Seedball Forest Gardening

[elspru]

A simple form of gardening,
even a child could do,
to sustain themselves,
on abundant and diverse produce.

Like to dedicate this thread to Masanobu Fu kuoka who rediscovered seedballs and natural farming.

Might be a member of the Orion Priesthood as indicative of his neutral focus.

from ‘The Natural Way Of Farming’
“One never blames nature, but begins by blaming oneself. One searches unrelentingly for a way to grow barley in the heart of nature. There is no good or evil in nature. Natural farming admits to the existence neither of insect pests nor of beneficial insects. If a pest outbreak occurs, damaging the barley, one reflects that this was probably triggered by some human mistake. Invariably, the cause lies in some action by man; perhaps the barley was seeded too densely or a beneficial fungus that attacks pests was killed, upsetting nature’s balance. Thus, in natural farming, one always solves the problem by reflecting on the mistake and returning as close to nature as possible.”

So it be the philosophy natural forest gardening.

Robert Hart from UK also has done forest gardening, but takes a more laborious western approach using pruning and mulching. This video is otherwise a good introduction to forest gardening.

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Forest gardening is perhaps the worlds best hope for a future.
Plants For A Future http://pfaf.org has a database of over 7,000 useful plants.
Many plants commonly considered "weeds" actually may be edible and have many uses.

Ken Fern founded PFAF.
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Seedballs are a natural way of planting seeds,
which is much simpler than tilling,
and more efficient than broadcasting.

As the bird or animal that eats some fruit,
mixes it with compost and clay,
and excretes a seedball,
so it is natural.

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So have a go make a forest garden.
If you don't have a plot, guerilla garden.

Get the seed and skills you need,
to sustain yourself and your family.
Healthy, happy, and abundantly appreciative.

[Cjay]

Dear elspru and anyone else who reads your post, I am sorry I didn't find your post sooner. You and I have been inspired by similar ideas. Permaculture, food forests and seed ball gardening are all excellent concepts that all gardeners and farmers should learn.

I invite you to read my posts in another thread, starting with this one:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=187057&viewfull=1#post187057

[nomadguy]

This is the best way in my view, One note however, good solid knowing of the plants and clays you use is a major contributor to the success of the seed balls you make. I have tested a few varieties and I have some challenges as I live in a high desert, that has both freezing temps, and low humidity and extreme heat. Some of the balls tend to dry up too much or in a bad timing IE too fast, or the odd timing of freezes in late spring and fall.. sometimes in mid-summer with snow-downpours. this happens out here in Nevada. Creating a medium for them is tough here, any suggestions? The balls I have been constructing are from the local soils and they get far to hard and then run out of moisture sot hen the seedlings to the tree or shrub dies. Or does anyone in Avalon-land have a good high desert seed mixture for better seed ball success? (yes I could mulkch them, but if you are throwing them around that won't help much as it is too time consuming)

[Cjay]

There is no doubt that seedballs are a great idea but combining multiple simple technique will give you much better results. More intensive preparation is always better than just throwing seed balls into harsh environments and hoping for the best. With a little thought and good preparation, you can literally turn rocks and dust into a lush paradise within a few short years.

Many people have the idea that you can just scatter seed balls and expect most of them to grow and thrive. The reality is much different, especially in deserts. The more effort you put into preparation and soil improvement, especially at the start, the better everything will grow.

It is important to consider that most desert soils are very shallow, highly nutrient deficient - at least, in a form that plants can use - and water deficient. Also, many desert soils are basically dead, meaning they do not contain billions of bacteria and fungi, worms and insects. All of these problems can be addressed quite simply. If you don't improve the soil, very few plants will survive and quite possibly, none of them will thrive.


Terra-forming to effortlessly harvest rain water

The FIRST thing to do is terra-forming or landscape engineering to catch the water that normally runs off when you have a downpour. The intensive method is to build swales. The smaller scale method is to build small dams around each tree when you plant it, using some of the soil from the hole, or raking soil from nearby. The purpose is to create a basin around each tree where water will collect and soak into the ground. A bigger basin will catch more water but even a small basin, about 60 cm (2 feet) in diameter and 15 cm (6 inches) deep, is better than nothing.

Swales are basically ditches up to 1 metre (3 feet) deep or terraces sloping up on the downhill side, that follow the contour. Each swale or terrace should be at the same level for its entire length so the water fills the swale rather than running out at the end. The reason for this is to collect water so it soaks into the ground, using the ground as a sponge to store a LOT of water.

Learn more about harvesting rain water here:
http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=244477&viewfull=1#post244477

In the video "Greening the Desert", a food forest was created in hyper-arid, heavily salted desert in Jordan, 2 km from the Dead Sea. The swales created in that project caused the water to penetrate down to 2 feet deep in the first year, 6 feet deep in the second year and 17 feet deep in the third year. When you achieve that sort of moisture penetration, the ground stores an enormous amount of water and roots will follow the water down deep, thus providing your trees and shrubs with a great supply of water to get through long periods of no rain.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gPvsl9ni-4

Learn more about Permaculture here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=187963&viewfull=1#post187963
here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=242646&viewfull=1#post242646
and here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=242648&viewfull=1#post242648


Mulch to keep soil moist and add organic matter to soil

After planting seeds, seed balls or seedlings, it is very important to add a lot of mulch around each tree. Add a layer of mulch at least 10 cm (4 inches) thick in a circle around each seed or plant. Do not smother the seed or seed ball with mulch - add no more than 1 inch of loose mulch on top of the seed or seed ball. If you are using much coarser mulch, such as twigs and branches, you can make the a layer of mulch up to 60 cm (2 feet) deep.

Mulch serves several purposes. It shades the soil to keep soil temperature lower in summer and warmer in winter. It helps reduce evaporation to keep moisture in the soil. It adds organic matter to the soil. It FEEDS the soil.

The moist shaded soil provides a much better home to microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and nematodes; and macroorganisms such as worms, insects and spiders. A very good type of mulch is rotting hay; lucerne or pea-straw. Most farmers (ranchers) are happy to give away their rotting hay bales.


Compost to add nutrients and organic matter to soil

It is a very good idea to add rich compost to the soil. The more organic material you can add to the soil, the better. Pure compost can be used as mulch. Some composts have a mixture of decomposed plant material and decomposed animal manure. Be careful not to add too much manure close to plant stems or tree trunks as the manure can "burn" the plants, sometimes even kill them.

Compost contains a lot of bacteria and fungi that are very beneficial to plants. Bacteria and fungi are resonsible for converting nutrients into a soluble form that can be absorbed by the roots of plants. That includes nutrients that are naturally present in the rocks and minerals of the soil (some bacteria eat rocks and rock dust) as well as nutrients added to the soil in the form of fertilizers and compost.

With the help of bacteria, your plants will become nutrient pumps. The plant roots draw dissolved nutrients from the depths up into their stems and foliage. When parts of the plants or whole plants drop on the ground, they return the nutrients to the soil.

Beneficial bacteria also help to make plants pest and disease-resistant.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSX_jX02xM4


Biochar for soil aeration, and retention of moisture and nutrients

If possible, add biochar to the compost. Biochar will remain in the soil for thousands of years but compost will fully decompose within 2 or 3 years, depending on moisture content as well as the micro and macro organisms that are present in the soil. Biochar alone has been proven in scientific studies to increase food harvests by as much as 890% - almost NINE TIMES.

Learn more about biochar here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=187057&viewfull=1#post187057


Compost Tea to add beneficial bacteria and fungi to the soil

One of the easiest things to do that will give you the maximum benefit in a very short time, is brew some compost tea, then water your plants with it. Compost tea adds both liquid fertilizer and billions of beneficial bacteria and fungi per gallon. This is intensive care for your soil. It makes your soil ALIVE and it makes your plants thrive. The phrase "intensive care" sounds like it requires a lot of effot but in reality, it is very simple.

Take a 5 gallon bucket (or larger container, if you wish), place "air stones" or similar that are used for aerating the water in aquariums and connect to an air pump. The whole setup will cost only a few dollars. Add water plus about 2 cups of compost per gallon plus one cup of powdered nutrients including trace elements* plus 2 tablespoons of sugar or molases. Brew the compost tea for 24 hours. Then mix one part of tea to five parts of water and water your plants with it.

*It is a good idea to get a professional soil test so you know what macro-nutrients (NPK) and micro-nutrients (trace elements) you need to add to your soil and what other soil treatments you might need to use to improve important factors such as soil pH.

The compost you add will contain some bacteria and fungi. In just 24 hours of brewing, the compost tea will multiply the numbers of bacteria and fungi by a huge amount. In the video "The Secret is in the Soil", the man adds 8 cups of compost and he says one bucket of compost tea is like adding 500 to 1,000 pounds of compost (in terms of the numbers of bacteria and fungi).

Learn more about brewing Compost Tea in small or large amounts
here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=242593&viewfull=1#post242593
and here: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=242646&viewfull=1#post242646

I will be posting more useful tips and videos soon.

[nomadguy]

Keep it comin Cjay! ~ your on a roll.
The areas I had done a some rivets for water catchment and then covered the seed balls with stick twigs and some grass root bottoms I pulled from nearby, did the best. Luckily where I am there is a good amount of helpful fungi and beneficial insects and animals... Like Bats.
Cheers
C...

[Cjay]

Here is a great article worth reading:


Observations from a New Permie
Dams, Land, Surveying, Swales — by Marty Miller-Crispe January 26, 2011

One of the principles of permaculture is to ‘observe’. Having started in permaculture about 18 months ago I’d like to share some of my observations, especially in regards to my own behaviour, assumptions and, importantly, mistakes I’ve made along the way.

Back in October, 2009, having just discovered permaculture, my wife and I became very excited about the possibilities for our 8-acre property in the Gold Coast hinterland in Queensland, Australia. Our property is on the side of a hill, and formerly having horses as tenants, it has hard, stony, compacted earth with a number of areas of erosion caused by fast flowing water after rain events. For us to have any hope of growing anything useful here, other than the few struggling natives, we needed to perform some major earth surgery.

full story: http://permaculture.org.au/2011/01/26/observations-from-a-new-permie/

[Cjay]

I highly recommend all gardeners and farmers read this post I wrote in another thread:


SOIL BIOLOGY


One teaspoon of soil could contain billions of bacteria and viruses. One study found 4,600 different varieties of bacteria in one soil sample. Some of these are known to be very beneficial; some are known to be very dangerous. They all have a role to play in the complex web of life and nature has ways of maintaing balance in ecosystems. Sometimes when humans disturb the natural balance, things can go horribly wrong.


Words of caution about dangerous bacteria in soil.

I don't want to make people paranoid but we need to be aware of potential hazards in everything we do, so we can take precautions. Some bacteria and viruses are extremely hazardous - they can cause serious illness or death if they enter your body through broken skin, by inhalation or ingestion from eating contaminated food or eating with dirty hands.

read the full post: http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?2050-Gardening-organics-sustainable-gardening-food-crops-etc&p=246363&viewfull=1#post246363