Brandon Greer

Alexander Rodewald wrote:Thanks for raining on my parade, Brandon!  haha  (jk)

You're right about the promises being for Israel, but I believe that many of the mechanisms for blessing are baked into the systems of nature/creation.  I'm not trying to be legalistic, but am trying to live abundantly by working with the creation's natural (God-designed) tendencies.  

Oops sorry! :)

I think you have the right idea!

So I didn't heed the rule to include adequate amounts of dead material along with green and the compost got super rank. I'm talking maggots and all!

Can I start adding dead material now and recover it or do I need to dispose of this and start over?

Also, I seem to remember reading somewhere that brown boxes can be used in place of dead leaves and straw. Is this true? As far as I remember I just need to remove any labeling and tear it into small pieces before adding. Is this correct?

Alexander Rodewald wrote:I read in the Jewish Torah (or the first 5 books of the Old Testament) about commands with promises attached.  The one that peaked my curiosity, as it comes to regenerative gardening/farming, was the command to let the land rest every seven years.  In essence, it lies fallow.

The promise in Leviticus 25:18-22 says: " ‘So you shall observe My statutes and keep My judgments, and perform them; and you will dwell in the land in safety.  Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill, and dwell there in safety.  ‘And if you say, “What shall we eat in the seventh year, since we shall not sow nor gather in our produce?”  Then I will command My blessing on you in the sixth year, and it will bring forth produce enough for three years.  And you shall sow in the eighth year, and eat old produce until the ninth year; until its produce comes in, you shall eat of the old harvest."

Since the Jewish calendar year starts over every Autumn on the 1st of Tishri, which was 7 September 2021, I harvested everything I could prior to that.  Then, I just let it all go!  Since then, I haven't planted a thing, nor pruned.  

What's been interesting are the observations that I've been able to make as I watch the land do what it wants to do.  Wild grapes exploded on the south side.  Wild blackberries and strawberries came up near my driveway.  I even found fruit trees (peach & pear) on the North end where kids had thrown their pits.  These trees were already 7-9 ft high when I found them!  So, guess where I'm going to plant my grapes, berries, and food forest?

Today is the 1st of Tishri once again, so I am ready to plant/prune!  As for the fertility, I'll have to follow up next year with an update.  If it works, it's just one more tool to enhance fertility without chemicals!!  A tool that used to be a mainstay, but has been forgotten due to intensive farming practices.  I'm sure someone with more knowledge can expound.

Technically, this only applies to growing on land within Israel. But I suppose the same benefits can be had on one's own property!

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Everything in your garden might be suffering, and you might not notice if the whole garden were affected. I don't use materials from the city because of the totally non-vetted nature of the inputs to their system. I've seen too many ruined gardens in my neighborhood.

In any case, each species, each variety, and even each individual plant will have different susceptibility and growth requirements.

It looks like the beans are growing in a plastic tote. That's tough growing conditions for plants in general.

Is there some sort of test for the soil to find out if there are toxins in there?

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:It looks to me like something is wrong with the soil. The light green (yellow) color of the leaves isn't usual for that species. Weird colors in a plant's leaves are often due either to something toxic being in the soil, or to too much/little of an essential nutrient, or too much/little water, or the wrong pH, or any combination of these.

In cases like this, I find it easiest to start over with different soil.

Yikes! We got a bunch of this soil from the city. My parents are using it too. Several of the plants had stalled during a cold spell we got and several of the leaves turned yellow. Now everything seems to be improving with warmer temperatures. If it was something toxic wouldn't it be garden-wide since everything is planted in the same soil?

Can someone tell me what this is on my rattlesnake beans and how I might go about handling it?

We discovered today that grub worms are eating our beet roots. I couldn't say what type it is but according to an internet search it seems like it might be from the June Beatle.

My #1 goal is self-sufficiency so having to purchase something from an outside source every year isn't ideal but I guess that's better than continued damage.

Can someone recommend a good solution?

Thanks everyone for your replies. I'll go ahead and try the worm tea since I already have the stuff. Then on to blood meal if needed.

I'm looking forward to better fertility next year since a large portion of my new beds are lasagna beds. Plus I have a compost pile that I started this year.

So I built our new garden beds with compost that we bought from the city and I'm thinking it's not very fertile. I direct sowed and all the seeds sprouted but after developing 1 or 2 sets of leaves, pretty much everything has stalled. The leaves have a slight yellow tinge and they've been creeping so slowly for like 3 weeks now.

So I decided I need to add some fertility to the soil and I've heard so many good things about worm castings so I ordered some.

Was that the right move? Will worm castings provide enough fertility to get things growing again?

I've started a compost bin using an old rain barrel with holes drilled on the bottom and sides. For the browns I have dried leaves and for the greens I'm using leaves from a yucca plant and kitchen scraps. Whenever I add new greens I always cover with a thin layer of leaves.

My question is when I add chicken scraps do I need to add water to the bin each time I add browns? I ask because they're very dry.