Farm Like a Gardener
This article forms part of a series concerning the development of methods of compost tea application via the keyline plow which are being published on taranakifarm.com
Part 1 : Introduction
Part 2 : Designing the Keyline Plow Frame Extension
Part 3 : 1:1 Scale Wooden Model
Part 4 : Re-Inventing the Herbicide Tank
Part 5 : Farm Like a Gardener
Part 6 : The Final Prototype
Clarifying our Intent
A wise piece of advice; “garden like a farmer and farm like a gardener”. That’s great, but how does one do this on a practical level?
If you are an organic gardener who tends to a modest 10 x 10 meter vegetable garden and you hear that a little soil inoculum in the form of ‘compost tea’ would do your patch wonders, I’m sure your response would be something along the lines of “what a good idea!, I might just do that…”
But what if you are a farmer with 100 acres of pasture, and you hear the same suggestion?
[ LONG SILENCE ]
One answer to this common silence is now clear. While this method certainly isn’t the only means of ‘farming like a gardener’, it is an invaluable tool in the box. As Paul Taylor says “… [keyline + compost tea] is cutting edge technology that has the potential of being [one of] the most advanced systems to date”.
This is exciting farming and land stewardship. On a personal note, I hope you’re enjoying this series of articles. For this entry, I’ll simply finish with a sequence of photos from my work today…
Healthy Soil : Accept No Substitutes.
Bubbling Away
You’ll might notice the addition of the Yeomans ’seed boots’ which has been employed to deliver the precious soil inoculant. These are steel tubes mounted on each shank tool groove, as seen clearly in the photo below.
Hello Ben; You are making this look too easy, we have all been waiting for someone to do this in earnest and be willing to share the advice, I look forward to great success stories and having good fun doing good work. The revitalization of degraded soils is a job worth doing, this can work on farms, gardens, and even old mine sites where nothing would otherwise grow. Well done and keep up the good work. Regards: Paul
Great article! Thank you Ben for bringing these two approaches together. I’d be very interested to see some before and after Soil Foodweb tests on a trail field. I’m particularly interested to see how quickly fungi hyphae would ‘recover’ in the soil cuts after the plow blades plus tea move through. Love to hear future results and reports. Thanks again for doing and posting this. Doug Weatherbee, Mexico
It’s early morning and as I look at our paddocks with the mist and the rising sun..I know we can do better in terms of enhancing the soil. Thanks for providing wise ideas, Ben.
[…] ideas, lots of simple solutions to otherwise complex problems. Highly recommended articles are Farm Like a Gardener and Keyline Plowing with Compost Tea Application. They also have a really cool Newsletter, […]
Gosh I love what you are doing at Taranaki, and this idea is perhaps the best yet. Brilliant.