Organic Gardening Tips for Better Health!

HI U GOOD FOLKS DOIN,,,,,,,,, dug our potatoes today and normally we dig our potatoes on July 4 when the vines die. This year because of the rains they never died until a month later. Wow, have never raised potatoes this large.

What most folks don't know it that store bought potatoes are sprayed to prevent sprouting, thus, you eat the skin at your own risk. With ours we eat skin and all. The potatoes we save, we coat with lime to prevent rot and bugs. Common sense using natural products.

Even these natural potatoes have a limited life. You can't eat them when they sprout, but you can replant them and that is exactly what we do every year. We never buy new seed potatoes. We raise them. If this picture does not excite you, then you have never raised potatoes.

ATS ====ORH====

HI U GOOD FOLKS DOIN,,,,,,,,,,,,, SJS, as all know, but I came upon a radish that grows 2' long and will break up your hard pan and improve your garden. It is from Japan and called a Daikon radish and is the latest rage to improve your garden. I planted my entire fall garden in them. Folks know to use a subsoiler behind a tractor to do this, but why not let nature do it for you? Tomorrow I will plant them where I will plant my melons next spring. We are still eating watermelons after using worm castings this year under my plants. This trick should make our yield even better next year.

Most know that there is a clay hard pan below the topsoil that plant roots cannot penetrate. If you break up this hard pan then your plant roots can go deeper and live longer in drought times. I thought I would be smart at 65, then 75 and maybe will make that goal at 85. Anyways, I can use this knowledge in my next life, if I don't come back as a goat.

Our fall garden consists of lettuce, radish, onions, garlic, beets, kale, rudabeggers, purple top turnips, mustard greens and collards. All loaded with Vitamin K which takes calcium out of your blood and deposits it into your bones, where it should be. Your cardiologist tells you that it is cholesterol that plugs your blood vessels up. Shame on him. It is calcium in your blood that plugs you up.

Finishing up a 'nother 30 round of EDTA CHELATIONS to clean my vessels out. I have now done over 100 chelations in the last 14 years. And no, it is not covered by insurance. Too cheap and too effective. MD's want you coming back add infinitum, which means forever.

Yo Redneck buddy............. ====ORH====

Hi there!

A photograph for you at long last! (Won't do away with the proverbial 1,000 words though!! ). Others will illustrate bins to the right later on.

I thought I might take a leaf out of ORH's book and try to encourage others to take up gardening OR at least compost some of their green "waste" as opposed to sending it to the "dump" or landfill space which is a crime on several fronts. You know the drill there I imagine.

As a central component of gardening, it cannot be beaten.

To explain the photo: the lethal contraption on the left is a "Compost Tumbler" which is just a bigger version of the LOTTO gadget that will hopefully make you a millionaire one day!! Into it goes most of our kitchen scraps (minus the bits that shouldn't be composted- can't go into that here). Just don't wear a tie whilst you are spinning it the recommended four to six times per day. You should also include 50% dry / brown / carboniferous stuff to dry it out a bit and to make it aerobic rather than the dreaded anaerobic (which pongs ). I use ground-up twigs from my shredding machine, which I store for this purpose and for mulching. The rats haven't yet found a way in so far! One of my better decisions a few years ago this one. You alternate the use of the two compartments.

The large bins alongside are our garden waste bins and were quite expensive to buy and were a bit of a headache to install, what with chopping out the fronts, installing a sliding batten system and concreting in the four front posts as guides for the batten system. Never mind-done now. Non-treated timbers naturally!!

Because it is the rainy season / winter currently in N.Z, they have their roof on to stop them getting sopping wet and to keep them a tad warmer. (Old roofing materials).

There is no technical "layering" on these ones. Our volume of green waste is quite daunting - hence the need for several bins - some out of sight here.

You can set yourself up with a much smaller operation, naturally and a worm farm is a great option these days. Maybe more on that option later.

The philosophy is that we "Are what we Eat" and we like to grow a certain portion of our food in our garden for various reasons you will no doubt be familiar with. Also I have been trying to MAKE my own soil by composting on a grand scale and hopefully altering my unforgiving, clay soil to make it more suitable for growing vegetables, flowers and fruit trees. Hence the need for a large operation also.

By the way, you can see a tall hedge for shelter but the bins are no longer totally shaded, so they get pretty hot in the summer time during mid-day.

Cheers for now and happy composting folks.

Remember the age-old adage : "The Answer lies in the Soil".

Michael

HI U OLE PATOOTS DOIN, ORH here, and think my 15 year old footballer is a keeper. He is in honors math and is a kid that I can mold into a savvy man. He works with my tractor driver to get our plants transplanted. I dig the holes and he puts the volcanic ash and Epsom salts in the hole. Phyllis then puts the plants in. He dug out my worm bed today and put the castings along my raised bed plants. He could not believe how much you have to pay for worm castings when you can get them for free. When he digs out weeds then they go into a bucket and then to the worm bed. This way we don't lose the rich dirt and the worms turn the weeds into fertilizer.

Today he also learned why a specific elm tree is called Ironwood. The tree has the appearance of the arm of a muscled man. Since he lifts weights, he understood that. He is coming around and it makes me proud to be a part of his education. At my stage of life, I need him more than he needs me. It is a win-win situation.

====ORH====

HI U GOOD FOLKS DOIN,,,,,,,, might have messed up in my last post ......cause you can clean out your blood vessels with 30 treatments and that will cost you $3000 out of pocket. On the other hand, a 4 vessel bypass will cost someone about $200,000 and is just a temporary fix.

Let me tell you a secret. Go to your doctor and tell him you are having head pains and think your Carotid Arteries are the problem. Get the test done and that pluggage will tell you what is going on around your heart. If your test tells you are over 50% plugged in the neck then find you an Integrative Doctor that does EDTA Chelation and do 30 treatments and get retested. Otherwise, you are ripe for a heart attack.

What this tells you is that you are not eating right. So change that. That is the reason that a heart by-pass operation is only a temporary thing. If you don't change your eating, then you will go through this from now on. I eat best I can, but know that is not the whole picture, but Chelation is the for-giver. A heart by-pass is playing Russian roulette. You are pissen in the wind.

I have spent about 14 years going down this road and talked to some 200 people who had bypass after bypass until they found Chelation. Even then, you have to eat right or you back in deep DoDo.

I am a health preacher and have few converts. Most will only listen to their MD and that is the tragedy .

ATS ====ORH====

HI U OLE PATOOTS, ORH here, and have another tale for you. We garden, as all know, and to keep the raccoons out of our corn, we have to put up an electric fence. We have 3 ea 50' rows and have to put up protection least they eat us out home and property. All around us are commercial farmers raising thousands of acres of GMO corn and they have no problem with raccoons or deer. Now why do you suppose that happens? Yep, the Lord gave coons and deers more savvy than us. Would ask the site's smart folks to answer that question. Bet they can't.

====ORH====

Growing food science needs to have a highlight today. In the world today, if we just look at thistle, for example did you know that we can just eat it when we learn to prepare it properly? Chia plants can grow a couple of inches a day and there is no work involved other than throwing down some seeds and if they get 8 months you get seeds and when they drop into the ground they come back uo in the next year. But even if they don't have the time to go to seed you can eat the whole plant whenever you want really. Cut some off the top and put it in your salads. I have a dandelion that has given me about 20 salads. ITs an old dandelion and when I cut out the viens of the leaf it is not bitter. It is in really good soil though. You can buy dandelion for 4$ at the store but why even grow a garden of different lettuces when this so called weed just keeps offering itself. As our environment is changing and some want to eat bugs why don't we find what is outside our doors and learn to eat it.

Also there are so many ways to grow food that we all need to know so that food can be for free. Like electro culture, air ponics where most of the root is in the air and water trickles down, salt water is good for plants, Key whole gardens 6 feet round can produce up to 70 tomato plants, If we learned to grow what is called weeds or medicinal medicine in the soil that they already have then why learn to cultivate the land and instead just work with what grows there. We have so much to learn and we have to share it properly with out greed. Because look where we are now. It came due to hidden knowledge.

Let's share this and I am asking the Earth clinic to open a new page for it. Peace

We are a little late because we have been out of town, but I finally got plants put into my garden. I don't plant a ton, just enough to have fresh basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro and peppers for the summer.

My little guy came out to help me plant. Digging in the dirt is fun! Here is a picture of him planting a Tabasco pepper plant. If you can find a Tabasco pepper plant, I would encourage you to plant one. It is the most beautiful plant in the garden when the peppers come in. They are small and upturned and look like Christmas tree lights!

Then you make Pepper Sauce. Super easy. You just put the peppers into a jar and cover with white vinegar. In two weeks you have hot pepper sauce. Not too hot. You are basically making a tincture with vinegar instead of alcohol. And this is so pretty sitting on your table.

By the way Mmsg - my son says we don't have any wild oats growing near us here like we did when we lived in Kentucky!

And Robert Henry, what is the best way to keep down the weeds? I have heard of putting paper bags around the base of the plants to keep down weeds, but should I be concerned about chemicals in the paper? Thanks!

~Mama to Many~

HI U OLE PATOOTS, ORH here, and learned another garden trick this year. I have never used an inoculant with our beans seeds, but this year, I coated our lima beans prior to planting. Have raised them for some 50 plus years but today we picked a gallon from a 25' row and we are a week from our first frost. They always played out during August. Sad that I did not read more in my youth. Also gathered 2 bushels of Arkansas Black apples. This is a tart mountain apple and our favorite. We picked 4 gallons of muscadines. We are running out of canning jars. Two things I regret about not planting 30 years ago at our little 6 acre farm and that is pecan and maple syrup trees. East Tenn is unusual in that you can raise both. East Tenn has trees from the north and south. A more diverse forest than any section of the US. If you are less than 50, you have time to develop a survival farm for your old age. You must have water.......or forget it. I promise you there is a difference in what you raise and what is in the store. Think my gardening is the reason I am still above ground. My 3 best HS buddies were gone years ago....all from cancer. You are what you eat. None gardened.

===ORH===

HI U OLE PATOOTS DOIN, ORH here, and was on the net looking for walnuts. Found that they also sale most all the fruit and veggies that we raise. I knew that we had a good garden site, but did not know that we had a gold mine. I saw the price for dried cantaloupe and it blew my mind. We can't eat all we raise, but never knew that you can dry them. Got a call to a neighbor about his pecan trees. Will swap him apples for his pecans. It's hard living on the frontier because you have to make deals like this full time just to get by. Think good food is the way to good health. I's 84 and let's see how many more years I post. Then ya'll will know, but I won't. I think I's gonna mess with ya'll for many years, before I am silent. Keep that in mind. Gardening vs supplements. I do both. ====ORH====

MICHAEL,,,,,,,, you doin good boy. Did this in my youth when I had a good back. Now sorry and just throw all my debris into two worm beds and let them turn it into worm castings. You know we all would not have to sup borax water if we still had boron in our soil. I think it is Jamaica that has depleted their boron by continuously growing sugar cane. Now all these folks have arthritis, which is a modern thing.

As most know, we take our garden veggies to our little country church and let folks get what they need. What brought tears to my eyes this week is that we got an anonymous card thanking us with an appropriate biblical scripture. Partner, that will tare up even an iron ass like me.

=====ORH=====

MAMA,,,,,,,,, what you know... that some folk don't, is that water is not water. I have an irrigation system from a spring, but that does not have the H2O2 that rain water does. It is raining cats and dogs here in East Tenn and my garden plants are reaching for the sky. It is bettern fertilizer. Plants love H2O2.

How does rain obtain H2O2? The rain passes through the Ozone layer and picks up an extra Oxygen atom. H2O2 is an unstable compound and will soon loose the extra oxygen atom with time . That is the reason you buy it in a dark container. Light, time, and heat kill H2O2. Thus:

2H2O2----2H2O + O2

So... after awhile H2O2 turns to water and oxygen. If you pour it on a open wound and it does not fizz, then pour it out. It is no longer H2O2. It is just water.

Mama, I'll give you $3.50 for that little tow headed boy in your photo. He is precious.

====ORH=======

My friend uses blackstrap molasses to keep the bugs off his fruit trees. He said in early spring he paints the base of the tree up to about 12 inches high and he never has to spray his trees and he does not have bugs! He said he would repeat the procedure in June. He said his apples and peaches were great. He learned it from his grandfather.

Hi there again you jolly posters!

Here is a follow up to my ranting and raving from a little earlier to-day.

This "Soil Association" Site has been around in the UK for long enough (1946) to have a track record to be appreciated for what it achieves. My famous Aunt liked it a lot, which has to be an enviable endorsement! Prince Charles possibly approves also.

You could do a lot worse than this one if you seriously wish to get started on your "Growing Journey".

At least their hemisphere is the same as your one and you don't have to convert Januaries to Julys etc like we do down here !!!

Scroll down to their "Top Tips for Growing at Home" for a nice succinct summary (with no padding and dross).

https://www.soilassociation.org/who-we-are/

Go/grow well.

Cheers from Down Under

MAMA,,,,,,,, reread your post and if you want really hot pepper sauce then add olive oil. I learned that trick from my South Louisiana Cujun friends when I worked down there in the '60's. The oil pulls out the heat from the peppers.

====ORH===

Dear Robert Henry,

Well, I didn't know the the difference in water that you have shared. I really appreciate the chemistry lesson!
Would something like this be the reason that farmers would plow snow into the ground?

We have had a lot of rain, too. I have a new appreciation for it.

Glad you like my little guy. I am pretty fond of him myself. He keeps me on my toes and laughing all the way.

~Mama to Many~

HI U OLE PATOOTS, ORH here, and I guess I got flushed again because I try to sneak things in. I will only talk about our gardening and not try and sneak other evil things in. At 84, with a crushed T 12 and in CHF, putting in a garden is tough. But, that is my life. I got enough jack that I could live in the best, but that is not me. I only want to eat what we raise. We got lots of people playing games. So let me tell you the latest and you think about what you can raise to help your health. Our winter garden still has kale, collards, green onions, and carrots. Yesterday, we planted spinach, beets, lettuce and carrots in a raised bed. We planted tomatoes, peppers and egg plant in flats that went into our sprouting house for later transplanting. Encourage you to grow your own veggies. All will soon get the message. ====ORH====

https://www.bbc.com/future/bespoke/follow-the-food/why-modern-food-lost-its-nutrients/

SOIL HEALTH

Good day.

Here is a BBC article on Soil Health (or the LACK of) which I trust many of you will find as interesting as I did. "The Answer lies in the Soil" etc etc

There is also a book by David Coory entitled "Stay Healthy by Supplying what's Lacking in your Diet" (11th edition 2021) which is claimed to be NZ's top selling health book.

Cheers from Down Under

HI U OLE PATOOTS DOIN,

ORH here, always used epsom salt when planting veggies. Never heard that it will also make your melons sweeter if you spray it on the foliage. It is all over the net and I just now learning. SJS, as all know. Anyways, got the tank filled and ready to spray at daylight. It also works on Tomatoes and peppers. Where the heck have I been? Been a Gardner for over 50 years. My jaw is aching just thinking about the sweetness. Life is a mind game. Just wish all could chomp down a cold watermelon of ours that we keep in our frig. If your jaw is not aching, then are not thinking straight. Close your eyes and just imagine a cold, red, sweet watermelon. It's hell to be pore and have to live off the land. We still barley getting by.

====ORH====

I've come across a lot of references to boron deficiency in crops. Very interesting. Borax seems too alkaline for vegetation, to me, but I look forward to reading of your experience with it.

You are correct ORH! Interesting that Jamaica has low Boron in the soil and Fiji has enough and that levels of Arthritis in their respective populations differ so much, presumably as a consequence! Both grow sugar cane though! So whether it is this that depletes the soil or possibly the fertilizers that they use to grow the crops or maybe even the burning off of the cane fields afterwards is a moot point. You see, in Fiji it is the Indian half of the population that grow the sugar cane and the Fijians confine themselves to tilling their own plots / gardens (which still, largely in the villages at least, sustain them). If the Fijians come to New Zealand to settle, they can succumb to arthritic conditions for the first time. At least that is my understanding of the situation.

Cheers and take care of your back.

Michael

Dear Mmsg,

Regarding oats versus the oatstraw part of the plant- my herb books mostly discuss them interchangeably. I think their nutrient content is similar. This discussion about oats at Mountain Rose Herbs would indicate that the oatstraw tea tends to heal more over time. Both are excellent for the nervous system. Both have calcium and magnesium, making them good for the bones. I love oats and oatstraw as a healing food. Another great way to let your food be your medicine!

I have not heard of using the oats as a tea but don't see why you couldn't. It would likely be tastier than oatstraw tea, which kind of tastes like grass tea, to me. (Hmmm...but I have never actually consumed grass tea....)

https://www.mountainroseherbs.com/products/oatstraw/profile

~Mama to Many~

HI U OLE PATOOTS DOIN, ORH here, and after 5 hours at the farm, we are eating raw veggies from our garden for supper. At my age, bowels in not too good a shape and raw veggies help. Ask my Tractor Driver if that would work and she did an outstanding job. She had green onions, sliced beets with carrots, banana pepper, cucumbers, sliced yellow squash and zucchini and a z-muffin to finish it all off. Sprayed the garden with a solution of epsom salt and borax and just hope I did not destroy months of work. I have never done this before, but I's a gammer. Lots of folks on the net said it was the thing to do. Now, I got to live up to my anniversary pledge and give her a massage, and a mineral bath that I promised once a week. Lordy, that was a weak moment. Should have just bought a vase of flowers. This is hard work.

====ORH====

MAMA,,,,,,,,, you doing good and I can't add a whole lot to your program. I too, am planting tabasco pepper plants that a friend who gave us the old peppers. Just wish we still had some snot nose kids at home to help in the garden like you do.

Whatever shuts out the sun will keep down weeds. We use woven mesh, but add last years leaves to augment. As you know you don't save money by growing a garden. You just eat healthier and that the reason EC exists.

ATS ====ORH========

Dear Mmsg,

Amazon, iherb or Mountain Rose Herbs may ship internationally. I think Fronteir has oatstraw in bulk.

I am not sure how the wild oats plant looks when it is grown.

If oatstraw ends up not being a reasonable option might nettle be available? It is another very nutritive herb. 😀🌱

~Mama to Many~

HI U GOD FEARING FOLKS DOIN, , , , , , , , , , , ,

Deirdre thinks folks are interested in growing good stuff in gardens so I'm the Guinea Pig if she ever gets the program going. I have told her that I'm like Goldwater, some love me and some hate me. Anyways, I am pretty good at gardening and you can learn some interesting stuff. The health stuff, I'm just so, so, and defer to the bright guys like Ted, Bill, Dave, Timh and Mama.

Everyone now knows about GSE now but years ago this product was unknown. We learned about it when we raised commercial black berries some 15 years ago. They don't keep well and spoiled quickly. We read the story about how GSE came about and started spraying our blackberries. Wow, they lasted for many days before they started to deteriorate.

I tell you this because it works with the veggies and berries that you purchase at the store. GSE is a natural anti-fungal product. We buy the product from NuriBiotic and add 20 drops to a 16 oz spray bottle and spray all our bought veggies prior to putting them into the frig. They will last twice as long before spoiling.

Anyways, I look forward to telling ya'll how we raise stuff to try stay healthy. For you serious gardeners, join in. Dang, at 78 I still have things to learn. So teach me.

=======ORH===============

To add to ORH, I use 3% food grade hydrogen peroxide to help sprout slow starting seeds before planting. Also, if you mist your seedlings with 3% h202 it deters root rot for those of us that water too much. I found that by spritzing mature vegetable plants, it can revive plants that are near death. I've extended my harvest season doing that. Wakes up tired old house plants too. Ya gotta love oxygen!

I use food grade hydrogen peroxide on plants because I don't know how safe the brown bottled hydrogen peroxide is. I'm thinking if I can't pronounce the ingredients, then I shouldn't be eating/using the product.

I made the mistake of planting my zucchini in the same spot two years in a row. This is an invitation for disease on my zucchini. Sure enough blossom rot happened, so I sprayed with h202 and restored the plant. Had a bountiful harvest last year.

ORH, I am doing the Ruth Stout method of gardening. So far my garden is about 26 X 8 feet, but I am expanding. My first mistake this year is to plant too soon, the soil was not quite warm enough. I lost a few tomato plants. However, in my first experiment, I threw in celery roots, potatoes, garlic, & onions in last autumn and covered them with lots of straw and guess what? - Virtually all of them have survived and are thriving! And we had a BRUTAL winter. I still have containers, too. They are great because you don't really have to weed! Just pick and eat! That's what I love about container gardening, no going out of your mind with weeding! If anyone is not familiar with Ruth Stout, please, please, do yourself a favor and watch a video of her on youtube. It's only about 30 minutes long. You can also find copies of her book which is awesome! Okay, I'm off to my garden... :)

Tricia from Ireland, Ireland replies: "You say not to water the plants in the evening. I always thought this was a good time to water plants as they got to keep their moisture for a longer period of time due to the coolness. Does this go for all plants or just the ones with the mildew.

Matt from Burlington, VT replies: "Egg shells are also good for birds' digestion. In the winter when it's hard for birds to find grit or tiny pebbles to break down seeds, I crush dried egg shells and leave them near my bird feeders. They gobble it right up. Coarse sand also does the same trick, but I've always used egg shells.

Michelle from Miami, FL writes: "After trying everything under the sun to deal with snails in my flower garden, on a friend's recommendation I tried used coffee grounds (not fresh). I sprinkle the grounds around the base of the plants that the snails love and voila, no more holes in my plants! They simply don't like the smell and move on. I like this much better than drowning the poor creatures in a can of beer or watching them melt with salt.

Ha MtM! Just today I planted some oat groats from the health food store!! I had planted them last week, but the birds dug up every last one and ate them!! So for now I have them in a planter, covered.

Do you know if "oat groat tea" (is there even such a thing??! ) will give the bone benefits that oatstraw tea does?

MtM, around here there are tons of a plant that looks like oatstraw pictures on Google, but they have a sliver of an excuse for a seed. So I dunno if they are wild oats at all. So I planted oat groats (seeds) in a flowerpot....but they didn't grow! Makes me wonder if they are fit for human consumption. And they don't sell oatstraw for tea in health food stores here. And, I've cut down on eating grains. So I'm wondering how to get the benefits of oats. Any ideas?

For the "Organic Gardening Section" and "Dealing with Slugs and Snails".

I don't garden on a large scale but have been gardening and composting for many years and still learning. When I mentioned a few years ago to a neighbor that I was having trouble with the above critters, she gave me some Chinese vegetable protectors. You probably know about them? These are round, green, plastic jobs about the size of a saucer. They taper outwards towards the top and then curve over at the top to point slightly downwards. I have never had a problem with my few lettuces or brassicas since then, by gently pressing them into the soil. I used to protect my young seedlings from the wind, the cold, slugs and snails by cutting out the bases of large fruit or baked-bean tins but these Chinese things last longer and are more efficient. Wouldn't be without them now. But our Army Worms devastated our crops this year. Best way is to go out an hour after sunset with a torch and laboriously go round picking them off with long-nosed pliers and dropping them into soapy water.

I am still battling white fly and will try to invent a solar-powered, yellow light to attract them away from my Kale. Yellow sticky pads cannot keep up with the sheer numbers we have. Any good suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

This is a new idea for me. Do you spray 3% food grade peroxide on the plant, or do you need to dilute it further? Do you spray the entire plant, and can you also water with it so it reaches the roots? Thanks :)

Re Garden Tips - I was wondering could we have a section for keeping plants healthy, particually the unusual tips

Thank you, can't wait to see it up and running