Seedsaving...Correcting brooklyn1/sheldon

[Billy]

You may want to look at

NO - dig.

[kate]

Thanks. I've read about that before - the rye would be like the cardboard, I guess. The only digging I've done this year is planting

10 probably dead trees from Arbor Day. (I know I could scrape the bark off and check, but where's the mystery in that?)

I'll probably use red clover as weed control this year for the tomatoes and peppers. I tried it one year but sowed the seed too late. The clover never bloomed and I harvest the blooms for teas and such.

Kate

[Billy]

You would add your amendments, manure, bone meal, ashes, what ever, and then cover with newsprint (or cardboard), add mulch (I prefer alfalfa), wait a couple of weeks, and then plant through the layers. The organic material attracts the worms as well as reduces evaporation from the soil. The worms create corridors in the soil to aerate the soil and allow for drainage and the bacteria exchange nutrients with the crops roots. Feed the microbes, and the microbes will feed your plants. You might want to cast an eye at "Teaming with Microbes: A Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web" Jeff Lowenfels and Wayne Lewis

printer had a screw up with the first edition, in relation to acid - base (this was fixed in subsequent editions). It should be available from your library (I try to audition books before I buy them).

[kate]

I like the library as well. I'll have to wait until next year though. Planting time is now and I figure the compost is teeming with all kinds of life.

Have you dabbled with biodynamics at all? Secrets of the Soil is a good read.

Kate

[Billy]

Na, it's too strange for me. I'm not saying it's wrong but I haven't seen anything to encourage it's use. Bio-intensive, sustainability, OK but "Biodynamic agriculture, a method of organic farming that has its basis in a spiritual world-view (anthroposophy, first propounded by Rudolf Steiner), treats farms as unified and individual organisms,[1] emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system.

is beyond what I can conceive. Perhaps, that is my fault. I don't understand homeopathy either. I'm not the type to take something on faith. I don't have to understand but there needs to be some empirical support.

[kate]

Wow - I love that description! I studied and gardened biodynamics for a year or 2 - I didn't realize how much of it had stuck to me.

"emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system."

I'm not sure what is meant by the word "closed" but otherwise that's what I strive for on the piece of the planet I share.

Now if the weather would just warm up a tad I would enjoy being out there more. :)

Kate - 46 degrees at the moment in TN

[Billy]

In article , [e-mail] wrote:

Don't creep me out, Kate. You've folled the group long enough to know that I'm not adverse to organic gardening. It was the part before that, that says."Biodynamics . . .has its basis in a spiritual world-view (anthroposophy, first propounded by Rudolf Steiner)", that I find weird.

Since you garden "biodynamically", I presume that you prepare your garden in the followung manner.

"Field preparations, for stimulating humus formation: ? 500: (horn-manure) a humus mixture prepared by filling the horn of a cow with cow manure and burying it in the ground (40-60 cm below the surface) in the autumn. It is left to decompose during the winter and recovered for use the following spring. ? 501: Crushed powdered quartz prepared by stuffing it into a horn of a cow and buried into the ground in spring and taken out in autumn. It can be mixed with 500 but usually prepared on its own (mixture of 1 tablespoon of quartz powder to 250 liters of water) The mixture is sprayed under very low pressure over the crop during the wet season to prevent fungal diseases. It should be sprayed on an overcast day or early in the morning to prevent burning of the leaves. Both 500 and 501 are used on fields by stirring about one teaspoon of the contents of a horn in 40-60 liters of water for an hour and whirling it in different directions every second minute."

and prepare your compost by:

"Compost preparations, used for preparing compost, employ herbs which are frequently used in medicinal remedies: ? 502: Yarrow blossoms (Achillea millefolium) are stuffed into urinary bladders from Red Deer (Cervus elaphus), placed in the sun during summer, buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring. ? 503: Chamomile blossoms (Matricaria recutita) are stuffed into small intestines from cattle buried in humus-rich earth in the autumn and retrieved in the spring. ? 504: Stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) plants in full bloom are stuffed together underground surrounded on all sides by peat for a year. ? 505: Oak bark (Quercus robur) is chopped in small pieces, placed inside the skull of a domesticated animal, surrounded by peat and buried in earth in a place where lots of rain water runs past. ? 506: Dandelion flowers (Taraxacum officinale) is stuffed into the peritoneum of cattle and buried in earth during winter and retrieved in the spring. ? 507: Valerian flowers (Valeriana officinalis) are extracted into water. ? 508: Horsetail (Equisetum) One to three grams (a teaspoon) of each preparation is added to a dung heap by digging 50 cm deep holes with a distance of 2 meters from each other, except for the 507 preparation, which is stirred into 5 liters of water and sprayed over the entire compost surface. All preparations are thus used in homeopathic quantities. Each compost preparation is designed to guide a particular decomposition process in the composting mass."

-----

How does this work out for you?

[kate]

Not what I meant to say. I did the following for a couple of years, quite a few years ago. I bought the preparations - no horns of cows for me. I also don't know what anthroposophy means. (A quick google shows me that I really don't care what it means and don't claim to follow it. What I was responding to favorably was the statement

"emphasizing balancing the holistic development and interrelationship of the soil, plants, animals as a closed, self-nourishing system." Minus the word "closed."

I enjoyed it a lot. It helped me "bond" as it were to the piece of earth I share. It apparently helped me to care for everyone, not just the species I was aware of. There's something very nice about treating all parts of the "yard" with equal respect.

Kate - clear as mud?

[Bill]

I've got a cow horn that was buried for a few years stuffed with manure in a large jar in my basement circa 1975. Just in case the german mystics were half right. They sure were great with Weleda Blackthorn syrup. Heaven on good ice cream. Which I can't find anymore . I've got four images mounted in this room from from these folks. Plants with auras and roots with auras suggesting more than we see usually. Priceless.

Kind of far out.

Bill a student of homeopathy especially useful for teething tots and Arnica for the Bruises.

[kate]

I give my dog homeopathic arthritis pills. Years ago I made a couple of flower essences. I chose to be a student of western herbalism because I wanted to be able to grow or collect local herbs.

I have to mow today because the neighbors will get restless if I don't, but I harvested plantain for a dogs sore paw first. I love Spring and nature.

Kate

[Bill]

Plantain a weed that we use to draw out infection. Flower essences ... exist in one of my flower paintings and our medicine cabinet.

Waterbearer 6:28 Sally Oldfield Mirrors

Bill

Found me out an aging hippy.

[kate]

Plantain is also great for bee stings and various itchy bites. I make a salve every year with plantain, yarrow, chickweed, calendula and comfrey in a base of olive oil and beeswax. Good for lots of things, including dog bites.

Off to see if the lawnmower has gas....

Kate

[Billy]

I hate to break it to you Kate but you aren't a "Biodynamic" gardener because you don't follow faithfully follow the strictures of the faith. However, you seem to be a damn fine gardener in heart and mind. There needs to be more like you.

[Billy]

Now, if you could just leave behind the memory of the herb in the water, you might have something.

[Bill]

1x 10 x 30 c 1000 yada yada just a means to focus mind. Placebo organized with no harm. Works here at our house but some perfer folks with white coats and stethoscopes and industrial labs. Sort of similar to organic issues in a strange way. Health to purchase vs. heath aKA health given to maintain . Intervention or what I'd suggest is get out of the way and trust what we got .

Bill weird yes?

[Billy]

Personally, I always thought normal was over rated ;O) I see it like IPM. First line of defense is a healthy organism. Unhealthy food and Big Pharma seem to have replaced the four horsemen, at least for the time. Like Pollan said, we don't have a cultural context for our eating. We are in a brave new world where most of the old cultural practices have been abandoned, and we have sweet, satisfying, non-nutritious food substitutes vying for the consumer's dollar. Poor nutrition weakens the organism.

Seems most health problems can be avoided or fixed with plants grown organically.

See: and remember that flavanoids may be the next big break through in nutrition. According to Pollan, organic plants without pesticids (duh) have more flavonoids.

I'm also a big fan of placebos or at least giving the mind a seat at the table.

But the homeopathy with it's special shakes and near infinite dilutions? Eeeeh, I don't know. I'm willing to look and listen though.

[Hedda Lettis]

What homeopathy remedy do you recommend for hypothyroidism?

[Bill]

I'd recommend finding a local homeopath. They would take your case which can take hours. The idea is to find a remedy that causes your signs. Not only physical ones like for example brittle hair but including mental issues like anxiety etc. Hypothyroidism would not be mentioned just the signs or images which can be looked up in a Repertory pointing to a remedy. This a Kentian prospective. Like cures like. Homeopathy is a difficult art to master. We use it for simple cases in our family and have a real doctor as well.

Bill

Here is a place to start . Check out the reviews if interested.

[Hedda Lettis]

They don't use blood tests? If not, how would they even know if someone suffers from hypothyroidism? The symptoms can mimic other conditions. How do they replace the missing thyroid hormones? How many are cured by homeopathy of this condition? That is using blood work as proof, not guessing or taking someone's testimonial?

[Charlie]

Pishie? *Pishie*? Today I learned a new word!

Thank you.

Charlie, who just started the season's first batch of compost tea