My mom, who hasn't had much garden experience in her 87 years, but who was raised on veggie gardens, on an island, heard and saw much kitchen garden lore.

For insistant weeds and grasses growing in sidewalk cracks, it is plain white vinegar dribbled on, and in the crevices, that vanquishes them, she says.


Our landlord seems to have come up with another solution for the bamboo he hates.

He first tried digging the roots out, and down quite a depth, too.

The soil from below contained no weed seeds, I guess...nor would any weed seeds passing by catch hold, it seems. Nothing grew this year, in this area...except the bamboo shoots.

"Hah!" thinks I.

So, on his next intrusion onto this property, he pulled all the bamboo shoots, and then stomped the ground hard. No more shoots appeared for the remainder of the autumn.

I think he's got it.


Long ago, and elsewhere, I planted comfrey. That's another one that's invasive, and almost impossible to control or be rid of. Every scrap of root left after thorough digging, deep, will sprout.

I ran into the published idea that too much comfrey tea can kill people, and instantly changed my mind about it.

Stinging nettles are another plant that grows well from a great depth no matter how you dig.

I bought a bottle of vinegar to do the cracks in the sidewalk, and perhaps even the bamboo shoots that come up under the house siding...but between the landlord and the colder weather, I haven't used it yet.

Actually, I want to be out of here and onto heritage land served by a sweet-water well, as soon as possible.


'Heritage' means land that hasn't been ploughed (plowed), or had man-made chemicals applied, for decades.


My reasoning comes from small bits of information I've been picking up all my life.


In the 1930's it was first discovered that 'growing soil' was 'depleted' of minerals/nutrients.


I say, "Hogwash!"

...For two reasons...

...One writer said that the building blocks of life, minerals, come from rock, and sand, in the soil, and,

...Soil micro organisms help break down the rock, and carry the minerals to plant roots.

Kill the soil micro organisms and we break the 'food chain'.


Soil micro organisms can be killed in several ways...the easiest being dehydration. Plough the land, and expose the critters to the elements, and they dry up and die.

Some wise people say not to leave the soil bare, even for an hour.


The most valuable use of mulch is to prevent evaporation. Weeds and grasses are the perfect mulch. Not only do they slow evaporation, considerably, but they reach down into the aquafer (ground water) and pull up moisture.


But (and here's the rub), it is almost impossible to teach gardeners, even 'organic' gardeners, the folly of ploughing (plowing).


By the 1930's much of our farm land was ploughed by machines...as fast as the salesmen could convince the farmers...and the banks could get out the loans.


AND EVEN THEN, we were told in the 1970's that it would take 75 bowls of 1978 spinach to give us the iron that was contained in 1 bowl of 1930's spinach.

NOT because there was no more iron in the current growing soil, but because there were fewer micro organisms to carry the iron to veggie plant roots.


Plants are smart. Since time immemorial they have been able to convert some elements to others, to continue their species.

A spinach plant may look 'healthy'...but, is it? Or, is it stressed?


One group was moved to publish an article about wheat...how the wheat plants had to convert one soil substance into a replacement for another the plants were unable to get from the soil. It has something to do with proteins...and the problem is so widespread that we had best not eat wheat, some tell us.


Plough the soil, kill the soil micro organisms, and we have shot ourselves in the foot!


There are many other points to be made about growing food plants, but the one I think most important (other than that food plants are very selective about what they take up from any soil, luckily for us), was spoken on a radio program I heard...

...The man made the point that, as young farmers are taught 'modern' farming, in school and by salesmen, they tend to forget the wisdom of their fathers, and their ancestors.

Amen to that!


I looked up the phrase and concept of 'lying fallow' on the Internet. That's the idea of leaving growing land to rest, and renew itself, for several years, before trying to get another crop from it.

Do you know what the sites said?!!!

They said it was the practice of growing and taking a DIFFERENT crop off the land for a year or two!

My stomach turned.


If an ordinary housewife can see the errors, and be afraid for humanity, why can't 'professionals'?


Even here, on CureZone, I read posters who say to eat food that grows on trees. Why?

I think it is because trees don't often get their soil ploughed (plowed). I think it is as simple as that. Grapes, too.

Maybe, too, that growers depend heavily on the ground water, which cleans itself as it flows only a few feet through soil and rocks.


Still, here and there are growers who are smart...who practice 'no-till' growing. I want very much to consult with such people, perhaps at my local organic growers' association.

I would also like to hear from, and encourage, CureZoners who are of like mind.

We might do the world a lot of health...in an easier and less expensive way...even in our own back yards.

:D

My best,

Fledgling