How did you first become involved in regenerative gardening, and how would you define it? Is the focus entirely on the health of the soil?
My first experience was a very special trip to Costa Rica while at Austin High’s Academy for Global Studies. We visited Earth University. From there we went to a local cacao farm and coffee plantation, and were able to compare the two very different forms of agriculture.
On the cacao farm we saw a living soil with lush varieties and true diversity. In the coffee plantation, we witnessed the degradation of one variety, a monoculture, being grown for a single purpose. The difference in the soil told the story.
How exactly?
Everything starts with living soil. This is how we build all-natural or human-built structures. We have to begin to understand the soil like an engineering structure, and a living biological computer to sustain such diverse life we cannot even see.
Just like a 2-bean layer dip or a 7-bean layer dip. Which would you prefer? Nature offers so many metaphors and unknown secrets still, and we still have so much to learn. The ability to cooperate is key to understanding our future on this planet..
When you convert dirt into the soil, you are managing the diverse fungi, bacteria, nematodes, and protozoa that all have a function. They do the work for us, as long as we work with them, and this saves us time and money, and helps our troubled planet in innumerable ways.
To sum up - regenerative agriculture, farming, and gardening is based on an understanding of the biodynamic alchemy that occurs between the microbiology, macro biology, fungi, mycelial networks, plants, soil makeup, and natural cycles in each region.
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To the untrained eye, your garden could appear almost untended and wild, with sunflowers growing in profusion. And yet on closer inspection, beneath the sunflowers, you have a magical, diverse veggie garden with lettuce and kale, bok-choy, and many other crops. Can you explain your methods?
I am happy to admit I’m a messy-style gardener, who likes to say “Go big or go home!” With the amazing soil science that builds up my backyard, I can throw seeds out back by hand, and not even care to cover them. They take to the soil naturally. Making sure leaf litter covers this area for the spring allows the emergence of all this diverse life in my backyard.
Nature solves its own problems too, although plants do not like to cause unnecessary battles. They maintain a balance through organic diversity and cohabitation methods they have developed to grow in tandem. There may be over encroaching in my small space, but everything survives happily, grows for longer periods, and is not prone to bugs chewing through all those yummy-looking leafy greens.
My methods for sunflowers are the biggest tip I can give to deal with the Texas heat. They were often called the shields of the sun in Peru. This natural growth of large leaves that shade the area, and cool the soil around them provides longer growing seasons for early spring veggies before becoming natural growing towers for tomatoes to lean against, or vines to climb.
These beautiful flowers also have small root balls that should only be about a foot to half a foot both across and in-depth. This space is then occupied by these roots and tells other plants to go for deeper soil since this space is already taken.
Everything has a purpose in the living world, from plants to the organisms living around them. Understanding how they interact with their surroundings is key to understanding the balance of your soil ratios, and nutrients that are being made through composting/other organic methods, before becoming available food for plants.
I open my office for those willing to learn these strategies on Sundays and offer giveaways as well. There is too much for a single article and takes time to learn if anyone has an interest in this science.
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There's a bigger picture that I have been made aware of by the movie "Kiss the Ground." Many experts agree that through regenerative gardening and agricultural practices, there could be a global rebalancing as carbon dioxide, on a huge scale, is drawn down into the plants, and a balance for the planet is restored. Have you seen this movie, and do you have any thoughts to share?
Yes! One of my teachers and heroes, John D. Lui, was a part of this film, and there are many more that put this into perspective even clearer. An upcoming movie, “From Desert to Rainforest,” puts this science into a deeper perspective, and we are having conferences at events like SXSW Food for our future to advocate what is being found in the organic world.
We can balance water, carbon and waste cycles, clean waterways, cool landscapes, and coastlines, understand the natural breakdown of all molecules organically, and change the natural cycles of other animals to improve their quality of life.
I have hope that this call to action reaches the right people so we can begin supporting the scientists and specialists who understand what they can do to change our future on this planet, and in food. We need to get our crap together and find love for the world we currently live in.
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When I was leaving, you kindly gave me a jar of blackstrap molasses (Brer Rabbit). Can you explain to me and the Austin Garden readers how to use this, and its benefits?
Blackstrap molasses, when made into a chelated form and diluted, can be one of the best organic nutrient mixes for most plants. Most Blackstrap molasses is high in calcium, magnesium, iron, and potassium.
This sugar-filled product also contains sulfur and a host of micronutrients. The sugar feeds these micronutrients. Using diluted forms of molasses as fertilizer with humic and fulvic acids provide plants with a quick source of energy and encourages the growth of beneficial microorganisms.
This boost can also strengthen the immune system of your growing plants, and keep pests away. The key is balancing these nutrients. Plants need microbes. Microbes need sugar. Molasses is sugar. Just don't overdo it or ants will also go for this too. ❦
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Ethan Guion's gardening company: One Man with a Few Gardens. (He offers sustainable garden consultations for $30.) Facebook. Email:guiongardens@gmail.com
Part 2 of this interview coming soon.
G
