Synergistic gardening

[alan refail]

Hi Nature's Babe

You wrote in the Rotation thread:
In my synergistic vegetable beds, leeks, onions, lettuce, courgettes, cucumbers, tomatoes and tomatillos artichokes and beans all coexist together,as stuff is harvested something else goes in

It is some years now since I read The One-Straw Revolution. It would be very instructive, I'm sure, to hear how you adapted Fukuoka's ideas and techniques to the smaller scale of home vegetable growing.

Alan

[Nature's Babe]

I can't claim to have worked out the adaptation of fukoakas methods Alan this link was in Johnboys thread, I learned how here,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugFd1JdFaE0

Then I watched this video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

and went the next step trying to include the local wild bacteria and mycelium in my soil, it is really paying dividends, I just stacked five pots of home made compost and filled them with herbs, growth has been phenominal, I just picked some sage to make stuffing, the sage leaves are about three times the size they were before I changed to this method, and I only planted them a month ago, I only use the compost for pots now, the soil is taking care of itself in the synergistic beds.
I have vines and fruit trees dotted around the garden, fruit bushes, and cane fruit loganberries and culltivated blackberries up against the fence, raspberries in shady areas and so it works on lots of different levels, and there are tall trees in a natural strip at the edge of farmland behind us which shed leaves on our land. I looked at a satellite picture of our house and garden yesterday, all manicured rectangle lawns around us, ours looks much more natural. I also plant for the insects and birds and bees, wild flowers, inc mallow and foxgloves, teasles etc.

[Nature's Babe]

Hope this goes some way to answering your question Alan.

[Johnboy]

Hi Nature's Babe,
This is exactly what I was after with the letter that caused such a hooha.
I have watched the videos and already have downloaded Mme Hazlips video when you first posted it some time back.(also sent copies to my daughters)
I can see that this is going to take a considerable time to digest what I have seen and I will download your second website.
I can also see that there will be some very serious reading to be done.
I thank you for pointing me in the right direction.
Incidentally I had a no dig system for 5 years copied from the French
'Total Return System' that was in operation at the nursery I was working for in France in the very early 1970's. When I ceased to be organic the space was converted back to a normally dug bed.
Sadly where the no dig system was in operation in France when I viewed it on satellite map recently the nursery is no longer there and where the no dig beds were there is a swimming pool. Change of ownership! Such a shame.
JB.

[Nature's Babe]

Hi Johnboy, so glad you are back on form, glad you found this helpful, there is a natural uncultivated strip of land around the estate behind us, so I swapped a bucket of uncultivated soil for a bucket of mine and added it to my compost heap, so those microbes and mycelium now get spread around my garden. I find tiny fungi popping up with the seedlings now. With this system gardening now costs me very little and what spare money I do have is there for practical extras, like affording a pump for the well in the garden, and some strong rigid polytunnels for winter,( last winter the weight of snow collapsed the poly cover onto my broad beans and I lost the lot I also invested in some rockdust to up mineral content and give each bed a good kickstart. Sad that all the good work you did on that soil was razed for a swimming pool.

[Nature's Babe]

have put a link to an article on Fukuoka, for those new to his methods

http://www.mulandscaping.com/ArticleMas ... ulture.htm

[alan refail]

I cannot claim to understand the many mutualistic and pathogenic symbiotic relationships between mycorrhiza and different plants without a lot more study, but I imagine it is a much more complex matter than simply adding leaf litter to one's garden - if it's not I stand corrected.

If anyone wants to follow up this interesting subject, I suggest the following as a starting point - I am following up the many links myself, as and when I have time:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycorrhiza

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
I suspect that you are very correct and I am studying in there with you.
I also suspect that the interrelationship between plants and mycelium is probably more species based than we realize. Certainly there appear to be mycelium that are found in more general situations but I think that before any move should be taken a great amount of research and understanding should be in our domain.
I have just ordered a copy of 'The one Straw Revolution' which should be with me next week.
JB.

[alan refail]

Hi Johnboy

I've a good mind to order one myself. I found it a wonderful read years ago.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/One-straw-Revol ... 8185569312

[Nature's Babe]

Good luck with the research both of you, science doesn't understand it all yet, some trees have multiple symbiotic relationships and we don't yet understand how they work a fascinating area to study.

[Johnboy]

Hi Nature's Babe,
One of my observations is that with trees branches die and fall to the ground. If left for any period of time will be start to decay further and certain fungus appear to grow on the surface of the wood. Not only do branches die but so do roots underground and at certain times of the year toadstools will appear on the ground surface and these are entirely different to those on the fallen branches yet they are all related to the same tree. So right or wrong I discern that there are two distinct forms of fungus related to the same tree. When the fallen wood finally goes back to soil does that fungus die or does it go on living awaiting the next fallen branch? Do these two distinct forms of fungus have a symbiotic relationship? It would appear that both of these fungi are providing nutrition to the ground under the same tree and would therefore be benefiting the tree over an extremely long period.
With leaf litter the degradation of the leaves is initiated by mycelium and further down the path to total degradation action by worms and other
organisms will eventually turn those leaves into fresh soil. (leaf litter)
This can be a very long process. I collect the leaves on my property and put them, when they are wet, into black polythene bags seal the tops and make some holes in the bottom and throw them into the bottom of the hedgerow and some time later collect them together and those that have shrunken contents I add these to my comfrey compost to use as a seeding medium. This is rubbed through a sieve before use and that which will not go through the sieve goes into the compost bin.
JB.

[Johnboy]

Hi Alan,
I shall get through the Wikipedia thread you posted eventually but I have so far had four cracks at it and I find it very heavy reading.
I have to get straight all the unfamiliar words for them to somehow register in my brain. So far with very little success.
How are you finding it?
JB.

[alan refail]

Enlightening, but slow going here too

At last it's more accessible to me than the Hungarian article

[Nature's Babe]

This link is a fairly simple explanation Johnboy, explains the 2 main groups
and shows the extent of help both tree and myco get.

http://www.helsinki.fi/bioscience/myco/

and this for benefits to garden plants

http://www.thenaturalgardener.co.uk/myc ... _fungi.php

[Johnboy]

Hi Nature's Babe,
Thank you for the websites. I suspect that both Alan and myself need all the help we can get.
JB.