Tag Archives: #mrjonmoore

Episode 326. Into Year 8

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 6th of February 2023.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Way back in the dim dark past of 2016 in those halcyon pre-covid days, on the first of that month, this feed first hit the interwebs in all my naive, open eyed wonder.  A full seven years, that number so beloved of Celtic heroes and their times in the wilderness, the time required to develop a given itch for those of us of a certain age. For the younger listeners, I have provided a link in the show notes. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seven_Year_Itch) In the interests of accuracy, it was released a full six years before I first burst upon this planet but still a part of my cultural milieu but I digress.  Continue reading →

Episode 325. Loving your soil – the ecology of weeds

I’m going to focus on the three principles of the Fukuoka method, as I have applied them in my systems. I’m in process of changing homes and so a review is helpful for both your narrator and I hope, my listeners.

The three principles are:

  1. No digging,
  2. No weeding &
  3. No bare soil.

Back on episode 17 of the Organic Gardener Podcast, I was being interviewed by Jackie, the host, and I brought up the idea of no dig gardening. This was something new to her and, I suspect, to many of the listeners. Continue reading →

Episode 324. FFS! We had the answer 9 years ago!

This week begin with a piece from Iowa Learning Farms entitled: It’s alive! Scientists get closer to identifying what lives in our soil.

The importance of soil life cannot be overstated. That we know so little about this complex web of life is not surprising. Soil science has focused upon the most easily measured properties of soil, its chemistry and the physics involved in compaction, ploughing and so forth.  Continue reading →

Episode 323. Weeds!!! ~ From Work to Ecology

Decarbonise the air, recarbonise the soil!

There were a couple of posts this week on the gentle topic of weeds. 

And they got me to thinking about my own journey to my current understanding of the little buggers and how they don’t bother me anymore.

My first ever garden as a child was a small one metre square attempt at growing wheat from my Irish neighbour’s chook feed.

Without knowing it, this was the first time I would re-enact the Neolithic. Making stone tools at uni many years later as part of my degree in archaeology, was another but that’s an entirely different podcast episode.

With the wheat garden I barely got my seed back. Continue reading →

Episode 319. Splitters!

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 19th of December 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

“Real” Organic Systems

We have a problem. I was listening to a podcast, no names, no pack drill, about the “Real” Organic movement. I can see the point. The USDA Organic Standards have been interrogated by corporate lawyers to find loopholes. So hydroponic growing, a thing laughably not organic, is included in the USDA system and relabelled as container growing, even if the containers only hold pebbles and the nutrients are coming from the fertigation. Clearly this has nothing to do with improving soil health over time, the actual point of organic growing. Other things like a concrete pad alongside a chook shed with doors for the chooks to go outside passes as “having access to fresh air, sunshine and soil”. 5000 head dairies milking three times a day with hay being trucked in and manures mechanically spread on the newly cut hay fields also can qualify as organic under the standard.  Continue reading →

Episode 316. Fukuoka Musings

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 28th of November 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Fukuoka

The search for a Fukuoka friendly rotation suitable for a cool temperate climate with a bit of climate change variation thrown in continues. On top of this search is the refinement for minimal processing of any seeds. Spelt grew well, as do oats but both require hull removal. On a small scale that can be problematic. Apart from the need for some sort of mechanical process, energy is also required. Continue reading →

Episode 315. A Catch Up

This is The ChangeUnderground for the 21st of November 2022.

I’m your host, Jon Moore

Decarbonise the Air, Recarbonise the Soil!

Errors Were Made

Apparently the last episodes failed to load through the interwebs, as I discovered this morning when I sat down to prepare today’s script. An error in the RSS feed, I think. So I’m combining the last few episodes into one, just for this episode. On top of that, COVID is bouncing around the community again, naturally the cruise ships are arriving again, mandates are gone and I’m RAT testing daily because of where I work. Five cases in our tiny part of the organisation in the last week and Mrs ChangeUnderground is three days into her third infection. Happy times indeed.  Continue reading →