One thing we all tend to not look at, how the black plastic is...well, plastic. Endocrine disruptors, gradually adding up from plastic nipple baby bottle to the plastic pots many plant tomatoes in. Many folks use brown corrigated cardboard instead to cover earth, (no printing or tape). Nothing is perfect, but really, this outrage at the 'feminization' of men and boys might just have a tiny bit to do with how we have all been affected by endocrine disruptors in plastics. Call me Eeyore, I am used to it. Best
The black plastic is pretty inert, and holds up to UV. It is a lesser-evil in my best assessment.
It is really hard to sterilize the sol for a garden bed, and always incomplete. I compulsively piick lttle weeds when I see them, but there are human limits in everything.
I don't mean at all that this is the only way to do things, but I seek to present a way that will work for people who have not done this before.
Endocrine disruptors are a big deal in microwaved baby-bottles, canned foods, plastic cooking utensiles, shudder...
With all the exhortations to "get growing" in the alt health and truth communities, it is easy to get started in haste, as I did, and end up committing a critical, expensive, time and effort killing error.
*PLEASE* be extraordinarily careful about your soil source, whatever amendments you add, and here is why: AMINOPYRALIDS
I have seen things, like your link about biodynamic gardening, and I don't go by the lunar cycles, but I do work to build healthy and living soil. My Austin garden started with too much phosphorous on soil testing, so I use low-phosphorous composted (organic) cotton bur on it.
In Yoakum I can throw kitchen waste into the big bed that is the banana patch.
I can't compost "humanure" without a composting toilet, but some friends have lived that way with a garden and it worked out ok for them.
I met some bio-dynamic wine makers who followed to a rule the lunar cycles. They went from very organic conventional wine making to Bio-Dynamic. This was about ten years ago at an event.
Invasive food species have had a big place in human history, like taro in the Polynesian expansion. I have found sweet-potatoes, blackeyed peas (cowpeas, fieldpeas) and okra to be retty good at holding their own and even expaning their area when left to their own devices in an area that got plenty of water, and I pulled weeds sometimes.
One thing we all tend to not look at, how the black plastic is...well, plastic. Endocrine disruptors, gradually adding up from plastic nipple baby bottle to the plastic pots many plant tomatoes in. Many folks use brown corrigated cardboard instead to cover earth, (no printing or tape). Nothing is perfect, but really, this outrage at the 'feminization' of men and boys might just have a tiny bit to do with how we have all been affected by endocrine disruptors in plastics. Call me Eeyore, I am used to it. Best
The black plastic is pretty inert, and holds up to UV. It is a lesser-evil in my best assessment.
It is really hard to sterilize the sol for a garden bed, and always incomplete. I compulsively piick lttle weeds when I see them, but there are human limits in everything.
I don't mean at all that this is the only way to do things, but I seek to present a way that will work for people who have not done this before.
Endocrine disruptors are a big deal in microwaved baby-bottles, canned foods, plastic cooking utensiles, shudder...
All styles of gardens not using chemicals are better than what's out there now.
Most timely, topical, useful: https://www.naturalhealth365.com/urgent-news-growing-food-in-a-toxic-world.html
Thanks Dogsnose,
It's hard to completely know, but one might be able to know what happened on one's garden plot over the past 10-30 years.
*BLACK BOX WARNING* to new gardeners like myself!
With all the exhortations to "get growing" in the alt health and truth communities, it is easy to get started in haste, as I did, and end up committing a critical, expensive, time and effort killing error.
*PLEASE* be extraordinarily careful about your soil source, whatever amendments you add, and here is why: AMINOPYRALIDS
https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/charles-dowding-scott-head-discover-herbicide-contamination-hard-way/
https://www.thesurvivalgardener.com/another-garden-aminopyralid-strikes/
Having weaponized the air, food, water, soil is certainly also in the crosshairs of the psychopaths.
Yes, I have read that, and I do not want withered little vegetable seedlings!
Caveat Emptor in organic products.
Wonderful. What is your view of Bio-Dynamic gardening? https://www.homestead.org/gardening/the-basics-of-biodynamic-gardening/amp/
I have seen things, like your link about biodynamic gardening, and I don't go by the lunar cycles, but I do work to build healthy and living soil. My Austin garden started with too much phosphorous on soil testing, so I use low-phosphorous composted (organic) cotton bur on it.
In Yoakum I can throw kitchen waste into the big bed that is the banana patch.
I can't compost "humanure" without a composting toilet, but some friends have lived that way with a garden and it worked out ok for them.
One can hew towards a natural balance as a guide.
I met some bio-dynamic wine makers who followed to a rule the lunar cycles. They went from very organic conventional wine making to Bio-Dynamic. This was about ten years ago at an event.
I do a form of it replacing the signs with succession and learning what wants to grow with little or no help.
Invasive food species have had a big place in human history, like taro in the Polynesian expansion. I have found sweet-potatoes, blackeyed peas (cowpeas, fieldpeas) and okra to be retty good at holding their own and even expaning their area when left to their own devices in an area that got plenty of water, and I pulled weeds sometimes.