GARDEN COMPANION ECOLOGY ACTION'S
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
ECOLOGY ACTION’S
GARDEN COMPANION
GROW BIOINTENSIVE ® News from Around the World
A bumblebee at VGFP tickles the pollen from flowering phacelia,
a fantastic early-season pollinator plant!
image: victory gardens for peace
Summer 2021
IN THIS ISSUE :
T H E J E A V O N S C E N T E R R E P O R T ● V G F P R E P O R T ● G L O B A L G B PA R T N E R :
B I O I N T E N S I V E F O R R U S S I A ● C O M PA R I S O N : S T R A W V S L I V I N G M U L C H
● B O O K L E T 3 8 : C O M I N G I N J U LY ● W O R D O F M O U T H : F A R M I N G W I T H O U T
PL ASTICS ● BOOK REVIEW: SEED LIBRARIES ● WORLD OF HOPE : SWEET
P O TAT O E S ! ● G - B I A C K S E E D - S A V I N G V I D E O ● S O I L S C I E N C E S P O T L I G H T :
N , P, S , A N D S O I L M I C R O O R G A N I S M S ● E C O P O L : E L J A R O C H O A R T I C L E
● H TG M V I N A R A B I C ● S T R AW B E R R Y H I B I S C US T E A
● EA EVENTS AND OPPORTUNITIES ... AND MORE!
The Jeavons Center time of year might be around 45 inches. The entire state
is struggling with water shortages, and even with GB’s
Mini-Farm Report
water-saving ability, we may need water brought in as
the season progresses to properly water the 17 GB an-
By John Jeavons, Ecology Action Executive Director nual beds planned as well as numerous perennial beds.
• Workshops: We hosted our Spring 3-Saturdays
“It is such a blessing to be part of
Zoom Workshop in March, with participants from
such an elegant and friendly ecosystem!”
across the US and beyond: three from Virginia, two each
"You will either make things happen, watch things
from Bermuda and Texas, and one each from Alabama,
happen, or wonder why things happen.”
California, Connecticut, Idaho, and Illinois. Some par-
– Sage Miller, TJC FTT, planting crops in May, 2021 ticipants in the southern U.S. are involved in key proj-
ects to help low-income families and children become
A
s you can see from the quotes above, aptly named more food-secure, and their example is heartwarming.
Farmer-Teacher Trainer Sage Miller continues All the participants provided progress and inspira-
to bring a joyful wisdom to his work at The Jeav- tion for all of us! We plan to hold our Fall 3-Saturdays
ons Center! And we are hungry for joy as 2021 contin- Workshop online as well, on November 6, 13 and 20,
ues to be an "interesting" year for Ecology Action (and 2021—if you would like to attend, you can register at:
the rest of the world), as we learn to cope with the ongo- growbiointensive.org/workshop.html
ing challenges presented by COVID 19, and a continued
water situation in a drought year. But as Sage says, be- • Internships: Ecology Action’s second 8-Month On-
ing proactive in making things happen is preferable to line Internship began in April with an even larger crop
watching or wondering why things happen, and so we of global participants than last year: sixteen from Ken-
take inspiration from the vital and resilient ecosystem ya, four from California, two from Spain, and one each
we live in, and from the work of our global GROW BIO- from Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Hawaii, Honduras,
INTENSIVE® family, to continue to grow as a source of Malawi, Mexico, New York, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, and
GB information, education, technical support, and in- Sudan. Having such a wide range of participants from
spiration, to pursue our goal of facilitate people every- across the globe in one class is a wonderful experience,
where to catalyze pro-activity in growing their own soil, and provides unexpected benefits to us all. For exam-
food, and thriving ecosystems. ple, one participant has already offered to collect data
for bananas to be included in the Master Charts for the
While some of our planned projects are on hold as we next edition of How to Grow More Vegetables (bananas
wait for a rainier year, other projects are moving ahead. are an important fast-growing tree crop that provides
TJC current conditions and activities in 2021 include: calories and biomass for farms and gardens the trop-
• Continued soil im- ics). Ecology Action has been wanting exactly this type
image: ecology action
provement, as can be of information for a long time. Another participant will
determined by the lush translate the Farmers Mini-Handbook into Japanese!
growth of two varieties o f Depending on COVID regulations, VGFP may offer a
Cold Weather Fava Beans, the few onsite 6-month internships for U.S. participants,
even water holding capaci- t y but TJC will not host onsite interns in 2021 or 2022.
of the soil to a depth of 24 Instead, with a goal of developing an increased number
inches in many of the grow- ing of Farm-Leaders and Trainers on all continents, we will
beds, and the soil’s relative continue to host about 30 participants each year in our
friability. All this thanks to the popular 8-Month Online Internship. Interested? Apply
hard work and energetic ap- at growbiointensive.org/Internship/8Month.html
plication of the GROW BIO-
INTENSIVE method by the • Establishing an experimental 10-Bed Unit
2020 Fit Team. (10BU) in our restrictive serpentine soil, potentially
leading to the development of a complete one-person
• Climate challenges: Northern California is cur- diet/soil-growing combination in as little as a 1,000
rently experiencing an historic spring drought and the square-foot growing area. This work complements the
rainfall level in Willits is at 20 inches. To put this in per- ongoing 10BU research at our Victory Gardens for Peace
spective, in our first year at TJC in 1972 we experienced site, as well as other locations globally. Even though
84 inches/7 feet of rain! A more normal level for this
2 Ecology Action’s Garden Companion
there will be fewer annual growing beds than the tradi- Medina in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and Suzana Her-
tional 40-bed unit, the 10-bed unit that will evolve over nandes in Chile; plus Simon Nayaga in Kenya, Guiller-
time from this and other experiments will include our mo Rodriguez Barrio in Spain, and Shyam Payakurel
normal demonstration, education and research aspects in Nepal, Matt Drewno in Mendocino, CA, and James
to learn from. Crops planted by Sage Miller in this 10BU Christie-Fougere in British Columbia, Canada.
to date include 65-day maturing Potatoes, as well as
As a part of this program, by the end of 2022, John Bee-
Dahlias, Sunn Hemp, and Flax.
by hopes to release a companion booklet to Test Your
An important aspect of the 10-bed unit is the choice of Soil with Plants, which may provide an easy guide for
not only the basic plants that will make up the diet, but of farmers everywhere to perform a complete soil test uti-
the specific varieties used, which can make a difference lizing just three plant crops and a pH strip.
in how successful a diet design will be. For example, the
• Another program, Soil Test Research Stations
65-day maturing potatoes Sage is using in this garden
(STRS) is being implemented at 10 different sites
yield the same as 95- and 120-day maturing ones, and
around the world with different soils and ecosystems.
so they produce more calories and nutrition in much
The goal at these sites is to use local food crops to grow
less time—using less water and labor. This attention to
one person’s complete annual calories and plus compost
detail is important in a world with a rapidly decreasing
materials needed for the growing sustainable soil fertil-
amount of farmable soil, as approximately 12% of the
ity, including sufficient carbon and nitrogen. A newly
calories, 8 % of the protein, and 18% of the calcium eat-
formed soil group that includes John Beeby, Agustín
en globally comes from potatoes grown on 2.4% of the
Medina, Steve Moore and Matt Drewno is working to-
cropland. Some varieties of dahlias, the national flower
gether to determine how to make these soil test research
of Mexico, have the unusual potential of being an all-
stations most effective.
round “60:30:10” crop, as they can produce a signifi-
cant amount of biomass in their stems, edible calories International programs with involvement of EA
in their tubers, and income from their beautiful flowers. headquarters at The Jeavons Center:
Flax-seed is good for eating and provides a good source
• Our Latin America and European partner, ECO-
of vegan omega-3 fatty acids. It also provides fiber from
POL-El Mesquite, led by Juan Manuel Martínez with
which twine can be made—and some varieties are good
Agustín Medina and Marisol Tenorio, is developing a
for producing fine linen!
new website to expand its teaching of CULTIVE BIO-
• Legume interplanting experiments continue to INTENSIVAMENTEMR. It is estimated that ECOPOL
focus on growing crops and soil fertility in the smallest has directly and indirectly trained about 350,000 new
area at the same time, through well-chosen crop pair- farmers a year for a total of ~3.7 million people provid-
ings. ed with access to GB education during the past 11 years.
Soil programs with involvement of EA head- • Our Kenyan partner G-BIACK, led by husband and
quarters at The Jeavons Center: wife Co-Directors Samuel Nderitu and Peris Wanjiru,
are working to establish satellite training stations in the
• Sponsoring the GROW BIOINTENSIVE® Soil
47 Kenyan provinces. As of April 2021, they have estab-
Test Analysis and Amendment Recommenda-
lished 39 of these stations, and hope to make GB avail-
tion (STAAR) Training Program with EA Soil Fer-
able to everyone in Kenya by 2030.
tility Advisor John Beeby as master teacher. I have great
hope for the STAAR program, which focuses on educat- Now more than ever, it is vital for everyone to
ing GB farmers and farmer-leaders to understand and know how to grow food and soil, sustainably.
use soil test analysis and scientific soil amendment rec- As you read this issue, you will see the how Biointen-
ommendation standards to build lasting and sustain- sive projects are growing around the world, helping to
able soil fertility now and into the future, and believe heal the Earth and its people,
it will help to reverse the rapid depletion of the world’s right where they are. We love
farming soils. our Global GROW BIOINTEN-
SIVE Family and are proud of
The first year of the STAAR program has been funded,
the work we and our partners
and its 14 participants began the four-year program on
do. We look forward to growing
March 28, 2021. Everyone is excited about the classes
strong with you through 2021
they are taking. Participants include several people in
and beyond!! ●
Latin America, Kumiko Tsutsui in Guatemala, Agustín
summer 2021 3
Victory Gardens for Peace Our Victory Gardens for Peace Seed Bank continues
to grow, and we have developed a new online plat-
Mini-Farm Report form that allows us to take online orders and ship
By Matt Drewno, VGFP Mini-Farm Manager them to our community. This has enabled us to con-
tinue to distribute seed during the pandemic, and
“When I go into the garden with a spade and dig a bed I also helps us better track what seeds are popular so
feel such an exhilaration and health that I discover that we can continue to grow out priority seeds for the
I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting North Coast of California. You can learn more about
others do for me what I should have done with my own this important project at victorygardensforpeace.
hands.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson com. We will be publishing a booklet by the end of
E
ach day in the garden is an opportunity to 2022 on how to start a community seed bank and
grow. And what a gift it is! Here at Victory reintegrate seed saving into your community, so ev-
Gardens for Peace we approach each day with eryone can access local, healthy seed.
gratitude for the lessons learned, and those which This year we will be focusing much of our growing
constantly reveal themselves in the garden. What a area into replenishing seed stocks after last year’s
blessing to be able to work with the Earth and to be big rush on our seedbank. Seed saving is a wonderful
worked by the Earth: to nurture that which nurtures part of the GB Method, which not only saves mon-
you! Our 220-bed research, education and demon- ey, but also helps adapt local varieties and increas-
stration mini-farm is located on the Mendocino es food security. And that’s not all! The flowers of
Coast in Northern California. We are transitioning seed-producing plants provide food and habitat for
our overwintering legume cover crops into main pollinators and beneficial insects. In addition, as
season grains, pulses, vegetables, flowers and seed plants mature, their carbon structures change and
crops. Its an exciting time of year as increasing day- their biomass increases to support their blooms and
length awakens the pollinators to meet the profuse seeds. This biomass provides wonderful materials
blooms of wildflowers and overwintering seed crops. for the compost pile, which farms more carbon from
The vital force of spring lifts us and carries us, and the atmosphere and helps us increase the organic
as we cultivate the soil from winter’s rest we, too are matter of our soils for increased fertility and sus-
invigorated by nature’s verdant and prolific vitali- tainability.
ty. Springtime is a celebration, a resurrection, and
a perennial joy. I hope that over the past year you As I write, we are transplanting our grains and sum-
have found the inspiration to grow more soil, food mer crops after a dry winter and entering what ap-
and seed than ever before, and that that inspiration pears to be a rather severe drought-year. That makes
carries you forward with joy into the garden. it even more important to note that GB uses only a
third of the water that conventional agriculture re-
By the time you are reading this, our summer intern- quires to grow food. GB incorporates carbon-rich
ship and course will have begun. Each year we bring crops and composting, which increases soil organic
folks from different parts of the world and our com- matter levels, which further-enhances the soil’s wa-
munity to share experience and learn together about ter-holding capacity. And with a good diet design,
the GROW BIOINTENSIVE ® Method (GB). While such as the 10-Bed Unit complete Diet Design we
COVID has hindered our ability to accept interna- are experimenting with in VGFP’s coastal climate,
tional students, we have adapted to integrate our as little as 2-10% of the water is required to grow a
curriculum and local outreach into an exciting new complete diet and sustainable soil fertility, on less
program we are calling GardenCorps which we are than 2% of the land, as compared to a conventionally
offering to domestic students. More on GardenCorps grown American diet.
later, but I would like to say how impressed I have
been with the quality of the 8-month Online Intern- When you understand what is possible with GB, you
ship program which has enabled Ecology Action to discover a world full of hope and possibility. I call
continue our international outreach and education this inspiration “discovering the endless well.” Our
despite the challenges posed by the COVID crisis. gardens are a way forward, a whole-systems solu-
Each week dozens of interns gather online to en- tion, which helps us reduce energy and resource con-
hance their understanding of the important solution sumption, decrease our land-area requirements for
of the GB Method – a real world example of technol- food production, and enables us to put more of our
ogy promoting sustainable progress! precious biosphere into full-functioning, restored
4 Ecology Action’s Garden Companion
ecosystems to be preserved for the health and integ- Analysis, Amendments Recommendation Training
rity of the plant. We don’t have to carry the weight (STAAR) Program. This program trains individuals
of the world’s challenges, we just need to start doing to establish 10-bed-unit soil-test stations, to be able
what makes sense, and the solution is so beautiful to act as hubs in the community to help farmers and
and delicious! Grow a sustainable vegetable garden gardeners improve their soils with the low-input
with the GB Method! Ecology Action is publishing GB Method. This training is run by John Beeby of
my work in Booklet 38, A Path to Peace and Sustain- Grow Your Soil (growyoursoil.org) who has for the
ability: Growing Soil, Food and Seed in as Little as last 20 years been creating and monitoring organic
1,000 Sq. Ft. which everyone can use to begin de- fertilizer recommendations for GB farms around the
signing and growing their own 10 Bed Unit. It should world. John, Steve Moore, Laura Taylor, and Samu-
be available for purchase at growbiointensive.org/ el Nderitu published Effects of a One-Time Organic
publications_main.html in mid-July. Fertilizer Application on Long-Term Crop and Res-
idue Yields, and Soil Quality Measurements Using
One of the greatest joys of this work is sharing it,
Biointensive Agriculture in the journal Frontiers of
and seeing others grow. Our work in the nearby city
Sustainable Agriculture last year. This work helped
of Fort Bragg, CA to pass the Garden Friendly Com-
inspire the STAAR program with the powerful and
munity Resolution (victorygardensforpeace.com/
scientifically documented low-input studies on sev-
resolution) has blossomed into a movement to es-
eral GB farms across Kenya. Congratulations John,
tablish community gardens across the city. We are
Steve, Laura and Samuel on such important work!
currently volunteering to help create two gardens
which should be complete by the end of the year, As we continue to develop Ecology Action’s Victory
helping others experience the joy of helping them- Gardens for Peace Sustainability Hub we strength-
selves through growing a garden. We will be support- en our foundation and our ability to serve our com-
ing this work with free GB resources, seeds from our munity and the greater GB movement. What we
seed bank, and establishing community networks learn, we share, and are constantly inspired by the
to help strengthen a movement towards sustainable wonderful work of GB farmers and projects around
food localization. the world. We are a family, brought together for the
love of the work and the hope that it brings. We in-
In 2019, we determined that with 5-10 years of ex-
vite you to connect with us—if you would like more
perience and soil buildup, that it would be possi-
information visit www.victorygardensforpeace.com
ble that all the calories needed to feed Fort Bragg’s
or email Info@victorygardensforpeace.com. Thank
7000+ residents could be grown in open land within
you to our donors and all those who contribute to
the city limit. This year we are starting our pilot Gar-
keeping Ecology Action strong and serving. We
denCorps Program which will combine our knowl-
wish you all wonderful, abundant and beautiful
edge of the GB Method with our community organiz-
ing experience in Fort Bragg. In addition to training garden year! ●
image: vgfp
in the GB Method and sustainable diet design, this
program includes classes in agricultural leadership,
community organizing, and project development.
We have fund-raised four full scholarships from the
community itself, with the agreement from students
that they commit to 50 hours of community service
in establishing community gardens in Fort Bragg,
CA. We are so proud of this work and the partici-
pants in the program!
The United Nations predicts that we have around 55
years of soil remaining. At Ecology Action, we be-
lieve that this number is more likely to be much less:
as little as half of this amount. The need for replen-
ishing soils, while also increasing yields sustainably
is more important than ever. This year we are ex-
cited to have been chosen as one of 13 GB training
sites worldwide to participate in the Soil Testing
Victory Gardens for Peace Mini-Farm awakening after winter rest
summer 2021 5
was back in the US for a conference. It then occurred
Global GB Partner: to me that, just perhaps, I myself could sow some
Biointensive for Russia seeds and water them, and they might even sprout! I
did so and soon, fascinated, I was watching pea ten-
By Carol Vesecky, Director, BfR drils miraculously growing and eventually produc-
ing flowers, pods, and … lo and behold, peas!!!
I was expecting my second child, so watching new life
naturally resonated inside me. Born in late spring,
baby Holly turned out to be colicky, so to calm her
when she woke me around dawn, I would put her
in the corduroy-and-flannel carrier on my back and
go out to the greenhouse to tend the veggies as the
sun rose. During Holly’s and her brother Stephen’s
quiet times, I worked on scientific and technical
translations, making use of the Russian and French
languages I had studied at Stanford. But, when not
translating, I would often be out planting lettuce and
carrots, and tending the tiny veggie garden along
with all the rose bushes we had inherited from the
former owner. I remember making the lettuce into
soup, there being far too much of it!!
HTGMV in Russian is available at growbiointensive.org/HTGMVRussian We moved back to Palo Alto, California in 1977
when the children were still little and settled into a
The following is an excerpt of a longer article, which we house within walking distance of St. Mark’s Episco-
are unable to print due to space considerations. Read pal Church, where my family and I attended the folk
the full article at growbiointensive.org/Enewsletter. eucharist service with John Jeavons and his family.
A
s I remember, my professor dad grew most of While cooking for a UNICEF benefit dinner I had or-
the tomatoes, green beans, sweet corn, and ganized, I got better acquainted with co-volunteers
peas we ate during the summers in my ear- Betsy Jeavons and Robin Leler, who ran Ecology Ac-
ly childhood in Wisconsin in the 1950s. My mother tion’s Common Ground Garden Supply and Educa-
froze and canned the produce, often with my three tion Center together. Common Ground was within
siblings’ and my aid, for example shucking peas on easy biking distance of my home, so I started taking
our screened porch, or slicing the corn kernels off the Saturday morning classes offered there on all as-
the cob in the kitchen. For at least two summers I pects of Biointensive and organic gardening by John
worked regularly with Dad in his garden plot, under Jeavons, Louisa Lenz, John Beeby, Carol Cox, and
his tutelage growing corn and beans in my own rows. many other adepts.
I sold them to the neighbors one year, earning five Betsy and Robin told me about John’s work in Ecol-
dollars, which at age eight seemed a princely sum! ogy Action’s large research garden in the Stanford
We also picked apples from our three trees—Duch- Industrial Park, practicing the Biodynamic/French
ess, Jonathon, and Wealthy—for Mother to bake into Intensive mini-farming practices he had learned
pies or for us to smash into applesauce. from Alan Chadwick and his apprentices at UC Santa
During my school, college, and young married years Cruz. Then, after hearing about my educational back-
for the next 20 years or so, my vegetable gardening ground in languages, they invited me to visit their
lay dormant. But as a gesture to hippie culture, my home and garden and meet John, who then recruit-
husband John Vesecky put in a garden at our rented ed me to co-edit the French translation of the book-
home in Menlo Park CA in 1970. Then in 1974, he set let “Biointensive Mini-Farming: A Rational Use of
some cherry tomato plants out in the greenhouse in Natural Resources.” That led to my typesetting the
back of our “semi-detached house with a bi’ o’ gar- French translation of How to Grow More Vegetables
den” in Leicester, England, where he taught at the on Jean-Marie de la Beaujardière’s pre-Macintosh
local university for several years. That winter, at his computer at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center on
request I dutifully kept his plants watered while he Saturday mornings from 1980-1982. Then came the
6 Ecology Action’s Garden Companion
1989. Nine Muscovites hoping to acquire home and
image: BfR/VIOLA
garden plots in the country, leading to vast quali-
ty-of-life improvements over their communal apart-
ments, visited the Bay Area in 1990, and John Jeav-
ons taught a 5-day workshop for them at Stanford
University. We provided home stays in Palo Alto and
environs, and they visited Willits for for a day tour of
the early Jeavons Center garden. Most were journal-
ists, so Biointensive got media attention in the USSR
that year.
A few weeks later, Moscow agronomist Tatyana Iva-
nova participated in a 5-week workshop along with
Kevin Ashley, who spent the summer in Moscow and
double-dug gardens in two locations with CCI part-
ner Natalya Skribunova and her friends. Kevin wrote
wonderfully informative, detailed letters during his
stay, scans of which are available for those who re-
Dr. Ludmila Zhirina, Director of Russian NGO VIOLA, in a GB garden with
Russian HTGMV and a radiation dosimiter in the Ukraine, near Chernobyl quest them from me at .
German translation, on my first home (CP/M, pre- Back to How to Grow: years later in 1992, Viktor
IBM PC and Windows) computer, in 1983. Yukechev sent us the translation he had commis-
sioned in Novosibirsk/Akademgorodok, and we were
The Cold War was at its height then, but that had able to obtain US Peace Corps funding for its edit-
begun to change in November 1986, when a histor- ing, typesetting (on borrowed Macintosh computers
ic youth exchange organized by the Earthstewards in Palo Alto and at Stanford), and proofreading. We
in Washington state took place and I helped host were not yet using email by then, and there were
21 teenagers from Siberia during their visit to the only 14 phone lines into the USSR. So, due to the
Bay Area. One of the chaperons was Viktor Yuke- greater ease of phone and fax communication with
chev, Novosti Press Agency bureau chief for Novo- Moscow, publication finally was accomplished there
sibirsk. An avid gardener, he gratefully accepted my with the aid of Boris Khersonski, who was putting
parting gift of How to Grow in English. Viktor and I out books on business topics in Russian at the time
then nurtured the dream together, via post, fax, and with Sharon Tennison’s CCI.
phone, of publishing a Russian translation.
The Peace Corps contributed to the effort by pre-pay-
The following year, I traveled to the USSR on my ing $10,000 for 400 copies of the book for their vol-
first citizen diplomacy tour with the Earthstewards, unteers in Russia, to share in the communities where
and shared copies of the book in English and French they taught English and business methods for the
with Russians I met, who assured me that it would eleven years ending in 2003. Thus, I was able to pay
be very popular there. Hence, in Moscow with the my excellent team for editing and proofreading, and
National Council of Churches group in 1988, Viktor myself for preparing the camera-ready copy with an
having sent me his phone number, I visited the chief early Apple layout program and physical paste-ups
editor of the practical books-oriented Mir Publish- of the illustrations.
ing House. Sure enough, the Mir editor expressed
interest in publishing the book! But by the time of Next, Liza Loop, another citizen diplomat and Earth-
my third citizen diplomacy tour in 1989 (led by me), steward, and I created Biointensive for Russia (BfR)
I learned that alas, competition for paper and print- as a nonprofit project fiscally supported by LO*OP
ing resources was too great. In the following years, Center, the 501(c)3 organization she directed. The
more publishing efforts were made, but foiled each Moscow publisher’s marketing effort seemed weak,
time. so our initial effort was to give Americans the chance
to present a copy to Russians they had befriended
Our first Ecology Action workshop with Russian during the era of citizen diplomacy exchanges. We
participants resulted from the visit of Muscovite mailed out a brochure requesting $10 and a Russian
Vladimir Novosyolov to Willits, CA during one of name and address, then faxed the names we received
the Center for Citizen Initiatives (CCI) exchanges in {...continued at growbiointensive.org/Enewsletter}
summer 2021 7
8
Comparison: Importing Straw Mulch vs. Creating a Living Mulch with Close Plant Spacing
By Matt Drewno Mini-Farm Manager
Comparison: Importing straw mulch vs. creating a living mulch with close plant spacing
A Whole‐Systems Comparison of Importing Dead Mulch to Living Mulch Created Through Close‐Plant Spacing
Mulch is often used to conserve water and protect the soil. Is this the best use of these materials
Water Use Input
Method Description Direct Resource Pros Cons
Indirect Resource Financial Cost
Conservation Import
Dead 2 bales of straw (hay Can reduce 1 Bale of straw $10‐$15 per 1 acre Conserves water Habitat for slugs and some
Mulch may contain weed evaporation by up requires 8,690 bale. 40 beds produces 50 and soil disease organisms‐ light
seeds!) will cover 100 to 80%. gallons of water to mulched 3x bales of straw. structure. surface airflow can be
sq. ft. to a depth of 3 grow. Each bed each bed per Importing beneficial to your plants. If the
inches. requires 17,380 year would straw means straw contains herbicide or
gallons of water to cost $1,200‐ importing the pesticide residues these can
grow 3” of straw $1,500 soil nutrients enter your garden soil. Over a
mulch. A 40‐bed dollars/year from the acre gardener’s lifetime, with a 40‐
complete diet it was grown. bed design and importing
design with 3 crops Those bales mulch for each crop, over
per bed each year are better 165,000,000 extra gallons of
would require composted on‐ water would be required at a
2,085,600 gallons of site and not cost of $96,000‐$120,000
water for 240 bales. exported. dollars.
Living With deep soil Can reduce None. With the None. By using close None. On the Conserves water For the first 3‐4 weeks before
mulch preparation you can evaporation by water saved each plant spacing 4.8 acres it and soil structure the microclimate fills in,
place plants 63%. If yields can year (2,085,600 instead of mulch took to grow without costly up to double the water might
hexagonally, closer be achieved 2‐6x gallons) and with you save $96,000‐ the straw for inputs financially or be necessary to maintain
together so that as conventional, the 10‐bed diet $120,000 over a mulch, an environmentally. optimal soil moisture. Once
they mature the water use per lb design in the human lifetime. ecosystem The living mulch the microclimate is
leaves touch and of food produced appendix of this could be materials grown established, significant water
create a shady is significantly guide, complete restored or from close plant efficiencies are achieved.
microclimate in the higher with close diets for 60 people the farmer’s spacing are then
bed. This conserves plant spacing and could be grown fertility better composted on site
water and increases GB techniques. biointensively managed. and turned into soil
soil health. without importing humus to further
mulch. increase water
conservation and
moisture holding
capacity of the soil.
The Living Mulch Effect created by close plant spacing creates a microclimate conserving soil moisture, soil structure and trapping carbon dioxide respired from the soil microbes
utilizing it for plant growth through photosynthesis. This living mulch can reduce evaporation by up to 63% in the growing bed, fixes carbon and is later composted on‐site to
regenerate soils and further increase water holding capacity. Dead Mulch is imported from off‐site and robs anotherʼs soil to feed your own.
Ecology Action’s Garden Companion
selves, our relationships, the paths we have cho-
EA Booklet 38: Coming in July! sen and in this opportunity, we must consider
By Matt Drewno Mini-Farm Manager our next step:
Do we continue on as we have, and risk losing
everything on this beautiful planet?
image: vgfp
...Or, do we navigate these challenging waters
with grace, integrity and sensitivity to once
again discover the inseparable wholeness that is
Nature, that is us?
This is about a journey of the self as much as
it is about a solution to the global agricultural
crisis. It is about empowering oneself to live in
a way that contributes to the world, that brings
creativity and harmony into a world teetering
VGFP’s Mini-Farm Manager Matt Drewno has on disaster. As you will see, it can be a panacea.
finished Booklet 38: A Path to Peace and Sus- It can bring hope. It is more than a metaphorical
tainability: Growing Soil, Food and Seed in As journey back to the garden. It carries with it the
Little As 1,000 Sq. Ft. and it will be available living experience of Nature. And in nurturing
for purchase as soon as we get it back from that which nurtures us, and striving to give back
the printer on July 15. The printing of this im- more than we take and leave the world in a bet-
portant publication is made possible in honor ter place, we awaken to a purpose and strength
of Paul Hwoschinsky, who three decades ago beyond imagination.
helped catalyze the GB Africa Program. Paul
said "The most important thing about GB is that I am so glad that you have this in your hands,
it creates Community!” Five years in develop- because I have experienced some of the gifts
ment, this 76-page booklet with many full-color along the way and I know that there is so much
photos is a beautiful and thoughtful work, and potential in putting our hands back in the soil.
Matt’s writing style makes it a pleasure to read. Why else do we have these arms and legs? Our
To give you a taste of what’s to come, we want- destiny is a return to the Earth, a realization of
ed to share this excerpt with you. Enjoy! our place, and an activation of the human spirit
to save our future. In the garden, we honor the
Author’s Note past by carrying forward the traditions of cul-
I
t has been a journey to create this booklet. tivation, we acknowledge the present by being
The journey began with a love for plants, soil present and we honor the future by sowing the
and Nature and has evolved into a search for seeds of peace and abundance.
a sustainable way forward for humanity which This work is timeless and carries on forever. It is
embodies a whole-system approach to meet a inspiring and delicious. May we grow together,
multitude of challenges at once. The destination forever!
is still down the road, but we know where we are
“It is not the gardener that makes the garden. It
going and how we can get there.
is the garden that makes the gardener.”
I am excited to share this solution with you —Alan Chadwick ●
because not only is it an effective way to solve
many problems at once, it is beautiful and fun
and draws the individual closer to a living uni- Help Wanted
verse that we have isolated ourselves from. It is Ecology Action needs a full-time Biointensive Farmer!
almost as if humanity has gone through adoles- Enjoy a sustainable lifestyle working at one of our two
cence and individuation from our Mother Earth. Biointensive Research and Demonstration Mini-Farms in
In the growing pains of our existence, we have Mendocino County, CA.
caused great suffering and destruction on the $15/hour plus benefits.
planet. And as we mature, we look back at our- Full details at growbiointensive.org/Opportunities.html
summer 2021 9
to get plastics out of farming. But can we? On the one
Farming without Plastics hand, the answer is, “Of course!” Humans farmed for
By Michael Foley, Green Uprising Farm 10,000 years before the advent of plastic just a few de-
From Word of Mouth Magazine (wordofmouthmendo.com)
cades ago. We can do so again. On the other hand, this
The following is an excerpt of an article on an import- farmer—and I’m sure many others—is finding it hard to
ant topic, published in Word of Mouth Magazine in break the addiction.
2020, at bit.ly/WordofMouthFarmingWithoutPlastic
Winter farming without that plastic hoophouse? The
W
hen I started farming back in Maryland, I French market gardeners of the 18th and 19th centu-
based a lot of my organic farming methods ry did it, with glass topped cold frames and “hot beds”
on Eliot Coleman’s The New Organic Grow- warmed by composting manure, but it took a lot of la-
er. Somewhere in that book, he presented a back-of-the- bor, glass, and manure. Then there are the “fruit walls,”
envelope calculation comparing the carbon footprint of south-facing walls of cob or brick that absorb the sun’s
a head of lettuce grown in California and shipped to the heat during the day and stave off the cold during the
East Coast versus a head of lettuce grown under plastic night. Put a glass window in front of the wall and you
in his Maine hoophouse. His head of lettuce won hands have the beginnings of a greenhouse.
down. So there are tools out there that we might adopt and
Coleman convinced me that year-round farming was adapt as we try to find our way past the Age of Plastics.
the way to go. I put up my first hoophouse in 2005 and The glass greenhouse will be very expensive but last a
haven’t looked back. But when we moved to Willits in long time. Other alternatives vary a lot in durability and
2007, it was already clear that Coleman’s calculation cost. One of our mainstays at Green Uprising Farm in
couldn’t apply. A Salinas Valley head of lettuce had a cooler months is row covers, sheets of spun polypropyl-
lot less miles on it traveling to Willits than those ship- ene draped over low hoops down each row. Plants get
ping to eastern markets. Still, I built hoophouses and protection from wind and chill, and the ground stays
encouraged others to do so. I bought row covers to pro- a couple degrees warmer. We’ve experimented using
tect outdoor plants through fall, winter, and spring. I large pieces of cheesecloth and have found that they’re
bought shade cloth to protect tender lettuces from the better than plastic. They stay up in the rain and snow,
bright California sun. And a couple of years ago, we and they seem to last longer than the plastic version.
started buying ground cloth to kill off weeds and pre- They are also twice the cost.
pare the soil for planting. In hot weather, we depend upon shade cloth. It covers
I already knew plastic was bad for the environment, much of our salad garden and our propagation house.
but I consoled myself that the most common plastics in This summer I tried the old alternative, used for centu-
our farming practice were the least bad: black plastic ries in farming cultures around the world—reed mats,
polyethylene mostly, and polypropylene for the green- sold as “reed fencing” here. It only took a few to cover
house plastic and row covers. But plastic turns out to the propagation structure. They’re much cheaper than
be much worse than I imagined. It is not just another shade cloth and much more attractive, and they give
fossil fuel product. It’s a product that pollutes all by very effective shade for tender starts and microgreens.
itself as it off-gases additives and degrades into tinier Before market gardeners adopted plastic landscape
and tinier pieces. The scourge of micro-plastics (plastic cloth to kill weeds and prepare soil for working, organ-
fragments less than 5mm in length) is becoming clearer, ic gardeners and permaculturists advocated plain old
as they turn up in the intestines of fish and wildlife, in cardboard. It works, and big pieces can be obtained
our drinking water, and in our own guts. We know that from your friendly local furniture store. It can be cum-
the bigger pieces kill plankton and other small forms of bersome and ugly too, and we still have all that land-
aquatic life, and many of them carry toxic chemicals, scape cloth, but we’re using both now. Bigger farmers
from BPA to phthalates, both responsible for a lot of re- depend upon sheet plastic mulches to suppress weeds,
productive harm in mammals, including humans. especially around delicate strawberry plants. But I met
one farmer in Monterey County’s strawberry belt who
Bioplastics aren’t necessarily better. Some of them bio- was experimenting with burlap. We’re now trying out
degrade, but only under special circumstances—not in burlap to preserve the moisture around slow-germinat-
your compost heap, garden soil, or the ocean. Some of ing carrots, following the advice of Paul and Elizabeth
them don’t. Recycling, in the meantime, is in something Kaiser at Singing Frogs Farm... {continued at bit.ly/
of a crisis. From an environmental perspective, we have WordofMouthFarmingWithoutPlastic}
10 Ecology Action’s Garden Companionmovement. It is also a guide for those who wish to start
Book Review: Seed Libraries a seed bank or seed library of their own.
and other means of keeping seeds in the hands
The information in this book is well organized, well pre-
of the people
sented and inspiring. Cindy comes at the topic from her
By Cindy Connor, Review by Matt Drewno own personal experience in a way that is very relevant
S
to seed-saving as a part of GB (she has been certified as
eed saving is a GROW BIOINTENSIVE teacher and is an experienced
a critical com- seed saver in her own right). I found this passage in her
ponent of our book to sum up her optimism:
local food system,
but how many com- “Some people think that the systems in our society are
munities can say breaking down. I guess that’s one way to look at it. In
they supply even a reality, systems need to change to stay relevant to the
small amount of the conditions at hand. It takes a special person to venture
seed that becomes out of the norm and be the catalyst of a change that
the food on their ta- needs to happen. Thank you to all the pioneering souls
bles? Not long ago, who have already ventured into the realm of putting
the food we ate came seeds back in the hands of the people. Also, thank you to
from the seeds we those just beginning the adventure—the readers of this
grew, and saved. In book—together we will make a difference.”
today’s world of con- A word of caution: having enjoyed the company of
sumerism and local many engaged in this wonderful movement, I have to
foodies, most of the warn you, the seed librarians around the country are a
food varieties we eat warm and welcoming bunch. But I believe they are up
are now hybrids— to something… something big. Not only do they make
seeds which are produced and sold by companies with good friends, but they are always plotting their next seed
profit in mind, and not always considerate of nutrition swap. And if you get invited to one of their potlucks, be
and the health of our soil or communities. ready: not only are they brilliant gardeners, community
For some, seed saving is a revolutionary act. For oth- organizers, and seed savers, they are wonderful cooks
ers, its just fun and exciting. The majority of the variety too! ●
that we have remaining (we have lost over 90% of our
food varieties in the last 150 years) we owe to the small
grower and backyard gardener. It’s the small grower
and backyard gardener who have placed quality over
everything else, and had the skill and love to work with
these plants to bring about new varieties in the endless
cooperative and nurturing relationship we find in the
garden.
Cindy Conner’s book Seed Libraries and Other Means
of Keeping Seeds in the Hands of the People (New So-
ciety Publishers, 2014) is a marvelous accounting of the
blossoming movement of seed savers growing around
the country. Today, in libraries and gardens across the
US and in other countries, people are sharing seeds, in-
formation, and the love of gardening. And its free! Many
of our libraries now have seeds which you can check out
like books, in the hope that you also return some of the
seed you save to keep the abundance flowing. This book
is an inspiring and detailed account of the seed library
movement. It provides tips for saving your own seed
and resources to help connect you to the seed saving
summer 2021 11212, and our FAQ on the topic at growbiointensive.org/
Sweet Potatoes! FAQ/FAQ_Mini-Greenhouses.html) A plus for 6- to
From GROW THE EARTH ( johnjeavons.org) 8-month maturing varieties is the fact that you can har-
vest up to 20% of the nutrient-rich leaves (known as
S
weet Potatoes (Ipomoea batatas) are starchy talbos ng camote or kamote tops in Spanish-speaking
root vegetables originating from Central or South countries) for eating in the second month without less-
America. ening the ultimate yield. Excitingly, Sand Hill Preser-
vation Center (sandhillpreservation.com/sweet-potato)
Not to be confused with starchier and drier yams (Dio- in Iowa, carries 225 sweet potato varieties, (including
scorea) from Africa and Asia, sweet potatoes have a Korean Purple), including eight certified organic sweet
long shelf life and are usually sweeter and moister than potato varieties that mature in only three months—
regular white potatoes (Solanum tuberosum). In addi- and they come in many colors! Another supplier of OG
tion to being delicious, they are a very important crop sweet potato slips: southernexposure.com/categories/
in diet planning, because of the number of calories they sweet-potatoes
contain per pound, and for overall sustainable garden-
ing and farming! A good article on the purple sweet potato can be found
in the spring 2018 issue of Heirloom Gardener maga-
Globally, people get many calories through growing and zine. Another key resource for short growing season
eating both “Irish” potatoes and sweet potatoes as sta- growing is Sweet Potatoes for the Home Garden—with
ple crops. Sweet potatoes are the most practical calorie Special Techniques for Northern Growers, by Ken Al-
producing root crop by weight (see HTGMV 9th ed., p. lan (available only from mapplefarm.com).
40 for more details). Garlic is more weight-efficient, but
one can generally eat only 2 to 3 cloves daily, while 5 Humans aren’t the only ones who love these delicious
pounds of sweet potatoes—an amount that can reason- tubers: amazingly, gophers know three days before the
ably be consumed by an adult human—can provide all optimal harvesting point that it is time to eat! To elim-
the required calories to sustain a person for a day. Of inate or minimize this challenge, you can build under-
course, you will need to eat other crops to get the essen- ground protection with a gopher cage (see “New Gopher
tial amino acids, vitamins and minerals you need, but Cage” article and illustrative photos on pp. 2-3 in the
if you start with sweet potatoes as the base of your food May, 2007 Ecology Action Newsletter growbiointen-
pyramid, you’ll be on solid ground. (Also, using other sive.org/PDF/May07EANL_GopherCages.pdf).
crops for the missing nutrients noted above will allow For a Biointensive garden, sweet potato starts and slips
you to reduce the weight of sweet potatoes you need to should be planted on 9-inch offset centers, 6 inch-
eat. This is because those other crops also contain cal- es deep. For full sweet potato planning information
ories.) see the Master Charts in HTGMV 9th ed., pp. 150-151.
Sweet potatoes come in many colors—white, yellow, red Hungry? Get planting! Bon Appétit! ●
and even purple. Purple ones are an ancient superfood
and turn a beautiful bright violet color when cooked!
They are high in anthocyanins, the antioxidant com-
pounds that have been linked with a reduced cancer risk.
The Stokes Purple variety is available from friedas.com/
stokes-purple-sweet-po-
tato, and the Hawaiian
Purple variety is available
at hawaiiveggiefarm.com.
Check out this Pinterest
board on purple sweet
potatoes! bit.ly/2IWc440
Most sweet potato vari-
eties take 6-8 months to
mature. This makes it difficult to grow in many tem-
perate climates, unless you do it under a double-walled Samuel Nderitu, Co-Director of our African partner G-BIACK pres-
ents an excellent informational and how-to video about saving the
miniature greenhouse (see HTGMV 9th ed., pp. 205- "lost seeds of Africa" at youtube.com/watch?v=wSu-BDYoh5A
12 Ecology Action’s Garden CompanionSoil Science Spotlight: very temporary to almost permanent, depending on the
molecules and the conditions. Less permanent bonds
N, P, S, and Soil Microorganisms allow nutrients to become bound and unbound, and in
By John Beeby (growyoursoil.org) their unbound state they are available to crops. How-
Ecology Action Soil Fertility Advisor ever, it is not just crops that seek these nutrients – soil
microbes do as well. When a soil microorganism takes
Understanding soil testing and the correct use of or-
up a nutrient, it utilizes that nutrient temporarily and
ganic soil amendments is an important part of GB.
then excretes it as waste, or incorporates it into their
John Beeby and Ecology Action created the “Soil Sci-
body, releasing it only when the organism dies and de-
ence Spotlight” to introduce the topic to the GB com-
composes. This process of releasing a nutrient is called
munity. This is an excerpt of fourth post in that se-
mobilization.
ries. Read the full article (and the full series online at
growbiointensive.org/SoilScienceSpotlight. Phosphorus: Because it is so inclined to bond with
other positive molecules, there is generally not a lot of
M
obilization: You test your soil to make sure free phosphorus available in the soil at any given time:
that it has enough nutrients available to your most of the available phosphorus is in the bodies of soil
plants for them to thrive. The lab provides microorganisms. If the soil is warm and moist all year
you test results and may even include recommenda- round, the soil microbes are living and dying and there
tions for adding nutrients to your soil. You make all the is a fair amount of available phosphorus due to the con-
calculations needed to follow the recommendation only tinual turnover. If the soil is warm and moist and then
to find that your corn leaves are purple, indicating a lack suddenly gets much colder and/or drier, much of the
of phosphorus. Why? phosphorus will not be available to crops until the mi-
crobe bodies containing it are decomposed (which hap-
The simple answer is: recommendations provided di-
pens at a slower rate in cold and/or dry soils). If the soil
rectly from soil testing laboratories tend to lack depth.
is generally not conducive to healthy microbial activity
Determining whether your soil can provide sufficient
(too cold, too hot, too dry, too wet, and/or too compact-
available nutrients to your crop requires soil testing,
ed and lacking air), much less of the soil’s phosphorus
but also requires additional in-depth analysis. Nutrient
will be unavailable compared to the amount shown in
availability cannot be gauged with 100% accuracy by a
the soil test results, and most of the phosphorus that
soil test taken at one moment in time. For nutrients to
should have been available through mobilization will
be available to your crops, they need to be in the form
be bound to positively charged molecules and unusable
of a positively or negatively charged molecule, and the
by plants. Thus, phosphorus availability is largely con-
availability of correctly charged molecules of vital nutri-
trolled by soil microbial activity and turnover. Those
ents can vary, depending on the current conditions in
purple streaks in your corn leaves? Probably due to the
the soil. For example, phosphorus is taken up by plants
soil being too cold, too hot, too dry, too wet, or too com-
as a molecule called orthophosphate, which has a charge
pacted. A soil test may show that phosphorus is there
of either -1 or -2, meaning it has 1 or 2 extra electrons
in the soil, but if you still get signs of deficiency, it’s not
that will combine with a positively charged molecule if
available in a charged state that plants can take up.
it encounters one in the soil. Phosphorus also can exist
Phosphorus availability can also be hindered by soil pH.
in the soil as phosphate, which has a charge of -3 and
When the soil pH is outside of the range of 6.5 to 7.5,
also very readily combines with positively charged mol-
phosphorus is inclined to bind to other soil minerals
ecules, particularly calcium (Ca2+) in alkaline soils and
(iron, aluminum and calcium) and become unavailable
iron (Fe3+), aluminum (Al3+) and manganese (Mn2+)
to crops. Adding a pH adjuster like lime or elemental
in acidic soils. The thing is, if a negatively charged nu-
sulfur can help overcome this, and encouraging my-
trient interacts with a positively charged molecule, it
corrhizal associations also help crops take up available
becomes unavailable to the plant and stays bound up in
phosphorus in the soil. if phosphorus is deficient in the
the soil. So, if plants need to take up charged molecules,
soil, adding rock phosphate or more readily available
and charged molecules want to combine with oppositely
fish meal are options.
charged molecules they encounter in the soil and there-
fore become unavailable to plants, how are plants able Nitrogen and Sulfur: Nitrogen and sulfur availability
to find any charged, available molecules? to plants is similarly controlled by microbial activity and
turnover, but for opposite reasons. Where soil microbes
When a charged molecule combines with another mole-
help to keep phosphorus from being bound in the soil ...
cule of opposite charge, the bond can range from being {...continued at growbiointensive.org/SoilScienceSpotlight}
summer 2021 13From the Garden to Your Table
ECOPOL: Article on GB Prison
Garden in "La Jornada" Urban agriculture is an activity that during recent de-
cades has been more and more present in multiple
By ECOPOL Director Juan Manuel Martínez places, from gardens and terrace roofs to schools play-
ECOPOL Director Juan Manuel Martínez sent us the grounds and institutions. The art of producing your own
following letter and translation of a thoughtful and food can come with original ways to add fresh food to
inspiring article from a prominent Mexican journal your diet. An example of that is the therapeutic gar-
about the GROW BIOINTENSIVE method being used in a dening project implemented by the University of Gua-
prison garden program. You can access the entire sup- dalajara in the Centro Integral de Justicia Regional de
plement in Spanish at bit.ly/ECOPOLLaJornada. Ciudad Guzmán, Jalisco. This activity, under my super-
O
vision, is an extension university project that started in
n May 9th, 2021, La Jornada—a Mexican news- November of the year 2017.
paper distributed nationwide—published a
supplement with several articles about organic Inside the penitentiary, our intervention takes place in
agriculture and local markets that consume their prod- the “Therapeutic Community”, a program inside the
ucts. The article on page 5 called “From the Garden to prison that focuses on the rehabilitation of the inmates
Your Table” by psychologist Helen Juárez talks about who are trying to stop using drugs. Since our interven-
the garden located in the prison facilities of Ciudad Guz- tion started, we redesigned the areas that had the poten-
mán, Jalisco in which the prisoners are growing vegeta- tial to produce in order to replace the system in which
bles with the Biointensive Method. The article also talks you sow in (rows), with beds to use the Biointensive
about the impact the garden has on their diet and their Method. The efficiency of this method has made it possi-
spirit. I taught ble to market the vegetable surplus and even to produce
three workshops seeds. The money that comes from the sale of vegetables
there in 2019, and and seeds is used to meet the needs of the prisoners.
during the last The generous production of vegetables has had a posi-
workshop one of tive impact on the people that have participated in this
the participants activity because now they eat more fresh food.
said something Arugula, kale, and mizuna are some of the crops that
that impressed are here to stay. None of these plants were known, and
me profound- for some their flavor, even when it was new, was also
ly: “When I work pleasant. Little by little these new crops conquered the
in the garden, I palate of both the prisoners and the staff in charge of the
do not feel like a area. Proof of this is that some of these crops have been
prisoner”. In the incorporated harmoniously into some of the recipes
translation of the that three people have shared with us. These people are
article, we omitted currently participating in the "Therapeutic Community"
some of the recipes program. To share this information, I have asked the
the prisoners use authors for their authorization. For confidentiality rea-
to eat the garden’s sons and with the purpose of safeguarding their identi-
products (you can ties, I have changed their names.
read them online). The article on page 6 talks about lo-
cal markets—organized by the University of San Luis José describes in detail how he prepares his purple cauli-
Potosí where I also taught some workshops—that sell flower ceviche (raw fish marinated in lemon juice). First,
organic products; some of the products sold there are he places particular emphasis on the cooking point: “it
part Biointensive. has to be something in between, neither raw nor very
cooked”. Once you have the right cooking point, you
Note: The laws and regulations of those establishments chop the cauliflower and marinate it with lemon, salt,
forbid the introduction of cameras or mobile phones, Maggi™ sauce, and pepper. Then you chop the onion,
that is why we do not have pictures. To date the main tomatoes, green chili, coriander, and the carrots. Once
garden has more than 40 beds and there are 12 prison- all the ingredients are ready, you mix them and ready.
ers who want to become certified teachers. This process José told us that when he prepared this recipe, most of
was interrupted because of the pandemic and we will the ingredients were taken from the garden. When we
resume activities when it is over.
14 Ecology Action’s Garden CompanionYou can also read
