Mass Healthy Soil On A Large Scale…

Welcome to November! Does anyone else feel like the year has flown by? You are probably picking the last few tomatoes from your garden. It always makes me feel little sad with the last few tomatoes, but I am so grateful to feel the seasons changing and get to witness so much beauty in my garden. I am ready for the cozy times with my loves and fur babies.

As we enter what feels like the busiest season of the year and the most social obligations. Be sure to protect your peace too.

While we had a very mild summer locally… thank goodness, overall the planet is warming. Did you know if that if we manage our soils properly we can change the trajectory for our warming planet? It won’t keep getting hotter if we manage our soils properly, the way nature intended. For example, the grass lands around Petaluma and Sonoma County in general could be regeneratively farmed if cows are using adaptive multi-paddock grazing techniques. (Note, there are some local farmers that are using these practices). This means giving cows smaller areas to graze so they can trample, pee and poop into the soil and allow the grasses to regrow before the cows come back to eat it down again. Here is how it works: 

1. Cow hooves break up the soil

2. Cows eat grass then poop and pee in the broken up soil. 

3. Cows then stomp and walk through pee and poop causing microbes to appear and fertilize and build healthy soil. 

4. New plants grow in the healthy soil

5. Photosynthesis happens and finally transpiration which creates moisture and rain. 

This creates plants that grow year round, holding water capacity and self fertilizing with poop and pee as opposed to grass that goes dead and brown in summertime. When the grass is dead and brown the soil dies and the temperature increases. Soil that is covered in plants and plant life has a fraction of the temperature that bare soil gives off. Bare soil temperature will be in the 80-90’s. Soil covered in plants will be in the 60’s. When soil is covered in plant life it brings our outside temperature down. 

We have a choice…continue accepting the extreme weather changes around the globe, or make changes to promote a healthy climate. I challenge you to look around your own garden or your neighbor’s garden to see where more plants can be utilized to cover bare soil. In addition, please share this newsletter with 5 people you know that would be open to learning why regenerative agriculture can change the course of climate change and put us on a path to climate rescue. 

Garden Tasks for November:

While I usually have task to do for each month, this month it is more about what not to do in your garden. Again nature knows what to do when we step out of the way and let the magic happen. :)

- Just a reminder, instead of purchasing mums for your porch for the holidays, be sure to add asters instead because they provide food for the pollinators.

- Resist the urge to clean up in your garden, I know it is really tricky at first, but I challenge you to stretch just a bit this season. You will see the benefits in spring if you do. Healthier soil, more microbes, in the soil. And of course more life for you to visually see in your garden. Ladybugs, worms, birds, and decomposers.

- Of course, this is the month to cover crop. I will be looking at the a good rain coming in this month and will be spreading all my seeds. For more info and the benefits of cover crop check out last month’s newsletter. October Healthy Soil For Life

- If you have aphids on your milkweed, don’t cut it. If you don’t have milkweed, be sure to add it to your garden in the spring because it is one of the host plants for monarch butterflies. I am getting so many clients reaching out about this, I know it is a little gross, but this is a picture from my personal garden from last week. If you leave the aphids, it provides food for the ladybugs and then the ladybugs lay their eggs in my garden. In the spring my garden will be filled with so many ladybugs. It is all a cycle and when we interrupt the cycle we inhibit nature from creating the magic.

Ridwell! Have you heard of it? This is one of my new favorite programs. I heard about it from the Refill Mercantile. They provide you with bags for plastic recycles. One bag is for food plastic (chips, cereal, cheese etc) and the other is for general plastic (bags from delivery food bags, shipping package plastic, newspaper plastic etc). I bought a starter kit from them and I am hooked. Even though I had really tried to eliminate plastic use in our home and purchase so many of our cleaning products and soaps from the refill store… we still love chips and cheese. :) So we do have plastic waste that was stacking up. I started collecting our plastic and have our bags hanging on our washing machine in the garage. Our garbage waste has been cut in half since starting using ridwell. They even just added corks and pill bottle containers to be sent in separate bags. Ridwell

Food for thought… As everyone begins the holiday shopping season. Remember to support the local business in your area. The grocery stores (Pennrgove Market and Jupiter Foods) that are run by dear friends, and the Refill Mercantile who have become good friends, of course the Sonoma Spice Queen is is my go to for all family gifts that love to cook!! We have so MANY fabulous small locally owned business in our sweet town. The holiday season is some of their biggest income days that last them through the year. Shopping at local businesses support local families, and give to local organizations that give back to the community. I challenge you to buy local first before you go to online or some of my least favorite big business.

Be sure the choices you make each day impact the greater good for your family, community and of course the world. We can make a MASSIVE difference in the planet by voting with our dollars. Shop local, support local business, build a pollinator garden, grow food for your community! We are here to help create the impact you want in your garden!