This week we continue our exploration of the “Chaos Garden” idea. We finished last episode with some quotes from Dr Christine Jones on the importance of photosynthesis.
Today we explore the suggestions Dr Jones makes to enable photosynthesis to operate at its maximal effect.
The great philosophical battles over time were reduced to two teams in the seminal spy show of the 1960s: Get Smart. Control and Kaos were the two options. Much industrial farming and chemically based gardening can be thought of as part of the Control team. After all, we have several millennia of holy books declaring humanity’s need to bring order and structure to chaotic Nature. That these books arose in the cultural context of West Asia, known nowadays as the Middle East, it should not be a surprise that this approach should be at the bedrock of “Western” farming. Nature is considered corrupt in some way, less than perfect. Continue reading →
As we do we can learn. Over the past fortnight I’ve been preparing the fields for planting. I’m converting pastures to crops. I’m not inclined to spend my time growing lettuce and microgreens, despite the obvious profit levels apparently available. I trace my way of doing things back to John Seymour and his Complete Book of Self Sufficiency. He talks about growing grain crops. Barley, wheat, maize, peas and beans. To that end I’ve set up a five year rotation with all of the above leading to soil bursting with life for our garlic crop. Continue reading →
Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!
The Change Underground Movement indeed!
Over the past month or so I’ve been going through a kind of life realignment. World Organic News and I have been so intertwined since I started the blog back in 2014. It’s almost a part of me, and I hope it’s been a useful part of my listeners’ and readers’ lives too. Continue reading →
Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!
I’ll start this week with a big thank you to Simon who completed the No-Dig gardening course on Udemy, link in the show notes. Well done Simon! And a huge thank you for the five star review. I’ll leave a screenshot in the transcript over at worldorganicnews.com if you’d like to see what Simon says! Thanks again.
This week is about world view. Long term listeners will know my favourite Masanobu Fukuoka quote: “What less can I do?” it came to mind this week as I was reading about an ancient raised bed technique from both Ireland and Scotland. What caught my mind was the name of this bed building technique: “Lazy Beds”. Continue reading →
This week we continue our exploration of the “Chaos Garden” idea. We finished last episode with some quotes from Dr Christine Jones on the importance of photosynthesis.
Today we explore the suggestions Dr Jones makes to enable photosynthesis to operate at its maximal effect.
The great philosophical battles over time were reduced to two teams in the seminal spy show of the 1960s: Get Smart. Control and Kaos were the two options. Much industrial farming and chemically based gardening can be thought of as part of the Control team. After all, we have several millennia of holy books declaring humanity’s need to bring order and structure to chaotic Nature. That these books arose in the cultural context of West Asia, known nowadays as the Middle East, it should not be a surprise that this approach should be at the bedrock of “Western” farming. Nature is considered corrupt in some way, less than perfect. Continue reading →