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Creating Bridges:
The Spiritual & Philosophical: |
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Organic Gardening |
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by Frank and Vicky Giannangelo |
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Heuristic Naiveté
As another snow storm blows in, the ground increasingly whitens adding needed moisture for all the spring sprouting seeds that lay just beneath the surface, waiting for the right conditions to emerge and provide fresh tender shoots for small scurrying animals like the kangaroo rat and the numerous prairie dogs. The vegetation will add nutrients to the soil once their days in the sun are over. They also provide a welcome splash of colors for us to enjoy and be inspired by as we too are plied with new growth and inspiration. It is late in the season. What snow does fall and remains will disappear rapidly into the ground, the climbing sun not allowing a sustained cold to remain.
The greenhouse is becoming fuller now that the first planted seed trays have sprouted and those new small plants have been transferred into 4 inch pots. They will remain in the 4 inch pots and be moved to the greenhouse out by the garden to be hardened off and become well rooted, filling the pot so that when next transplanted into the ground, there will be immediate new root growth into the surrounding soil. We have also started the second set of seed trays that will provide, down the line, back ups (in case of a late frost) and a supply of plants for continuous growing: harvest one, pop in another without having to wait for germination and growth.
Recently while at a pot-luck, we met a man from Vermont who was an organic gardener. We didn’t get a chance to talk too much amid the swirl of conversations taking place about world events, some hawks, some doves, each flapping their wings, fanning a spark of personal idealism. At times, like-minded groups gravitated together solidifying their ideas with more hushed voices than had been used with their opposition.
A couple of days later, the fellow gardener came over for a visit. We talked about soil and seasons, potatoes, beets, carrots and garlic. We each related stories of other gardeners around our respective areas and our associations with them, and how similar they were despite such different environments: some have moose and deer, we have prairie dogs.
A river flows fastest in the middle: the sides are slow and often swirl in small whirlpools, momentarily static and clogged with debris. We can draw both sides to the middle by generating symbols of attraction (e.g. planting a seed) - an action seemingly easy enough to do, yet it requires a certain separation from society who eats, but does not plant. And once all who have left the safe shores to perform this rite, this planting of a seed, they then become a member of a new “communitas”, having shared an experience that often eludes others. The middle stream rush of seed planting is simple, a naive thing one can do that becomes an anti-structural experience. Each season sustains in its repetition the statement of problem and solution. This is expressed first as an individual and then as a group. The symbol of planting a seed can be powerful because it is ambiguous and therefore full of meanings.
It is easy in this techno-complex world to garner a scoff at any belief of the individual doing something that has an effect on the whole. Nevertheless, when we place a seed in the soil, we are in the middle of the stream, moving forward with other individuals whose goals are to proceed in harmony into the future. It is an action taken rather than spoken of. It promotes a leveling of differences. It can apply in any country, to any peoples. It can be understood without language. It can bind all pasts. It can direct all futures. And as grows that seed, so do we.
Copyright © 2003
Giannangelo Farms Southwest
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"What is Organic Gardening?"
"Man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
Rachel Carson
ORGANIC GARDENING starts with good soil. When crops are deprived of basic nutrients they languish. Organic soil amendments and conditioners pay for themselves with increased plant productivity. Healthy plants grow more vigorously, taste better, store longer, and better resist insect attacks. They have greater resistance to the cold, heat, drought, and disease. Successful soil building best addresses the soil’s long-term needs by remedying deficiencies organically. Chemical fertilizers add unwanted nitrates or salts to the soil, as well as leaving chemical residues in the food. Organic gardening is growing without chemical fertilizers, naturally building the soil to support healthy plant life. Chemical fertilizers and additives will, over time, damage the soil's ability to provide what plants need to resist disease, insect attacks, and stress. Soil depletion of organic nutrients is one of the main causes of unhealthy plants and disease.
RECIPE FOR SOIL DEPLEATION:
Pesticides + chemical fertilizers = Infertile soil, stressed plants, and insect attacks.
RECIPE FOR SOIL BUILDING:
Organic fertilizers + microbial activity = Soil fertility, healthy plants, and resistance to insect attacks.
A healthy, organic garden produces strong plants that are able to withstand adverse conditions. The consistent traits and habits needed to make good soil can also help build fertility in our lives. Those things we do to create a healthy garden can become the tools needed to explore, change, and enhance our daily lives through:
Assessment - the plan of action
Decision – the choice to act
Implementation– the act itself, the doing
Success in the garden proves the efficacy of these tools, and as we use them to expand our gardens - the garden of our yard, and the garden of our soul - we expand all the aspects of our lives.
Organic soil amendments and conditioners can renew the life of your soil without adding unwanted chemicals. Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium are the basic providers of nutrients in the soil. Trace minerals provide the rest.
Soil can either be acidic or alkaline, or neutral – the soil’s pH. pH is the symbol for the logarithm of the reciprocal of Hydrogen ion concentration in gram atoms per liter. For example, a pH of 5 indicates a concentration of .00001 or 10-5 gram atoms of hydrogen ions in one liter of solution. Acidic soil has a pH range from 1 to 6.5. Alkaline soils have a pH range from 7.5 to 10. Neutral soil has a pH of 7. Lime, oak leaf mold, peat moss, rotted sawdust, and soil sulfur will lower the pH in an alkaline soil. For acid soil, add dolomite lime, or oyster shell lime. For the best results, add these amendments in the spring when soils are warming and microorganisms are active. Most plants grow well in a pH range of 6, but will tolerate a pH between 5.5 – 7.
Organic soil-building should include the addition of the following organic nutrients:
HUMUS - organic matter in various stages of decay. It increases water-holding capacity, modifies soil structure, stimulates plant growth, permits root penetration, and helps to correct soil imbalances. Some forms of humus are found in compost and animal manures.
NITROGEN - contains proteins and is a food source for compost piles (grass clippings, green vegetable matter), and it stimulates green growth in plants. Sources are blood meal, cottonseed meal, alfalfa meal, fishmeal, and fish emulsion.
PHOSPHORUS - stimulates root growth and promotes fruit and seed maturation. Good sources are soft rock phosphate or bone meal. Deficiencies are indicated by purple leaves, brittle roots, skinny stems and late fruit set and maturity.
POTASSIUM - promotes plant vitality and disease resistance. Sources are Greens and, also known as Glauconite, sulfate of potash, wood ashes, or Sul Po Mag. Deficiencies are indicated by an irregular yellowing of lower leaves, and poor root growth.
CALCIUM - important for plant cell wall integrity, root development and leaf growth. Low levels show up as deformed new leaves and branches, weak stems and roots. A good source for calcium is gypsum, which can also lower the alkalinity of the soil.
MAGNESIUM - essential for chlorophyll and green leaf development. Pale green leaves with green veins are a sign of deficiency. Adding dolomite lime to raise the pH in an acid soil often corrects this deficiency. In an alkaline soil you can add Magnesium Sulfate.
SULPHUR - used to lower pH in alkaline soil, and it is a stimulant for soil microbial life. Use sparingly. A good source is soil sulfur, or calcium sulfate – Gypsum.
TRACE MINERALS - found in compost, kelp meal, algae meal, and seaweed meal. These can provide boron, copper, iron, sulfur and zinc.
OXYGEN - one of the most important fertility components in the soil - it stimulates microbial activity and allows free root growth. Humus, peat moss, compost, and aged manure tilled into the soil help to increase the air spaces in the soil enabling plants to utilize the available nutrients. Soil should be loose and never walked on, which only compacts it. Tilling wet soil too early in the season can also destroy soil structure by compacting it, and squeezing out the pockets for air.
SUSTAINABLE GARDENING - one of the most important things about gardening organically is that the process can become sustainable over time. Sustainable soil building begins after the initial soil testing and the addition of organic fertilizers and conditioners, and continues by organically maintaining and improving the soil over time. Sustaining the soil means being able to replenish nutrients with what you have at hand – organic compost, beneficial microbes, enzymes, and earthworms. Ideally, once the garden is established it can be sustained with garden compost alone, using the microbes in your soil to inoculate your compost, which feed your soil.
WORMS - Vermicomposting uses earthworms to make compost. Worms can eat their body weight daily in organic matter and convert it into dark, soil enriching castings full of live micro organisms, growth hormones, and nutrients, humic acids which condition the soil, and a neutral pH.
COMPOSTING - Billions of decaying organisms (25,000 bacteria placed end to end equal one inch) feed, grow, reproduce and die, recycling garden waste into an organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. Composting is the ultimate recycling process – improving soil structure, increasing the soil’s ability to hold moisture, providing soil aeration, fertilization, and nitrogen storage. It buffers pH, releases nutrients, and provides food for microbial life.
PLANTING COVER CROPS - this "green manure" is grown for the sole purpose of being tilled into the soil to add organic matter. It will help keep moisture from evaporating, regulate the soil temperature, keeping it cooler in summer and warmer in winter. By providing an insulating blanket, microbes and earthworms will thrive. The more worms in your garden, the more they can break up, fertilize, and aerate the soil. Beneficial insects are also attracted by cover crops; alfalfa can attract parasitic wasps, lady beetles, damsel bugs, big-eyed bugs and assassin bugs. White clover can attract Tachnid flies, ground beetles and parasitic wasps that prey on aphids, scales, caterpillars and white flies. Most grains will attract lady beetles. Clovers and vetches can attract minute pirate bugs. Fava beans and buckwheat can attract predatory and parasitic wasps, syrphid flies and bumblebees.
CROP ROTATION - Crop rotation also helps to prevent soil deficiencies. By using different plants in different beds, you can avoid depletion of nutrients because each plant has different needs. Planting a legume after a heavy feeder such as corn, will replenish the nitrogen in the soil. Rotate your root crops, leafy crops, heavy feeders, and cover crops. if you keep a garden journal you can keep track of what you planted, and where and when you planted it.
PROVIDING GOOD DRAINAGE - Good drainage is essential to soil health. Too little drainage makes a soggy soil which prevents root growth, nutrient absorption, and compacts the soil. A perk test is an easy way to determine water drainage through your soil. Dig a hole six inches across by one foot deep. Fill with water and let drain. As soon as the water has drained, fill it again. Time how long it takes for the water to drain. If it takes more than 8 hours, you have a drainage problem. Add sand, gypsum, chopped straw, vermiculite or perlite to increase the drainage. Too much drainage can be determined by a water test. This will tell you if you soil drains too quickly, leaching nutrients and causing plants to be watered more frequently. Water well a small portion of your garden. Two days later, dig a hole 6 inches deep. If the soil is dry to the bottom of the hole, your soil drains too quickly to promote good plant growth. Add peat moss, vermiculite, perlite, composted manure and mulch well to prevent evaporation.
"When the planes still swoop down and aerial spray a field in order to kill a predator insect with pesticides, we are in the Dark Ages of commerce. Maybe one thousandth of this aerial insecticide actually prevents the infestation. The balance goes to the leaves, into the soil, into the water, into all forms of wildlife, into our selves. What is good for the balance sheet is wasteful of resources and harmful to life.”
Paul Hawkin from The Ecology of Commerce
COPYRIGHT (c) 2002 by Frank and Vicky Giannangelo
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Frank & Vicky Giannangelo
Registered Organic Gardeners
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Frank and Vicky Giannangelo have been gardening organically for 30 years and are New Mexico Registered Organic Gardeners.
Giannangelo Farms began in 1986 on San Juan Island, Washington - an island off the coast of Washington State, 10 miles from the bottom of Vancouver Island, British Columbia.
After creating formal, patterned, raised bed, sustainable organic gardens, starting a business, and expanding as much as we could handle without hiring anyone, we sold our business in 1993 and moved to Arizona, where we spent three years creating and coordinating the building of a large formal herb and vegetable garden for a private community.
Since 1997, we have lived in northwestern New Mexico in an area presenting many challenges, altitude, erratic spring weather, a short growing season, and a 7,300 ft. high desert environment - which is allowing us to use our experience and creativity to establish Giannangelo Farms Southwest.
There are formal gardens, pools, and ponds surrounded by a hay bale stucco wall, garden beds with rock retaining walls, three pergolas for private formal teas, a labyrinth, garden trellises, and greenhouses - all of which are open to the public year around.
We give a series of spring and fall "You Can Grow!" Workshops on how to do basic rockwork, build hay bale stucco walls, and how to create sustainable organic gardens - with an emphasis on the problems of growing in this area.
In the summer we sell organic herbs and vegetables to a coop market in Gallup, and participate in a local Saturday's farmer's market. Sustainable Organic Gardening CD ROMs are available on our website:
NEW on our website:
CREATIVE GARDEN DESIGN:
avant-gardening.com
/design.html
TAKE VIRTUAL PHOTO TOURS:
avant-gardening.com
Our newsletter is now published monthly in a new online magazine:
avant-gardening.com/
grow.html
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