Organic farming gives most importance to the soil. Understanding and nurturing the foundation of plants, and trees is extremely important. Learning how to prepare good soil, how to maintain it, and how to replenish it, is the most valuable skill for any gardener. Lets see how we can understand the first step of planting...preparing the soil. If you would ask me what I love most in the process of gardening, it is definitely preparing the soil. Who wouldn't want to play in the mud!? In an ideal situation where the balance of nutrients in and out is maintained, and the soil remains wonderfully soft, moist, and nutritious like in a rainforest, you would not have to touch or disturb the soil. However, most people are not lucky to have such amazing soil to start with. So effort must be made towards reaching a point where preparing the soil becomes a minimal activity. So when I say preparing the soil, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? Ploughing? Indeed that is what most people think it is. If you understand how alive the soil and earth is, then you will only be able to look upon the ploughing as raping of earth. Ploughing with machines is worse than with bullocks. But almost all ploughing that is now manual, tills the soil too deeply, thus disturbing the delicate soil structure. Sowing seeds requires only 2-3 inches of lose soil. Technology has unfortunately misunderstood the working of nature. So how can you prepare soil in an organic manner? Loosening the Soil: If you have a garden with quite a bit of space, and the soil looks like it has been compacted, then it might require loosening. The same applies to soil in pots. The process of loosening also involves the removal of stones and breaking down of clumps of earth. This loosening of soil is done for a couple of different reasons. One is to help the seeds or seedlings planted get rooted more quickly instead of struggling with hard soil. The second reason is for easier removal of weeds. It is important to remember that loosening all the soil of your garden or pots should only be done once before planting new seeds or seedlings. Weeding is best done gently by hand once planting has already been done. Making Beds: Once you have loosened the soil, you can make beds by moving the soil into different shapes. Smaller beds are always better than bigger beds because the less you walk on the bed, the better it is for the plant. 1 meter wide beds are a good size. Beds usually are higher than the ground around them and so they are called 'raised' beds. Raising the height of your beds helps in production of bigger vegetables. However it is not necessary for all kinds of vegetables. Roots and tubers may prefer raised beds while ordinary hardy plants such as chillies or leafy vegetables may not require that. Be creative about making beds. Don't believe anybody who says that beds must be rectangular. Have you tried semicircles? It works great! Adding Nutrition: The assumption that I unfortunately have to make these days is that most soil is degraded and requires the addition of nutrients from outside. Once you have decided the shapes and spots of your beds, you can add compost, vermicompost (worm castings), or animal manure (cow, chicken, sheep, goat, horse etc.). Some people prefer to mix the soil and the compost while others prefer to just lay down the compost as a top layer of the soil so that the nutrients can slowly seep into the soil with the water. Any method is fine. Compost can be added in good quantity for example 1/4th of the content of your garden bed or pot can be compost. Vermicompost and animal manure have stronger nutrition and thus must be used in lesser amounts and mostly closer to the plant. Levelling the Soil: Once you have added the compost and/or other nutrition, you need to level the surface of the soil. The reason for this being important is to make sure that every plant on the bed gets adequate water. If the soil around your plant is slopping away from it, then the water will run away from the plant and probably over-water the plant towards the bottom of the slope. The final product of your efforts should be soil that is mostly devoid of rocks, stones, and clumps of earth. If needed just sit down and feel the soil with your hands to know if there are rocks or clumps. Think of it as meditation or just pure fun as you break these clumps of soil with your hands. Once you have accomplished these steps, you are ready to plant! If you leave this wonderfully prepared soil barren for too long, it will result in a loss of all the nutrients that you had put in with all your hard work. So remember to prepare your soil only when you are ready to plant. Tool Tips! Here are some great tools that you can use to prepare your soil. Click on the names to view their photographs. Hand Shovel - For loosening the soil, mixing, weeding, scooping (good for pots) Hand Rake - For Levelling the Soil, mixing (good for pots) Shovel - For loosening the soil, mixing, weeding, scooping (good for gardens) Rake - For Levelling the Soil, mixing, raking leaves and weeds (good for gardens)
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Straw used as Mulch on a Garden Bed Whenever I take a walk in the forest, what I love most is the sound of the crackling leaves under my feet, the softness of the soil, and the strong and tall forest trees. We may not give a second thought to the leaves under our feet in the jungle, but everything in nature has a role to play. These leaves have not fallen to the earth for no reason. They are nature's mulch! So what is Mulching and Mulch? Mulching is to me, one of the most important techniques followed in organic farming. It serves multiple purposes and you will feel immensely thankful for the outcomes of something so simple. Mulching is an activity that involves using certain kinds of material to cover the soil around the plants and seedlings that you have planted. Therefore, mulch is any type of material that is spread or laid over the surface of the soil as a covering. Mulch Material: In organic farming you can use any thing that is biodegradable as your mulch such as; straw, hay, dry leaves, shredded paper, dried grass, wood chips, stalks or husks of rice, wheat, etc. So what is the purpose of mulching? 1. Mulching on top of your soil around your plants prevents the moisture from escaping from soil due to heat. Mulching when done properly can reduce the required watering by 40-50 percent! 2. A good layer of mulch also helps in keeping the weeds down by making it difficult for them to grow. This reduces the competition for nutrition for your veggies. 3. It is also a great way to do composting in-place! With time the organic mulch begins to decompose and provide nutrition back into the soil. Why does mulching work? Forests are our teachers once again to understand this. In a forest there is a cycle and flow of give and take. The cycle of nutrients is essential for an healthy forest. As plants and trees grow, they take a lot of nutrition out of the soil to do so. The leaves, branches, and even dead trees that fall down to the forest floor, replenish the nutrition of the soil through their decomposition. As much nutrition goes out, just as much goes back in. The forest floor remains moist due to this and has the best soil you can find. However agriculture only seems to keep taking more and more out of the land. So how can it be restored unless we do it ourselves? The secret about the foundation of mulching is that plants love sunlight, but the soil does not. Everything that lives in the soil such as the roots of plants, earthworms, and micro-organisms, thrive in the dark and moist. So mulching works! How and when do you mulch? It is extremely simple. All you have to do is lay out your mulch material in layers out on the soil in your beds or even in your pots. If you put too little mulch, it will not be effective. If you put too much, you may suffocate the soil. If you are using straw or dry leaves, a good layer would be anywhere between 4-6 inches. The soil needs to breathe and so the material you use needs to be breathable like dry leaves and straw. If you use newspaper, you need to shred it, otherwise the soil will not be able to breathe through a plain sheet and this can lead to disease and pest problems. A good time to mulch is when your plants are about 6 inches tall. You can also mulch if your garden, land, or soil is barren for certain months in the year. Providing moisture to the mulch will enable the decomposition. Instead of the moisture and nutrition disappearing from the soil due to heat, the mulch will help to keep it in and replenish the soil at the same time. So when you decide to plant again, you will have beautiful soil. Trial and error is your best friend. But guess what? You have nothing to lose. People are becoming more and more aware of garbage and waste disposal management. We often hope that we could recycle our waste in a more productive way at home rather than sending it away to a land-fill to be burnt or buried. Composting is an easy process that makes a big difference to the recycling and reuse of waste. What can be better than to be able to turn your kitchen garbage into something useful, and most importantly in your own backyard? During my internship at CETDEM (Center for Environment, Technology & Development, Malaysia) I had the opportunity to work with Ms.Tan, an inspiring forerunner for organic farming in Malaysia. Her team at CETDEM has developed a wonderful and easy method of making compost in a plastic garbage bin. Here is how you can do it... Step 1: Find a plastic garbage bin that is not too small. A good size would be 57cm height and radius or bigger. It is important for the bin to be big enough for the composting process to take place effectively. Heat is generated during the process of decomposition which is extremely important. A small bin might not be able to generate the required amount of heat. Step 2: Drill ventilation holes on all sides of the bin as shown on the diagram. Also cut out the entire bottom of the bin. Step 3: Find a good spot for your bin to be placed. If you have a back-yard then it is best to place it directly on soil or land. If you do not have a back-yard, then create a small corner in your terrace or veranda where you can put a layer of soil. Place the bin upside down at this spot. Step 4: Always begin your heap with a 15-20cm layer of dry leaves for aeration and drainage. Step5: Add your cooked and raw kitchen waste (only bio-degradable items: avoid paper) on top of the dry leaves and then cover it with more dry leaves/grass and soil. This helps to keep the flies and odour away and also adds the essential carbon required for decomposition. Step 6: Continue putting your kitchen waste and covering it until the bin is full. If your waste is wet them you most probably will not require to create moisture for the compost. However if you feel the waste is too dry and no decomposition is taking place, add some water. However, it has to be only moist and not wet. Otherwise your garbage will rot. Step 7: Once the bin is full do not add any more waste to it. Now you need to turn or mix your compost. This is very easy. Just lift the entire garbage bin which has been upside down, and put it to the side. Using hand gloves, transfer the entire waste back into the upside down garbage bin. This simple transfer helps to turn the compost. Step 8: Turn the compost once every 2-3 weeks. At the end of 2 months you will have beautiful compost ready for use. See previous blog post. Step 9: You can use the compost for your plants or store the ready compost in plastic bags and keep it out of the rain. Remember not to add any more garbage to your bin once it is full. As the decomposition occurs, the garbage will shrink. However, if you add new waste to it, it will slow down the process and take a long time to give you the good-looking compost that you need.
So keep it simple! |
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