Living Roots in the Soil

 Carbon Cowboy Gabe Brown found he had to use the roots of cover crops to hold water in the soil and also to drain excessive rainwater downward.

A gardening or farming leader will often emphasize one particular concept and make that central to the plans made:

1. Beneficial insects
2. Adding organic matter to the soil to very large amounts
3. Companion plants
4. French intensive gardens and similar wide row gardening.

All of these work well and I try my hand at them. This year, when I was tempted to dig up all the wild roses, I remembered #5 from the Carbon Cowboys - keep living roots in the soil as long as possible.

 Buckwheat is a great cover crop, except when it rains and rains and rains. Then it is a shroud crop, covering entire rose bushes with luxuriant growth. Cutting them unleashes the seeds for a second crop of the same shrouding effect.

I did not really want to dig wild roses out of clay soil and there was no clamor to do so, not even from the small but influential altar guild. I remembered the Fifth Irrefutable Truth of Gardening - living roots improve the soil with stupendous growth and pathways for microbes and worms. 

I could cite the astronomical figures for total root hairs or the length of fungus connecting plants in the soil. However, big numbers are so gigantic that they stop meaning something. That has to be reduced to - Living Roots - Good!

My solution for a big, mysterious and fast-growing plant where it was not invited: try to identify it, then lop it off at ground level. Poke Weeds are not a mystery and they can grow 7 feet in the garden, so I let them grow a little in the rose garden and chop them off at the base. They will grow more but not dwarf the roses the way the Buckwheat did in the summer of endless rain.

Face-saving conclusion about the Buckwheat - the plants engulfed the roses twice, but the roots were great for the soil. 

Lots of rain means lawn duties tomorrow, so I will lop all the big plants that need lopping - most wild roses, Poke, and mystery plants. The roots will continue to improve the soil.

Hold the presses! Here is another double-blessing from the Carbon Cowboys. Deep roots are not only 

• Humus producers, but 
• Drought stoppers and 
• Flood quenchers. 

Deep roots take rainwater deep into the soil and keep it there to refresh all life. The nature of Creation is to thrive on water and therefore to serve as water and fertilizer units. 

The test for this is simple and startling. Take a large bucket of water and pour it on a deeply rooted plant, whether a bush or sunflower or Poke Weed. The water disappears as if poured through a grating over the storm sewer. The plant does not move b because it is deeply rooted. 

In contrast, the tiniest amount of water on a young plant will flatten it and threaten to wash it away. But that also applies to those deluges of rain that we have had the last two summers and again this year. Rain tends to wash topsoil away, as people can see from the rich growth of weeds on their front sidewalks. Deep roots are just as much a solution for drought as they are for standing water and gully-washer rains.

One might think this was all planned in advanced and engineered to perfection. Like Jesus, the Lord of Creation, the Biblical authors move effortlessly from the Creation to faith in the Savior. 

Ephesians 3: 16 That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; 

17 That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

18 May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

19 And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

 Norma Boeckler's Christian Art

 Norma Boeckler's Christian Art Books

Stop the Flooding with Cover Crops. Stop the Droughts with Cover Crops

 Pocahontas, 2011. Floods are getting worse, for a reason.

Starting in the upper Midwest, the solution for excess snowmelt and rain has been drainage tile for the fields and levies for the towns. That is the reason for increasing floods from the same amount of rain.

Perhaps we cannot end all flooding, but we can certainly stop making them worse. The best soil is also washed away from flooding, so the waste and damage easily adds up to billions of dollars.

Cover crops that follow or precede cash crops not only eliminate drought, but also decrease run-off. When the soil is deadened from excess plowing and the use of toxins, the snowmelt and rain do not penetrate deeply.

Note that at 1 hour Gabe shows his water infiltration rate, which is very rapid, 
due to cover crops and no plowing.

This video is worth careful study, because it goes against all the 

"modern methods" that destroy the soil.

If anyone wants confirmation of this, look at the sidewalk in front of the house. Rain runs off the lawn and deposits the best, finest soil particles on the sidewalk, where weeds take root and grow. When yards have bare spots, the sidewalk soil is deeper and the weeds even more robust.

Cover crops push deep into the sub-soil and let water penetrate, which forestalls drought and flooding. The rain should be saved in the soil, not drained downstream floods.

Some will object and say, "But I cover the soil with thick, green grass. That is my cover crop at home." But those gardeners - more or less lawners - tend to pull or kill every Dandelion and Dutch White Clover plant, not to mention those wildflowers often loathed for interrupting the monotony of thick, green grass.

Those who use chemical fertilizers to add green-grass-producing nitrogen must water their grass even more, which is a double waste. Here is the joke - clover is one of the best providers of usable nitrogen while attracting and harboring beneficial insects. People kill the source of free nitrogen and wonderful beneficial bugs so they can pay for nitrogen and insecticides.

So what I am expanding is this - cover cropping the mulch. All my gardens are mulched, either with shredded cyprus or pine needles. I can grow low-growing Buckwheat among the roses, in the bird feeding area, and the Hosta garden.

Cover crops stop flooding and drought by keeping water in the soil, in the plants, where it belongs. That is God's Creation versus man's so-called ingenuity.

Flooding in Arkansas 2015.

Man-Made Fertilizer Destroys the Soil - Creation Methods Will Build It Up Again. Parallels to the Means of Grace versus Circus Clown Ministries?

Gabe and Paul Brown have a Facebook page
and a website - Brown's Ranch.

Gabe Brown and his son Paul:

Our ranch is located just east of Bismarck, ND.  Shelly and I purchased the ranch from Shelly’s parents in 1991 and have grown the operation to 5000 acres of owned and leased land.  Son, Paul, returned to the ranch after graduation from North Dakota State University and became a partner in the operation.  Daughter, Kelly, lives and works in Fargo, ND and returns home to help whenever possible.

We believe in and practice Holistic Management, a part of which is farming and ranching in nature’s image. We strive to solve problems in a natural and sustainable way.  Improving soil health is a priority and no-till farming has been practiced since 1993.  A diverse cropping strategy, which includes cover and companion crops are used.  We have now elimnated the use of synthetic fertilizers, fungicides, and pesticides. We use minimal herbicide and are striving to eliminate it.  We do not use GMOs or glyphosate.  Our ever evolving grazing strategy allows most of our pastures a recovery period of over 360 days.  These strategies have allowed the health of the soil, the mineral and water cycles to greatly improve.  In other words, the natural resources have benefited.  This results in increased production, profit and a higher quality of life for us.  We are moving towards sustainability for not only ours but future generations as well.

These Borage flowers are used in salads.
Also called Bee Bread, this plant increases the total number
of beneficial insects in the area.

Yesterday I talked with someone about fertilizer versus soil amendments. Rosarians seldom - if ever - use man-made chemical fertilizers, because these manufactured powders hurt the soil and pollute the water table. 

Many soil amendments can be bought at gardening centers:

• Mushroom compost
• Peat Humus
• Composted Manures
• Peat Moss
• Top Soil (not quite my version, but OK to use)
• Wood mulches (but avoid the dyed ones)

These products will become part of the soil over time and enhance the growth of soil creatures. 

 Earthworms sweeten, tunnel, mix,
and add nutrition to the soil.
Agricultural chemicals repel and kill them.

Natural mulches, placed around plants, include:

1. Newspapers and cardboard
2. Grasses (though prone to re-establish their reign over soil)
3. Leaves
4. Pine needles
5. Pulled, broadleaf weeds 
6. Compost from the home-made compost pile 

I consider mulching to be composting on the spot, since compost is a mixture of soil, organic material, and soil creatures that come up from the soil to reduce the pile to the finest amendment of all - rich, earthwormy, compost. If you need a hobby and strenuous exercise, I highly recommend composting. I decided to compost on the spot, simply by covering lawn with cardboard and shredded wood mulch (or pine needles).

This is where one can compare God's Creation methods and man's destructive whims. The Creation soil amendments do not need to be taken to a lab and measured. They become part of the soil and improve fertility, increasing production by providing an ideal environment for the soil creatures.

Man's destructive whims:

1. Kill most of insects and the spiders, when less than 1% of insects are pests. Beneficial insects do a better job of handling the pests.
2. Reduce the organic portion of soil, which is essential for its health.
3. Destroy soil through soil and wind erosion.
4. Pollute the water table with pesticides, herbicides, and chemical fertilizers.
5. Sicken animals with various forms of toxins and rob them of the healthy nutrition of soil free of toxins.

Yale's main campus, featuring Harkness Tower,
Yale Law and Sterling Library in the background.

From Yale - 

Why It’s Time to Stop Punishing Our Soils with Fertilizers

Researcher Rick Haney travels the U.S. preaching the benefits of healthy soils. In a Yale Environment 360 interview, he talks about the folly of pursuing ever-greater crop yields using fertilizers and other chemicals and how farmland can by restored through natural methods.

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Results of toxin-free gardening -

 Bride's Dream is the largest rose

California Dreamin'

Calladiums in the shady mulch

Crepe Myrtle sheltering a family of Cardinals

Orange Easy-Does-It roses

Fragrant red Veteran's Honor roses,
contrasted with Pope John Paul II white roses.

We Saw an M.D. Who Began Talking about Creation Through the Word. I Offered To Give Him a Creation Gardening Book

 Creation Gardening is an easy book to give away.
The author's price (write to me) is only $5 plus shipping.

Mrs. Ichabod had a doctor's visit, and we began talking with him about various things at the end. He mentioned going to seminary and then talked about God's Creation through the Word. I said, "I teach that." He asked, "You do and in...?" I finished, "Yes, six days - through the Word."

He was a bit startled about the idea of a Creation Garden, which made him smile. The next visit will mean roses and a book or two. I enjoy telling people that the flawless roses were grown without sprays and chemical fertilizer, which hails back to "If you do not believe the Word, at least believe because of the signs (miracles)" in John.

Diabetic Shock
Our son sees the same diabetic specialist that Mrs. Ichabod visits. She just received her copy of Creation Gardening before she saw him. LI said, "She was still disturbed by your roses when I saw her." By the way, she really adores roses, which we give her, so this news was intriguing.

Gabe Brown, Regenerative Farmer
Someone directed me to a video, which I will place at the bottom of this post. The initial video led me to a series created by Gabe Brown, regenerative farmer from North Dakota.

Those who are interested in this might want to investigate the theories of the soil-food-web, another general term for these practice.

Agricultural videos bring out the inner farmer in me, since both my grandfathers owned farms until the Great Depression.

Four Disastrous Years Taught Brown
My brief description - Gabe Brown began on a huge farm which he was buying from his in-laws. However, they had four years in a row which were a total wipe-out of the crops, due to natural disasters like drought and hail. They had no cash. He planted each year but had nothing to harvest, so the soil noticeably improved because the soil absorbed the destroyed crops.

Farmer Brown learned that he needed to focus on the health of the soil to have good crops and preserve his greatest asset - the land.

Chemical and plowing practices (tillage on the tape) have the following bad effects:

1. Plowing creates a hardpan that the roots cannot break through. Bigger, deeper plows push the hardpan layer down but do not solve the problem.
2. Plowing also reduces the carbon in the soil, which diminishes what the soil can do.
3. Chemical fertilizers do not reduce these problems, but make them worse.
4. Rainwater, which is often sparse, runs off and causes soil erosion, when the soil surface is hard and non-porous.

Did an earthworm take this photo of Gabe Brown
and his son Paul?

Brown's main emphasis is upon diverse cover crops, which keep most weeds down, soften the soil, and attract beneficial insects that devour the pests. Animal life of all types also eat weed seeds at a prodigious rate.

I had similar problems. I began gardening in shock - I could afford the chemicals. I had the almost-infinite resources of the Grace Dow library in Midland, so I read every gardening book (adult and juvenile sections) I could find. The juvenile books were often the best ones.

I softened clay by placing wheelbarrows of finished compost on top of it. The soil creatures did the plowing, mixing, and tunneling. Once the soil had digested the organic matter I used, the gardens were always productive. I did not want to spray what we ate, and I had no need for chemical enhancements.

I also created fast compost by putting sod clumps together in a hole I dug for a parsley garden. The soil became jelly-like from all the humus digested in it.

Scarlet Bee Balm is rampant,
but this purple Monarda is clumping.

Brown learned from an expert that he needed more than one plant in his cover-crops - he needed a mix of six. This diversity is what I am practicing in the gardens, because I reasoned, "The plants with another agenda can grow next to and among the roses, providing a good rest and feeding station for the beneficial insects." -

• Dandelions - a dandy and attractive herb.
• Horse, Mountain, and Cat Mints - well-behaved and clumping.
• Wild Strawberries, low-growing and planted by the birds.
• Clover.
• Buckwheat and other plants can be bee-friendly and squeeze out weeds, without becoming a bother.

I pull out future nut and maple trees, but the list above are never-pulls. Big obnoxious weeds can be dug out in some cases and given cardboard-mulch shade in others.

Brown's overall emphasis in his videos -

1. The soil must be built up, not abused until dead.
2. Repeated plowing is bad for every aspect of the soil. Organic growing is no good if someone plows that soil all the time. He does not plow at all now.
3. God mulches (did Brown steal that from me, or did we both steal it from Creation?) He calls cover crops/mulches "the armor of the soil."
4. Soil is an ocean of life, below ground with too many creatures to name, above ground, with hundreds of beneficial creatures that live from it and benefit us.
5. Diversity of plant and animal life is natural, based on Creation, and this mix leverages all the outcomes of natural far beyond what we can imagine until we see it. Almost Eden and I see hawks resting and searching on our property - because we have so many creatures living from it.

All the children and Do-It-Yourself fanatics are learning that YouTube covers every topic. I have started to create videos for the classroom. Now I am going to create some for gardening. That will have to wait a bit until I get some other items finished.