Sustainable Food Production at GOE: Prepping the Gardens for Planting
Sustainable food production is a key feature of life at the Garden of Eden.
We employ a variety of practices to honor the environment, increase efficiency, and raise healthy plants. A key element of permaculture is foresight, and preparing the land from one season to the next.
In this video, @quinneaker shares one way we prep our gardens for planting. Weeds in Texas can get pretty fierce, so we lay giant tarps over our planting plots at the end of the harvest season. They stay there through the end of fall and winter, starving unwanted plants from the sunlight they use for fuel.
It is easier, cheaper, and safer than alternatives like fire clearing or tilling the soil. Come planting season, we roll up the tarps, turn over the soil, and are practically ready to put in our new crops!
Check out the video for more info on how we use tarps to prep our gardens for the next season.
In this video, Quinn wears a custom painted pink GOE cap and handmade jewelry from his Medicinal Jewelry line.
My video is at DLive
I ask this because I often struggle with this in regard to the materials that are commonly available for utilizing in my Permaculture Project! I also struggle with the idea of Hexavalent Chromium and other metals leaching into the soil from chicken fencing! The vinyl fencing has toxins in the plastic as well... And we have to have some form of fencing so we are working to find non toxic solutions to these issues as well.
I have used plastic tarps for short term purposes like frost covers to prevent freezing of unharvested crops at the end of the season, but I was not thrilled with the idea of it. I just wondered if you have thought of it and what your ideas are on the subject. I assume it is just a rock and a hard place kind of decision you've had to make?
I do know there have been very limited studies conducted that look into whether or not plants actually uptake these chemicals into the fruit and other edible parts of the plant. There isn't much work done on it as far as I know. The results seemed to be that a lot of fruit trees don't uptake high amounts of industrial type toxins and many don't transfer it into the actual fruit when it is present in the soil. It seems to be unclear what hapens with other plants as far as I can find.
It's interesting to learn of how you are doing things in your climate which differs a lot from the NE US! Thank you for sharing!
One other question... is the man in this video the same guy who ate the blueberries in the Dlive video with a LOT of enthusiasm??? If so, that might have been one of my favorite videos ever! LOL Just sayin'!
Hahaha, yes that's @quinneaker - he founded the Garden of Eden almost a decade ago because nothing inspired him in this world. So he made up something better and opens his home to share it with others.
It's true we live in an increasingly toxic world, but we don't worry about chemicals from tarps. We use discarded monster truck tires for raised beds, and we don't worry about chemicals from them either. Sustainability is extremely important to us, and part of that is making use of the resources we have on hand in abundance.
Our plants and crops are still the most delicious, nutritious, highest vibe we can find, and the people we feed agree. We don't need scientific studies to corroborate our experience.
Ok I gotcha on the tarps and so forth. I wanted to know how you all felt because it can drive me nuts a little.. a lot, like @krystalt has suggested in her comment! I cannot stand pollution and when humans change the chemical structure of things it just does not jive with the natural energies for me. But I totally get what your approach is and why! I have had a lot of issues in the past with my health because my immune system rejects just about anything that is not natural and it took me ages to figure out what the issue was because I was public school brainwashed (with the food/health issues) and just didn't know that it was from toxins (vaccines). The doctors were zero help and just gave me meds for things I didn't have.
So I just hate (don't use the word for just anything but this issue disgusts me!) to see nature having to process out the filth and waste being created, but it does concern me to use it with my food sources... that said, I have used both new and recycled things in the garden that were not up to my ideal standards because it was practical to do so for the reasons you have stated above. I just wish things could be made without all of the toxins in them in the first place!
My daughter dragged a tire out for the chickens to use as a dirt bath... (they didn't even use it! lol) and I was thinking I didn't know if it would leach, but I did leave it there. :) Going to have to use it for something different this year!
I also get the alchemy side of things as @everlove has mentioned in her comment! So I do try not to worry too much, but I also don't want to add more to the soil than is already coming down into it.
(The forests here are having a difficult time handling all of the various assaults on them, and they are wild forests! There have been a lot of big trees which have died at an alarming rate and I am very sensitive to it. They (the trees) tell me it's ok but I look at it and it horrifies me because I know it does not need to be this way. So I try to think/feel/be us into a reality where the baddies don't exist and the forests are well.
With the chicken fence, and I had to buy it because I only had so many dog kennels from when we used to have a lot of dogs, and I've never had chickens and horse fence won't keep them from the road. We let them free range when we can pay attention. That's our entertainment because not much else inspired me! ;) Nature is about all I've got left that does! That and making designs and motion graphics relating to my awareness of our relationships to reality. Lol.
Also, I do love science, and take note of studies, keeping in mind the funding sources... mostly out of curiosity--- BUT I also know human science is well... way far behind where my mind has been all of my life. So I don't feel I need studies, in fact most are nonsese and propaganda, but some I've found helpful. Even the legitimate studies are only man's attempt to comprehend the world around us. They haven't a clue and I can clearly see that... The rest are based on lies from the very beginning and I'm well aware of the program.
Another long one, sigh didn't mean to make it so long! But I would definitely eat the food you are growing! I was thinking of looking into getting some of that deliscious looking stuff from your UberDank (SP?) Pantry one of these days because my daughter loves that sort of thing and so do it! I was just thinking long term and overall! I know vibes do play a huge role in how things are recieved! Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts!
I remember reading that the giant sequoia tree that you could drive through had toppled in a storm, and I was so sad--I had wanted to visit that tree since seeing it in a picture book as a very small child, and I never got to.
Similar feelings of mourning about the Great Barrier Reef.....Why? How?
But really, I like to think that the Earth herself has a broader timeline than inidividual trees or even forests or coral reefs. The things we mourn are on the one hand, so precious and scarce and SO worth fighting for....but on the other hand, we are all just cosmic ephemera.
So maybe the best we can really do is work on our feelings of attachment, and recognize that things are only as painful as we allow them to be.
We can either fixate on the pain and fear, or use those feelings as fuel to motivate us to do something, anything....
Even if our entire life's work is scarcely a drop in the bucket compared to what's necessary to "save the Earth"--that doesn't mean our actions are worthless.
I too feel the moan, the death and destruction of the trees and, the coral reef, and the polluted waters and......
The Earth is way more powerful than we are, and even though the human race is incredibly destructive and we are killing her with our dishonorable actions, I feel she will outlast us. I feel we are making Earth uninhabitable for humans, but when we destroy ourselves - she will thrive again. It's death and rebirth, purging of that which no longer serves. We are in actuality the creators of our own demise, and most people unaware, uncaring and/or in denial. Doing our part by taking action and sharing awareness is in our highest good.
I don't really care much about science. I feel it is man's construct to try and understand and justify things. Many people get caught up in the thinking that if it isn't proven by science, it can't be true. When in fact, many things are true rather man has figured out how to prove it or not, and is way beyond our ability to understand with the limited perspectives from which we operate.
One of @quinneaker's profound quotes is "It's all energy and it's all in alignment"!! So we are in alignment with death and destruction, with poison, sickness and fear, or we are in alignment with life and rejuvenation, health, hope and well-being. We get to choose regardless of the circumstance, as alchemizing the energy for benefit is well within our realms of possibility if we are open to embrace it.
@quinneaker has proven over and over this incredible potential. I witness it everyday and am so grateful for the insight and ability to let go and help alchemize some of man's carelessness and even intentional rage.
I'm also grateful for the comments of both @erinn and @krystalt. The more of us that step into awareness, the more powerful we become.
I also feel there is energetic alchemy going on in the process. Alchemizing materials that were once destined to pollute the earth are now given purpose in creating food, becoming useful instead of wasteful. Our intentions and goodwill dictate our experience, so loving and utilizing the old instead of looking for new manufactured materials can change everything. No worries, just blessings!
Love you <3 Agreed.
It's too easy to get paralyzed and do nothing when you look at the world and can't help but see every problem, every chemical exposure, every imperfect system....
I am guilty of this myself and strive to not get caught in my own overthinking traps. Something is better than nothing--any action that gets us closer to eating food from our own land, even in small amounts...THAT is the payoff we're seeking for ourselves, our health, and the Earth as well.
I remember when really becoming aware of all of the horrible things in our environment, the air, food, soil, water....and wondering how in the world were we even able to live. It was almost paralyzing as you said. It felt so overwhelming with no way out.
We just have to begin ourselves now and do what we can. Great comment @krystalt. That is as it is!
One one knows what REAL food is, it's easy to spot an imitation! Intaking all these poisons and toxins clouds our hearts, minds and soul. It's difficult to follow one's soul purpose when we're too cloudy and muddled to even know what that is!
Grateful to connect with you and share perspective. The more we awaken, the more we can be of service to humanity.
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This is something that I have always admired of you and I have always liked with each publication, that each product made by you from Uber Dank Pantry and the meals, are made with ingredients planted and grown by yourselves there in the Garden of Eden, is something fantastic because apart from how they say it has its advantages in doing so, it is perfect because they work with fresh ingredients and the preparations are totally suitable for eating. An excellent video, we have been taught and shown a bit of how they prepare their garden for the next season. I congratulate you for your great work.
Thank you @alejo1996~
We produce far more than we can consume here on the land. Between our gardens, the wild food that we forage that grows native on and around our land, and donations from stores, we're able to provide tens of thousands of free meals a year!
Thanks for your support~
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Thank you
Plantation is always help for the humanity. Because plants are the lungs of the world. Good post. Thanks for sharing.
Yes without plants, we don't have enough oxygen!
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its really a very great project that you took,,,,,,,,gardening is so helpful for us,,,,,if we plant there,,vegetables,,flower,,,,,,,,,and many others helpful tree,,,,,that's your excellent idea........i appreciate your work.......carry on.. you will be success .......this project......
Keep on keeping on, used to live in Houston, learned square foot gardening from this ole guy named Fred Hanson. Been using parts of his practices since the 80's. Gardening is the best.What better way to teach children the process of life.