There are many different methods of gardening but they fall under two main land based methods.

No-dig or Cultivation.

These two categories have entirely different approaches to growing food that involve different thoughts, methods and tools.

Cultivation uses up soil content to grow specific plant-life and usually practices mixing material together into the ground. This step is repeated usually yearly.

No-dig gardening adds onto the ground in layers of material. These layers are added to over time, apart from this the layers are not usually mixed in and are managed rather than restarted.

Agriculture has used cultivation as a primary way of producing for thousands of years and the machinery we see today has been developed from this method in order to industrialise production.

Cultivation is not a renewable system and decays land. No-dig puts back what is taken and stands to add to land. No-dig will become the future of agriculture and starts in our gardens.

The tools and machinery that will expand no-dig gardening are and will be different. We now influence these changes from our gardens up.

Agriculture will, is, and has to change even with our gardens and plots as we innovate and grow our gardens. Let’s run with it.

From picking to eating the clock is ticking.

We are naturally meant to pick and eat. As foragers we used to do this however we culturally chose singular trades and indirectly traded for someone else to grow the food.

So now we dont know who grows our food, how they grow it and have little say to how its presented to us.

Preservation chemicals and freezing methods can cause a lack in the produce meaning they look ok and fill a stomach but do not perform the fullness of health they are meant to do for us.

So organic vegetables are seen to be a solution however a simular thing appears when they are shelved.

Whilst shelved vegetables lose mainly vitamins which is alike to a fuel can leaking petrol. We may end up eating just a fuel can.

So three main factors cause this…. oxygen, light and heat. Therefore the quicker we eat veg from the ground the fuller it is.

The solutions are:

– To pay more and support local fresh grocery stores for your health and for your community.
– A fresh organic supplier
– Grow your own and pick as needed

Should creatures be in your garden?

Last year i made really nice gardens for people and found one particular creature caused the most problems in my type of garden bed, this was the cabbage butterfly.

This is because they can fly and get over all my obstacles in the garden and aim straight for the leaf of the cabbage!

So there are two ways to solve this issue….

– preventative ways (treatments or obstacles)
– reductive ways (balancing the imbalanced)

Generally creatures need to be present in a cycle of life (even Cimba gets eaten in the end). This cycle balances the amounts of creatures out. Are we prepared to eat insects? We could/should but we probably wont. So we need something else to eat the imbalances of insects in our gardens.

How to balance out this unbalance?

One way is BIRDS! We need birds, either our birds or wild birds to take care of the garden.

Our birds (ducks and chickens) eat certain plants in the garden but they can be supervised or directed.

Wild birds however eat butterflies and other airborn imbalances so the more of them, the less of a problem.

How do we get wild birds? Food and habitat. The hedge at the garden edge can do more than stop a football. In nature things all grow together but our gardens need this too!

If we encourage birds then we can put another piece of nature back in our gardens.

The hope for true green….

We tend to have a mixture of information and misdirection on green energy and polution solutions. Popular methods of collecting renewable energies turn out to be non-renewable and dissapointing but the public push towards going green is growing.

The push for ‘true green’ will however not only need to be made by the public but also directed by the public as governing authorities can miss the mark or have alterior motives.

So as gardening is a strong form of direction for the future of ‘true green’ how can we direct change in a positive way?

Where i am from (wales) the goverment has started to give grants for rain gardens in planning applications. The principal of these gardens is to filter rain water and surface water prior to it reaching waterways reducing toxins and polutants that may be present and generally slowing down water on land before it reaches the sea.

Whereas in planning applications these gardens are often inoperable (they just look good on the plan), the principal of these gardens we can use responsibly where we live to achieve what they are meant to.

As water is a pretty major nutrient to life and natural cycling systems this makes sence. Correct water retention in a garden is an absolute but by doing this we are also following a rain garden’s basic function.

This also prevents soil loss, leeching protecting our ground health. Any step between your roof and the drain may be the only step where rain water can be used the way it was meant to.

The idea of a natural system of growth formed as a garden is and still will be a basis of direction towards ‘true green’ as we simply live it out in our own gardens in ways more familiar than we imagined.

Why not try a rain garden this year?

What causes deserts to spread?

We could say sand…. sand causes deserts to spread!

Deserts can be made up of sand or rocks though.

So where does this sand and rock come from? The beach? Well…. um maybe? But the common percieved answer is from harsh weather and erosion over very long time periods.

But what happens if desertification happens much quicker than we thought and that the weather although prominant may be enhanced by the environment rather than causing the environment to begin with. It’s noticable how not all deserts are along the equator.

Soil damage causes desertification on small and large scales. This is due to weathering through a lack of protection over the ground. Soil matters and agriculture needs to change to stop this.

Any biomass that is removed from the ground would have had ground protecting properties. We see this on large scales with agriculture and industrial de-forestation causing soil erosion and water retentive issues such as landslides.

It is necessary to change our procedures for agriculture to keep longterm food production with the thought of protecting and replacing soil content.

A jigsaw garden is like a garden that has many pieces that make it work.

Like catchphrase a garden can be an unfinished picture that we have to make an educated guess on to run.

With all the pieces or most of the pieces in place we can see a fuller picture and therefore have a garden with a fuller quality.

We do not want to overwork our garden, hammer the pieces into the jisaw or even forget the jigsaw entirely as this causes problems not just to the garden but our own efforts going waste.

So practically we need an entire cycle of growth that is managed by us not laboured by us too much which needs attributes like decomposition, organic content, correct water retention, macro-pores, protecting properties and balance.

Keeping in step with nature this year….

Planning walks in woods, mountain climbs and river trails?

Take a little of it home this year…. not literally because it is probably illegal where you are…. but lets copy it in our back gardens. In design and function the woodland you enjoy can be in your back garden ready for your enjoyment and health.

Contact me about garden designing or the ‘collective garden’ method via here or my website treaditgardens.com

A produce that is more than just organic!

Vegetables that are unstunted, mineral and nutrient rich and protected in a garden.

Organic means naturally grown without chemical but is often interpreted as plants that have unsolved issues however are still better for you than plants with in-organic chemical interaction.

What is true organic?

True organic is solving issues that may arrise in a garden with long-term sollutions that simply do not need a chemical to fix. Solving issues rather than just treating!

Learn more about ‘collective gardens’ at treaditgardens.com or message me.

What is hydrogenated water?

Hydrogenated water is water that contains extra hydrogen molecules. These molecules are thought to reduce oxygen free radicals in the body by combining with them to make h2o (water). Free radicals can cause cancer so hydrogenated water looks to benefit health.

How is hydrogenated water made? It is made in two ways:

– Electrolosis (electric charge through water) (danger)
– Magnesium which reacts with water creating hydrogen (perhaps danger?)

There are two places in the world where it is known to abundantly naturally occur in india and south korea. However i suspect it also happens on a smaller scale with even a lesser amount of magnesium in the ground. Once the water is hydrogenated it looses hydrogen quite quickly (lightest element) which is a good reason to drink this water fresh.

I once met a proffesor who designed two types of aparatus that made hydrogenated water. One was a drink bottle that charged by usb to electrically make the h.water. The other was a pipe system that used magnesium to make hydrogenated water for gardens.

I was given both and this year i will try the garden version somehow in some of my gardens and see the difference. It is thought to promote plant growth and i have seen first hand the benefits of using this water with chickens.

Any questions please contact.