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No one feeds the bush - yet wild flowers and fruit grow and nutrients are recycled very nicely. There are ENDLESS alternative ways to feed your plants - and many of them require no work from you once the system has been set up. Plants can be fed by the animals, fish or birds that live among them, that spread their own dung as they feed; they can be fed by 'companion plants' whose deep roots forage for nutrients and transfer it to the surface of the soil as their leaves break down; they can be fed through the actions of bacteria that fix nitrogen from the air into the soil; a bush community can even mostly just recycle its nutrient, the leaves and dead insects et al feeding the soil... and yes, plants can be fed by manufactured fertilisers and by the laborious tending of human beings. For decades we have been taught that fertility comes from a packet or else is hauled laboriously in smelly truck loads. The earth takes care of its own. Treat it well - learn to live with it, instead of exploiting it and your soil will create its own fertility. How To Feed Your Garden Feeding your garden falls into five basic categories - . buying or scavenging fertiliser (either artificial fertilisers, 'organic' fertilisers like manures, blood and bone, or mulching materials). . recycling - garden and kitchen waste, urine, animal waste, paper - anything that will decompose except human, dog, cat and pig feces and any other waste that may be infected. . growing your own fertilisers - with deep rooted perennials, green manure and 'nitrogen fixing' plants, (rhizobia bacteria fix nitrogen in association with legumes and other roots while other free living bacteria like azobacter and clostridium pasteurianum also fix nitrogen from the air) or by growing algae . keeping small animals, whether sheep, chooks or earthworms, for their dung and the increased nitrogen fixing soil microflora associated with it. . making nutrients already in your soil more available to the plants. Most good gardeners will proably opt for a combination of most or all of these. How you fertilise boils down to amatter of personal choice- what suits your routine, your district, your pocket- and the particular bond you have with your land. (Some people adore sweating with their acres- the more their backs ache the closer to the soil they feel. Others prefer to just watch the roses grow...and both ends of the spectrum and all areas in between can have productive sustainable gardens...) This book is intended to give you a choice. Leaf through it, and find the feeding methods that appeal to you- that seem fun, make sense and suit your climate and what's available. Gardening is mostly inspiration, a matter of finding a style you identify with, then adding just a touch of sweat (or more if that's your fancy). Browse a while and find what suits you. Then go into your garden and breed and multiply. |
Soil Food - 3,764 ways to feed your garden (Aird Books 1995)