is a culture which has been so completely out-of-touch with natural cycles and growing things; we have lost our…
Preparing a new garden
What we did at the Community Garden at Holy Nativity: Removed lawn. Waited for regrowth. Dug out regrowth. (We did rototill after regrowth removal.) Marked the footpaths and defined growing spaces. We have variously used wood, plastic edging, and rocks,…
As close to a closed-loop system as possible
Ultimately, to maintain ongoing soil fertility, we are faced with figuring out how to put as much material back into the soil as we drew out of it. We must offset soil losses by building up soil gains. Soil losses:…
Moving the compost
Q: What is hot and juicy and black and very, very stinky? A: My anaerobic compost trial. In the mid 1990’s when we lived in Orange County, composters were hard to come by. I read somewhere that you could compost…
Compost Happens
Making compost isn’t rocket science. Admittedly, upon deep scientific analysis the soil web is highly complex. But Nature knows her stuff. Don’t get in her way. Work with her, embrace her as your partner, and she’ll ably handle all those…