Art, Meaning, Green Living & Health

Recently I learned some very useful things on a local garden tour that are worth sharing, especially for other with sandy dry soils such as we have here in Arizona.

At an exceptionally abundant garden the owner shared her easy recipe for making a soil innoculant that really helps build beneficial microorganisms in your soil, which feed the soil, hold the moisture and help the roots uptake nutrients much better. Esp. good here for our sandy humus-poor soil. (She also uses plenty of peat moss to help hold water, and coconut coir is probably an even better product, as it doesn't repel water.):

-----------

I have also been using Soil Secret products from New Mexico this year, recommended by another gardener on the tour, which has similar humic acid-based products like this ready-made, plus earthworm castings, quality compost and other microbial-wise products that feed the soil critters. I've seen the results already since adding it in January, along with a lot of leaves we collected in a local storm drain area.

Our garden soil is much darker and richer looking.

I've also discovered a great line of soil amendments by Dr. Earth (potting soil, compost, kelp, alfalfa, fish emulsion, rock phosphate, worm castings and more---- many in recyclable cardboard boxes.) Worm castings are especially intriguing, as they contain earthworm eggs.

Minerals needed: One gardener also said a key to growing things in sandy soils is to realize that they are mineral poor, except for iron and silica. They lack the complex of minerals found in granite-based soils. So she procured a bunch of granite dust from a landscape supply place when she established her garden. I was thinking of getting some granite dust from a countertop maker, but then also read that it can be high in radioactive uranium so I'm thinking I'll use other stuff like Rock Phosphate, Greensand (ocean-derived), kelp, alfalfa, and maybe some Azomite (Utah lake bed), which has great reiviews (and maybe a bit of radioactivity also).

Container Gardens: Another solution one gal uses is to garden in oak barrels and huge plastic pots from landscapers, since her available area is already heavily covered with landscape rock.

She just tosses leaves in the bottom of a container, then a mix of kitchen scraps, chicken manure, soil and leaves. She tops the whole thing with more leaves and then just plants right in the container when it's broken down and ready to go.

How easy is that? Potatoes do really well in this system too; just dump the barrel out when the tops die back. No damage or digging. 

We also had some of our best production using containers this last year, including nice kale and greens during the winter. We used a semi-hydroponic system with water wells under the soil, the Garden Patch Grow Box. Easy to keep watered with hose or drip.

Water catchment: At another site on the tour, a gardener showed how she slows and spreads our natural rainwater, using barrels, gravity, mulches, and semi-circles of rocks ('smiles') to open up to and catch the flow of water as it moves across the land (as opposed to circles of rocks for container watering). 

The key is to think of the whole yard as a natural watershed, with the roof at the top. As it moves downhill, use small berms, channels to direct it to mulched areas where you want to absorb water for plantings. 

Paths, driveways and patios are best if they higher than nearby planting areas: direct their runoff to plants, holding it near the base with semi-circles ("smiles") of rocks and small berms. 

We are catching some of our roof water with a small cistern, but I'm hesitant to expand this because the rain seems to wash off some of the paint color from our concrete roof tiles and I'm concerned it may not be good for edibles especially.

Growing your own food is one way to reconnect with nature, to save money (hopefully!) and have fresh organic produce aplenty. Lately I have been enjoying a fantastic and healthy Kale Smoothie every morning from our abundant kale:

Blenderize:

Finally, it's a lot of fun to play in the garden and that was evident most of all on the smiling faces and in the generous spirits of the many who opened up their gardens to the public to share what they are doing.