07/15/2019
"The path I have followed, this natural way of farming, which strikes most people as strange, was first interpreted as a reaction against the advance and reckless development of science. But all I have been doing, farming out here in the country, is trying to show that humanity knows nothing. Because the world is moving with such furious energy in the opposite direction, it may appear that I have fallen behind the times, but I firmly believe that the path I have been following is the most sensible one." - Masanobu Fukuoka
“What took millions of years of natural evolution to establish the basis of life on this planet only took a few hundred years for people to arrive at the brink of destroying it. NTG (No-Till Gardening) revealed to me the power & importance of something so simple as soil building. It doesn't appear to be much at first but the act of soil building is the act of providing for future life.
Nature had it right all along - there really is no better way. The process itself inherently lays the groundwork for the continuation of life. A season of growth, a winter of decomposition, come spring the death and decay of winter is the source of energy for new growth. That is what NTG is. No-till Gardening is soil building, regardless of the starting point or whether it is indoor or outdoor. The importance, the goal, is to leave behind every body of soil in a better condition than when you found it or created it - think of it as passing on to your children the power to grow their own food, a form of independence from a system that is broken and destined to fail.
What better way to build soil for tomorrow than to also grow in it today. Think of your newly made no-till containers as long term static worm bins. Think of the quality of inputs you put into creating this soil and think of all the inputs you will put into this soil over the next 1-3+ years. A plethora of enzymes from malted grains (truly the building blocks of soil), aloe vera, neem, kelp, the humates, the mountain of mulch the soil will consume and incorporate into itself (cannabis, straw, comfrey, nettles, etc etc). All the while worms are packaging it all up into perfect little life giving castings. Can you see how rich your soil can become after a couple years?
Lets say you have a 100gal smart pot and over 3 years you've completed 12 cycles. That soil is now a better quality of humus/compost and in some cases could be considered vermicompost in itself. You can take that 100gal of 3 year old soil and use it as your humus portion for a new soil mix and considering the quality you can use amendments at half the amount. So for the cost of pumice, peat moss and half the amendments you now have 300gal of soil. Or for example you can mix up just 33 gal of it for a soil mix just to fit back into that 100gal and you have 66gal of humus for whatever other reason. You see what I'm getting at here? Can you imagine if every household grew raised bed or container gardens in their yards in this manner? Through soil building we can heal the earth....” -M**O
