More about Herb Day- Thought on Sustainability

Terry Hollembaek, of Nancy’s Meadow Herbs, gave a wonderful presentation, on his thoughts about sustainability.

 

Terry suggested to feed the organisms that live in the soil, not the plants. He advocated for keeping a deep layer of fluffy straw on your garden beds, never allowing the soil to be exposed to the radiation from the sun. He says not to dig, plow or till your soil. He believes composting in the usual manner is a waste of time, and that we should just throw our compost offerings on the beds themselves, tucking them under the straw, if we think it is too unsightly on top. Terry also advised us to just let our weeds and grasses grow amongst our plantings, as they are a valuable habitat for predator insects, which will feed on our damaging types.  He sighted studies where it had been shown that there was 60% less bug damage to crops in a garden where the weeds had been allowed to grow around it. Terry said we could just tuck the whole plant under the straw to compost when it was in the way, or before it sets seed.

Terry was an engaging and knowledgeable speaker, who presented a convincing case for his sustainability thoughts. He went into great detail about how microbes, fungi, worms and other soil dwellers did their own job of composting our offerings. He also shared many examples and tidbits along the way. He shared that to further enhance and encourage decomposition of bones and egg shells, for the garden, to first soak them in vinegar for awhile:) This is sustainable for us now that we have constant batches of vinegar brewing both at Eric’s home and mine. Comfrey Cottages 1 and Too (2) lol! He also threw out there, that in India, it is a government law that any trees planted in its cities, must be a fruit bearing tree! How cool is that? Wouldn’t that be lovely to be able to walk around town, in the right season, and just pick a fresh fruit if you desired?

Seed germination, was another subject he talked about. We have all seen directions for, or tried ourselves, cold stratification by using the refrigerator. Terry said he had great success just doing fall or very, very early spring plantings of seeds like chervil, dill, cilantro, and dandelions. He expressed thoughts I had before, that the refrigerator just doesn’t completely mimic natures freezes and thaws.

Terry also spoke of the 10 Rules of Landscaping. Saying you can never have too much variety, suggesting lots of places to sit, plant close together and other bits:)

He spoke about natural farming in Korea, and Janong Farms. I loved this part of his presentation and the site is well worth a look through:)

One Straw Revolution, by Masnobu Fukeota, is a book, Terry recommended highly. He told us the story of Masnobu and how he changed his family farm around from traditional farming methods to totally sustainable and organic methods. The website is another one to thoroughly enjoy, with a nice video.

Ruth Stout, was another writer Terry spoke about. Her No Work Gardening book was highly recommended. Ruth is the “Mulch Queen”!

So if you see an event with Terry as one of the speakers, I suggest you go to it!

Terry’s wife gave a presentation on micro greens, that we had to miss. Poor Eric had been at work daily for three weeks and we just had to go get him laid down in our hotel room!

Herbal and Honey Hugs to all who visit Comfrey Cottages xx