Gardening Tips
November To-Do List
November brings a flurry of activity for serious composters. Those of us with the goal of making highly microbial material have a steady to-do list and the first mission is to get those microbes out! If your compost is creeping up on 12 months of age then it should be applied. Once their food source […]
Rats!
Fall is here, and if you’ve been reading this column for a while you’ll know that this is the most exciting season for composting. However, people often share that they are hesitant to compost because of the potential for rodents. Not only can it be disconcerting to have a face-to-face encounter or to see the […]
Warmer Soils
The Canadian plant hardiness zone maps have been updated and Cowichan has moved from zone 8b to 9a. So what does this mean? From a plant perspective, warmer-season crops are more likely to grow without protection. For example, watermelon and okra may now thrive in the garden. Cold-hardy citrus is more likely to survive without […]
Berries for Breakfast
Picking berries for breakfast is one of my favourite things to do in the summer. First to ripen are always the haskaps (also known as honeyberries, most of mine unfortunately went to the birds this year). Then just as I was about to get out the nets there came a very satisfying observation…. the birds […]
Fishy Business
Fish have long delivered fertility to the soil, via both natural and human-driven processes. Soil food webbers use fish byproducts to increase fungi in compost piles (those of us without wildlife pressure) and – more often – to increase fungal biomass in compost teas. But these days, sourcing commercial fish products raises some serious ethical […]
Lovely Legumes
Many legumes (plants in the pea and bean family) possess a cool skill. In an energy-intensive process that involves partnering with soil biology at almost every stage, they take nitrogen from the air and convert it into plant-available form. While other types of plants rely on soil biology to convert sources of nitrogen below ground […]
No-till Inspiration
No-till Inspiration February is usually the time when I a) really wish I’d written down all the ideas I had for this year’s garden while I was packing up at the end of last season and b) start to flip through books for inspiration and new planting ideas. Do you ever find yourself relating to […]
Seed-Sowing in December – Really?
Yes really! And into winter too… so you have an extra Christmas gift idea up your sleeve (or in your gardening glove?) for any passionate gardeners, homesteaders or permaculturalists in your life. Sowing perennial plants has great benefit for soil biology, and if they are edible, then that’s a bonus. While the human gut microbiome […]
Spread that Fall Compost!
Fall finds me smiling for many reasons, not least of which is thinking about all the Soil Food Webbers out there happily and diligently applying microbes to the soil. Where do those microbes come from? Compost of course! Conventional wisdom would have us see compost as a fertilizer; containing soluble nutrients prone to leaching or […]
DIY Mycorrhizal Fungi for Veggies
Mycorrhizal fungi are “obligate symbionts”, meaning that they need a host plant to survive. Endomycorrhizal fungi, also called arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or AMF, are essential partners of 70-90% of all plant species, including the majority of the vegetables in your garden this year. AMF don’t produce mushrooms. They propagate via underground spores, pieces of host […]
Let There Be Air
Compaction is a pretty big deal when you’re trying to grow plants. How far can roots go down before they hit “hard pan” and must go sideways? How far can water infiltrate until it, too, must go sideways, leaching soluble nutrients and potentially carrying precious topsoil away? Compaction can be caused by the weight of […]
Herbs, Weeds, and a Nice Surprise
The most challenging thing about helping people partner with microbes in their gardens is encouraging a shift in mindset. Gardening is a bit like parenting – there are lots of opinions and different ways of doing things, methods are handed down through generations, and results can sometimes be frustrating. Thankfully for soil health (and […]
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