Another GO WILD! idea:

HOW TO KICK-START YOUR OLD GARDEN BEDS

Here is another GO WILD! Gardening idea that we call: "Blanket Mulch Composting"

 We consider this nifty new idea, a gardening breakthrough.  I have struggled to come up with ways to re-generate used compost.  AND finely we are going to test this new idea.  It should work great!

 You simply make about 2 inches of chopped up, mixed and/or shredded dry plant material and green plant material along with some nice rich soil, all mixed together, placed right on top of your garden beds just after harvest.  Kind of like putting your beds, to bed, properly for the winter.  This idea will help with the biological rule:  "DON'T LET YOUR SOILS SEE DAYLIGHT"

 This mixed up mulch feels and smells much like compost, it's just not broken down yet.  You can scratch it into your soils so the wind will not blow it away.  Also add a bit of water on this newly applied mulch and let it sheet compost.  This idea copies nature as it drops all its leaves in the fall. 

 Our garden beds should be in much better shape come next spring with this nice looking, added organic matter laying right on top of our used garden beds.  You see, we grow in almost 100% soil based compost with great results and we know that some of the nutrients have been used and converted into healthy food.  Also, this new idea should help to accomplish this biological rule; IF YOU DON'T FEED THE SOILS, THEY WON'T FEED YOU".

Click on the link below, and watch this noisy video.  Sorry about the buzzing of the shredder.

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&feature=vm-privacy&video_id=qPMQSK_ifAgnew

Planting Seeds for those in need

Here we are in Mozambique, Africa on an 18 day trip - the end of September 2012 with CNFA - Farmer to Farmer Project.

 We were privileged to teach Small Scale Intensive Agriculture workshops that we now call GO WILD! Gardening with "Black Gold" compost, which is part of Gardening for Life - planting seeds for those in need.

 New crop introduced:

Salmon River Pumpkins (a very rare squash plant) 6 planted 5 germinated in 5 days and in 9 days they had a 5 inch leaf spread (unheard of - that fast of growth here in the USA).  They were planted in native soils with dry cow manure mixed in, 2 meters apart.

Impact of our teaching:

 

7 full workshops on 3 farms and one school completed.

Student teaching students in the local school

 

All classes constructed their own compost (8 compost piles constructed in 4 different locations) 

Great acceptance of information (great translation by Mr. Rufu in his Community School for Organic Agriculture).  We tested our teaching by having students re-teach each session back to the group with prizes for those brave enough to stand up and give a talk.  They passed with flying colors (like almost word for word) we were amazed.   Some students then conducted their own workshops with other local famers as this was a community effort. 

We planted 2 Long Box gardens. Students then planted 3 more Long Box gardens when we were not there.

Photo of two Long Box gardens students planted by themselves

One big discovery for us was at the local markets at Nhangau, Mozambique. We were shocked!  We toured several different people selling vegetables and found out that no vegetables were from local gardens.  Which means that these markets were selling retail bought wholesale with very little profit.   WOW, what a difference growing local would mean to this African community.

We showed them how to double and triple vegetable production with much less labor.  They loved the words "Black Gold"  a soil based compost - the best homemade soil in the world. We explained this way of growing food ... the soils work for you, not you working the soils.  Also the compost piles heated up to 125 degrees F, a very good sign that they were working OK.  And even a cobra snake liked one of the piles.  This class jumped for safety!

BETTER THAN ORGANIC - Black Gold Soils

"BLACK GOLD SOILS" that work for you

 

 

Below are winter squash that we call Salmon River Pumpkins 300 pounds from a very small garden

 

Results from growing in "Black Gold Soils"

 

GO WILD! GARDENING IDEAS where we get to break the rules to work less and grow more.

BETTER THAN ORGANIC - "Black Gold Soils" are ... homemade, soil based compost with balance diversity in them that become full of angle worms.  These little guys, plus billions of active microbes, are your soil employees that work day and night for you.  Just feed them some organic matter and give them a drink of water and they will be happy litter critters that fertilize your soils for free (think, worm cafes in our garden soils).

 

NOW YOU HAVE BETTER THAN ORGANIC - SOILS THAT WORK FOR YOU!

SOILS THAT WORK FOR YOU are self-regenerating soils that labor for you at no costs, not the other way around where you have to work the soil by adding costly petroleum products - even the organic ones cost money.  So better than organic means to learn how to let natural methods do all the work, not you.

Besides BETTER THAN ORGANIC is free and much less labor to accomplish - to work less, grow more.

 A view from our home in Absaorkee, Montana USA

Here we go again, leaving our peaceful view from our Montana home USA located near the Stillwater River heading back to Africa.  This time - teaching farms how to increase their produce production and marketing skill.   We will be there in Sept 2012 in Mozambique, Africa with the Farmer to Farmer program.

Gardening for Life - planting seeds for those in need.

12-Day Compost

Compost in a bucket started July 11, 2012

 Same bucket July 23, 2012

Our neighbor asks: "Can you make compost in a bucket?"

This became a Go Wild! Gardening test idea

 

Answer, you sure can.   

Photo taken 12 days later

                      GO WILD! Gardening method:  Drill holes in a 5 gallon bucket and the lid for oxygen.

  Fill bucket:  1/3 full of chopped-up dry tree leaves (carbohydrates) plus add water to wet these leaves

                            2/3 full of chopped-up green leaves (protein) for a carbon protein ratio around 30/1

                              1 scoop of good topsoil and/or old compost for inoculation of soil organism

                Hand full of kitchen waste: bananas, egg shells, potato peeling for added diversity

This compost, to be completely broken down, needs more time.   However, it is still usable when mixed with other soils.

Nicaragua Food Gardening

Here we are after completing a “Gardening for Life” teaching session (compost and kitchen garden demonstrations) in a very rural village in Nicaragua with the Farmer to Farmer program.  Peace Corp volunteer Brittney Stanley will continue the important follow-up efforts with this community.

Seeds for those in need in Nicaragua

100 individual seed packets (cabbage and squash) that we put together, all translated into Spanish, going on our next project with Partners of the America’s Farmer to Farmer program. There are thousands of life-saving seeds on this table. We will be there for two weeks teaching sustainable farming/garden techniques and how to better market produce in several different locations in and around Managua Nicaragua.  It’s going to be HOT! … Both in temperature and great learning information.

Mission Trip to Mexico Orphanage

This is a photo of children in a Mexican Orphanage that we instructed on how to build and care for a kitchen garden. They even instructed each other.

They are eating from a small pot of sunflower microgreens, grown in only 8 days. The leaves of this very tasty plant (nut flavored) are full of protein (20%). They loved them so much, we need a truck load. We consider this sunflower microgreen a new 8 day crop (a food system) and a new way to feed the world.

The children also helped build 3 bucket gardens with a tomato, pepper and cilantro plants - Called “Salsa Gardens”. Please pray for them and for the success of the vegetable gardens.

“We Plant, We Pray, God Grows”

Wintertime Carrots dug mid February in Montana

These are a variety of Yellow Carrots which are less sweet than the orange varieties
 
Note, the dark colored soils (humus present) - as these soils are insulated with a 4 - 6 inch layer of leaves with a clear plastic cover over the wintertime carrot bed. Worms and microbes are still very active in these non-frozen soils. This is a nifty way to regenerate soils, that is re-compost, used compost throughout the winter.  Other nearby uncovered beds do not have the worm activity in them and are frozen solid.  With a little ingenuity we can eat out of our gardens all winter long and also enjoy this natural soil building process. WORK LESS & GROW MORE!
  

Eat year-round - grow your own health food in 8 days

Seeds  ...  Day 1

These are
sunflower
microgreen
Great tasting
High in protein
Alive
Health Food

Plant ...  Day  3

Grow ...  Day 6

Eat .... Day 8

Here is a how-to video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KnF6J1cd60

How to Build a Garden Without Money

This garden was built without money

These African folks in Malawi gathered up old unused clay bricks to build the sides of this Food Factory Kitchen Garden.  They dug up nearby topsoil, hauled in aged livestock manure, added some wood ash and mixed these organic materials together to made their own garden soils.

They also constructed a compost pile made nearby with dry grass, green plants, old livestock manure, top soil, water, all thinly layered in a pile 3 meter tall (3 feet) to later feed (top dress) the soils in this small kitchen garden.

The key to this free food system is making wise use of unused local resources.  Note they even shaded new transplants with a broken plastic tube and added dry grass for mulch.  Also you can set down on the sides of this handy raised bed garden, saves sore backs.  When possible, plant open-pollinated (non-hybrid) seeds to insure that you can save pure plant genetic traits for your next crop.

Bucket Gardening Idea

A simple way to grow HEALTH food

We have tested this idea and were able to grow 35 mid-size tomatoes in one bucket.  They were ahead of the same tomatoes growing in our good soils in raised beds.  See photos later in these posts.

Wintertime Vegetables

Wintertime indoor vegetables Jan 18, 2012   in Montana at -2 deg F outdoors  Yummmy!
Left to right: red cabbage, black seed sunflowers, radish and rat tail radish (hand on plants) and mixed microgreens.  For more information go to www.growingmicrogreens.com

Why Plant Gardens?

Organic Food Factory Gardens are simple, inexpensive and low maintenance.   They can provide year-around food, because it's never too late or too early to plant no matter where you live.  Gardening for Life is really God Made - a great food system that brings hope, health and healing.  "We Plant, We Pray and God Grows"