📝 In This Week’s Nutty Goodness
This Week’s Focus: Will Your Garden Help Shift The Climate
This Might Suit Your Fancy: Seeds, deep raised beds & the best but least expensive compost & mulch.
Where The Roots Meet The Soil: 3 Ways Your Garden Can Impact The Climate For Good
Inspirational Stories: Restore A Native Woodland, Untrammel Wilderness, and GIANT restoration in Arizona
I've got a packed newsletter full of insights, stuff you should think of doing or getting, upcoming events, and inspiring stories.
🐝 This Might Suit Your Fancy
Seeds For Southwest US, True Leaf Market (large selection, heirlooms, etc), Botanical Interest (large selection), High Desert (high desert CO), SeedsTrust (high desert), Terrior Seeds (AZ based), San Diego Seed Company (regionally adapted)
Deep Raised Beds, Vego Raised Beds, deep, beautiful and they have a variety of shapes and sizes.
Pesticide-Free Mulch & Compost, Arizona Worm Farm, this place has been my lifeline and really helped me turn things around. They hold in person classes (sign up online), and sell only veggie, flower and succulent starts that thrive in the Phoenix climate. Plus they are worm composters on a next level scale!😍
🎙️Where The Roots Meet The Soil
Can Your Garden Really Help The Climate?
It depends on it you are willing to help heal the soil, surrender your pesticides and put down some mulch.
The garden that helps rebuild the ecosystem and help heal the climate doesn’t have to look ugly but it might push you out of your comfort zone.
You may need to rethink your lawn and stop completely turning over the soil every season.
And how do you know you’re getting it right? I’ll talk about all of that in today’s newsletter.
#1 Soil Is Where It All Starts
The soil is where organic matter can accumulate, which equals a number of benefits for the climate.
If you take care of the soil, you’ll amass organic matter which is another way of storing carbon long term.
The organic matter helps your soil structure and moisture retention. It also helps the organisms and nutrients that your plants need to do well.
An acre of soil with 1% organic matter (SOM) in the top 6–7 inches can hold approximately 5.8 to 8 tons of carbon.
Or about 1.3 pounds per square feet of garden. Which grows about 1% a year if you don’t break it all up.
Why can’t I break it all up? What’s the big deal? Right?
There are beneficial mycelium, the underground part of mushrooms, that grow a network underground. That is the nutrient highway your plants & trees need.
🔖Did you miss last week when I talked about 3 Keys To Plan For Sun & Shade
#2 Cut Out The -cides (pesticides, herbicides & fungicides)
There are a number of alternatives that won’t kill off everything in your garden or poison you.
I’m the first person to struggle when it comes to creepy crawleys but when I noticed that the bees were dropping from mid air, I knew the “eco-friendly” pesticides were also harming me.
Learn how to use companion plants to deter or distract pests from your garden. Marigold and basil for tomatoes, Dill for cucumber and Nasturtiums are good all around.
Then plant perennial varieties when you can, they may die back but they will keep coming back every year.
I’m talking about flowers and shrubs that attract pollinators, pull nutrients up from deep in the ground and provide medicinal value to you and your family.
Take classes from nursery or other gardener in your area. This will be critical to help you gain the knowledge to grow and maintain your trees and plants.
#3 How To Know If All Your Hard Work Is Working
You can have your soil tested before you get started and then later to see how things are going. But you will also have visual cues.
For better or worse, you will see more worms, bugs and birds in your garden and the areas surrounding it.
You’ll run into “white” stuff growing in your soil, usually where you have mulch that feeds the mycelium. This is the wood-loving kind that helps break down the wood for food and it’s safe.
You’ll notice over time that it’s easier for your plants to be healthier.
Plants that maybe should have died back might hang on a little longer.
And the “good” bugs show up to eat the less desired.
It’s a lot of hard work to get things started but you don’t have to do it all at once.
I recommend starting in one area and working your way around so if something doesn’t work one way you don’t have to redo everything.
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🦋 Stay Inspired
Organizations Around The World Are Staging Eco-Interventions
Ocean Protection Starts With You: The AWARE Foundation
Monterey Bay Aquarium: (literally my favorite place and conservation org in the world)
Saving Ocean Giants: Marine MegaFauna Foundation
Till next time,
Elisa Navarette
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