I just ordered "Teaming with Microbes", and Lowenfel's follow-up book on plant microbiology. I need all the help I can get improving my gardening knowledge and skills!
Also, I don't think your previous post was overly pessimistic. I thought it was an honest and fair assessment; nothing to apologize for at all. However, I'm glad you did the follow-up post so I learned about the soil book!
Hi Pinecarr, (and other gardeners)
Thanks for the response. To be honest, when I started prepping I never thought my direction would go in this one particular place, but I must say that I have really enjoyed a turn more towards self-sufficiency and having a homestead. After watching the Crash Course, aside from the fear, the introspection, and all of the preps, I learned that the things I could better do for myself put me in a better situation whatever way the future may unfold.
"Teaming with Microbes" is my most recent effort to become educated about how to best grow food for the long term. As I stated before, much of it is like a text book, but the authors write well enough to make the subject matter applicable and down to earth. The basic idea is that the movement in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, to apply pesticides, fertilizers, and chemicals to the ground was absolutely the worst possible thing to do.
The book argues, quite well, that the only true way to make sure we are eating good healthy food, is to become aware of those things which allow the food to grow in the first place. Overall, it explains how bacterial environments and fungi environments can both be manipulated to improve soil quality and the quality of what we eat. There are sections on composting, backyard gardens, and orchards/trees.
To tie this with the Steen Jakobsen podcast, I think it is naive to think the top 10% taking a massive paper wealth hit is not going to affect the rest of us. Whether we like it or not, the top tier of incomes do influence jobs and pay all throughout the economy. The wealthy taking a hit can impact a lot of different things.
So perhaps my investment in my land, in fruiting trees, in berry bushes and shrubs, in the knowledge about how to make my land even more fertile is akin to his comment about not worrying about what happens in the paper economy. I hope is comments are in line.
I just feel safer gathering knowledge, learning, and developing skills which will give me more control over what happens to my family in the future.
In many respects I have taken it on as a challenge. Before I watched the Crash Course, the idea of successfully growing my own fruit trees, of taking care of my own garden, seemed foreign and boring. One of my responses to studying Chris's work has been to make sure I can put food on the table if something does happen.
Right after I finished "Team with Microbes", I picked up "The Tree Book" by Jeff Myer. My girl friend purchased it for us after we watched the Crash Course, but I needed to get my first few seasons of gardening behind me first. By every definition I am an amateur, but I am learning and getting better. "The Tree Book", is good, very extensive. I doubt I am going to go through and research all of the trees in this book, there are so many. However, my plan is to research the diversity of the trees on my property and see what I can do to add more variations of productive nut and fruit trees. I consider it a challenge to make my 3.4 acres as healthy and full of edibles as possible.
Hope you enjoy "Teaming with Microbes". It was a great book.
Jason
Jason – Thanks for all the info regarding your gardening/homesteading efforts. I was wondering if you are also familiar with the work of Dr. Elaine Ingham surrounding soil microbiology. You can listen to her presentation at the 2014 Permaculture Voices conference via the Permaculture Voices Podcast – I think I listened to it 4 times so far and still have not been able to absorb it all completely.
I'm currently taking Geoff Lawton's online PDC, and one of the phenomena he discusses in the soils unit is how, on his farm, when the soil microbiology is really in full swing, the beneficial bacteria will actually climb up the surface of the plant above-ground and form a "force field" of sorts around it, protecting it from disease and making it invisible to potential pests. He has confirmed this by looking at samples of his plants under a microscope. Geoff claims that when he has planted corn under these conditions, he gets up to 5 ears of corn per stalk!
I've been looking into soil microbiology a good bit over the past year or so, and it's where I have directed my attention in my gardening efforts. I sowed clover mix cover crop on almost all the beds in my annual gardens to form a living mulch, conserve moisture, provide habitat for beneficial insects and spiders, fix nitrogen in the soil, grow fodder for my chickens and compost, and perhaps most importantly to create ideal conditions for favorable (aerobic) soil microbiology. Those beds that did not get clover cover crop got a mustard/brassica mix instead. I've sown a "good bug blend" of perennial plants around the edges of the garden plots to both confuse pests and attract pollinators/beneficials. My aim in all of this is to increase the biodiversity within my garden plots to where it is able to maintain itself with minimal inputs while supporting the growth of bumper crops of veggies. I'm sure that bringing chickens in to both work the beds at opportune times and help make compost by a variation on Geoff Lawton's "Chicken Tractor on Steroids" will only benefit this endeavor.
If my forest garden is any indication, it should work – the most productive patch I have is the most biologically diverse by far, with comfrey and yarrow covering the ground between the fruit trees and bushes. I have a 2-3 year old Nanking cherry shrub in this patch that is literally covered with blossom this spring, while another Nanking shrub planted at the same time in a different patch has a fraction of the blossoms!
Although there are certainly costs to be borne in all of this (I think I've spent close to $200 on cover crop seed alone), I share your view that it is one of the best investments that we can make. Because everything you put into your soil will pay you back many, many times over – and once you get that good biology established, it becomes self-perpetuating. What paper investment out there is going to give you this kind of return?
CAH,
I appreciate your post. I agree with your observations about the prevalent culture here.
"the vast majority of people who look to outsource as much of their own lives as possible (turning over their retirement funds to financial advisors, eating processed food-like products from the grocery store, cheering military adventurism abroad while insisting it is to be left to "others", etc.) so they can continue to while away their free time watching TV and engaging in consumptive activities (lavish vacations, playing golf, amusement parks, sporting events, etc.), and the picture begins to look even less rosy. But it does make the work of those who have managed to pull our heads out of the sand and get busy taking control over more aspects of our own lives even more important, because when things do finally implode people will be looking for ways to hold on to at least a piece of what they've become accustomed to."
People who would blame other people for their conditions will not change their frame of mind that easily. One of my concerns is the rise of more demagogues as you pointed out.One of hopes I have is a strong tradition of grass movements in this country.
Presentmoment wrote:
One of the hopes I have is a strong tradition of grass(roots) movements in this country.Most of the grassroots movements that came out of America past were a result of the widespread community organizations that existed here for the vast majority of our history, at least until suburbia conquered the landscape. The grassroots did not have to be organized into a coherent force back then -- it was already organized and waiting for the call to action to go forth.
Contrast that with today, where the average American spends most of his/her free time engaged in consumptive activities, watching TV, or being entertained. Community organizations are a shell of what they used to be. As a result, the grassroots are a shell of what they used to be.
I agree completely that our populace is fruit ripe for the picking by skillful demagogues. Combine that with the dearth of real grassroots community organization, and it's not a recipe for a rosy tomorrow. Personally, I think we've moved beyond "fixing" any of these problems and we instead will have to navigate through the coming crises the best we all can. Ultimately, I think that all of our chances boil down to how much we've invested in our households and immediate neighborhoods – doing what we can to reinvigorate the local grassroots, as it were. At least that's where I'm placing my sweat and savings.