Busy, with small garden accomplishments

In spite of burning up the highways with many trips to Wake Forest Medical School in NC to see my doctors, I've managed to do a few things for the garden.

It's another day here of scattered t'storms. Good thing I have a table on the front porch where I can work on starting seeds.

According to the biodynamic planting calendar, yesterday, today and tomorrow are good days to start fruiting vegetable seeds. I started some tomatoes and a few winter squash yesterday but I need to find more seed flats. Hopefully there are some in one of the sheds; I'm such a pack-rat.

 

 

The few seeds I started 3-4 weeks ago are really healthy and ready to transplant. Like a fool, I thought I'd remember what was where without markers. I can tell the summer squash from the beans, but not which is which bean variety, nor can I tell the yellow squash from zukes. What an idiot! I made sure to use markers in the seeds I started yesterday.

I left last fall's dried Japanese morning glory vines on the new trellis, thinking some seeds would fall and germinate. Wrong! Too bad, because I built that trellis specifically to grow enough vines to shade the end-wall of the house from the hot summer sun. 

However, the 2 hardy kiwi I planted last spring on that trellis are doing great and have climbed to about 4-5' tall already. They won't fruit this year (I think they are too young); their fruit is a little smaller than a regular kiwi, and smooth-skinned rather than fuzzy, but tasty. I'll take some oics when the rain stops.

Mike accidentally mowed down the 4 grape vines I started last year on the other trellis. He mows for me when I'm unable, and complains more every year about the things he has to mow around, whereas it was just all grass when I moved here 6 years ago. I keep telling him that my goal is zero grass except maybe a small patch for the dog.

The 2nd food forest guild, started last year (with a plum tree seedling in the center) is slowly taking shape. The chives I planted around the periphery had grown enough by early spring to divide, which I did yesterday. They are wilted but will perk right up in a few days. (A ring of alliums or daffodils around the perimeter is said to keep the grass from encroaching. We'll see if that's true.) I found a bag of daffs that I'll plant tightly between the chives. I have several herb plants to place between the plum tree and the chives, plants that attract and feed pollinators. This year a few tomatoes will go in that bed since the plum seedling is still quite small.

Photo by RC Designer

As my friend in Chile says, borage is a great beneficial plant. It attracts bees, which increases pollination of nearby plants, enhances the growth of tomatoes (by confusing and repelling tomato hornworms); helps brassicas (by repelling and confusing cabbage worms); and strawberries. It's also beneficial for cucumbers, beans (both climbing and bush beans), grapes, zucchini/squash, and peas. Borage can help all plants increase their disease resistance.

Borage is also useful as a mulch, and is very good for the compost pile. It contains calcium and potassium which may account for another reason why tomatoes do well near borage. Blossom end rot, not only in tomatoes but also with zucchini, is caused by lack of calcium. Potassium helps plants to bloom and set fruit, which may increase production in tomatoes and strawberries.

Photo by nociveglia

Borage is an attractive annual that should be grown in every home garden. It produces beautiful star-shaped blue flowers and cucumber-flavored leaves. Used for flavor in salads, cream cheese, tall drinks or cook it and eat like spinach. The flower has a sweet honey-like taste and is often used to decorate desserts and dishes. If frozen into ice-cubes, the flowers become exotic drink coolers.

The oil that is extracted from the seeds (marketed as "starflower oil" or "borage oil") is a good source of gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). Borage also has herbal / medicinal value.

Growing Healthier Greens

One of the best things you can add to your garden for growing superb greens is rock dust. Volcanic rock dust, if you can find it, otherwise any rock dust is better than none. (Rock dust is good for all plants in the garden, but especially the greens because it helps give structure to the leaves.)

"Adding volcanic dust mimics glacial cycles which naturally fertilized the land. Since the last ice age three million years ago the earth has gone through 25 similar glaciations, each lasting about 90,000 years. We are currently 10,000 years into an interglacial -- a hiatus between ice ages -- meaning modern soils are relatively barren and artificial fertilizers are needed." (Quote Source)

The addition of rock dust is usually called RE-mineralization, because our soils have become very depleted in minerals over time. (Plants take up minerals as they grow, some more than others, and normal fertilizing doesn't add all the minerals back in.) There are 17 essential plant nutrients; of those, hydrogen, carbon and oxygen are absorbed from the air, while the other essential nutrients (mostly minerals) and water must be obtained from the soil.

However, what really makes a garden work is all the bio-organisms that will convert any and all the nutrients to a form the plants can utilize (take-up via roots). All the nutrients in the world are useless unless they are in a form plants can use.

When we fertilize, we usually add the inorganic nutrients consisting of NPK or nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, which are called primary nutrients because the plants use a LOT of them. (Bagged NPK doesn't include anything else but NPK and a filler.)

The secondary (mineral) nutrients are calcium, magnesium and sulfur. Those do not always need re-application every year, but they might, so get a soil sample! The third classification is micronutrients (it's what rock dust contains and needed only in small quantities)... more than 50-60 micro-minerals like boron, manganese, zinc, molybdenum, nickel, cobalt and more are available from some rock dust sources.

The colloidal carbonaceous residue known as humus serves as a nutrient reservoir. Besides lack of water and sunshine, nutrient deficiency is a major growth limiting factor.

There is some thought that the calcium and magnesium in the rock dust converts atmospheric carbon into carbonates... which would be essentially sequestering some carbon in the soil, if I understand it correctly.

Currently, I add 2 kinds of rock dust to my garden: Azomite, and Greensand which is mined in New Jersey. I also add biochar sifted from my woodstove ashes, which I inoculate with mild urea or compost tea. All of these components give the bio-organisms something to convert to nutrients for the plants. I know I probably don't build enough humus yet... that is: I don't add enough active organic matter... but this year I plan to use EM-1 (Effective Microorganisms) on my compost and also make Boshaki to continue growing effective microorganisms for my soil life.

But remember, it all starts with rock dust to feed the existing bio-organisms in my soil, which will feed the plants that will feed me.

Nutrient loss in Our Vegetables

A good friend recently sent me a note that there is a story in the current Mother Earth News concerning the serious decline of nutrients in vegetables. Loss of nutrients in vegetables isn't news to me because I have been long aware of the published (and hard to find) data by the USDA on the declining nutrients in crops since the 1950's/1960's. (I used to have the USDA chart on my computer, but I lost it when the last hard drive died, and now it is not easy to find.)

Several "causes" have been cited in the research literature, ranging from overall loss in our soil nutrients, to the specific varieties chosen to plant. It certainly appears true that veggies remove micronutrients from the soil which are never replaced by the additions of just the popular NPK.

However, the loss of nutrients by the "choice" of planted varieties has me stumped. From what I read, some varieties that are chosen to grow quickly with a minimum of amendments to the soil might indeed result in a great crop of pretty and marketable produce, but lacking on the nutrition scale. Personally I am more inclined to believe the soil deficiency idea.

In 2008 I wrote a post on DavesGarden called "red tennis balls" which listed some USDA stats on nutrient decline in tomatoes. Here's an excerpt:

Taking statistics from the USDA comparing a tomato in 1963 to a tomato now (2008) shows that 100 grams of 'fresh' tomato has:

30.7% LESS Vitamin A

16.9% LESS Vitamin C

61.5% LESS Calcium

11.1% LESS Phosphorus

9% LESS Potassium

9% LESS Niacin (B3)

10% LESS Iron

1% LESS Thiamine (B1)

65% MORE Lipids (fats)

200% MORE Sodium

Vitamins E and K are not measured, nor are essential micronutrients like molybdenum and selenium.

Broccoli has lost 45% Vitamin C.

80% of the tomatoes grown in Florida now comprise just 5 varieties, and one of those 5 counts  by itself for 35.9% of all tomatoes (the variety is Fla. 47).

In the last 50 years, the Canadian potato has lost 100% Vitamin A, and 57% Calcium, 50% Iron, 50% Riboflavin (B2) and 18% Thiamin.

So, its not just Red Tennis Balls that are nutritionally deficient...

I've been working on increasing nutrient density (measurements aka Brix, and also taste in the veggies... the better the taste, the higher the nutritional value) in my own garden for 4+ years now and I still don't have a good handle on it, although my results are getting better. I DO believe that sufficient micro-minerals, good compost and an excellant microbial population are a big part of the equation. I hope to have some increased positive reports this coming gardening season.

Sheet Composting, Update

The first load of chips, ready to spread over several inches of alfalfa hay on a cardboard base

My effort to build a totally new garden area with new-to-me concepts (based on Gaia's Garden) is making some progress. I may be close to finishing what I can do before the weather is too cold, so it's time for an update.

So far I have spread 12 bales of alfalfa hay, 6 truckloads of chips, 20 pounds of Greensand, 20 pounds of Azomite, about half a 30 gallon garbage-can of biochar... and I'm not yet finished for the year!

Mulch berm with Jerusalem Artichokes and Chard just beyond it. The spent vines on thr trellis back and to the right are Hops. Next year there will be perennial  Hardy Kiwi planted on the trellis.

To better manage rain run-off on my sloping garden, I decided to build a mulch berm on the high side of the garden, and it will have a swale dug parallel to, and just above it. The greywater (just from the washing machine) will run into the swale, but only after it exits 2 planned shallow bog areas with plants that filter the water. The berm will help hold and slowly disperse water from the greywater bogs and the rain runoff from the steep hillside behind the house. 

Since the washing machine water may not always be enough to keep the bog plants wet most of the time, I will probably run one or two of my downspout water-cachement barrels into the bogs, with a valve to control the amount of water in the bogs.

Hugel Edge, partially covered

On the down-slope side of this area is the hugel-edge, which is now partially covered in rough mulch and chips; I ran out of chips and need a 7th load to finish! I managed to scrounge quite a few lengths of partially decomposing logs I found on our lower hillside, plus a few shorter pieces of punky stuff from the firewood pile. It's not as tall or wide as I'd like for the hugel edge, but I will add to it over time.

The Edge will not only absorb water that moves down-slope, it will also be planted with veggies next year. (It will soon get a layer of topsoil over it.) In fact the whole area needs a layer of topsoil... good topsoil, full of microbes... but I'm not counting on finding any. When is the last time you bought topsoil that actually had a worm in it? It's all sterilized dead dirt they sell.

The other thing I really need to do (and possibly cannot this late in the year) is add some Efficient Microbes to my mix. If I cannot, that will get top priority in early spring. There are already some microbes in the mulch/chips I've added, because I have seen some small patches of fungi. It just isn't enough, nor a balance, in my opinion.

Segue
I recently attended a conference on economic opportunities of goods from wooded properties, for which mine certainly qualifies. (19 acres total, 17+ of those are fairly steep woods.) Among the several topics presented were elderberries. See the white fence in the background? I plan a row of elderberries parallel to the fence next year, and maybe even start a coppice of basket willow against the fence itself. I won't be planting enough elderberries to market, but certainly enough elderberries to make elderflower champagne, elderberry wine, elderberry cough/cold syrup, elderberry jelly and juice... and who knows what other uses I will find! The elder row will act somewhat as a buffer to prevailing winds, and some basket willow along the fence should help.

200 Million Pounds of Manure?

Photo By Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times

Day and night, 24/7, a huge contraption prowls the grounds at Frank Volleman’s dairy in Central Texas. It has a 3,000-gallon tank with a heavy-duty vacuum pump and hoses... and underneath, adjustable blades that scrape the surface as it passes along.

In function it is something like a Zamboni used to smooth ice, but one that has crossed over to the "dark side". This is no hockey rink, and it’s not loose ice being scraped up. It’s cow manure.

Lots of cow manure. A typical lactating Holstein produces about 150 pounds of waste — by weight, about 2/3 wet feces, 1/3 urine — each day. Mr. Volleman has 3,000 lactating Holsteins and another 1,000 that are temporarily “dry.” Do the math: his Wildcat Dairy produces about 200 million pounds of manure every year!

Mr. Volleman, who came to Texas from his native Luxembourg 16 years ago, takes pride in his operation which produces about 25,000 gallons of milk a day. “It’s all about keeping it clean, keeping it comfortable and producing high quality milk,” he said, adding that what is good for his cows is good for him. “They’re writing my paycheck.”


Dairies differ from feedlots, poultry operations and hog farms in how they handle manure. At a feedlot, for example, manure is often collected only once every six months, after the thousands of fattened cattle have been shipped out. (Can't you just imagine how our foods get contaminated?) Dairy operators seem like neatniks by comparison, but even among dairies, manure management varies according to location, climate, regulations and other factors.

At a large operation like Mr. Volleman’s, it is the inexorability of excrement, as much as the sheer volume, that defines the waste-handling process. A cow’s digestive system, with its series of four stomachs, is built to handle lots of roughage. And you cannot turn it off.

So among the 40 employees at Wildcat Dairy are some whose main task is to handle the manure, 24 hours a day. They collect it from the huge open-sided barns, which house up to 1,200 cows each. The animals bed down in sand, but there are concrete alleys running the length of each barn for food, and others for excrement.

While the cows are at the rotary parlor — the stainless-steel merry-go-round of milking stalls that the Holsteins ride every eight hours around the clock — a worker on a tractor tows the tank-pump contraption up those manure alleys. The worker hops off the tractor as needed to rake solids in the bedding area into the alleys for collection.

When the tank is about half full, the worker drives it to a nearby patch of dirt, opens a valve and spreads — sprays, really — the manure out to dry. Twice a week, the solids are scraped into windrows and then spread on fields as fertilizer.

Even dried, manure contains a lot of water, so it is not economical to truck it very far — beyond about 10 miles, it is cheaper for a farmer to buy inorganic fertilizer. Some dairy producers compost their manure, making it more valuable as fertilizer, but composting costs time and money.

Mr. Volleman’s manure is spread only on his fields and those of nearby farmers. “We bring the manure to their fields, they spread it out to grow crops, we bring the crops back to feed the cows,” he said. “So it’s kind of a circle — a closed circle.”

When manure is mismanaged, the nutrients in it can foul streams, lakes and aquifers; the pathogens in it can contaminate food products; and the gases it produces, including ammonia, methane and bad-smelling volatile compounds, can upset the neighbors and pollute the atmosphere.

Even with best practices, manure can cause environmental headaches. So researchers are working on ways to improve manure handling, to modify the nutrients in it and to develop alternative uses.

Some dairy producers do compost their manure, making it more valuable as fertilizer, but composting costs time and money.

One problem, said Robert T. Burns, a professor in the department of agricultural and biosystems engineering at Iowa State University, is that manure typically has more phosphorous than needed. “Manure is an unbalanced fertilizer from the plant’s view,” Dr. Burns said.



Diet modification can help, to some extent. Phosphorous is added to dairy feed as a supplement, and research has shown that it tends to be added in excess, said William P. Weiss, a professor in the animal sciences department at Ohio State University. 



Nitrogen, on the other hand, comes from protein, and a lactating cow needs to consume a lot of protein. “Decrease it a bit, and then milk production falls off,” Dr. Weiss said.



With nitrogen, the problem is usually not that there is too much, but that much of it is eventually lost from the manure in the form of gaseous ammonia. The bacteria in feces contain an enzyme, urease, that breaks down the urea in urine into carbon dioxide and ammonia. As with phosphorous, diet can affect the amount of nitrogen retained in the manure.

As corn-based ethanol production has increased in the United States, many dairies and feedlots now give their animals a large amount of so-called distillers’ grains, the waste corn after fermentation, which is plentiful and cheap. (...and I wonder if there's still any nutrition in the grains after distilling?)

A recent study of feedlots in the Texas Panhandle, by scientists with the United States Department of Agriculture, showed that feeding a diet high in distillers’ grains produced significantly higher ammonia emissions from the manure.

There are several options in handling manure, but they are expensive. Even in a good economy, a dairy producer may be reluctant to add costs. And the industry is currently suffering — milk prices are low, producers are losing money and some are going out of business. “Given these times,” Dr. Mukhtar said, “there is really not a whole lot of incentive to do all that.”
Source