A healthy microbial community within soil combats the effects of drought. Photo courtesy of CIAT

The Texas Transfarmers of Austin, Texas, recently had a meetup at Third Coast Horticulture Supplies.  At the meetup, Shawn Bishop, the owner, passed around this easy to understand essay on the importance of soil microbiology.  With his permission, I’ve reproduced it here.

Soil Simplified: An Introduction to Your Garden’s Microbial Life

Plants Relationship With Microbes

Until modern times, plants have relied on nutrients provided by their relationship with microbial life.  This relationship can seem complex and mysterious.  There are however, some key elements to microbial soil life that can enlighten curious gardeners with little more than a brief explanation:

1. Plants exude sugars from their roots.
2. Bacteria and fungi ingest these sugars.
3. Protozoa and nematodes then eat the bacteria and fungi.
4. Their excess waste is transformed into “plant available” nutrients right in the root zone.
5. The plant uses these nutrients to grow.
6. The plant is in control of when and what it eats.  By using a piece of its own energy to feed these microbes, the plant insures a future source of energy greater than what it has lost.

Understanding this cycle will help you better learn how plants relate to the soils in which they are grown.  Realizing that plants evolved with this relationship can help you decide what is best for your garden.

Soils Relationship to Microbes

Soil is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, and a full spectrum of living creatures.

It is also a microscopic landscape where life decomposes to its base ingredients and ushered into new forms.  Gardeners don’t need to know complex biochemistry to know their garden, but understanding some of the processes going on in your soil can be rewarding:

1. Fresh organic material is broken down by microbes.  The bacteria eat the sugars and fresh green material.  The fungi eat the tougher woody material and proteins.
2. Plant material is further broken down by larger microbes, small bugs, and worms that feast on the bacteria and fungi.
3. Microbes hold moisture and nutrients in their biomass.  They keep the water from evaporating and the nutrients from leaching away.
4. Bacteria produce slimes that bind particles together to form humus in your soil.  This helps the soil store oxygen, creates cracks for water to flow, and provides shelter for the multitude of creatures thriving underfoot.

These are just a few examples of microbial soil interactions that can help you better relate to your garden.  Through these processes, the life in your soil maintains balance with the environment that it is a part of.

Working With Soil Biology

If you are adding compost, mulching, or avoiding chemical fertilizers, then you are probably already doing much to improve your soils health.  By learning how these actions affect your garden, you can better trust your own reasoning and intuition to guide your relationship with soil life.

Compost

Compost is organic matter that has been broken down by microbes so that its energy is stored for further use.  Applying it to your garden adds colonies of diverse organisms to the soil.

It also supplies a new food source for existing colonies.

There is much variation in qualities compost can process.  For instance, the debris that comprises the compost should be fully broken down and unrecognizable.  It should have a deep brown color and rich but subtle smell.

If it smells strong then it is probably potent in some way.  If it smells rotten, then it could add problems to your soil.  Many methods of producing compost can yield different results, but remember:  We evolved with these microbes, plants, and soils as well.  Your senses can be the best judge of the quality of compost.

Compost Tea

Compost tea is a brew of oxygen rich water, high quality compost, and some foods to help microbes bloom in population.

The goal of good compost tea is to substantially multiply the beneficial organisms.

They can then be used to coat leaf surfaces, inoculate compost, and restore or improve soil health.

A bio film of compost tea on leaf surfaces can keep pathogens from reaching the plant as a food source.  The microbes also respire CO2 that helps fuel plant metabolism.  Use of tea in compost or soil can drastically increase the biomass of healthy life that stores and converts energy.

Mycorrhizae

Most plants in Earth’s soils have evolved to have a mycorrhizal relationship with fungi.  This  is when a specialized species of fungi attaches to the root of a plant, and directly exchanges nutrients in the soil for foods from the plant.

The fungi use enzymes and organic acids to break down minerals in the soil and draw them into the plants roots.

The fungal hyphae (strands of cells that form the organism) can multiply the water-absorbing surface area of the root zone by hundreds of times.  Use of mycorrhizal fungi spores can greatly increase your plants access to water and nutrients.

Minerals

Many of the nutrients locked within our soils are in the form of minerals.  Some are readily available to plants, while others need the help of microbes to unlock their energy.

When we harvest from our gardens, we deplete the nutrients made available from organic matter and minerals.

We usually replenish organic matter in the form of compost or fertilizers.  It is also good to add minerals while restoring fertility to your soil.

Mulch

Mulch can be a useful tool for dealing with a number of garden issues.

It can keep moisture in the soil, prevent weeds from sprouting, and be a food source for the microbes in your garden.

Mulch should be layered thick enough to accomplish these tasks but loose enough to allow for the flow of oxygen.  It can take many forms and each posses unique functions.  Try different materials and decide for yourself what’s best for your garden.

Tilling

Tilling your soil can destroy fungal colonies, damage bacteria, and release precious nutrients back into the air.

Sometimes it is necessary while rehabilitating a landscape to till damaged soil.  Compost and compost tea should be applied soon after to inoculate the soil and restore its composition.  Hand picking weeds, cover cropping, and mulch can be useful alternatives to annual tilling.  When it comes to tillage, less is more.

Everything you do to your garden affects microbial life.  With little effort, you can enhance this life for the benefit of your garden, our health, and your environment.

 

photo by OliBac

Growing mushrooms intrigues me.  I don’t know why.  I’m not a big mushroom fan.  I eat them, but don’t go out of my way to obtain or eat them.  I don’t hunt my own.

Growing Mushrooms Reason 1

I think what I like about the idea of growing mushrooms is that they are pretty much a no care product.  Once the spores are implanted, the only care is watering once every few weeks.

Growing Mushrooms Reason 2

I also like that mushrooms are grown in an unusual way, by stacking up logs.  How cool is that?  I love things that make people wonder what the heck I’m up to, or even better, are not even identifiable as a project.  They just think I’m weird and messy.

Growing Mushrooms and Paul Stamets

The last reason I’d like to grow mushrooms is because of the work of Paul Stamets.  Mushrooms produce excellent antibiotics, sequester carbon, can be used to produce fuel and are excellent for toxic waste cleanup.  They can even be used to eradicate carpenter ants and termites.  Like composting worms, mushrooms are a small and overlooked group of organisms that can create big positive changes in the way we live.

How to Grow Shitake Mushrooms

I’ve read some articles on growing mushrooms.  Then I found this video.  These guys do a great job of showing the process.  Holes are drilled in a fresh oak log, and spores are implanted.  The holes with spores are sealed with wax and then left alone to do their thing.  If you weren’t aware, mushrooms are the fruit of the fungus, so the mycelium need time to grow.  One log can produce several harvests of mushrooms before needing to start over.

Have you ever grown mushrooms?  If so, leave us some tips in the comments.

 

I replanted my parents’ front flower bed because over time, the sun-loving plants that were there got shaded out.  It was full of lantana, pink skullcap, and mealy blue sage.  Watch the short video and see what I planted.

Both the Salvia coccinea and Ruellia are seed spitters and spread quickly.  I chose these because my parents need something that will fill the bed and be super low maintenance.  Don’t plant either of these if you don’t want them to spread!

Turk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus) is a great sun/shade plant.  It’s one of those rare ones that really can do both.

Texas Strawberries

I was itching to put food in that bed somehow.  The two big problems were deer and shade, not to mention the fact that certain neighbors would think food growing as somehow subversive.  Little do they know that they are right.

I picked strawberries for the following reasons:

• In Arizona, people would grow them as a sort of ground cover.  Granted, the growing conditions are much different, I thought it was crazy enough that it just might work.
• That particular bed has been mulched with wood mulch for 15 years.  I figured there had to be the type of fungus found in woodland soils in that soil, a plus for strawberries.
• Commercial strawberries are sprayed with a super toxic chemical, methyl bromide and I won’t buy them anymore.
• I was gambling that the 3 hours of late afternoon sun would be enough for the strawberries to grow.

So far, so good.  What crazy chances have you taken in your garden and how did it turn out?  Let us know in the comments below.

 

A Book Review

The Holistic Gardening Handbook – creating health and abundance in your organic garden by Phil Nauta.

I wondered if it was worth the money. Is an e-book really worth it? It’s not on Amazon.com, so I can’t browse it.

It’s over 300 pages. Is it going to be boring and academic and like reading a textbook?

I got a sample chapter as part of the 15 lessons for becoming a better gardener free e-course Phil offers. It was on EM or effective microbes. EM are the microbes used in bokashi. I was always rather confused about what bokashi is, and this chapter provided a very enlightening explanation.

So I took a chance. I bought the book. And I found that I was delighted with the material.

How Long is it?

It’s large. It’s 333 pages. (For those committed to the belief that you don’t have time to read 300 pages, there is a 100 page condensed version that comes with the package.)

Even though the book is meant to be read all the way through, reading sections in no particular order works as well. I started with the food web and then skipped to compost tea.

I found I was able to fill holes in my knowledge and bridge concepts that way. But that’s just me.

What’s in the Box?

The package contains:

• the full version of The Holistic Gardening Handbook

• the 100 page abridged edition

• 27 audio files

• Phil’s Garden Checklist

• Phil’s Garden Calendar

I’m a podcast junkie. So I love the audio files.

The audio files are not Phil reading chapters of the book. He covers the same concepts, but I think he’s just freestyling on the topic. I found the audio very helpful in digesting the information.

I really appreciate Phil’s Garden Checklist as well. It is a great way to start implementing what I’ve read.  You can also scan the checklist and see what topics are covered in the book.

The checklist is your map.  It reflects the big picture while providing the necessary detail to make a great garden happen.

Phil’s writing style is simple and direct. (Note, I did not say simplistic.) He is able to paint with a broad brush and give the big picture, while also supplying the necessary detail for implementation.

What’s the Big Idea?

The big idea of the book is:

Growing food is part of a living ecosystem, not apart from it.

I highly recommend the book to anyone who’s serious about growing healthy food and promoting a healthy earth in the process.

As a closing comment, the term organic has become watered down and confused. Phil touches on this in his introduction.

Many people are looking for a new term for agriculture in which agriculture is executed in such a way as to be in balance and harmony with the surrounding ecosystems and promoting health for humans and the environment. Holisitic gardening may be that term. I just wish I would stop spelling it with a “w”.

Win a Free Copy

Think you’d get a lot out of the book?

Tell me why you want the book and how you’d use it in the comments and you could win a free copy.

I’ll pick one winner from the comments, and the winner gets a free download of The Holistic Gardening Handbook.  A winner will be picked based on why they want the book and how they will use it.

Contest ends May 4th.

 

I was up in Austin, TX, visiting my friend, Don Z’boray and he showed me chili seedlings that were up and going already here in January.  He took me around his garden and he’s got trays and trays of seedlings germinating on the ground.

What he does is set up the standard greenhouse for the seedlings and leaves them on the ground to germinate.  Evidently, there’s enough heat in the soil that the small greenhouses are in contact with to not only prevent freezing but get warm enough for germination.

His tip for me was to sprinkle some cinnamon on top of the soil to prevent dampening off.

Click on the pictures to see a bigger photo.

 

Fall Gardening Thoughts

Fall gardening? What’s to do in the garden in the fall time? Here are some of my fall gardening thoughts.

Don’t Forget!

If you do nothing else this fall, do these two things: mulch and fertilize.

Use a nice, organic fertilizer and fertilize well. Your soil is most likely depleted from the growing season, so it’s time to replenish. Since organic fertilizer must break down to become available to plants, fertilize now to prepare for spring.

As well, cover your beds with a nice thick mulch layer. This will hold moisture in over the winter and create a nice layer of organic matter by the springtime.

Plant Bulbs

I’m writing this in late October and I think it’s safe to say that it’s not too late to plant bulbs. In the case of a vegetable garden, that means garlic.

It’s also not too late for radishes and turnips, if you like that sort of thing.

photo by Nino Barbieri

Don’t Fear the Reaper

If you haven’t had a freeze yet there are an abundance of things you can do to help protect against frost and light freezes.

One of the most important is to keep the garden watered. For one, water will hold heat and keep the garden slightly warmer. For another, the water acts as an insulator against the cold, keeping plant cells from freezing and bursting. It seems counter intuitive but true.

Fall gardening thoughts: water before a freeze.

An article in Mother Earth News advises running a soaker hose throughout the night of a predicted frost. Hooray! another use for soaker hoses.

The article also points out that frost can be very localized. For example a low lying area may frost or freeze a couple of weeks before other areas.

Trees, walls or buildings can create a small heat island that will also deter frost and freezing.

And, of course, you can always cover plants for protection.

A great book on keeping the garden going by providing protection is Four Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman. This guy grows year round in Maine!

Fall Compost

Fall is a great time to build a compost pile, since you probably have big piles of leaves. If you’re lucky enough to have grass clippings, mix these in with fall leaves for a jump start to great compost.

If you have an abundance of leaves and not much else, consider making leaf mulch. Leaf mulch will take a few years to process, so you will need a fair amount of space for it. I discuss leaf mulch in my free e-book on composting.

Fall gardening thoughts on leaves: use them.

If you’re short on space, consider worm composting. It can be done indoors, and if you have mild winters, outdoors. Actually it can be accomplished outdoors even in harsh climates but I have no experience with it.

Starting a worm bin now should give you enough compost to start seedlings in the spring and to make some awesome worm tea to drench your starts.

Fall gardening thoughts: start worm composting.

If starting a worm bin sounds like a good idea, I’ll be giving a free worminar on November 6th, 2010. You’ll get full instruction on how to build a worm bin and get started worm composting right away.

If you read this after November 6th, you can always check out my blog on worm composting by clicking the gardening with worms link.

Related Topics:

straw bale gardens

Cold frames

Why worms?

 

Organic Gardening Glossary

Wondering what a certain organic gardening term means? Find it here in the organic gardening glossary.

Aerobic composting – Composting by means of bacteria which thrive in an oxygen rich environment. Generally, this type of composting doesn’t stink. More at compost.

Anerobic composting – Composting by means of bacteria which thrive in an environment lacking oxygen. Generally, this type of composting stinks. These bacteria give off sulpher dioxide as a waste product, which stinks like rotten eggs. More at compost.

Annual – Plant which lives for only one season.

Bat guano – Bat feces used as a fertilizer. It is high in nitrogen and phosphorus.

Bird guano – Feces of seabirds harvested and used as a fertilizer. It is high in nitrogen and phosphorus.

Biennial – Plant which produces flowers the second year of growth.

Biological pest control – Use of biological organisms to control unwanted pest organisms. Example, use of lady bugs for aphid control.

Cold frame – A temporary covering, usually of glass or plastic, which protects plants from frosts and freezes. More at how to build a cold frame

Companion planting – Planting certain plant species which benefit one another. Example, marigolds will help deter pests in the garden.

Compost – The process of decomposing organic materials for use in the garden. More at composting

C:N – Carbon to Nitrogen ratio. Refers to the amount of carbon-rich materials to nitrogen-rich materials in a composting set up.

Compost tea – Compost which has been oxygenated in water, increasing the number of good bacteria present.

Composting worms – Red wiggler worms or Eisenia fetida, worm species which are able to eat many times their weight in decomposing organic matter on a daily basis. Their excrement (castings) is a valuable gardening resource for enriching soil.

Drip irrigation – System of irrigation which drips water right at the base of the plant, instead of spraying a large area.

Fish emulsion – an organic fertilizer made from fish waste from fish oil and fish meal processors.

Fish fertilizer – See fish emulsion

Heirloom seeds – Seed varieties collected for generations by everyday people. Such varieties are usually hardy, pest resistant and have other desirable qualities, as well as being open pollinated. Heirloom seeds are important store houses of genetic diversity.

Hydroponics – A method of growing plants without soil. Plants are grown in water and nutrients.

Mulch – Dry organic material used to cover the soil surface to keep moisture in the soil and prevent growth of weeds. Examples: pine bark, shredded newspaper, straw, cypress…

N P K – Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium (or potash). The three essential nutrients of plant growth and health.

Organic gardening – the science and art of gardening using non-synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, soil building techniques, and promoting heirloom variety plants.

Perennial – Plants which live indefinitely, blooming year after year.

Soaker hose – A porous, rubber hose which leaks water onto the soil, allowing it to soak deeply.

Square foot gardening – A gardening method developed by Mel Bartholomew Mel Bartholomew in which plants are planted by the square foot, instead of rows.

Terra preta – Rich, black, man-made soils of the Amazon basin which continue to replenish themselves even today. More at the mystery of terra preta.

Vericompost – Compost created by worms.

Xeriscape – A water wise gardening method which uses native plants adapted to xeric (dry) conditions, so little watering is required.

 

How to Compost

Even Though You Don’t Have Time

Wouldn’t it be great to know how to compost a quick and easy way?

I help busy people like yourself garden organically with only a 20 minute a day investment.

The key to organic gardening or any successful garden is rich, nutrient-filled compost. Composting can be a chore, but if you understand how it works, you can short cut some of the hard work.

In my free e-book, I’ll show you 3 ways to compost kitchen and yard waste:

• the first is how to build a compost pile and how composting works
• the second is how you can have all the heavy lifting of composting done with the free help of worms
• and the third is the smart woman’s way to make compost from leaves

 

Organic Pest Control

easy ,inexpensive, safe and effective

I think organic pest control is one of the aspects of organic gardening that really lures people. Fighting pest insects with other insects or using some common household compounds to kill bugs really is appealing.

One of the awesome benefits of organic gardening is that you will grow healthy plants which will be able to resist pests. Just as wolves prey on the sick, weak and old; insect pests will attack sick, weak plants.

Natural Pesticides and Their Uses

The following work best on small, soft-bodied pests such as aphids or mealy bugs. The white, cottony dots in the picture below are mealy bugs.

Your first line of defense is blasting bugs off with the hose. If you see pests on your plants, try a hard stream of the hose to physically relocate them.

If the pests are resistant and need more convincing, you can spray them with soap spray. Just mix a few shavings of ivory bar soap or other natural bar soap with water in a spray bottle. Do not use dish detergent. Spray your pests regularly for a few days. They should dry up and disappear. You can also use insecticidal soap.

Diatomaceous earth is a similar strategy to the soap. It creates an unsafe environment for insect pests. Diatomaceous earth is the fossilized remains of algae, which has turned to rock. It causes insects to dehydrate and die.

Pyrethrums are a ground up flower which are poisonous to most insects.

Dormant oil is great for scale insects. The oil sticks to their bodies and suffocates them.

Tobacco if you are a smoker or know one, collect the butts. Soak the butts in water for several days. Put the water in a spray bottle and spray away. Tobacco contains harmful compounds which can kill insect pests.

Carbon-footprint defined has several good homemade pesticide recipies .

With strategies like these, organic pest control is inexpensive.

Natural Pesticides Do Not Have to Be Compounds

Beneficial insects

If you see ladybugs or praying mantis in your garden, rejoice. You must be doing something right. These insects prey on harmful insects in your garden.

For outdoor gardening, you really do not need to purchase beneficial insects. I think these insects are best utilized in greenhouses, where you have a closed system.

I’d also like to mention that ants are not harmful to your garden. My brother killed some tomato plants because he was so freaked out by the ants crawling on the plants.

Beneficial birds

Evidently, grasshopper infestations can be controlled with domestic chickens or turkeys. I’ve also read that they will make short work of caterpillars, fleas and ticks as well. This makes sense. So if you’ve got an infestation, but no birds, maybe you could borrow some. Or buy some birds and sell them at the end of the growing season.

With birds, you’ll get the extra perk of great fertilizer from their droppings.

This charming Aussie sums up the thinking below:

Beneficial reptiles

I worked for a couple who completely wiped out a snail infestation with a few tortoises from the pet store. Snails were everywhere including the sides of the house and windows. After the addition of 5 tortoises, the snails disappeared. The tortoises still live in their backyard and happily keep the snail population under control.

Organic pest control doesn’t have to be a matter of spraying the right compound. Think in terms of the system. Healthy plants thrive in a balanced system. When you have a problem, ask yourself what’s needed to balance the system?

Related Topics:

Article on Natural Herbicides

 

Organic Recipes

Great Ideas for What You Grow

Okay, you’ve grown a whole bunch of stuff, now what? Check out the organic recipes! These recipes will help you enjoy what you grow to the fullest.

Here are some of my favorites and for even more visit Healthy Food Recipies.

Olga has great ideas for salads, greens and soups.

Jalapeno Jelly

I had this at a Christmas Party once and went crazy for it

1 dozen jalapenos

1 large bell pepper

1/3 cup lemon juice

1 1/2 cups cider vinegar

6 cups sugar

4 oz liquid pectin

Remove stems from jalapenos and seed. The more seeds left in, the hotter the jelly, so this is your call. Remove stem and seeds from bell pepper.

Chop up all the peppers and place in blender with the vinegar. Puree until only small chunks remain.

Pour mixture into saucepan and boil at a full boil for 10 min. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice and sugar. Return to medium heat and boil. Add pectin and boil for 1 min. Skim off scum. Remove from heat.

Strain jelly into sterilized jars. Can as usual.

Serve over a brick of creme cheese with tortilla chips.

Dehydrated Tomatoes

With a bumper crop of tomatoes, drying is a good option

Slice small peppers like plum and cherry in half. Larger tomatoes will need to be quartered or even cut into eighths.

Scrape out seeds, leaving the meat intact.

Arrange pieces 1/2 inch apart on dehydrator tray. Salt with a good sea salt.

Set temp to 135-140 degrees F

Dry for 8 hours. Turn tomatoes or rotate racks as needed.

Dried tomatoes should be dry, yet flexible, not crispy.

Place in zip lock bags. Be sure to remove all air before sealing. Dried tomatoes will keep longer in the freezer.

Strawberry Salad

1 cup sliced, organic strawberries

4 cups organic greens

balsamic vinegar and oil dressing

nuts (optional)

goat cheese (optional)

Combine greens and strawberries in bowl. Add balsamic vinegar dressing and toss. Add nuts or cheese of your choice, if desired.

Chocolate Strawberries

Now who doesn’t like strawberries dipped in chocolate?

fresh, organic strawberries

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate, organic

1 tbsp butter

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler until smooth. Dip strawberries into the chocolate one at a time. Let chocolate drip off back into the double boiler.

Place on waxed paper. Chill in refrigerator until chocolate sets.