 Est. 2008; bringing nature & gardeners together July 25, 2025
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NURSERY NOTES: TreeFolks is hiring a full-time nursery assistant; starting salary $45,150 job posting 🌿 Look for the Talking Bees Roadshow to visit your local library in the next few weeks. Konrad Bouffard (Round Rock Honey) will show how bees make honey, and how to help and save bees. 1:30 p.m. Sat. July 26 at University Hills Library; 1 p.m. Sat. Aug 2 at Windsor Park library. Bees 🌿 Join Angel Schatz on July 27 at 5:30 p.m for "Art, Alchemy, Mushrooms and the War on Nature." Angel will explore the spiritual, cultural and political history of fungi, from sacred rituals to modern day criminalization. Online. Free. register 🌿
HUMMINGBIRD WARRIORS: To fully understand these extraordinary creatures, put aside any pretty poetry or greeting card images, writes James Gorman. With their beaks these 'warriors of the sky' stab rivals, fence, and tear out feathers. New York Times ❦
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HOW TO CREATE A FIREFLY SANCTUARY: these twinkling beauties are under stress, and some species are even facing extinction, writes Birdget Shirvell. We can help by avoiding yard cleanup, and leaving fallen leaves alone. Modern Farmer ❦
THE AUSTIN GARDEN relies on readers for support. Whether annual or monthly, all donations are welcome. At present 6% of readers fund this newsletter. Many thanks in advance. PayPal link ❦
 "Nature Sings Once More"
Gabe Brown brings the message of Regenerative Farming to the U.K.
by Darrel Mayers
Nature-friendly ‘regenerative farming’ is starting to be well-received around the world, and is especially popular in the U.K.
We are in Sussex, England, and a burly prophet of the movement — Gabe Brown (from North Dakota) — is speaking to a packed house at Plumpton College.
“I used to wake up, as a farmer, and think - what was I going to kill today,” says Gabe. “Now when I wake up, I start wondering. . . what can I bring to life?”
The day before, he had addressed a crowd at Groundswell — a regenerative farming festival in Hertfordshire. Ahead of him, surprise guest Prince William (the future King of England) had taken the stage, and declared that regenerative farming must become “a foundation stone for British agriculture.”
Regenerative farmers embrace a return to simpler times, before chemicals and tilling the soil entered the picture.
“Farming and ranching in synchrony with nature,” is how Gabe defines it. “To repair, rebuild, restore and revitalize ecosystem function, starting with all life in the soil, and expanding to all life above the soil.“
In nuts and bolts terms, this means no tilling, crop rotation and diversification, composting, and using grazing animals to improve soil health.
 Sophie, the Duchess of Edinburgh (left) on-stage at Plumpton College with Gabe Brown (right) after his lecture.
Gabe’s own journey started with considerable hardship. The 5,000 acre Brown Ranch in North Dakota had been struck by multiple crop failures and natural calamities, leaving it with a debt of over a million dollars. He even had to stop farming some parts of the ranch.
But it was in these unfarmed fields where his epiphany took place.
There he noticed the return of life’s joyful carnival, to fields long silenced by chemicals and tilling. Back came the birds. Back came the insects. And "life in the soil” returned too.
At the Brown ranch today, he has 150+ species of birds, ten times as much wildlife, and 1,700 beneficial insects for every pest. Profits per acre have soared, from $17 in 1983, to $158 in 2023. The nutrition value of his crops has also soared to levels 65% higher than before.
At the lecture’s end, he turned the focus back to farmers young and old at Plumpton College. “It’s up to us, as land managers, whether you own a garden, small-holding or large area of land, your stewardship of it will make all of the difference.”
The general public also has a considerable role to play, he added. “Consumers need to insist on regeneratively farmed food, support regenerative farmers, and grow a regenerative garden. Remember, eating is an agricultural act." ❦
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Other material:
“Dirt to Soil: One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture” by Gabe Brown BookPeople)
“The One Straw Revolution: an introduction to natural farming” by Masanobu Fukuoka BookPeople
Gabe Brown’s consultancy: Understanding Ag
“Kiss the Ground” (movie): Prime
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IT'S ABOUT THYME LEGACY PUBLICATIONS.
CONTACT EDITOR DARREL MAYERS |
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